Blackmagic Intensity Video and Nuendo 24fps workflow

[colony nofi]

Hi everyone,
More an information post than anything else.

Working on a 24fps feature, and I only have a blackmagic intensity pro card, not the more featured decklink card. I run it HDMI into a 32" 1080 screen (I happen to love the newer samsung models) as well as composite out to a small old CRT (this has its own sync issues, but its another story entirely)

There's been loads of info on the net that states 24p isn't possible using the intensity - this used to be the case.
There was also a thread over at nu.com about a possible change in the intensity drivers, but it was never clear what worked and didn't.

I have successfully installed the latest 2.1 intensity drivers, and can report that 24p is working great.

For now, I encode the video given to me from the avid to MJPEG 1280x720HQ, de-interlaced, with black bars for the 1:2.35 change to 16:9 for the TV. I will try full 1080 later (they will be able to give me 1080 or higher vision - was shot on red.)

Import it into a nuendo session. 24fps. Set the video output as follows
Playback method : Quicktime Video
Output : Blackmagic Video Output
Format : Intensity HDTV 720p 59.94fps
Frame Offset : 4 (I *thought it was 3, seems closer to 4...)
And use high-quality video settings when available.

Turns out the blackmagic card does a realtime 3:2 pulldown on the 24f video - and the result is SMOOTH without any stuttering (no visible intermediate frames every second or half second.) I've only been doing it this morning, so if anything changes, I'll report back here. This apparently didn't work at all with previous driver versions.

Hope this helps someone else sometime.

Cheers, Brendan.

[MattiasNYC]

I'm not at the point of using a Decklink yet, but I've thought about getting a card. So just thanking you for sharing the info!!

[Sam]

Damn....I shelled out and bought a Decklink HD Extreme 2 after discovering my intensity didn't do 23.98.....very interesting that it will do a 3:2 so smoothly....even if I select 23.98>29.97 in my card I can see the pulldown (it has been on underwater footage so probably VERY noticable sensitive material to spot the 3:2)

Maybe I need to put the old Intensity back in sometime and give it a whirl....if they would just bloody do 23.98/24p natively we could all be happy forever :D

The HD EX2 is a little OTT for just playing out to my screen...but man it looks good @ full quality ProRes (HQ) 1080p23.98 going out to my little Panasonic 32inch monitor - smooth as......luxury at last!

Thanks for the heads up on the Intensity Brendan!

(You end up getting your UAD2???)

[zvenx]

thanks for the info.
Have you found a way to feed it to both the samsung and the crt simultaneously?
rsp

[colony nofi]

The problem with going to the CRT and LCD has LOTS to do with the lag of the LCD...
The intensity outputs to both the HDMI outputs and the composite outputs at the same time (its in the settings in the mac pref pane) - but of course, the LCD has a much longer lag time, which kinda stuffs things up a bit.

But its close to working fine <grin>.

Some sort of analog video delay on the composite would do the trick. Wonder if there's an old one haning round the ABC they might get rid of at their next auction...

Hey Sam - hows tricks in byron? UAD-2 - not yet. Unfortunately there were other priorities that needed to be taken care of before going the uad-2 route. But will hopefully be going down that route towards the beginning of march. Mick will be of course receiving the call...

back on topic, I will have a VERY close look at more footage in the next few days, and let you know if the intensity is actually up for this gig for most situations. Its certainly been great today (on some VERY slow moving, smooth tracking shots / pull outs (30+ seconds each from MCU to WS)

Back to work.

Cheers, Brendan.

[Prabod Shrestha]

Hi, this seems to me a great news. i am just setting up a Nuedo for a Film sound mix and was wondering if Intensity will work 24p. Thanks for the information wish to get more updates and exact procedure to make it work.
cheers, prabod

[paulwr]

Brendan,

Look forward to hearing how things look on closer inspection.

I've have my struggles with 23.97599 myself lately and currently. But I had to go W7 x64 and Cubase 5 64bit so no Quicktime for me. Actually, exporting to AVI and using direct show has reduced the cpu hit by over 4 times, while letting me run a little 960 x 720 video box on one of the displays. While I was thinking of getting a more expensive Matrox 4 out video card so I can run another display, if QT comes out with 64 bit finally, I'll probably give your work flow a try.

-Paul

[TAFKAT]

Brendan,

Look forward to hearing how things look on closer inspection.

I've have my struggles with 23.97599 myself lately and currently. But I had to go W7 x64 and Cubase 5 64bit so no Quicktime for me. Actually, exporting to AVI and using direct show has reduced the cpu hit by over 4 times, while letting me run a little 960 x 720 video box on one of the displays. While I was thinking of getting a more expensive Matrox 4 out video card so I can run another display, if QT comes out with 64 bit finally, I'll probably give your work flow a try.

-Paul

Paul,

You can still use the 32 bit version of QT in Cubase x64.

Also, remember you need to set the audio priority to boost when using QT, or there is massive spiking when running the video ITB.

Re the Matrox, I wouldn't touch anything Matrox now a days, I personally haven't for about 4-5 years actually.

If you want a 4 head card, look into the Quadra NVS 4 head options, they are far superior IMO.

[paulwr]

Paul,

You can still use the 32 bit version of QT in Cubase x64.

Also, remember you need to set the audio priority to boost when using QT, or there is massive spiking when running the video ITB.

Re the Matrox, I wouldn't touch anything Matrox now a days, I personally haven't for about 4-5 years actually.

If you want a 4 head card, look into the Quadra NVS 4 head options, they are far superior IMO.

No, it won't show as an option at all in Cubase 5 64bit, even when you have it installed in W7 x64 as a 32bit program. There has got to be more catch-up by some of these companies. I know ones like Waves is really going to suffer. By the time they make the grade with 64 bit, I don't expect to care..... well, I don't care much now as it is. I have to work in 64 bit all the way to run the way I want, and it isn't that I load instruments into Cubase, either. It just runs better, and my video with AVI files works really well.

One of the guys here is doing great with a 4 head Matrox. But I'll keep your info in mind. I really hope QT gets a good 64 bit version going well, and soon. I'd rather be using an Intensity card at lower price/more trustworthy performance.

-Paul


-Paul

[olamo]

I bought a Matrox M9120 with 4 outs and it works alright. See it as a temp solution though as I'm generally a bit sceptical to Matrox as well, Vin;)
And as you Paul I wait for the 64 bit QT to go Intensity. Nevertheless, I run 2 x 20' @ 1200 x 1024 and 1 x 24' @ 1900 x 1200 ( with video res at 1200 x ... and 1024 x 576)


Ola

[Daryl]

I really hope QT gets a good 64 bit version going well, and soon. I'd rather be using an Intensity card at lower price/more trustworthy performance.

-Paul


-Paul
I guess it will be a question of whether Apple's programmers learn to program 64bit apps for Windows before the new Steinberg video engine is released, or not. Allegedly there is some kind of bridge (alarm bells going off) that has been written to allow Nuendo 64bit to use the new video engine, even though it is based on 32bit Quicktime.

D