Is it possible to capture with VideoStudio 11.5.0157.2 Plus? VideoStudio can see the Decklink Video Capture device but does not seem to be able to use it. Vegas Platinum works fine but I hate to purchase $$ yet another edit/capture application. Windows XP SP2.
Note: Blackmagic's trivial little capture program works, but only when it has the screen focus. I need something to capture in the background, and I have VS11.5+ already paid for.
Any reponse to this query no matter what you may suggest -- other than "buy a MAC" -- would be appreciated.
Capture with Blackmagic Intensity Pro
Moderator: Ken Berry
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Ken Berry
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Welcome to the Forum!! 
Well the Decklink is not a cheap piece of goods by any means. But I suspect -- though confess I don't know for sure -- that there are possibly two things going against it with VS11/11.5+. First, I am not sure -- since you don't tell us -- either what you are capturing from or what format you are capturing in.
I know that the Decklink can be used for DV/AVI capture, and that is potentially strike number one if you are trying to capture from an analogue source via firewire. VS11/11+ had a recognised bug which inhibited capture in DV format from (1) certain stand-alone analogue/digital capture devices which connect via Firewire; (2) mini DV and Digital 8 cameras, which connect using Firewire and which are being used as a passthrough device to convert analogue video to digital; and (3) Digital 8 cameras connected via Firewire and playing an analogue 8 or Hi8 tape.
The 6 November 2007 patch fixed (2) and part of (1) but not (3) at all. However, to answer your unasked question, I am not sure that this is your problem since I also don't really know exactly which Decklink device you have. I was under the impression most of them were internal cards, rather than stand-alone devices. But if yours is one of the latter and it connects via Firewire, then that will be your problem.
Depending on your set-up, strike 2 could potentially be more fatal since I understand that the Decklink is compatible only with QuickTime or DirectShow software. I don't believe that VS11/11.5+ can be described as DirectShow compatible since Corel changed the capture plug-in from the previous versions to make it compatible with Vista. Previous versions were definitely based on DirectShow technology, but the new InterVideo capture plug-in (IVI) apparently is not, and a lot of people have been having a variety of problems with it. (I know you are using XP but the point is that VS11/11.5 was designed to work with both XP and Vista, so had to adopt the lowest common denominator i.e. Vista, as the standard.)
Corel indicated that the IVI plug-in could not use DirectShow because the latter is supposed to be incompatible with Vista. Originally, I bought that argument without question. However, now I am beginning to doubt it since as far as I am aware, other video editing software, including Adobe Premiere Pro CS2 and CS3 (and I assume Adobe Premiere Elements) still use DirectShow software, work with Decklink products and are also fully compliant with Vista!! So really, I am guessing that Corel has merely made a virtue out of necessity and has used IVI because it bought Ulead, the original maker of VS, from InterVideo which bought up Ulead before Corel came on the scene. As I understand it, VS11/11+ was on the drawing board while InterVideo still owned the company...
But the long and the short of it is that I am afraid you might have little choice but to use other software to capture with. If indeed you are capturing in DV format, then you might try a small freeware program a lot of us here use (admittedly for capture via firewire) called WinDV which you can download from windv.mourek.cz However, to be honest, I am not sure if WinDV works if it cannot detect a firewire connection. If you have other software already, such as Nero or Roxio, you could try their capture with the device.
Usually, though, we advise people to use the software which actually came with the capture device as it is made specifically to work with the hardware. In this case I think the relevant software would be Blackmagic Deck Control or possibly Blackmagic Media Express which I understand should allow you to capture from the Decklink (though I suspect one or the other may be designed for the MAC rather than a PC). Then you merely open the captured video in VS for editing and authoring.
Make sure, though, that you use a capture format such as DV, or at a pinch, DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which are easier to edit (albeit sometimes with problems for mpeg-2) than some of the other formats.
You also might want to look at the Decklink support webpage for various downloads which might assist you -- particularly a special codec which might help...
Well the Decklink is not a cheap piece of goods by any means. But I suspect -- though confess I don't know for sure -- that there are possibly two things going against it with VS11/11.5+. First, I am not sure -- since you don't tell us -- either what you are capturing from or what format you are capturing in.
I know that the Decklink can be used for DV/AVI capture, and that is potentially strike number one if you are trying to capture from an analogue source via firewire. VS11/11+ had a recognised bug which inhibited capture in DV format from (1) certain stand-alone analogue/digital capture devices which connect via Firewire; (2) mini DV and Digital 8 cameras, which connect using Firewire and which are being used as a passthrough device to convert analogue video to digital; and (3) Digital 8 cameras connected via Firewire and playing an analogue 8 or Hi8 tape.
