PRODUCT SECTIONS
| Black Magic capture cardsOnline Catalogue | Editing programs - information on EDIUS, Premiere Pro, Avid and Vegas software | Black Magic capture cards Black Magic cards add extra inputs and outputs to editing programs. They do not tend to add acceleration to any program, like a Matrox card would, for example, and for that reason they are relatively cheap. A Black Magic Intensity Pro will add component and HDMI HD and SD capture for £135 +VAT in resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 - a Matrox RT.X2 would add component i/o (not HDMI) at HDV resolutions, ie up to 1440 x 1080, for £895 +VAT. The latter would also improve the performance of Premiere and this is why you pay more than you would for a Black Magic card. Black Magic have a capture card that adds HD-SDI for under £300! In addition to adding extra i/o Black Magic cards have a couple of extra programs. The first is a stand-alone capture program which can be used to capture into either uncompressed or Black Magic's motion JPEG format. Also when used on a Mac some of the cards have a program that lets you overlay graphics live on video or even mix between picture captured by two cards in the same machine. Black Magic cards work with: - Adobe Premiere Pro (on both Mac and PC). Click here to read more about Premiere Pro and see specs of typical DVC bespoke editing systems here.
- Sony Vegas (version 9 of Vegas, released in May 2009 supports the Black Magic cards; version 8 worked with the cards but the support was always classed as "beta". Click here to read more about Sony Vegas and see specs of typical DVC bespoke editing systems here.
- Final Cut Pro - Apples editing program supports the Black Magic cards and as well as capture into Black Magic formats you can also capture into Apple Pro Res.
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|  | Decklink Capture FormatsDecklink cards can capture standard definition (PAL and NTSC) and if you buy one of the HD cards, both 1080i and 720P video, through the different connections. They either capture them into uncompressed formats or into Decklink’s MJPEG codec. This is particularly important when it comes to HD footage - Uncompressed 8 bit HD takes up around 400MB for an hour and you will need at least 2 SATA hard drives striped together on a proper controller to get enough drive speed. 10 bit uncompressed takes even more space. Our recent tutorials were filmed entirely in uncompressed HD using an Intensity and the results were excellent but we had to use several hard drives!
The alternative was to use the Black Magic MJPEG codec, which can capture happily onto a single SATA hard drive and takes about 50GB per hour. For most video the quality is acceptable the computer displays in our tutorial are hard work and the MJPEG codec produced too many artefacts. If you buy another program called CineForm you can capture into their codec which is better than MJPEG. This works with either Cineform Neo or Prospect HD. Please contact us or visit our website for more information on Cineform. Editing card based mediaIf you film onto card based media (XDCAM, P2) or edit HDV you will not convert the footage but use it natively. In this case the Black Magic cards add the extra ins and outs needed for you to monitor the footage at full quality when editing. 8 bit and 10 bitDecklink cards capture into both 8-bit and 10-bit formats. Most common video formats (like DV and HDV) are 8-bit. For better quality you can use 10-bit. |
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Online Catalogue | Editing programs - information on EDIUS, Premiere Pro, Avid and Vegas software | Black Magic capture cards | INFO AND GUIDES |
The DVC brochure contains concise guides to editing both HD and SD footage, and information on all the current editing programs. Click to download, or complete this form to request a copy by post. |
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