Blackmagic Forum

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 (AMD), 12 GB RAM
Graphics card: NVidia GeForce GT-430

I bought the card a a little more than two years for a project, got it installed and running in this very system with no issues whatsoever. I did the project (capturing and editing video from four concerts), then turned the box off, unplugged it, and put it in a corner.

I pulled it out Friday to do some more work with it. Connected the chassis to power, KVM, and Ethernet, let it apply Windows 7 SP1 and all Microsoft critical patches. At this point I noted that no video was seen in the capture panel.

I went ahead and upgraded to the newest Blackmagic software on the website, and upgraded the NVidia graphics drivers to most recent.

The Intensity Pro card will not show any video (or audio) signal available at the inputs. I've tried HDMI and component input. I've changed the settings in the control panel to every combination I can possible. I've looked for every FAQ and thread I can find on this forum, and have tried every option I can imagine. I've reseated the board, cleaned the contacts on the PCI-e connector, and tried it in all three slots available with identical lack of functionality.

I'm using the identical cabling setup as before. I've tried a Vulkano DVR as a source (worked before), a DirecTV reciever (worked before), and a Nikon DSLR with HDMI video (new this year, but works on other devices.)

Windows Control panel sees the card just find, as does the Blackmagic capture software. When I moved the card from slot to slow Windows responded accordingly.

I'm at a loss. I can't believe that the board has failed in such a way as to not see its inputs but is still detectable by drivers.

Any pointers, hopefully a "hey dummy, turn this switch on" fix?

Thanks, all.

Sounds to me like you have tried pretty much everything I can think of.. and that you know how to configure the settings in the BMD Control Panel (which for some reason new users often miss)... and select the correct video standard in use... so I cannot suggest anything you haven't already tried.

As you may have heard DSLR's are known for using a different video format than what you may be expecting (often defaulting to an interlaced format such as 1080i) - even if the recording format is configured as something else.

Bottom line... you have to know the video format of the source.. and it might not be what you expected.

Other than that maybe your card is actually faulty.

OK, just to explore that topic:

In the control panel, I can set which inputs I'm trying to use. I've been using "HDMI video and HDMI Audio" and "Component Video and Analog RCA Audio".

Below that I see "Default Video Format", is this where I would need to match what input I'm expecting? If so, do I need to cycle the capture program any time I change this?

In the application itself, I see under [Edit / Preferences] a setting for "Project Video Format", I would assume that's for the file I'm recording, not the one I'm capturing. Is that correct?

manowell wrote:In the control panel, I can set which inputs I'm trying to use. I've been using "HDMI video and HDMI Audio" and "Component Video and Analog RCA Audio".

Yes... that's all correct. As you say you have been selecting the setting appropriate for your source.

Below that I see "Default Video Format", is this where I would need to match what input I'm expecting? If so, do I need to cycle the capture program any time I change this?

You absolutely must select the specific setting relevant to the source video. Have you not been doing that?

In the application itself, I see under [Edit / Preferences] a setting for "Project Video Format", I would assume that's for the file I'm recording, not the one I'm capturing. Is that correct?

I presume by "the application itself" you mean "Media Express"?

Also... I am finding it hard to understand the difference between "the file I'M recording, not the one I'm capturing". That sounds like exactly the same thing.

Assuming you want to "Capture" the source video to your hard drive you need to set the project settings to the exact same format of the video source you are capturing (as you specified in the Control Panel)

As you've done the recording with the Intensity before - I am assuming you know what video codec / format you will be using either the default of Uncompressed (if your hard drives are fast enough) or Motion JPeg.

Below that I see "Default Video Format", is this where I would need to match what input I'm expecting? If so, do I need to cycle the capture program any time I change this?

You absolutely must select the specific setting relevant to the source video. Have you not been doing that?

I've had it set for what I believed to be the right setting. Now, I'll cycle through all of them as a safety check. Do I need to restart Media Express for it to pickup that change?

In the application itself, I see under [Edit / Preferences] a setting for "Project Video Format", I would assume that's for the file I'm recording, not the one I'm capturing. Is that correct?

I presume by "the application itself" you mean "Media Express"?

Also... I am finding it hard to understand the difference between "the file I'M recording, not the one I'm capturing". That sounds like exactly the same thing.

