Decklink Intensity Pro - Confused?
 

Can somebody explain to me what the advantages of this card are to a Vegas user?

As I understand it (which isn't at all well), this would let me preview at full HD on an external monitor/LCD Screen

So will it suffer from the same problems as the built in one does i.e. you keep having to drop the quality as you start adding layers/filters?


Cheers in advance!

OK, will answer my own question. If I am wrong, please put me right.

What does it do?

It lets you connect up a large screen LCD Panel using HDMI that you can then use as a preview monitor. 42" 1920 x 1080 LCD in my case.

Will it improve my jerky playback?

NO! At least not in my case. I am running a Quad Core with 4Gb of Ram and Raptor drives in a RAID configuration, and in Best Full I can just hold 25fps in playback. Add a single filter i.e. Sony Black & White and the frame rate drops to 15fps (In your preview window, field marked Display fps is the last value in red) I have unchecked Simulate Device Aspect Ratio and Scale Video to suit window then double clicked the blue bar at the top of the preview window to minimise it.

What does it do then thats of benefit?

It lets me see more accurately what my filters will look like on a Big Screen. What looks to be quite strong on the PC Monitor looks very mild on the Big Screen.

It will also let you capture un-compressed footage from your camera if your camera has an HDMI output that supports capture (my XH-A1 doesn't...sniff!). If you are able to do this, your processor is freed up as it doesn't have to do any maths re-sizing your 1440 x 1080 camera footage to 1920 x 1080.

So.......I am dissapointed in the lack of improved playback, but pleasantly surprised by the possibilites for better colourising.

As I said, anything I have wrong, please set me straight.

Sods law...I just bought one and then find a good price on a second hand one. Passing this on to anyone thats interested (apologies if this is not allowed)

Intensity Card $150 Shipped - Canon HV20 / HV30 User Forum