Intensity Card software update, but does it...
 

Intensity Card software update, but does it fix the HV20 issue or not?

http://blackmagic-design.com/support/software/

i don't recall the exact post but i do remember it was mentioned here,, the output of HDV gets downrezzed before white balance. the input is at full HD resolution. (if i am not mistaken)

the intensity and the hv20 work just fine together already.

terence

Yes it has ben discussed in a previous post that they work fine together. i believe the original problem was with the type of cable that was used.

I've read the whole thread where you talk about getting the Intensity to work with HV20. That's great news! But why hasn't BlackMagic commented on it or publicly acknowledged it's working? The last post from Tristian Lam on May 8th shows they're having trouble getting the HV20 to work. And then another poster reported on May 9th Black Magic again saying it doesn't work. Since then nothing from them. Sure, they've been busy with the new software update today, but I still have my doubts.

I don't doubt it's working for you. But I'm concerned you are the exception, rather than the rule. I want to hear from Black Magic that it's working before I spend ~$1k for a intensity/card enclosure system for my laptop.

it is odd that they have not commented, weve been in email contact with them about various other things, and they respond quickly.

the original person posting that he had issues found it to be a cable. most everyone else posting "it doesnt work" including the link you referenced, does not seem to have first hand experience but is rather just repeating what others with no first hand experience have repeated. there are a few others that had issues if i recall, but none have commented yet on cable changes. as far as black magic saying it doesnt work... im still not clear on whether they actually have a cam for testing, they may just be again repeating selected customer comments.

so far, i know 3 different working systems, and im all but certian it will be 4 when i pick up my cam tomorrow.

so while i see you being skeptical about spending a bunch of cash, id say its a 99% safe purchase. getting it working with a notebook using the magma, or my own external box, now thats a second challenge which i hope to have results on very soon :)

terence

It is not working here. I still get 480i only.

HDMI output from my HV20 is fine to HDTV. It recognizes a 1920x1080 target and does 1080i.

With the Intensity, the HV20 sees a DVI target and does 480i.

I have one of these Impact Acoustics Velocity HDMI cables on order. I'm not holding out much hope for that though. It's some money thrown to the wind on a single report.

Even if that works, I think it's hardly the case everything is just fine between the HV20 and Intensity. Blackmagic Design seems like a good company and I feel confident from what I've seen that they'll make it work reliably across the board.

I've been following that other thread and wondered the same thing. It seems like BlackMagic would be the first ones to know if their product does or does not work with a specific camera, yet apparently that's not the case?

Odd.

Kristian Lam, the Blackmagic employee who has posted here, said that they got an HV20 shortly after NAB and subsequently posted that there was "no good news yet" but they were still working on it. "No good news" would seem to imply that it was not working for them. That could just a matter of choice of words...I would have taken "No news" to mean that he simply didn't know much about what was going on.

Since Kristian does not regularly participate here, there has simply been no update. I don't think that colors them as being non-responsive, not caring or not knowing.

I'll send an email and see if we can find out what the customer service response is.

BlackMagic is located in Australia so they weren't able to get a HV20 until they were released for the European market.

The issue is definitely related to what kind of HDMI cable you are using. I own 2 different brands of cables. Both are brand new and supposed to be able to do 1080i. One works, the other doesn't. There doesn't seem to be a logical reason for this. It might be good to make a list of all the brands that work/don't work and post it for others so they don't waste their money on a bad cable.

Which is exactly how I took that comment.

Huh??? I'm not implying that they're any of those things. In fact, I think they do care, I think they did respond and I think they do know. I believe all those things about this company and, therefore, the only conclusion is that it doesn't currently work with the HV20, just like Kristian Lam said/implied. Hence the confusion when a 3rd party shows up and has it working.

If you assume that they're non responsive, non caring and/or don't know, then there's no confusion. If you were to assume all those things, then you shouldn't be surprised at all that an end user was the first to make it work.


I'm saying that the company that makes the product that specifically picked up an HV20 to test it would be the people who would know if it works or not. If they say it doesn't work (or that there's "no good news") then I have to believe that they do not have it working.

And that's why I think it's odd that a third party, who has nothing to do with how the camera works, or how the card works, would somehow be able to make it work when the people who make the card have, apparently, not been able to make it work.

Perhaps they've gotten it to work and just haven't mentioned it, but considering they tried hard to get an HV20 while they were in Vegas, and then got ahold of one as soon as they could in Australia, one would think that they would let potential customers know if it worked. Particularly after saying/implying that it did NOT work with the HV20.

You seem to have misunderstood part of what I wrote as being directed at or intended to contradict something you said. It was not.

I was merely pointing out, in addition to what you wrote, that the single Blackmagic person who has been here is not actively involved or regularly participating on this forum, so essentially there is no particular significance that can be placed on there being no comment.

There have been a few posts that have contained at least an undertone that Blackmagic is being strangely silent or that a company announcement should be expected here.

That's a fine suggestion. It might even help Blackmagic in working on programming HV20 support.

Hey, if it works, I'll take it, but any compliant cable should work. I view finding a cable that works to be a fluke workaround, not a true solution. It's not even a matter of expensive (read "higher quality") cables working. The Impact Acoustics Velocity is a cheap cable. It's a third of the price of Impact Acoustics Sonicwave HDMI cable, which is guaranteed to pass 1080p, but doesn't work with my HV20 and Intensity.

I hope to have a Velocity Monday.

So Derek, what OS do you use?

I'd be really curious to know what does your HV20 setup menu say say about your connection when your on the working cable vs a non-working cable?

Mine says "1920x1080i" (and outputs 1080) when connected directly to an HDTV or a HDMI computer display that is 1680x1050.

http://www.rccvideo.com/int1.jpg

When it's connected to the Intensity, it says "DVI" and outputs 480

http://www.rccvideo.com/int2.jpg

No, it doesn't. Just tried the new update with my old cable and it's still no go...

