What you can do is to inverst in a Blackmagic Intensity - if you do not need analog connections, the Intensity Pro is not necessary.

Frankly spoken, the hdmi out of the Intensity will deliver a high-quality preview for your full-HDTV. But it will NOT increase preview fps really, but quality.

If you have to increase fps in the preview, you will have to invest in another, faster processor.

What advantage would using the intensity give over using DVI / HDMI?
Many graphics cards today come with HDMI,all come with DVI and so do most HDTVs. In any case it looks like HDMI is being replaced by Displayport.
As for getting full raster 25p FullHD playback in Vegas, interesting question. If we're going to be ingesting 10bit 4:2:2 from the Flash XDR I haven't a clue if or how Vegas will handle this. I'm yet to hear / see how it handles 10 bit SD. The MC encoder will not let me encoded at 4:2:2 either.
Prospect2K would be a nice way to work but we're also locked out of that with Vegas.

Bob.

One thing I don't understand (and so would appreciate explaining it to me technically) is how are the specialized I/O cards like the Black Magic or AJA supposed to enable the "real-time playback" from the timeline. If - using the Best/Full preview mode - Vegas is resampling everything, which causes the preview window to show dramatically reduced fps, is it possible at all that at the same time, a monitor connected to say the Xena's component outs, will display full speed, ral time video? Sommehow I cannot figure this out...

But if it does, I think I'd gladly spend even the hefty price on such piece of hardware between Vegas and my new 50" HDTV...

I really hope Sony has something up their sleeve to correct this either compatibility with cards, video card processing, or something.
JJK

But I understand that in terms of fps, even the Intensity cannot play faster from Vegas timeline than the preview window? Just to make sure :)

Also, can it play 1080/25p? In the specs, I can oly see 1080i...

Finally, while the AJA card can be configured explicitely as the secondary display in Vegas - how do you configure the Intensity? I understand it's simply available as yet another Display Adapter in the Windows Secondary Display - right?

Well, I guess i I still had the V1E with HDMI out, I'd buy the Intensity without hesitation. But with the file based EX1, is it still worth it? Any comments welcome.

removed

"What advantage would using the intensity give over using DVI / HDMI?"

Well, you get 1920x1080 preview from the Intensity, either with 50i or 60i. The preview quality is improved significantly, compared even to very actual grafic cards. I have here both the Intensity Pro via HDMI, but also the ATI based MSI RX2600XT via HDMI/DVI. The ATI card shows a significant lower resolution compared with the Intensity - I see both on my 40-inch 1920x1080 Sony 40W2000. Imagine, that you bring on the timeline a slight blur - then you have the picture of the ATI, compared with the Intensity Pro.

In addition, I have seen the buildup of the picture is faster with the Intensity, compared with the ATI. You can see that if you have some camcorder movement.

The Intensity Pro shows a similar picture, as the 5times more expensive Canopus NX does.

The intensity does not play faster.

And yes, you configurate the secondary display in Vegas for the Intensity - after the installation you find at menu topic there.

1080 25p from the EX1 is no issue for the intensity - for the intensity you can either choose 1080 (1920x1080) 50i, but there is also a template for 1080 (1920x1080) 25p. It works fine, and the quality of teh EX1 looks great with the Intensity, I have testet that with EX1 material. Looks better then with my ATI card.

I mean, the big disadvantage of Vegas was, that it is a superior professional NLE - but with no hardware support. The Intensity helps to overcome that in a really fine way. We invest a huge amount of money in camcorders like the EX1, and then we do not spend the money for an hardware videocard?

Wolfgang,

You say that "The Intensity Pro shows a similar picture, as the 5times more expensive Canopus NX does".

Do you think Edius can use the Intensity Pro just like it's using Canopus' own cards? Have you tried that?

No, Edius cannot use the Intensity Pro, I have tried that, I have installed both Vegas and Edius, but also the Intensity Pro and the NX in my quadcore system.

All what I said was that the Intensity has a similar preview quality as the Canopus NX has. Vegas is a little bit weaker compared with Edius, Vegas recompresses the video part, what Edius seems to avoid (however they do that).

Have you tried Vegas and/or Edius with the AJA Xena LH? Since Vegas officially supports it, does it speed up the timeline playback without sacrificing quality?

By design Vegas will not support hardware acceleration.
I have the BMD Decklink card which Vegas did officially support but only as a dumb i/o device. It too does not make anything run faster. It has several features to speedup certain common operations but they were not supported supported by Vegas.

Bob.

Right. If you need higher speed, invest in the processor.

I have not tested the AJA.

Like Cole Younger says, "It's a wonderment why Vegas doesn't support timeline playback hardware".
JJK

Wolfgang,
As you have the Intensiry Pro, can you enlighten me on one more thing: can it be used as my HDTV driving card with software MPG and/or DVD players, such as Nero Showtime, Power DVD or WMP?

Hi There, technically as long as your system is up to it, both the BMD and the AJA boards can you give a full Quality Output.

I have both a BlackMagic MultiBridge and an AJA system, both running Vegas, These are on 8 Core MacPro's, which obviously helps, but I shoot on my EX1, at 1920 x 1080 35mbits, and I can play realtime full framerate, 1920 x 1080 output on my BlackMagic or Xena card to a HD-SDI HD Production Monitor. The key to getting the speed is to make sure that the project settings match the video you are editing, which should also match the output card settings exactly.

You will obviously lose realtime playback, when you add filters, and effects. But it is the only way to work professionally.

Matt

OK, just an update for those who might be having a similar dillema. I bought a 50" Panasonic full HD TV (funny; paid for it not much more than what my 24" computer monitor's price was 1.5 years ago). I connected it using the secondadry DVI port on my regular ATI X1600XT Radeon card, through a DVI-HDMI cable. And guess what:

- the picture is stunning! Everything using overlays plays full screen on the HDTV: Vegas secondary, Edius, and of course all my MPG-2 players, including BD and DVD.

I guess I will be investing in an extra, specialized card only when Vegas starts using some HW acceleration (if it does)...

Well, it's not all that easy (however I guess my only problem is not related with the ATI card, but some stupid protection schemes):

- when using Power DVD or Nero Showtime to play my own BD-MV disks (burned with MF 6plus), the secondary display (HDTV) is NOT functioning! Of course the Panasonic does handle HDCP, but the players are not even trying to use it... Interestingly, when I play the m2t inside the STREAM folder in file (rather than DISK) mode, Nero will use the secondary display just like with any other mpeg2 contents, while Power DVD won't...

Does anyone know a solution to that? I'm using DVI->HDMI; my card has also component output which I didn't try yet - perhaps this should work?

Welcome to the nightmare world of DRM. Your content has been protected from you, makes you sleep better at night doesn't it

Bob.

Run you Nero burning rights and it will tell you what in your system is not HDCP compatible.
JJK

I have no idea how to run this... Any hint, please?

If you installed the complete Nero UI mess there are about a zillion categories to select from and one of them I believe in the tools or information menu has the burning rights. Just click and watch.
JJK