The 6 November 2007 patch fixed (2) and part of (1) but not (3) at all. However, to answer your unasked question, I am not sure that this is your problem since I also don't really know exactly which Decklink device you have. I was under the impression most of them were internal cards, rather than stand-alone devices. But if yours is one of the latter and it connects via Firewire, then that will be your problem.
Depending on your set-up, strike 2 could potentially be more fatal since I understand that the Decklink is compatible only with QuickTime or DirectShow software. I don't believe that VS11/11.5+ can be described as DirectShow compatible since Corel changed the capture plug-in from the previous versions to make it compatible with Vista. Previous versions were definitely based on DirectShow technology, but the new InterVideo capture plug-in (IVI) apparently is not, and a lot of people have been having a variety of problems with it. (I know you are using XP but the point is that VS11/11.5 was designed to work with both XP and Vista, so had to adopt the lowest common denominator i.e. Vista, as the standard.)
Corel indicated that the IVI plug-in could not use DirectShow because the latter is supposed to be incompatible with Vista. Originally, I bought that argument without question. However, now I am beginning to doubt it since as far as I am aware, other video editing software, including Adobe Premiere Pro CS2 and CS3 (and I assume Adobe Premiere Elements) still use DirectShow software, work with Decklink products and are also fully compliant with Vista!! So really, I am guessing that Corel has merely made a virtue out of necessity and has used IVI because it bought Ulead, the original maker of VS, from InterVideo which bought up Ulead before Corel came on the scene. As I understand it, VS11/11+ was on the drawing board while InterVideo still owned the company...
But the long and the short of it is that I am afraid you might have little choice but to use other software to capture with. If indeed you are capturing in DV format, then you might try a small freeware program a lot of us here use (admittedly for capture via firewire) called WinDV which you can download from windv.mourek.cz However, to be honest, I am not sure if WinDV works if it cannot detect a firewire connection. If you have other software already, such as Nero or Roxio, you could try their capture with the device.
Usually, though, we advise people to use the software which actually came with the capture device as it is made specifically to work with the hardware. In this case I think the relevant software would be Blackmagic Deck Control or possibly Blackmagic Media Express which I understand should allow you to capture from the Decklink (though I suspect one or the other may be designed for the MAC rather than a PC). Then you merely open the captured video in VS for editing and authoring.
Make sure, though, that you use a capture format such as DV, or at a pinch, DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which are easier to edit (albeit sometimes with problems for mpeg-2) than some of the other formats.
You also might want to look at the Decklink support webpage for various downloads which might assist you -- particularly a special codec which might help...
Ken Berry
Ken Berry wrote:Welcome to the Forum!!
Well the Decklink is not a cheap piece of goods by any means. But I suspect -- though confess I don't know for sure -- that there are possibly two things going against it with VS11/11.5+. First, I am not sure -- since you don't tell us -- either what you are capturing from or what format you are capturing in...
Mr. Berry, I appreciate your efforts. Thank you for your extensive reply. Sorry for my cheap and short original post. Every piece of information I can get is critical right now as I begin the imponderable "Capture with Blackmagic Intensity Pro" learning curve. I have read a million-myriad web pages the past couple weeks (Square or non-square pixels anyone?) Blackmagic's website has almost no information. All of the knowledge I have has been hard won from the many generous people who have documented their way through the video maze and who have posted their information out there on many, many other sites. In Blackmagic's defense, I have not phoned them, yet, since I work odd hours. But no one should doubt--this product is one of the most impressive and cost-effective pieces of hardware I have ever seen and I have forty-eight years of technical experience. Even with Blackmagic's Media Capture application limitations, everything was simple to install and to get running. I slapped my hardware together: new motherboard, processor, memory, disks, video card, and the Intensity Pro card, turned on the power and after all the concomintent drivers were installed everything played and behaved well together.
The Intensity Pro can output and capture uncompressed real-time HDMI at up to 1080i59.94, analog component video, and too many other variants I'm not gonna list. I am capturing HDTV from either a Motorola Set Top Box with HD component analog, or from my personal Sony Tuner/DVR in HDMI (the Sony can upconvert anything to 1080i if so desired). This is all compatible with MAC QuickTime and PC DirectShow. No Digital rights management (DRM) problems whatsoever, except I do get the occasional although transitory message on my display about DRM, but it goes away after the daisy-chained HDCP circuits get themselves satisfied.
