So here is my first real post on this new website. It is really if you are working in pro video. It is about the Blackmagic Intensity Card. This however works only in the Mac Pro as it requires a PCI Express slot. The standard version will give you an HDMI input and a HDMI output. The pro version also features analog inputs and outputs. I tested the standard version because I have no need for analog. It was hooked up to a Canon HV20. Here is what I think of it:
It incorporates very nicely with Final Cut Pro. It automatically installs presets in FCP for capturing HD from the card to many formats. What is great is it lets you bypass the HDV compression and lets you go directly to Pro Res or even Uncompressed HD. You need to have an extremely fast RAID 0 capture scratch drive if you want to capture to uncompressed. It seems like Pro Res could be captured to a single 7200 rpm hard drive while Uncompressed required a 3 drives RAID 0. The standard card retails for $249 while the pro version retails for $349.
