I've got an FX-1 and am trying to figure if there is a way to capture the component out to a PC laptop? The Blackmagic Intensity Pro looks like a great option except that it needs an internal PCI slot. I know I'm also looking at harddrive issues, like maybe an e-sata/pcmia card? So, am I chasing a rainbow here? Inquiring minds want to know.

I take the long pause as a no...

Hi Eric,
I take the long pause as a no...

I don't know if this would fill the requirements you have but I thought it
was kind of interesting:

Newegg.com - Hauppauge HD PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder 1212 USB 2.0 Interface - TV Tuners & Video Devices (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116030)

For what I'd like to do I've pretty decided that I'll be building a small
rack system. I'd like to run a BM Intensity Pro for video capture and
something like a Presonus FP10 for audio. Right now I'm capturing to
tape and using a Edirol R09 with an AT 822.

thanks
jim cowan

Jim, unfortunately the Hauppage box does a similar thing as HDV taping. It compresses the video footage to h.264, even more compressed than the HDV codec. I was trying to figure out if there was a way to capture to a less compressed format than HDV for greenscreen work or other situations in which the HDV codec would break down.. On the FX-1, the component output is still uncompressed.

Reality Check - to capture uncompressed you really need fast drives as well as the A/D conversion device. In the end run, I'm looking at a desktop and AC power. OTOH, the Matrox MXO2 and the AJA IO look like interesting devices, but they are Mac specific and I am currently primarily pc based. Also, the Mac alternative is roughly a $6,000 alternative, and for that, I'd rather spend my money on an EX-1 which shooting in HQ , at least in part bypasses the compression artifact problems I currently struggle with.

On the FX-1, the component output is still uncompressed.

Only if you are capturing live. Once it's written to tape, it's compressed.

Edit: Rereading your post above, it's obvious you've already taken this into consideration. Still, an important point many others miss.

Adam, good point though. I think this is one of those niches never to be filled. Between codecs like XDCam and some of the RED stuff, and the new CFL technology, I'm guessing the industry is heading in entirely different directions. The new Scarlet ought to make for an interesting near future...

The new Scarlet ought to make for an interesting near future...
Well, not *too* near. According to a pretty reliable poster on another website, they've stopped development of the Scarlet and are "re-thinking" the whole idea, apparently due to the success of the new Nikon digital SLR...

More dvinfo here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/red-digital-cinema/133906-scarlet-changing.html

Adam, I believe that in spite of the 're-think', Jannard is going to give the final design plans mid-November, (the 17th?). I believe he's still committed (roughly) to the original timetable with product release this spring and all back orders filled by December 2009. (Don't quote me on this, because this is from rough memory and I don't feel like searching through 1,000 posts.) Under any circumstances, digitally convergent technologies are playing hell with the old norms -:)

for the size, you can build a real PC that is not so bigger than a laptop.
The only advantage of laptop is it can run on battery (but for how long ?).
I built a capture PC around a Shuttle X38Pro with the Intensity pro.
a pair of 320gig disk in raid0 give me plenty of space at fast speed (around 140MB/s).
the X38pro is nice because it has 2 PCIe slot so you can add a decent graphic card (like a 8500 Nvidia) , a decent processor (i got core2duo 8400 at 3Ghz).
if you really need to be in the field , a small DC to AC converter with a car battery should provide power for at least one hour or 2

Hi Giroud,

I saw some of your other messages about the Shuttle and BM Intensity.

for the size, you can build a real PC that is not so bigger than a laptop.
The only advantage of laptop is it can run on battery (but for how long ?).
I built a capture PC around a Shuttle X38Pro with the Intensity pro.
a pair of 320gig disk in raid0 give me plenty of space at fast speed (around 140MB/s).
the X38pro is nice because it has 2 PCIe slot so you can add a decent graphic card (like a 8500 Nvidia) , a decent processor (i got core2duo 8400 at 3Ghz).
if you really need to be in the field , a small DC to AC converter with a car battery should provide power for at least one hour or 2

How has your system been working out? What camcorder are you feeding
it with? Have you measured the cpu load while recording? Are you doing any
compression before saving to disk?

thanks
jim cowan

Giroud, I'd also like to ask about fan noise, do you have a clever way of lessening it?

well , for the fan , depends what you call noisy. i could record some of it at one meter with reference (like a drops of water falling in a glas, that is easy to redo)
in a regular setup, the action should cover the noise of the PC (it is very quiet despite i added some fan) but in a very calm ambience it could require some counter measure like keeping the Pc far from the scene (i got 8 meter component cable) or putting a box on it (carton box is ok, while heavy plywood+foam should be perfect.).
for the screen a little 8" (1024x768) lcd just to lauch the capture utility.
I use it with a FX1E and captured with different compression given by the card. they all work nice.
The thing is powerful enough to be used with adobe premiere, so once captured, you can go to editing directly (just use a bigger screen).
I use it too with a triplehead2go from matrox that allows to have one virtual screen splitted in three LCD or projector. I played uncompressed video at 3072x768 pixel 50i and it works fine from the raid0. It is running XP.
my main target is always portability, so i try to keep thing, light, small and if possible battery powered, but definitely here you need some main power available, except if you can work inside a car or bus.
Anyway if you go to this extend (direct capture), it problably means you got tons of other equipement (like lighting) connected to the main power.

Giroud, thanks for all the info. I might end up doing large set of greenscreen interviews. If so, this info may really help. Then again, for a few thousand more I could get an EX-1 and shoot in HQ. I hear that works pretty well too. -:)

I finally got around to getting the ThinkPad Advanced Dock: CA250310U Lenovo Outlet (http://stores.channeladvisor.com/LenovoOutlet/Items/ca250310u?&caSKU=ca250310u&caTitle=ThinkPad%20Advanced%20Dock)
for Lenovo Thinkpad laptop T61 and a Blackmagic Intensity Card I got used off the classifieds here and just successfully captured some footage with my HV20 using the Cineform application capture application HDLink.

The Advanced Dock works with a number of Thinkpad laptops.

A couple bugs to work out, I currently have to hot dock, because the systems freezes during bootup if in the dock. But other than that so far so good. And with cineform adding hdmi monitoring with the intensity card early next year. It will be even more useful.

Hi Eric,
I finally got around to getting the
<snip>

A couple bugs to work out, I currently have to hot dock, because the systems freezes during bootup if in the dock. But other than that so far so good. And with cineform adding hdmi monitoring with the intensity card early next year. It will be even more useful.

Sounds like a nice solution. Let us know as you work out the bugs.

Your dad work at chevron?

thanks
jim cowan