Blackmagic Intensity Extreme - best settings?

[Ryan0751]

I have a Macbook Pro (2012, i7 2.8Ghz 13", the current fastest one) and a BlackMagic Designs Intensity Extreme thunderbolt video device.

I'm using the Intensity Extreme to grab video in from the HDMI port, which is connected to a Canon HF G10 1080p camcorder.

I run my video through CamTwist, and overlay an ordinary webcam for PiP (no other effects).

I then route this to Adobe Flash Live Media Encoder, which broadcasts to LiveStream.com for an online show that I do.

It's working... which is great, but it's VERY CPU intensive. The 2 cores (4 threads) of the i7 are essenstially pegged up around 90% the entire time I'm broadcasting.

I'm wondering what would be the best settings for this setup? I broadcast in FMLE at about 20fps, and I do an output resolution of 640x320 (half of 720p) in 16:9 from FMLE.

Suggestions for the CamTwist side?

[bluefacedbeast]

I have run into similar problems when running from an older MacPro Tower. I had 3 SD firewire cameras running into my MacPro running camtwist. I added an overlay in camtwist and then outputted it to FMLE for encoding at 640x320 (this was also my output resolution from camtwist). I was using twitch.tv instead of livestream. My CPU usage was through the roof. This year I am contemplating devising a system that has one computer do the camera switching and one the encoding. I'm not sure if that would be a reasonable solution for you. I have not tested it yet.