PCIe Video Capture card slurps up HDMI data

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN'S RECENTLY LAUNCHED INTENSITY, an HDMI video input card for PCs, is a very neat looking product that caught our attention recently.

Plugging into a PCI express x1 slot (finally - a use for it!), the $250 Intensity allows capture of HDMI streams at up to 1080i or 720p (but not 1080p, a little disappointingly), and works on either Windows or Mac OS systems. Also, being HDMI, it can capture video and audio simutaneously, without any need for assistance from a separate sound card, which is helpful.

However, if it can deliver on its claimed ability to record HD-quality video data straight from your Digital STB (and presumably therefore Blu-ray player too) to your hard disk, it will presumably have caught the eye of the MPAA too, as well as the HDMI committee, who would almost certainly take a dim view of this.

Imagine their horror at the thought that their viewers (or customers, as they seem to forget they are also called) might be able to record a film onto their PC in perfect HD quality and watch it where they like around their house, whenever they like, or convert it to a low res version for use on their PMP, without having to buy separate iTunes, MSN, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray and UMD versions of it and sit through enforced copyright notices and trailers.... the end of the world would surely be nigh!

We asked Blackmagic whether the Intensity could decode HDCP-encrypted data, but they were unavailable for comment at the time of press, so we can but speculate. If it can, then this device will be one of the most useful gadgets for home cinema enthusiasts, as well as their target market of video editors using HDMI-connected cameras.

However, this would likely annoy the media companies and the HDMI association to the point at which Blackmagic's HDCP decryption keys would be remotely revoked. Very sadly, therefore, I really can't see it fulfilling this potentially useful role for very long if at all. On a side note: welcome to the new world of DRM where expensive pieces of hardware across the world could potentially be remotely rendered useless by over-zealous copyright holders. Way to go, Hollywood! µ

L'INQs
Blackmagic Design
BIOS magazine