View Full Version : Any advantage to external IO?


Will Thompson
February 28th, 2013, 07:53 PM
This is a branch off of the http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/view-video-display-hardware-software/510241-calibrating-video-accuracy.html] thread I started a while back (and is now quite long!). I recently purchased a Blackmagic Intensity Extreme, and after some testing I'm wondering if there's any benefit in terms of monitoring quality with PPro CS6 and a Dell U2410.

I'm comparing these two setups for playback in PPro CS6:

1. PPro software playback on Dell U2410 via miniDP. RGB signal using monitor sRGB preset.
2. PPro out to Intensity via HDMI to U2410. YPbPr signal using monitor sRGB preset.

Color reproduction between these two configurations is very close, and maybe I should have expected that with this budget display. One thing I am noticing is more shadow noise (looks like chroma noise) in the HDMI image and a bit more saturation, while the software preview looks less noisy and flatter.

The Intensity clearly offers an advantage if it's a) needed it for capture, or b) used with a 10-bit Rec.709 broadcast monitor, but is there an advantage with the above setup? And is there any explanation for the discrepancy in noise/saturation?