The Decklink Video Capture device which is used by the Intensity and Intensity Pro cards is Blackmagic's generic device description. I don't have a Decklink card or box. It's just a common driver.
In the recent past, I used to capture DV but it has become unacceptable to me, after cutting 375 DVD's for my collection. (Anyone want to buy my fine, fine 480i component video-to-DV converter?
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My Video HTPC System:
OS: Windows XP SP2 x32.
Motherboard: ABIT AB9 Pro -- 10 sata connections, which is important for the large, multiple drive RAID 0 striped disks required for massive uncompressed video files thrown at the RAID at 120MB (byte not bit) per second.
Disks: I run external sata drives to keep their heat-power-temperature outside the PC chassis. Boot IDE drive is inside the box; DVD burner inside.
Processor: Intel E2160 dual core, standard 1.8GHz, but I run it at 3.0GHz. I have a quad I might, eventually swap in for post production--except! the E2160 is such a very low power, low heat and temperature processor.
Blackmagic Intensity Pro card: best price from bhphotovideo.com.
HIS Hightech H260PRF256EDDN-R Radeon HD 2600PRO video pcie card with HDMI output adapter. Got it for its comprehensive ATI avivo hardware video decoders to keep the load off the CPU's. HDMI out is used for playing HD, DVD, and other movies through my HDTV.
Inconsequential 400W power supply.
Gefen extend it HDMI switcher HDCP compliant: 2x1, but need a 3x1 or 4x1.
4x2 active Analog Component Video Selector.
DataVideo DAC-2 Bidirectional Component BNC to Digtial (firewire) Converter.
==================================
Capturing:
As I said before, the Blackmagic Media Express capture utility is funky since it demands to be the top process with the desktop focus, else it stops till you get back to it. Sony Vegas runs in the background fine.
BTW, I swap systems so often that my paid $$ for Nero 7 Ultra software will no longer work because of their patent activation limitations.
AND, AND! So now, given a little more time I have re-discovered the *free* VirtualDub utility. I have previously used it to transcode videos, but never for capturing. I have it outputting to my HDTV through the Intensity Pro output HDMI port but have yet to do a decent capture, although I have read it works okay for Intensity capturing. Grrrrrr.
One other thing I have tried was to use the firewire out of the Comcast Motorola Set Top Box, but only a couple HDTV stations worked because of high drop out rates at HD resolutions. That would have been the best, premo, and free solution to capturing HDTV.
Which brings me back to my original question about VideoStudio 11.5.0157.2 Plus. I am comfortable with VS since I've been using it for years with analog converted to DV firewire for capturing, so I'd like to get VS working with the Intensity card.
One of my fervent hopes is that someone will tell me what I am doing wrong; and how I can use VideoStudio command-line commands to schedule and run VS to capture. Although I am not too hopeful about VS, given their reluctance to deal with their apparent DirectShow non-Vista InterVideo capture plug-in problem.
And lastly, if I have to, I'll write my own capture program with SCHEDULING capability! It is a pain to manually start a capture. No, I can not afford $$ to buy yet another application. I have a lot of time, no money.
TIA.
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Ken Berry
- Site Admin
- Posts: 22481
- Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:36 pm
- System_Drive: C
- 32bit or 64bit: 64 Bit
- motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC
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- ram: 32 GB DDR4
- Video Card: AMD RX 6600 XT
- Hard_Drive_Capacity: 1 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD
- Monitor/Display Make & Model: Kogan 32" 4K 3840 x 2160
- Corel programs: VS2022; PSP2023; DRAW2021; Painter 2022
- Location: Levin, New Zealand
I am not sure I can be of any further use in using VS with your Intensity Pro card, given the inability of VS 11.5+ to support Direct Show, even in an XP environment. My best advice remains to use Media Express for capture, even with its apparent failings.
I note also that the spec sheet for the Intensity Pro says "Use FireWire if capturing from HDMI cameras." By that, I take it to mean a high definition camera of whatever ilk which has a HDMI interface. I have a Canon HV20 which has such an interface, and it records to mini DV cassettes. Moreover, you capture in high def mpeg-2 format (.m2ts) using firewire. Interestingly enough, that uses Upper Field First as the field order. But if you capture the same high def video but using the standard definition DV format via firewire, it uses Lower Field First.
However, I notice that the Intensity Pro card does not appear to have a firewire port in it. I assume therefore that it refers to any other firewire port which happens to be in the computer. But if capturing DV or HDV formats from a digital camera via firewire, you could definitely use VS11.5+.
Sorry I can't be of more help...
