Cineform + Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle Questions
 

So I am trying to figure out a way to squeeze every bit of performance out of my current camera and it looks like recording via HDMI on my HVR-V1U is a good way to extend the life of my kit. However I have never done DDR before so I'm not quite sure where to start. So far I know that Cineform is a great capture format for this type of setup and I know that there is support for Blackmagic Intensity Pro, but I haven't found definitive evidence that it works with the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle (all the references I find are people looking for help on trying to get it to work.)

So here is my list of many questions:

1. Does Neo4k have Shuttle support (not beta) out of the box?
2. Blackmagic has some type of software for capturing and monitoring, can it capture to Cineform? (Assuming I have Neo4k installed)
3. Can I capture and watch playback via Adobe Premiere CS5?
4. If I capture via HDLink how can I monitor the footage?
5. Obviously I need a fast laptop, would a Core i5 at top speed + fast and BIG SSD be enough?
6. USB 3.0 is rather new and most laptops don't have the connector, is there any USB 3.0 laptop cards that I should AVOID because they suck?
7. I only have 1 HDMI output on the camera, but I would like a monitor for the director, camera op and tech, will the pass-through HDMI on the Shuttle work when capturing Cineform? Is it dependent on how you capture the footage?

I know it is a lot of questions, but just some answers would be great. I like to experiment, but when this much money is involved I would like to know a little bit before I go wild.

Hey, what about the MOTU HD Express, they come via a expresscard for notebook operation. I dont know if work with cineform, but is good to know, anyone?

Ryan -

I'm no expert, but I have used the Intensity Shuttle to capture from an Canon HV20 over HDMI to Cineform (using HDLink). Here are my answers:

1. Yes. My understanding is that anything that supports the Intensity Pro also supports the Shuttle.
2. No. The Blackmagic software - Media Express - only captures to uncompressed or Blackmagic's Motion JPEG.
3. I've never tried it, but the answer is very probably No.
4. You can monitor via a window HDLink opens when you capture with the Intensity (Pro or Express).
5. Probably. My understanding is that pretty much any current generation machine should be able to handle capturing to Cineform (up to 1080, anyway).
6. Yes, you should avoid ALL laptop cards. USB 3.0 ExpressCards for notebooks are not supported by the Shuttle as they don't have enough bandwidth. You would have to get a notebook that has USB 3.0 built-in and even then there are none that are verified by Blackmagic to work with the Shuttle. In fact, Blackmagic has only verified a few desktop motherboards for use with the Shuttle (one of them is the one I used). You should keep tabs on their Blackmagic USB 3.0 Products FAQ at:

Blackmagic Design: Support Detail

7. This question is somewhat above my pay grade. Sorry!

Note: While I did a lot of capturing to Cineform using the Intensity Pro and it worked fine, I had one issue using the Intensity Shuttle - the audio didn't come through. I was okay with this - I was using a separate audio recorder - so I never really tried hard to find a solution, but it is something you might have to deal with.

- Rick

I had a BM intensity shuttle for a short time before returning it. I have a beefy desktop system and on playback (timeline monitoring) it would constantly drop frames when using CS5 and CF together, I never got to the bottom of the issue. Other formats played back OK, but CF gave me problems. I can't speak for capture only playback monitoring.

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like I should wait a bit before trying my idea. I think I might try a nanoFlash at high bitrate to Cineform conversion.