Black Magic Intensity, or similar, in place of HD recording devices?

T

tommygdawg

Well-known member
Hey there,


Has anyone thought of using something like the Black Magic Intensity instead of Nanoflash (or something similar)?

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

I realize there's portability concerns...but if you could hook this up to your laptop and take it on shoots, that would be a real good idea for recording uncompressed HD From the camera. Thoughts?
 
tommygdawg said:
... Has anyone thought of using something like the Black Magic Intensity instead of Nanoflash (or something similar)?
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

I realize there's portability concerns...but if you could hook this up to your laptop ...
Click to expand...

According to Barry Green, the Intensity Pro Shuttle -- the version which requires USB-3 -- can be _very_ problematic. See:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...ssion-thread&p=2142460&viewfull=1#post2142460

The jury is still out concerning the Intensity Pro -- the version which connects via a PCI slot -- as Roei describes in the thread he linked-to above.

YMMV.
 
tommygdawg said:
Has anyone thought of using something like the Black Magic Intensity instead of Nanoflash (or something similar)?

...but if you could hook this up to your laptop and take it on shoots, that would be a real good idea for recording uncompressed HD From the camera. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I´m doing exactly that since several years, except the part with the laptop.
I record uncompressed whenever possible - that means, whenever I have AC power.
I use a computer and a raid that is build in a case (similar to Pelican) instead of a computer housing, so it is pretty rugged.

One of our users here - Henry Olonga - made a laptop version that works with a Magama PCI housing or a modified xpresscard when I remember correctly, but he uses Cineform, cause the laptop can´t do the needed sustained speed for uncompressed HD.

If you have a laptop with eSata you could rig up an extern Raid system, that may work. But then you need extra batteries.
I don´t know if that is less cumbersome than my box.

Frank
 
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. Postmaster, it seems by the time I spent all the money to build that setup, I might as well buy something like the Ki Pro Mini or the Nanoflash, eh?
 
Look also into a Ninja ($1000) or, if you have some $$ into a Cinedeck.

Peter J. DeCrescenzo said:
The jury is still out concerning the Intensity Pro -- the version which connects via a PCI slot -- as Roei describes in the thread he linked-to above.
Click to expand...

Cant say what Roei´s problem was, we have several BM products - including 2 Intesity´s - running here since years and never had the least issue. Great signal quality, fast and reliable.



Frank
 
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Postmaster said:
... Cant say what Roei´s problem was, we have several BM products - including 2 Intesity´s - running here since years and never had the least issue. Great signal quality, fast and reliable.
Click to expand...

Hi Frank: Understood. My impression of BM's products is very positive, too. They have a great reputation. To the best of my knowledge, we don't know conclusively yet if the GH2's live HDMI output can be compatible with BM's capture cards, or with any other capture/record device. Standing by ...
 
Been there and done it with the intensity - It has pros and cons - fantastic for studio work - fits in any desktop pci express slot and also works in the field in a magma chassis as well. Did it this way for two years and although the picture quality is great - the hassle of setting up and also the occasional blue screen from a loose connection forced me to go the way of a dedicted solution. I now use a Nanoflash - I suggest that the ninja is a steal if you are happy to use prores ( I am on a PC and would have to transcode with Cineform ).

The picture is very very good by the way. If you want to do green screen work in studio it is great. I did my first green screen shoot for a small promo for a friend. Very fast turn around so didn't spend hours tweaking the chroma key but you can get the feel for the quality I hope.

http://www.vimeo.com/17201283

Filmed with the HFS10. I will be doing more stuff like this. The one advantage of the magma chassis is that it can take a DUAL HD-SDI input card like the Decklinck HD Extreme 3D. The Sony F3 HD-SDI output to that combination would be a few times cheaper than a Cinedeck and would look amazing.
 
Interesting thoughts, everyone. I might just go with a Ninja. I don't even have a GH2 or any camera with live HDMI out yet, so it's not a huge deal for me to wait for the Ninja. Ninja seems to be incredibly competitively priced, I like it!
 
I own MBP and it has no USB 3 :cry:. Fading hope on future MBP having USB 3... as Apple seems gearing toward LightPeak. Darn... why Apple... why!

Edit: Never mind. Prolly BM won't support MBP with USB 3.
 
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Gawd... BM on MBP would have been great.

