Blackmagic Design Intensity Extreme HDMI and Analog Capture & Playback Device - Thunderbolt

Blackmagic has some amazing stuff and this is yet another great addition to their product lineup. It could not be simpler: plug in HDMI, get video and audio out through the thunderbolt port.

What's great is that your Mac will see this as a web camera, making it instantly compatible with any application that supports camera input. I've tested it with everything from Final Cut Pro X to the Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder and it has all worked flawlessly. My only caution is that you need to know exactly what resolution and framerate your HDMI is putting out first, and then select the appropriate camera in the driver. For example my Canon HV20 camcorder outputs 1080i, so I needed to select the 1080i 59.97fps option.

I'm using this with the Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio Production Switcher and it's working flawlessly. I connected the intensity extreme to the ATEM's program out via HDMI and was able to broadcast to Justin.TV using Flash Media Live Encoder. It carried both the audio and video from the ATEM the moment I plugged it in.

If you're still using firewire to stream high definition to your Mac, this is a great path to using more recent cameras. It not only allows you to live stream 1080p from some of the newer AVCHD cameras and record that video completely uncompressed. Many newer cameras will bypass their internal compression when sending video out through the HDMI port.

Like many other Blackmagic products, simplicity is key to the operation. You'll find it will start working right away when something's plugged in with very minimal configuration. It's really impressive especially considering how inexpensive it is. Just be sure to pick up Apple's overpriced thunderbolt cable as the intensity does not ship with one.

My company has purchased several of these. Here's what you need to know.

First, it's not all solid state. There's a fan. Be prepared to vent it, and not stuff it anywhere. Out in the open, even on a warm day, and it's ok.

Second, these are fragile. Treat this like glass. If you travel with it, protect it well.

Finally, if you're on the road doing streaming, carry extras. I won't go so far as to call these 'unreliable', but I will say that they cannot be abused at all. We purchased 4, and 3 had to be exchanged. No doubt we treated these like regular gear, and that would be a mistake. When they work, they work great. When they stop working, it's a boat anchor.

I would highly recommend this for the cost. I'd pay triple for this, and in the end, I still might. The less often it moves, the more of a bargain you have.

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I purchased the Blackmagic Intensity Extreme for recording in the field from a Panasonic HMC150 to a MacBookPro (running under Lion) via HDMI-out on camcorder and Thunderbolt-in on computer. My hope was to avoid the good-but-not-great AVCHD format/H.264 compression, and to record straight to ProRes. In comparing some footage and color bars shot simultaneously using the HMC150's AVCHD format vs. the ProRes 422 (using Blackmagic's MediaExpress), the ProRes was very noticeably better. Of course you can expect those files to be huge compared to those recorded to the camcorder's SD card.

Also to note (if you're not Barry Green), if yours is the same setup as mine, to get any image to come through to MediaExpress, you need to set your HMC150 to 1080/30P and MediaExpress preferences to HD 1080i 59.94 (or 720P/30P(or 60P) and 720i/59.94, respectively), as the HMC150 seems to record in a 59.94fps container, which I was not aware of. Additionally, a $50 Thunderbolt cable is required not a $10 Mini DisplayPort cable. The TB cable has some necessary circuitry.

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Watch my video review!! (copy and paste link in browser)Pros:

Multiple input AND output options.

HIGH speed with thunderbolt cable.

Clean design, looks great on desk.

No annoying indicator lights.

Cons:

The biggest con is its price+the price of the thunderbolt cable wich is NOT INCLUDED and there is no way to run this device without one.

Another small con is the software can be a little difficult to understand at first, but it is not a big issue once you figure it out.

Wrap up:

The blackmagic intensity extreme does everything it claims to and does it well. The build quality is unmatched and I would recommend it to anyone who intends to get good use out of it.

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I bought this product and had to return it because it was not operating correctly. I was sent a replacement unit that was 100% non-functional. My opinion is this product is absolute garbage. 2 units and both were garbage.

There is at least one upfront caveat. The unit is completely incapable of accepting a progressive signal over component cable. I spoke to a technician on the phone and he revealed as much. He also said that they are having serious issues working with Thunderbolt technology. For some reason they are building devices that are compatible with a new Macbook Pro (for example), but another identical Macbook might be completely incompatible. These things are beta at best.

I bought an Elgato video capture device and it flawlessly captured video from a VCR. The first (semi-functional) Intensity Extreme unit was dropping video/audio constantly with the same material. A product that is less than 3x the price did a better job.

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