Blackmagic delivers

zoom

zoom

Giorgio Ungania corporate training and marketing manager of SAE International

High Definition has been the buzzword in video production for the last three years with HD cameras, HD cables, HD non-linear editing software and HD DVDs. For every product in the market, someone is busy making an HD version if it's not already available.

Although the HD format is the future and one day, everything from production to transmission will be in HD, we currently work in a mixed environment where we see a majority of Standard Definition productions and just a small percentage being produced in HD and with international technical standards still not completely settled.

I personally adopted HDV video in my production at a very early stage. I still remember the first time I captured and played back HDV on my laptop. I was amazed that I could play back the video on my timeline in real time with no rendering required. The quality was better than any DV I had ever seen, but there was a small problem. My 17" laptop monitor could not display the full 1440X1080 pixels frame size of the signal so I had to monitor it at half or even a quarter of the original frame size.

Monitoring HD has been one of the first challenges for those migrating to the new HD formats. Independent producers without the budget of big production companies and broadcasters have been facing this issue from day one.

Solutions for monitoring HD on CRT displays are usually very expensive and technically limited as they cannot display 1980X1080 full frame signals. The solution to this can be found in any consumer electronics store everywhere in the world: Plasma and LCD consumer monitors.

Even though Plasmas and LCDs display a slightly less wide colour range compared to the CRT, they are all pretty much capable of displaying full frame HD video (depending on model and specifications).

More interestingly, all the latest monitors and TV sets come with a very handy feature that makes the video producer's life much happier - HDMI ports. HDMI is a modern interface replacement for analogue standards such as composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video and VGA, and digital standards such as DVI .

HDMI ports are now implemented in all of the latest camcorders making playback of HD content a breeze if you use a plasma or LCD screen. The true added value of the HDMI standard is that it is truly HD and does not rely on any video compression like the DV or the HDV Firewire-based video standards.

When it comes to video capturing and editing, the story has been different as there were no other options for digital monitor playback other than DVI until Blackmagic Design introduced the first PCI HDMI card on the market.

This is the Intensity Pro - a 64-bit PCI Express card for video capture and playback for both Windows and Apple systems. The Intensity can be purchased in two different configurations, both sporting HDMI but one with also analogue in and outs as well.

The unit is easy to install in the PCI slot. Once its software is installed, the unit is up and running in no time. I installed the interface on a MacPro 8 Cores with 4GB of RAM and tested the card on a project I was just working on. This is a commercial promoting the forthcoming Pink concert in Dubai. As the commercial is meant to be played on TV stations, projected in cinemas and looped on Plasma screens in stores, I decided to produce it in 720p and downsize it only for the TV version.

Final Cut was used for editing and Motion for compositing and graphic animations. Switching the video preview from a thumbnail on my computer screen to the HDMI port and outputting a full 1280 X 720 frame size on the connected Sony Plasma was amazing. I could enjoy the colour details and visual impact of HD video even in the editing stage and not only after completing the project. The true benefit of monitoring directly in HD is that you can see your work exactly as it will appear when displayed to the audience.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

READERS' COMMENTS

View all comments (0)

Have your say

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM