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Sebasvideo
Sebasvideo
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Lag with Blackmagic Intensity Pro

Jun 16, 2012 10:41 PM

I just got Adobe Prod. Premium CS6 as well as a Blackmagic Intensity Pro monitoring card and an eVGA GTX570 graphics card, and to avoid problems, I did a new Windows installation from scratch on a formatted drive. This was done today, so all the drivers and program updates are completely up to date.

 

I know the Intensity Pro is about the cheapest card you can get to preview video correctly on a TV set, since graphics cards don't display video in the same way as a dedicated editing card does, so I'm still happy with it, but I would like to find it if I can get around this annoyance until I can get a better card, or if perhaps it's a flaw in Premiere and a more expensive card would not make a difference.

 

The card has about 200 miliseconds of lag compared to the program monitor in the Premiere window. This is not really terrible, but it becomes distracting when watching the TV screen and the change of frame in a cut happens first in the computer monitor in a small window within Premiere, and a fraction of a second later on the TV screen. Also, it makes it difficult when I have to sync cuts to changes in the music. I guess in that type of situation it would be better to do the cuts on the computer monitor and then switch to the TV set for color correction.

 

But this is not just in regular playback. It gets worse when scrubbing the timeline, or moving with JKL. In those cases, sometimes it takes it like a second to catch up to what I see on the program monitor.

 

I also have a GrassValley HD Spark monitoring card for Edius that while it has a little lag, it's much shorter than this and it's not so distracting. That card was connected using the same cable to the same TV set, so that tells me the Intensity Pro has some extra lag, but it's hard to complain about it on a $190 card. However, I was wondering if anyone here has found themselves in the same problem and found a solution? I searched but so far I couldn't find anything.

 

And as far as these type of cards, what is the least expensive one that will give me perfect preview with no lag?

2879 Views   12 Replies   Latest reply: Qengineering, Jul 2, 2012 3:33 PM
 
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  • ComputerNovice25
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    1. ComputerNovice25,
    Jun 16, 2012 11:55 PM   in reply to Sebasvideo
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    I have the black magic decklink studio 2 in the production control area where we work. I used it to replace our DVC pro decks so I had it hooked up to our old switcher and we used to play promos for programs that we did live to tape. Anyways though to answer your question I never experinced any lag when using the card. It always was exactly in sync on both of the computer monitor and the feed running to our switcher. At least as far as I could tell.

     

    On my computer at work in my office though I have my pc hooked up to a DVC pro deck via firewire and I have a professional sony monitor hooked up off the DVC pro deck. Now while I edit in my office there has always been a noticble delay between my sony monitor and my computers monitor. Although like you mentioned I just simply use my sony monitor for color checks nothing more nothing less.

     

    One thing to think about though is that in my personal experince when I have MPE's GPU accleration turned on my monitor I have hooked up in my office doesn't always function properly, then when I turn it off it acts normal again. So you may want to try turning your MPE's gpu accleration off to see if that makes a difference or not.

     

    Although I can't say for sure if you got the BMD decklink studio 2 you'd have the same experince I have had with it as far as sync between monitors go but I can for sure say it's been a good card for $500.00.

     
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  • Sebasvideo
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    2. Sebasvideo,
    Jun 18, 2012 3:46 AM   in reply to ComputerNovice25
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    Thanks, I might try that one, although it's a bit over my budget at $660.25, but I'll have to if I don't have a choice.

     

    What about the Matrox MXO2 Mini, has anybody tried it?

     

    About turning off MPE GPU's acceleration, that is not an option for me. I'm used to edit in Edius, where almost everything you do is real time and you barely have to render anything ever for previewing purposes, and Edius doesn't even require an expensive Nvidia card for that, it only uses the CPU. But, it lacks several features Premiere CS6 has, especially when it comes to artistic effects. Overall I'm really hooked up on Premiere CS6, but only if I can have the same fluidness of work I always had with Edius, so I wouldn't turning off MPE. That's why I spent $280 in a new graphics card.

     

    I really hope that this is just a matter of the BM Intensity being a cheap card and not Premiere, because this past couple of days I've been editing almost all day and while I enjoyed the editing process in Premiere, it's very frustrating to start playback and sometimes it will be fine but other times the audio and video will be out of sync, so I have to position the playhead back and start playing again. When that happens half the times you play something, it's really annoying. This is regardless of real time areas or not. To make sure of this, I forced render of an area that had no effects on it and it still has the sync problem. I had to disable auto playback after rendering because that would cause the problem every time, while if I position the playhead manually and then hit play, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

     
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  • Jon-M-Spear
    738 posts
    Jan 27, 2006
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    3. Jon-M-Spear,
    Jun 18, 2012 4:17 AM   in reply to Sebasvideo
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    I am having the same issue in CS6 and coincidentally, posted to the BM forum on the Creative Cow site only this morning.