Record uncompressed video data and watch live-view. Plus record audio from a separate preamp. Nice for studio setup. Immediately ready to edit on the laptop.

But not this time... again.
 
I have a small portable recorder with which this can easily be tried. Usually it would have an SDI board in it, but there's an HDMI option too. Immediately I can get my hands on a GH2 I shall patch it up and see what happens in just a few minutes.

Unfortunately at the current rate of progress this is liable to happen sometime in the middle of the next ice age.
 
Phil Rhodes said:
... Immediately I can get my hands on a GH2 I shall patch it up and see what happens in just a few minutes. Unfortunately at the current rate of progress this is liable to happen sometime in the middle of the next ice age.
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Hi Phil: Just an FYI ... saw this mentioned in the comments on 43rumors.com :

"... Have your pre-order fulfilled by Mathers in the UK when they ship theirs to customers THIS THURSDAY despite Panasonic telling European retailers that there would be a delay on shipments because of “late technical adjustments”. ..."
http://www.43rumors.com/amazon-now-...-it-will-be-shipped-after-christmas/#comments
 
On BlackMagic and their USB 3 (lack of) support -- don't expect much, folks. I've got a USB3 laptop (Lenovo W510) and googled around, and found a few stories about it just not working. Dug some more, and some more, and found out that they have a couple of motherboards that they recommend, and that's it. If you've got built-in USB and you're not running an Intel X58 chipset, you're out of luck. It will. not. work.

So I asked 'em point blank, and they said "nope, won't work on yours." I said "what will it work on?" Apparently in the entire laptop universe, they have qualified exactly one: the HP Envy 15. Which is, of course, discontinued.

BlackMagic's USB3 support is pretty pathetic and basically embarrassing. I really, really wanted their PocketScope and USB recorders, but ... they're just not compatible. With anything.

Before you look at any of their products, you'd better carefully read their specifications and their troubleshooting recommendations, and follow them to the letter, because they don't work with anything else.
 
Barry_Green said:
BlackMagic's USB3 support is pretty pathetic and basically embarrassing. I really, really wanted their PocketScope and USB recorders, but ... they're just not compatible. With anything.

Before you look at any of their products, you'd better carefully read their specifications and their troubleshooting recommendations, and follow them to the letter, because they don't work with anything else.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more - a few years ago when I was first starting out using a magma chassis and wanting to ask a question - they basically said to me - sorry we do not support our products if they are not installed in a desktop. I said pardon? A few e-mail exchanges later and they didn't change their position. To be honest I was shocked at their brazen attitude. I still use their proucts but wow I was just amazed at their lack of concern for one of their own products that actually works just fine in a magma chassis which is transparent to the thechnology. My question had to do with the software anyway. I also asked them if they ever intended on doing an expresscard version of the intensity and again I wish I hadn't botthered asking.

Plasmasmp - that is one really buky setup. Check out my tutorial linked http://www.vimeo.com/4083139 - you can get it down to smaller for cheaper - but you may need to do some DIY. There are hassles with this setup - trust me- been doing it for a while. IMHO If the ninja works as advertised - don't bother with the tethered approach.
 
henryolonga said:
Couldn't agree more - a few years ago when I was first starting out using a magma chassis and wanting to ask a question - they basically said to me - sorry we do not support our products if they are not installed in a desktop. I said pardon? A few e-mail exchanges later and they didn't change their position. To be honest I was shocked at their brazen attitude. I still use their proucts but wow I was just amazed at their lack of concern for one of their own products that actually works just fine in a magma chassis which is transparent to the thechnology. My question had to do with the software anyway. I also asked them if they ever intended on doing an expresscard version of the intensity and again I wish I hadn't botthered asking.

Plasmasmp - that is one really buky setup. Check out my tutorial linked http://www.vimeo.com/4083139 - you can get it down to smaller for cheaper - but you may need to do some DIY. There are hassles with this setup - trust me- been doing it for a while. IMHO If the ninja works as advertised - don't bother with the tethered approach.
Click to expand...

Now I remember seeing that video when I was still looking at Andromeda. I definitely wouldn't go portable with the setup, (unless on a powered cart) I use my laptop as my main workstation so I always have it with me. I mainly want to do it just to test the gh2 and have an HDMI capture card. Probably not worth the cost.

I totally agree that now going tethered is crazy in the world of nanoflash and other upcoming products.
 
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