Black Magic Intensity Pro PCI card

Does anyone have any experience with Black Magic Designs Intensity Pro PCI card? This card seemed like the perfect fit for a Mac Pro using FCP.

I was hoping to be able to capture through the HDMI output on the Sony HC-3 into the HDMI input on this card. However only the video transfers, no audio, no deck control. I've also tried using a firewire cable as well. Black Magic Designs suggested using the 2 lane PCI slot instead of the 16 lane, supposedly it works better. No luck so far.

There is probable a setting that I've overlooked as I am new to FCP. I was really hoping that someone could bail me out on this one

thanks,

-Jim

Jim

Instead of giving you a bunch of options blindly, it would be tremendously helpful IF you give us your HC3 camera settings and FCP settings as well. Then we can trouble shoot from there.

... HC3 camera settings and FCP settings ...

Thanks for the help Drew

The Intensity settings are:

set output: HDMI & NTSC/PAL (Y out)

set input: HDMI Video & HDMI Audio

use video setup in NTSC: at 7.5 IRE for use in the USA

select output processing: off

select input processing: off

East set-up settings are:

Format: HDV

rate: all rates

Use: custom setup

Sequence Preset: 1080i/60

Capture Preset: HDV

Device control preset: Sony HDV 1080/50 FireWire

Playback output video: none

Playback Output Audio: Default

Edit to tape/PTV output video: HDV 1440 x 1080) 50i

Edit to tape/PTV output audio: Default

System settings

video capture, video render and audio render are selected, BUT audio capture is checked but not selectable. The scratch disk is drive 4 731 gb available

are there any other settings that I've missed?

thanks,

-Jim

Sequence Preset: 1080i/60

Device control preset: Sony HDV 1080/50 FireWire

Which version are you using of FCP? IS there a reason why the device is set to the PAL and the Sequence to NTSC? (The default easy set-ups wil show Sony HDV 1080/50 FireWire is you sellect PAL, otherwise it won't)

Is the camera set to output HDV? (Not DV...)

Thanks for the help Drew

The Intensity settings are:

set output: HDMI & NTSC/PAL (Y out)

set input: HDMI Video & HDMI Audio

use video setup in NTSC: at 7.5 IRE for use in the USA

select output processing: off

select input processing: off

 

East set-up settings are:

Format: HDV

rate: all rates

Use: custom setup

Sequence Preset: 1080i/60

Capture Preset: HDV

Device control preset: Sony HDV 1080/50 FireWire

Playback output video: none

Playback Output Audio: Default

Edit to tape/PTV output video: HDV 1440 x 1080) 50i

Edit to tape/PTV output audio: Default

System settings

video capture, video render and audio render are selected, BUT audio capture is checked but not selectable. The scratch disk is drive 4 731 gb available

 

are there any other settings that I've missed?

 

thanks,

-Jim

Have you installed the software from Blackmagic? It should appear in the easy setup if you did.

Have you installed the software from Blackmagic? It should appear in the easy setup if you did.

The Black Magic software was installed and updated, version 1.8.4 it shows up in the menus

FCP version is 6.0.2

If it helps, the computer is 2 x 3.2 quad core xeon, 16 gb of 800 mhz ram and 4 x 1 tb drives

So "Device control preset: Sony HDV 1080/50 FireWire" is a PAL setting?? wow, I would have never thought that.

When the Easy Setup window is open in FCP:

format - HDV

Use - Custom setup

in the "use" pull down menu, should I select "Intensity HDTV 1080i 59.94"? or Am I better off selecting HDV 1080i60 or HDV 1080i60 FireWire Basic?

The HC-3 settings are:

rec format - HDV 1080i

component - 1080i/480i

i.Link conv - off

thanks again for the help

-Jim

When the Easy Setup window is open in FCP:

format - HDV

Use - Custom setup

Not sure on the Black Magic side of things (though I think one cool things, among the others, for the card with the HC-3 would be capturing live via the HDMI and bypassing the tape, but dragging a Tower around when diving is tricky ) but on the Easy Set-up (to see if this gets you started) for the Firewire I would go to Easy Set-Up:

Format: HD

Use: HDV -1080i60

Then open Log and Capture to see if the camera shows up. (Make sure it is in Playback mode.) If it is not showing up, quit Final Cut then re-open with the camera turned on. (Sometimes different combinations are needed to see the camera)

Then open Log and Capture, if things are right, you will see a VTR okay in the window.

Jim

Just to be clear on what you are trying to do... you are trying to capture 4:2:2 from HDMI correct live feed, correct? Not playback from tape?

If so, use the Intensity presets. That's why they are there.

If not, use firewire capture since there is no difference when playing from tape.

Jim

Just to be clear on what you are trying to do... you are trying to capture 4:2:2 from HDMI correct live feed, correct? Not playback from tape?

If so, use the Intensity presets. That's why they are there.

If not, use firewire capture since there is no difference when playing from tape.

As dumb as this sounds...

I'm just trying to log and capture tapes using HDMI.

It thought that capturing through a HDMI cable would provide a higher quality (uncompressed) capture than capturing through FireWire. Looks like I'm making a mistake on this one.

Perhaps I should just try using the FireWire cable instead.

I'll just have to figure out a use for the Black Magic card now.

Thanks again guys for all the help and support

-Jim