     

    http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/124/881531

     

    No response as yet.

     

    I'm finding that dropped frames can be initiated by a simple 4-second caption burnt over a single layer of XDCAM EX footage.  When I stop and restart playback, it continues correctly until it hits some fast cuts.

     

    My machine is not underspec'd.

     

    I am also having problems with juddering shuttle when the reference monitor is active and displaying the vectorscope/RGB parade.  Are you experiencing that too?

     
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  • grandpooba2
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    4. grandpooba2,
    Jun 18, 2012 1:32 PM   in reply to ComputerNovice25
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    I have a question to add to this conversation.

    I have a sony dvmc-da2 media converter hooked up to a panasonic studio monitor that I used to view files on in vegas pro.

    When I hook this up via firewire to our pc and look in premeier pro cs6 for this device to output to it is not there.

    Nor thru nvidia menu. Is this even possible to do anymore or is this abit outdated.

    I also have an intensity pro that doesn't seem to like to play nice with the nvidia card.

    Any thoughts and also where do find external choices in PPcs6.

    Thanx

     
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  • Zac Lam
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    5. Zac Lam,
    Jun 22, 2012 11:29 AM   in reply to Jon-M-Spear
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    Hi Jon-M-Spear, for your dropped frame issue, have you tried comparing between Mercury Hardware and Mercury Software modes?

     
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  • Jon-M-Spear
    738 posts
    Jan 27, 2006
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    6. Jon-M-Spear,
    Jun 22, 2012 3:35 PM   in reply to Zac Lam
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    I'm not at my PC now, but I seem to recall that it makes no difference.

     
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  • rexpost
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    7. rexpost,
    Jun 22, 2012 4:30 PM   in reply to Jon-M-Spear
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    I'm getting a lag as well on playback with a Decklink Studio.

     

    hit play. it's a few frames off.

     

    stop

     

    hit play again...its in synch.

     

    had this issue with cs 5 as well if i recall, even on rendered sequences.

     
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  • Sebasvideo
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    8. Sebasvideo,
    Jun 23, 2012 7:58 PM   in reply to rexpost
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    rexpost wrote:

     

    I'm getting a lag as well on playback with a Decklink Studio.

     

    hit play. it's a few frames off.

     

    stop

     

    hit play again...its in synch.

     

    It looks like Blackmagic is a brand to avoid completely. I just got a Matrox MXO2 Mini Max, no lag issues, no crashes, and it encodes to h.264 in real time with good picture quality. They are running a promo until July I think, I got mine from B&H for $600. Totally worth the money.

     
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  • DrewD_1111
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    9. DrewD_1111,
    Jul 2, 2012 3:30 AM   in reply to Sebasvideo
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    Same thing is happening to me with the Intensity Extreme Thunderbolt...

     
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  • SAFEHARBOR11
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    10. SAFEHARBOR11,
    Jul 2, 2012 9:13 AM   in reply to DrewD_1111
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    Check out this Adobe demo video and you will see a slight lag between the Premiere preview and external display - http://youtu.be/G4X5ZDzos1I

     

    I think it is inevitable, as Adobe has to hand off the video data to the third-party card, which is going to have some processing going on internally that could introduce a tiny bit of lag, but also consider that the video DISPLAY may introduce some lag with its own internal processing of the incoming HDMI signal. I can have multiple TVs turned on in my house and all set to the same football game, yet I hear echoes from one room the other because there are timing offsets!

     

    I've used Matrox products for years, currently MXO2 Mini, and yes there is a small lag, but I don't look at both screens at once, am looking at one or the other at any given moment. I can understand that the lag may be a critical issue for cutting a music video, but probably not an issue for most users. I never notice it myself really unless specifically looking for it.

     

    Jeff Pulera

    Safe Harbor Computers

     
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  • rexpost
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    11. rexpost,
    Jul 2, 2012 9:26 AM   in reply to SAFEHARBOR11
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    well, its happening on all the aja cards too, so it's not just a black magic problem.

     

    There's no good excuse why there would be any lag.

     

    there should be absolutely none at all. 

    There's no lag with final cut pro on that same hardware.

     

    The Mercury Transmit needs some refinement.

     
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  • Qengineering
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    12. Qengineering,
    Jul 2, 2012 3:33 PM   in reply to rexpost
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    Final Cut allowed adjustment under System Settings > Playback Control to adjust any delay/offset.

     

    I believe Final cut would delay the desktop display if the 3rd party card was behind and it would delay the feed to the 3rd party card if the desktop was behind. I was always able to get them in sync.

     

    All done within the FCP application.

     
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