• Dell M1710 Laptop
  -  T7600 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo CPU
  -  2GB RAM
   
• Magma Express Box EB1F
   
• Blackmagic Intensity Card
   
• Test Camera: Sony HVR-V1U
   
• CineForm Neo HD and Neo HDV

1. Install the Blackmagic card into the Magma ExpressBox Pro as per the instructions included with the Magma device.
    
2. Connect the ExpressBox Pro to the ExpressCard.
    
3. Download the latest driver (version 2.0 or above) for the Magma device: http://www.magma.com/support/drivers/index.html
    
4. Save and unzip the file.
    
5. Install the driver, shutdown the laptop
    
6. Insert ExpressCard into the laptop’s appropriate slot.
    
7. Power on the Magma chassis.
    
8. Power on the laptop.
    
9. When Windows starts, you should be prompted with “New Hardware Found” and asked if you wish to let Windows install the hardware automatically. Decline this, and install the latest Intensity drivers (version 1.5 at the time of this article) from http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/
    
10. Restart the laptop when prompted to do so by the Intensity installer.
    
    You should now be able to use your Intensity card.
    
    NOTE: If upon restarting, your computer is unable to detect the Intensity card, it indicates an incompatibility between your BIOS and the ExpressCard. To remedy this, continue below:
     
11. Shutdown the laptop.
     
12. Remove the ExpressCard from the laptop.
     
13. Download and install the eCard patch from Magma (http://www.magma.com/support/drivers/expresscard/Utilities/epatch.exe).
     
14. Restart the laptop.
    
    Your computer will start up and load the BIOS, but pause before loading Windows.
     
15. When prompted to do so, insert the ExpressCard and press <Enter>.

• When Windows loads, you should be able to use your Intensity card.
   
• For any problems with the above process, please contact Magma customer support (http://www.magma.com/support/).
   
• Your CineForm software can be installed before or after the above process and it will not effect the stability of the CineForm software. We suggest it is installed beforehand so that you may use HD Link to test the functionality of the Intensity card. When you start HD Link, if it detects the Intensity card is installed, you will see “Decklink Video Capture” as an option in the Capture Devices drop-down box.
   
• For any issues with Decklink capture in CineForm HD Link, please contact CineForm support (www.cineform.com/support)

24p: This mode worked very well when the V1U was operating in 24p mode.  The CPU hovered in the 70% - 80% range, and in our tests, although not exhaustive, we did not drop frames.  (NOTE: In 24p mode, CineForm software removes the telecine cadence from the HDMI output from the camcorder and records a 24p stream to disk).

30p and 60i: This mode proved unreliable as the CPU hovered in the 90% range and occasionally hit 100%.  We would expect frame dropping to occur in this mode.

Final Note: Intel is now shipping Santa Rosa family mobile chips (T7800 and above) with 2.6GHz CPU and 800MHz FSB.  2.6GHz represents a 10% higher CPU speed and 800MHz FSB represents 20% higher memory bandwidth than the T7600 CPU we used for these tests.  We would expect that the Santa Rosa chips (T7800 or above) should be able to handle 30p and 60i without frame dropping, although we have not yet tested that configuration. 

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