BlackMagic Intensity Pro/Shuttle

[Wile_E]

I see there is a new capture device available on the market. Anyone try it for VHS capture? How does it compare to the Canopus ADVC-100/300 for standard definition analog captures?

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

[edDV]

Overkill for VHS.

SD video would be uncompressed. The Intensity ships with an MJPEG codec to allow recording to a single drive. Huffyuv should work.

[arturo83]

Take a look here for more informations; anyway shortly:
the Intensity Pro suffers from the flickering problem, capturing from a VCR unprovided with TBC.
It would be interesting to know if the Intensity Shuttle suffers from the same problem.

[NJRoadfan]

Take a look here for more informations; anyway shortly:
the Intensity Pro suffers from the flickering problem, capturing from a VCR unprovided with TBC.
It would be interesting to know if the Intensity Shuttle suffers from the same problem.

FWIW, the AVermedia HD DVR card suffers from the same problem despite having a different capture chip. These cards are strictly adhering to the RS-170A specs. (for NTSC capture anyway), any video that has slightly irregular sync or weak signal will cause the card to drop the signal completely.

[jagabo]

Does the older firmware for the Avermedia HD DVR, the one that records HDCP protected sources, ignore Macrovision too?

[NJRoadfan]

Does the older firmware for the Avermedia HD DVR, the one that records HDCP protected sources, ignore Macrovision too?

I think the same trick can be used for Macrovision sources, although I never tried it. I constantly had problems recording from non-Macrovision VHS and SVHS sources regardless. The live preview video was cutting out in AVermedia Center, which is unaffected by Macrovision protection (it displays a "can't capture" dialog on Macrovision sources if you hit record). The card also cuts out when the VCR goes to blue screen which doesn't help matters either.

[Brad]

Yes, Macrovision works the same way as the HDCP trick, but as you say it's pretty pointless since even invisible errors result in dropped frames.

[NJRoadfan]

I wish these modern cards were more like my old Matrox Marvel G400TV (Samsung KS0127 ADC). That card never had any issues with dropping frames. I captured video with some pretty rotten sync on that thing with no dropped frames.

[arturo83]

Take a look here for more informations; anyway shortly:
the Intensity Pro suffers from the flickering problem, capturing from a VCR unprovided with TBC.
It would be interesting to know if the Intensity Shuttle suffers from the same problem.

FWIW, the AVermedia HD DVR card suffers from the same problem despite having a different capture chip. These cards are strictly adhering to the RS-170A specs. (for NTSC capture anyway), any video that has slightly irregular sync or weak signal will cause the card to drop the signal completely.

I've got a VCR/DVD combo that can output RGB signals over the SCART socket from the VCR section too.
Since all those capture cards suffer from the same flickering problem, I'm thinking to get a SweetSpot card (PDI Deluxe).
Another alternative would be the Grass Valley ADVC-Mini, that can capture the RGB via SCART.
Which one of the two cards, do you think would be the better choice, speaking about video quality?