View Full Version : Black Magic Intensity, Premiere CS5, MacPro comments


Justin Ferar
October 12th, 2011, 02:44 PM
I recently purchased PP having decided to switch from FCP (not happy about FCP X).

After learning how to set up sequences for BM Intensity I have learned that the Intensity card doesn't handle Canon DSLR footage natively- It just plays for a few seconds and stops. Sometimes it crashes too. Does anyone else have a different experience?

On the other hand the ATI x1900xt card in the MacPro handles Canon DSLR footage natively pretty well. It's not as solid as BM intensity in FCP 7 using ProRes but it's doable. It just doesn't scrub very well but that's understandable considering the h.264 source footage.

So far my testing has also revealed that BM intensity does seem to handle AVC intra 50/100 very well in PP.

What I'm getting at is that I would really like to keep on using the BM intensity as opposed to the x1900xt for monitoring.

What has been your experience with Black Magic and Premiere CS5?

Kevin Monahan
October 12th, 2011, 03:27 PM
May not be related to the BMD card. Try the solutions in this KB article and report back: Playback stops or loops after few seconds or frames | Soundbooth, Adobe Premiere Pro | CS5, CS5.5 | Mac OS 10.6.x (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/842/cpsid_84287.html)

Justin Ferar
October 12th, 2011, 05:25 PM
Thanks for the reply Kevin,

Performed the procedure... No change.

I should also mention that the Black Magic sequence does have a red bar which indicates it shouldn't play smoothly- thus PP is functioning correctly- just doesn't play nice with BM.

But it still begs the question...

Should PP be able to output full res 1080p DSLR footage out of an Intensity card?

Is it a matter of processor speed? I'm using a 2007 clovertown 8 core 3.0 GHz MacPro with 8GB ram.

Kevin Monahan
October 13th, 2011, 11:43 AM
Are you working with a BMD Intensity sequence preset?
Have you installed the most current drivers? Blackmagic Design: Support (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/)
Have you contacted BMD support? Blackmagic Design: Company (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/company/)

Justin Ferar
October 13th, 2011, 12:11 PM
Yes, working with BM preset.
Yes, latest drivers.
I have not contacted BM tech support just because I wasn't sure if this capability was even within it's specs.

Really just curious to see if others have a similar or different experience editing DSLR footage with Black Magic Intensity.

I'll see what tech support has to say about it and report back.

Bart Walczak
October 14th, 2011, 09:26 AM
Intensity only supports 1080i and 720p footage playback - perhaps this might be the problem.

Justin Ferar
October 14th, 2011, 01:06 PM
Intensity only supports 1080i and 720p footage playback - perhaps this might be the problem.

Intensity supports all the way up to 1080p30...

Blackmagic Design: Intensity Tech Specs (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/techspecs/)

I've been working with 1080p24 using Intensity on FCP flawlessly for years now.

After some further research on the subject I have found others to have more success with Black Magic products and Premiere after upgrading to Lion.

Still waiting to hear back from BM tech support but I imagine they will suggest the Lion route.