Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only)

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

I have tons of VHS archived footage from shows I directed and did not bother to digitalize... until I need it to show for a potential job! The BM Video Recorder works like a charm and is one of the best tools I purchased for my editing room. I highly recommend it with no hesitation.

Great Tool!

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

This product works really, really well. It is built solidly and the software it comes with takes only minutes to install. If you have any experience with audio video converting, this will be a breeze to get working. Its plug and play functionality is great and makes it possible to start converting any analog source within a few minutes of opening the package. I would recommend this product to anyone looking to digitize analog media sources with a very simple work flow.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

this video cualiti is incredible

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

Says what it does and produces excellent results. The conversion quality was great.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

I needed a device to download my video's of weddings which I had recorded on different formats into my computer to burn to DVD's. This was easy to install and easy to work with. Now I plug in my player and download to my iMac and produce my DVD thru iDvd. It is as simple as that.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

Plug and play on my iMac. Super intuitive software.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

We needed a quick solution to a corporate show need. We fed video/audio to the H264 encoder to turnaround a CEO speech to a client's website. We recorded the speech in real time, then uploaded the file to the client's website. Simple, clean and effective. It probably could cost a lot more and I'd still buy it again.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

This product cuts my post production time by 90%. I am a one-man onsite production crew, and this little number is worth every penny. Highly recommend.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

I am squeezing over 60 hours of conferences and I was very pleased with this device. It set up quick and did the job and saved me tonnes of time from exporting and in my M.C 2.7 NLE system. I transferred in real time and got results right away. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 was because it is only does SD and most of my shoots have moved to HD. [...]

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

I've had it about two weeks and I'm completely satisfied. Does exactly what I want, converts VHS video tapes to AppleTV 2.0 files.

It's the slickest and easiest device for the purpose I've seen and I have bought a lot of them.

First its user interface is dead simple, with just enough extra features tucked away for tweaking, if I wanted too.. but honestly I've found its easier to leave them all alone and just convert. It's hardware based so there is no software conversion after the capture.. its just done, the file is ready to play.. and it also does those full frames every so often so skimming the video works flawlessly. Audio is in sync with the picture.

Best feature! Although I can set the device to stop capturing after so many minutes.. for those extra long tapes 6-8 hours.. I just set the limit real high and let it play, capture automatically seems to stop after there is no more signal.. so the file is as big as it needed to be but no bigger. Max file capture size is 12 hours according to docs.. but I've never gone that high.

I use it with s-video, but it also captures composite and component if you need it.. pixel width is up to 720.. not 1080p but it does de-interlace so the motion is smooth.. not hering bone patterned like some capture devices.

The people who built this device did their own silicon, they really knew what they were doing.

Just be sure this is the "correct" device for what your trying to do.. it captures "Standard Def" video, so raw HD from a camcorder would have to be converted in the camera to Standard Def before capture.. and that would be a waste of signal and def. I would gladly buy a HD capture device from them.. they do have them, if that is what I wanted.. this is perfect for capturing VHS video.. or DVD.. anything that's not copy protected.. and that's what its superb at.

Wonderful gadget.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

Excellent device, does as promised and I'm very satisfied. It is perfect for encoding VHS to AppleTV 2.0 format and adding it to iTunes automatically.

Nicest feature though is it records up to 12 hours in a single file. I have some extended long play tapes to convert and don't know when to set the record length to end.

Turns out when the tape runs out, the signal stops being produced and the BlackMagic Video Recorder simply stops encoding.. it doesn't shutdown.. just stops adding to the file it creates.. so the file is as long as it needs to be, but no longer.

At first I wanted all kinds of advanced tweaking options.. but have come to realize this is perfect because that's already thought out.. the defaults (other than cropping out switch head noise) are perfectly fine. Video and Audio are in sync.. after its done I don't have to post process or re-encode.

This is a Mac OS X only tool however, I use a Mac Mini from 2007.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

What the details on the site don't tell you about this device:
(1) Forget HD - this device cannot even capture 480p - the lowest resolution for which you even need a component cable.
(2) Widescreen resolutions are unsupported - the video will record as 4:3.
(3) The recording application window is so large it won't fit on your display unless you have at least 800 pixels vertically, and cannot be resized to fit.
(4) It only works with the included recording application and thus cannot be used as a general video input device. This also prevents workarounds for (2) and (3).

In general I cannot recommend this device. On Mac OS we have grown accustomed to things integrating nicely, and this device not only fails to integrate nicely on the software side, but the hardware size can't even handle 480p output, which is relatively common even for older devices.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

Great product. Works as described.
Installation and use is very simple, just a matter of following instructions and hooking up analogue device to the Video Recorder and plugging into USB on Mac

Unit came with a S-Video to RCA plug cable even though blurb says you need your own cable. Unfortunately, the S-Video plug supplied is a female plug, so you still need a S-Video male plug with RCA plugs to hook up camera to Video Recorder.

Video quality is good, and loads directly into iMovie for editing.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

This is the best thing since slice bread it work very will with out any problems

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

This gadget works great most of the time, however it does have some issues. After about 4 hours of constant use I get these green sparkles on the background of my computer monitor. No kidding, they look like stars invading the planet. I have an G5, OSX, and a BlackMagic SD capture card. I wrote BlackMagic about the problem a week ago but have not received a reply. The other issue is that the volume sounds distorted on some recordings. I don't really know if this is a problem with the tape or capture device. So buyer beware. For [$] it is a bargain.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

This product is very well marketed and uses all the buzz words however, according to the company's own support page. This will NOT capture HD.

Disappointing...

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

This is an awesome H264 capture device, It's so easy to use, The software is incredible, pushes right into iTunes, and can drop right into iMovie....

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

I plugged it in and it worked immediately. It came with the latest version software.
I would like to see better software with it though. All your settings are blanked out, so a great product but the software is very limiting.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

Compared to other usb digitizers available this has both pluses and minuses. On the plus side it is very easy to use, can record HD and records directly into mp4 for use on iPhones, while some others record in other formats and have to transcode. The component video connector also enables a very clean image. On the down side there is no direct link to DVD burning, although Toast can be used. It is also more expensive than others, including products with more included software.

Comments about Blackmagic Design Video Recorder (Mac Only):

Hundreds to thousands less then other analog capture options. Even though it's basically a consumer devise the quality is more then acceptable when dumping from VHS or BETA. It's extremely portable.