By the way, I take it you realise that HDMI is a physical interface and not a video format. I guess that begs the question of what format video you are trying to capture. If some of your captured material is, as you say, from a HDTV source, then normally you would be capturing in one of the high definition variants of mpeg-2 (transport or program stream varieties).The Intensity Pro can output and capture uncompressed real-time HDMI
I note also that the spec sheet for the Intensity Pro says "Use FireWire if capturing from HDMI cameras." By that, I take it to mean a high definition camera of whatever ilk which has a HDMI interface. I have a Canon HV20 which has such an interface, and it records to mini DV cassettes. Moreover, you capture in high def mpeg-2 format (.m2ts) using firewire. Interestingly enough, that uses Upper Field First as the field order. But if you capture the same high def video but using the standard definition DV format via firewire, it uses Lower Field First.
However, I notice that the Intensity Pro card does not appear to have a firewire port in it. I assume therefore that it refers to any other firewire port which happens to be in the computer. But if capturing DV or HDV formats from a digital camera via firewire, you could definitely use VS11.5+.
Sorry I can't be of more help...
Ken Berry
Ken,
When Blackmagic talks about firewire to a camera it is for device or deck control through something like Adobe Premiere Pro, as I understand it. Otherwise you're stuck with manual operation. The video still comes from the Intensity HD source, analog or digital.
You mentioned HDMI as a connector, not a format. Okay, openDML video for Windows .avi DirectShow media files or streams format for processing by appropriate codecs or filters. Let's assume we mean a broadcast quality progressive (not interleaved) format of 8-bit 4:2:2 YUV / YcbCr (not RGB) lossless [compared to what? white light? rods and cones....] motion jpeg. Look out. Next comes Microsoft Media Foundation format.
For now, I think I've had about enough of cameras and all the rest of the stuff, although I had recently thought that the Canon XH-A1 would be nice, but I'd have to save $$ for a year; that is, right after a year or two of doing a few other things. I have a nice EF 300mm f/4 L IS lens for my digital camera. But I'm getting fatigued with all this. I think I'm getting rid of the camera and lenses.
So, I just captured an HD movie in compressed mjpeg from PBS because my mother missed it. All right picture quality. It's rendering now down to something a bit more manageable for her ancient computer so she can watch it tomorrow. I had to use Blackmagic's Media Express for the capture, but VideoStudio to make the mpeg-2 file (ah, I still like VS). It started out at 36.2GB and will compress to about 12GB for 90-minute run time. Hell, I don't even know if her computer can run it, maybe not enough horsepower, since the bit-rate is still pretty high and she doesn't have any graphics-card GPU hardware processing. Hmmm. Gets me to thinkin'...I could make her yet another gift of my last motherboard...Great!...More work. I have a headache.
Thanks for you help. Maybe Corel will fix their capture drivers yet for VS11.5+. LOL. It will probably be a great new feature only available in VS12.
When Blackmagic talks about firewire to a camera it is for device or deck control through something like Adobe Premiere Pro, as I understand it. Otherwise you're stuck with manual operation. The video still comes from the Intensity HD source, analog or digital.
You mentioned HDMI as a connector, not a format. Okay, openDML video for Windows .avi DirectShow media files or streams format for processing by appropriate codecs or filters. Let's assume we mean a broadcast quality progressive (not interleaved) format of 8-bit 4:2:2 YUV / YcbCr (not RGB) lossless [compared to what? white light? rods and cones....] motion jpeg. Look out. Next comes Microsoft Media Foundation format.
For now, I think I've had about enough of cameras and all the rest of the stuff, although I had recently thought that the Canon XH-A1 would be nice, but I'd have to save $$ for a year; that is, right after a year or two of doing a few other things. I have a nice EF 300mm f/4 L IS lens for my digital camera. But I'm getting fatigued with all this. I think I'm getting rid of the camera and lenses.
So, I just captured an HD movie in compressed mjpeg from PBS because my mother missed it. All right picture quality. It's rendering now down to something a bit more manageable for her ancient computer so she can watch it tomorrow. I had to use Blackmagic's Media Express for the capture, but VideoStudio to make the mpeg-2 file (ah, I still like VS). It started out at 36.2GB and will compress to about 12GB for 90-minute run time. Hell, I don't even know if her computer can run it, maybe not enough horsepower, since the bit-rate is still pretty high and she doesn't have any graphics-card GPU hardware processing. Hmmm. Gets me to thinkin'...I could make her yet another gift of my last motherboard...Great!...More work. I have a headache.
Thanks for you help. Maybe Corel will fix their capture drivers yet for VS11.5+. LOL. It will probably be a great new feature only available in VS12.