You've got the Sonic Wave and it doesn't work? This is really puzzling. And you say it works on your TV so we know the cable is good for 1080... this must be a quality control issue with the Intensity cards being very sensitive to impedance or something. I don't know, I'm not an electronics engineer... So maybe you're right, it's a totally fluke that some cables work and some don't. I really hope the one you ordered works, you'll have to let us know.

Those screenshots are exactly what I get: the 1920x1080 for my good cable, and DVI for my bad cable.

I've got a Intel Core 2 Duo 6600, Nvidia 7300 GS, NOKIA CRT 22", running WinXP Professional 32bit. Have you tried doing a clean install of your operating system? I was going to try that right before I stumbled across it being the cable.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
well, mine dont work. i have a cable called "ultralink" which was like $120cdn.

ill take the cable back monday and try a different one. cant imagine why its so picky.

terence

As a wise man once said "Cables are cables."

The intensity and the hv20 work just fine together.

I can only imagine that either you have the wrong bm drivers, or you screwed something up (I cant imagine what though, theres not much for you to screw up).


Hehe, just kidding...

That's great information to have. Thanks. I think your idea for creating a list of working vs non-working cables could be very helpful until a real fix comes in the form of a driver revision.

Until we have multiple instances of the same cable model working, we have nothing more than information that particular individual cables work.

Derek, can you add your information; nonworking cables and the length of your VELOCITY? Maybe Terence can add some too.

So:

Working
Brand / Model / Length / Number Reported

Impact Acoustics / VELOCITY / ?M / 1


Non-working
Brand / Model / Length / Number Reported

Impact Acoustics / SONICWAVE / 2M / 1
Phiips / M62809 / 6FT / 1
StarTech / MDMIMM15 / 15FT / 1
ULTRALINK / ? / ? / 1
Monster / ? / ? / 1

so, the camera in la that was working.. now is not.
nothing was changed other than the camera unplugged and put away, then plugged back in a day or so later.

that was this cable: http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16812189136
he had another cable in a box of unknown origin, which didnt work either.

its possible the cable got damaged, but man, this setup seems way too finiky.

im going to go buy another cable at best buy and see what happens. this is getting annoying though.
the one i have right now is "ultralink matrix 2, 4metre"

terence

and now mine WORKS.
i just turned the cam off and on again.

actually, no, i also closed my pc case (was left open after installing the card).

this has to be some sort of grounding or impedence issue with the BM card. the cables working/non working is just coincidence or just a tipping point.

time to email black magic and see if these clues are of any use to them.

in any case, im not turning my cam off :-P must play.

terence

Updated
 

Working:
Brand / Model / Length / Number Reported

Impact Acoustics / VELOCITY / 5M / 1
-----------------------------------------
Non-working:
Brand / Model / Length / Number Reported

Energy/ A/V Cable / 1M/ 1
Impact Acoustics / SONICWAVE / 2M / 1
Phiips / M62809 / 6FT / 1
StarTech / MDMIMM15 / 15FT / 1
ULTRALINK / ? / ? / 1
Monster / ? / ? / 1

I'm scarred to even touch mine now in case it stops working haha...

turned cam off, then back on.. and now its "dvi" again.

gonna try re-seating the capture card.

terence

Well, pinch my toes and call me a jelly donut! Mine is working now!

I had tried all kinds of combinations of turning the camera on, off, rebooting with camera on, rebooting with camera off, monitor on, monitor off, monitor connected, monitor disconnected, rebooting while standing on my chair, swinging a cable over my head and singing "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, means I love you!"

Just now, I tried turning the camera on and off several times, I unplugged and reinserted the cable into the camera, and "wiggled/readjusted" it's seating in the socket.

One or all of these things worked.

Let the head scratching begin.

ffs.

now which side is the culprit, the cam or the card... grr

after reading a bit about the hv20 and hdmi issues with another device.. i think i have a notion as to how this all works.

it seems to have something to do with initialization sequences. basically, i have found (so far so good) that you need to turn things on in a certain way.

1: turn on pc
2: connect hdmi cable to pc
3: turn on camera in tape mode
4: connect hdmi cable to camera

this seems to get me in HD mode. my luck it will all go to hell after i post this, but so far, its working. if anyone would like to try and confirm this "always works" id appreciate it.

edit: nevermind :(

terence.

Hi guys,

Sorry the the lack of postings regarding this issue. I don't come to dvinfo very often (I really should). Thanks to Roy for informing me about his thread.

We've making good progress with compatibility with HV20. The v1.4 update will not enable Intensity to work with HV20. However, we expect to get this up and running with the next driver update.

It's definitely not a cable related issue.

do you have any idea why its so intermittent? i guess you are thinking its fixable on the intensity end.. thats good :) cause i think canon would be much less responsive.

thanks for looking into this
terence

Not too sure. I think the EDID negotiation between devices could have been tripped or interrupted by either the cables or the sequence in which devices are powered up / connected. Not an entirely reliable way to get things done though. :)

Thanks for stopping by and giving us the update, Kristian.

That's encouraging news. I've got to agree with Terence that if Canon had needed to do something, we'd be out of luck. So I guess what's needed now is some patience.

Just to update, I got to have about 30 seconds of HV20 and Intensity in HD. I was not able to get it going again for anything.

I'm glad to have been able to see for myself though.

It's better to have captured and lost than to have never captured at all...D'oh!

ive been able to get mine going about 15% of the time. usually after i leave it off for a few hours then turn it on it comes to life. im sure thats just fluke, but ill take what i can get. ive been able to get some footage at least. basically i try not to turn it off once its going, hehe.

terence