Yes, Media Express.

Yeah, on re-reading that was about as confusing as it could be. The file I'm recording = the one I'm writing to disk, the file I'm capturing = what's being fed to the Intensity inputs.

Assuming you want to "Capture" the source video to your hard drive you need to set the project settings to the exact same format of the video source you are capturing (as you specified in the Control Panel)

As you've done the recording with the Intensity before - I am assuming you know what video codec / format you will be using either the default of Uncompressed (if your hard drives are fast enough) or Motion JPeg.

Ok, that was a detail that I wasn't aware of or had forgotten. Is there ever a time it would be appropriate for them to be set differently?

Motion JPeg is find in this case, if I can get the card to work I have some SSD drives to put in.

manowell wrote:I've had it set for what I believed to be the right setting. Now, I'll cycle through all of them as a safety check. Do I need to restart Media Express for it to pickup that change?

I usually shut down Media Express while making any changes to the control panel.... but I'm not sure if that is necessary. Of course if you change anything in the control panel... then you also have to make a similar change to Media Express anyway.

Yeah, on re-reading that was about as confusing as it could be. The file I'm recording = the one I'm writing to disk, the file I'm capturing = what's being fed to the Intensity inputs.

That's still confusing to me. In what case can the file you are recording not be THE SAME as what is being fed to the Intensity Inputs. You can't record anything else other than what is on the input.

Do you think that Media Express will somehow CONVERT the video format while it is capturing? If so... no... it can't do that. It is always a straight capture of whatever is being fed to it.

However... other capture software may be able to compress/convert the source video to something else. e.g. ffmpeg can be configured to do an on-the-fly compression to h.264 format.

Ok, that was a detail that I wasn't aware of or had forgotten. Is there ever a time it would be appropriate for them to be set differently?

Not as far as I know.

Yeah, on re-reading that was about as confusing as it could be. The file I'm recording = the one I'm writing to disk, the file I'm capturing = what's being fed to the Intensity inputs.

That's still confusing to me. In what case can the file you are recording not be THE SAME as what is being fed to the Intensity Inputs. You can't record anything else other than what is on the input.

Do you think that Media Express will somehow CONVERT the video format while it is capturing? If so... no... it can't do that. It is always a straight capture of whatever is being fed to it.

However... other capture software may be able to compress/convert the source video to something else. e.g. ffmpeg can be configured to do an on-the-fly compression to h.264 format.

OK. Yes, I assumed it could convert, there are settings in the control panel for up-converting and down-converting. In this case, I don't need to, I prefer to work in what source format I get. But I have NOT been paying enough attention to those settings. Do you think that would keep source material from showing up in the monitor completely, which is what I'm seeing?

Ok, that was a detail that I wasn't aware of or had forgotten. Is there ever a time it would be appropriate for them to be set differently?

Not as far as I know.

It seems odd to me that it's required to make two settings in two different application panels match, then. But I'll accept that and move on.

Waiting for the workstation to apply a bunch more patches on shutdown now, then I'll be back to testing.

Thanks for your pointers and time, by the way. It is appreciated.

I agree. It does seem somewhat redundant to have the same settings in both. Maybe someone else here can explain why it is this way.

I hope it all starts working for you now.

Glad to have helped.

Liam Kennedy wrote:I agree. It does seem somewhat redundant to have the same settings in both. Maybe someone else here can explain why it is this way.

I hope it all starts working for you now.

Glad to have helped.

hd1080i 59.94 is doing the job when set correctly both places. Now I'll worry about disk speed. Thanks!

Good news. Motion Jpeg should work with just about any drive.

What format did you record when you used it last year?

Liam Kennedy wrote:Good news. Motion Jpeg should work with just about any drive.

What format did you record when you used it last year?

Well, it was TWO yeards ago when I found my notes, and it was also 1080i59.xx. Which the drive speed utility says should not work on this drive, but it's working OK.

I've ordered a PCI-e Sata III RAID card and three 32GB Sata III drives, should have them Wednesday. I'm assuming that to set up for performance I just go with RAID 0?

I really think that the quality of the motion JPEG will do what I need, but I've now sunk so many hours of my weekend into that beast that I want to sink a few MORE hours and dollars and come out with something better.