Good GREAT things come in small packages!
We at Guy Graphics were one of the first companies to get our hands on the new Blackmagic Design Intensity High Definition HDMI Editing Card. And I thought my Sony HC3 was small; this card is tiny. But it packs a powerful punch. This new HDMI card allows full uncompressed HD video capture by using HDMI ports instead of the other formats which were either too expensive or required compression. It works on both MAC OS X and Windows, provided you have an available PCIe slot. If you need HDMI but still want Analog I/O the Intensity Pro gives you that.
Software Plug-Ins
It comes with plug-ins for Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Photoshop. The box says “and many more” which is as vague as the “and many more” used on music CD commercials. But still, since it’s  new, perhaps it’s Blackmagic Design’s way of saying “we’re just gonna keep on addin’ to the list of programs” And personally, I could see it working smoothly with all sorts of programs. From what I could tell, the card seems to have just as much smooth flavor, no bitter aftertaste, and easy compatibility as the ADS firewire Pyro Cards. It becomes an extension on your existing hardware, rather then a battling component like some other capture cards out there.
Performance
Using my Sony HDR-HC3, which has an HDMI output, I was able to capture in Adobe just fine. The quality looks great and I was thoroughly impressed with how smooth the workstation captured footage. Since the card is a PCIe card, it performed perfectly without taxing my computer’s RAM, Hard drives or processing power.
Price
The cost of the intensity card is very affordable. For less than $250, you can capture Full Uncompressed HD. A task that just month ago would have cost you well over a few thousand dollars. Blackmagic has opened up the High Definition doors for everyone, with no discrimination of budget or brand. With price and performance, I couldn’t see any reason not to add this card to my video editing workstation.
What about Edius?
One question we received from all our loyal Grass Valley (Canopus) Edius 4 users is, “Will Edius still run with the Blackmagic Design Intensity Card?” While Edius does not currently have plug-ins for the Intensity Card, I was able to launch Edius Pro 4.1 just fine. No glitches. No problems. No conflict. Even with the Edius NX Card installed, the Intensity remained peaceful letting Edius do its thing.
I also wanted to test if Edius could handle the HDMI footage I captured in Adobe Premiere Pro. I opened Edius and imported my HDMI captured file, and Edius played it just fine. That means you can keep your Edius and NX card, and still use the Intensity card. That’s a big deal.
Will it work with my Workstation?
Provided that your workstation has an available PCIe slot, then yes. To capture and work with uncompressed HD, you will need a solid fast workstation. I’d recommend something like the Guy Graphics Power Tower Dual XEON Workstation. Still, if you don’t have a very powerful workstation, Blackmagic Design provides different capture options, like their compressed HD jpeg AVI which can be recorded at only 12 MB per second versus the 119 MB per second need for uncompressed HD video capture. And obviously, the needed storage will greatly increase when capturing uncompressed HD.
Conclusion
I can’t think of a single reason not to buy Blackmagic’s Intensity card. And usually, I try to show both negative and positive of every product I review. But really, unless your grandma needs a toenail transplant or your neighbor is selling his 1964 Rickenbacker guitar and you only have enough money to either pay for that or the Intensity Card… ahhh, never mind. Go for the Intensity card. Affordable compatible uncompressed HD is worth having. There’s really no reason not to get one. It’s a “must have” for 2007.
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