Where to start?

I am looking into buying a $500 camcorder that can record in 1080p 60 FPS that I can also use as a webcam. I want to be able to capture video from the camcorder to upload on to youtube.

The reason I want a camcorder is for it portability so I can take video from beyond just my desk.

I know blackmagic makes video camera but $1000 USD is well beyond my price range. So what type of camcorder would I need that isn't quite as expensive and what video capture card will work with my system? I see that there is no support for the broadwell line of i7 Asus motherboards that came out this year, according to your supported motherboards the x line of Asus motherboards seems conspicuous in the absence of support.

System specs

Windows 10 64 bit (home edition)

Asus x99 – A II mother board
i7 – 6800k CPU
32 gigs of ram
NVidia GTX 1080 graphics card
1440p monitor


Does blackmagic have a video capture card that is supported for my system configurations?

Brett, I think you are in the totally wrong forum for those kind of questions.
This is a forum for professional users of Blackmagic Design products.

You might find better answers in a forum like dvinfo.net

Anyway, I try to give you some answers:

1. You do not need a capture card. Every consumer camcorder out there will record on SD cards, which you can put into a SD card reader and drag the video footage onto your computer's harddrive.
The only benefit of a capture card would be to capture a less compressed video signal from your cameras HDMI output - IF the camcorder is able to do that.

2. If you need 1080p60 have a look at cameras like from the Sony FDR-AX series or HDR-CX900 series. They are over your 500$ budget, but might be good choices for image quality.

Err how is it possible to use a camcorder as a webcam without a video capture card? you can't transfer a video recording from a sd card on the fly. Doesn't it require a video capture card for a live broadcast from a camcorder?


Every computer store I have talked to has said I need a video capture card and they also seemed to be out of their league after that. They don't know what video capture card, or what hardware I need past that. The two official resellers of Blackmagic products both said they really didn't know what I need as my request wasn't what they normally deal with.

As to the forum you tell me which was the best choices?

Getting started- Getting started with a Blackmagic product? Ask questions here about setup and installation.

Well I don't have a Blackmagic product yet and this isn't about setting/installation so clearly NOT the place to post.

Cinematography - The place for questions about shooting with Blackmagic Cameras.

Well I don't have a blackmagic camera so again NOT the place.

Post Production - Do you have questions about Desktop Video, Converters, Routers and Monitoring?

Yeah I do have a question about desktop video, how can I use a camcorder as a webcam as I want to use it as such and also take it to film 'on location.' And what video capture card would be best for 1080p 60 for my hardware/softwar configuration. Seems at least some what relevant to the description of what this forum is. Sounds exactly like desktop video to me but what do I know I am just an amatuer. Where the frak does that say professionals only anyway?

Off topic - Got something to discuss that's not about Blackmagic products? Then check out the Off-Topic forum!

How is asking which bloody blackmagic video capture card I need a conversation NOT about blackmagic products? Do you have any idea how rude your post was? probably not people who condescend to others rarely do.

Frankly I have found the whole experience a real pi$$er. I can't get a hold of Blackmagic to answer my questions as a customer and their own resellers don't seem knowledgeable about their products. And when I use their forum, I get an answer that clearly shows someone was talking down to me because they couldn't be bothered to read the first line of my post "I am looking into buying a $500 camcorder that can record in 1080p 60 FPS that I can also use as a webcam." If something was unclear, you didn't ask for a clarification. nope just said you shouldn't be here and gave me advice that if I followed it would leave me high and dry for my webcam needs. Which I stated in the first bloody sentence. I then specifically ask what video capture card I would need and if there in fact was a blackmagic video capture card I could use because my research showed that my motherboard wasn't supported. This at least showed I didn't ask my question blind that i had done some research. made an effort to educate myself. I though if i provided that information it would give context to my request for assistance. I was obviously wrong. Maybe next time spend half the amount of energy keeping your precious little forum free from us peasant amatuers and using that energy to READ the posts you comment on would be in order.

Wow, what a long rant.
I am sorry Brett, that you have read my reply as rude. That was not my intention. I have read my reply again and have not found anything rude in there, but my first language is German, not English. So my good intentions might have gone bad along the translation.
I have absolutely no problems with amateurs being in this forum, I just thought that you will find better answers about camcorders in dvinfo.net because most professionals here do not use consumer camcorders, so they have no experience with those and can't give advice.
This was by no way meant condescent (a word I had to look up in the dictionary, didn't know that one).
In fact I have a long history in German speaking boards of giving lots of helpful advice to beginners - so again sorry, if my English wording was misunderstanding.

About your need of live streaming: you wrote something about using it as webcam in your first post, but didn't mention live streaming. That's where I thought you just misunderstood the needs you had. Sorry again. I was in a hurry, just found your question unanswered between other posts some pages back and tried to give a quick help.

For live streaming:
Have a look at obsproject.com
That's an open source live streaming software which works with blackmagic capture cards.
The intensity shuttle supports no 1080p60, but the Intensity Pro 4K or the DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K do.
I see no reason why the cards shouldn't work with your Asus board. The support list is by no means a complete list of all available boards and with a good quality Asus board chances are very high you will have no problems.

Robert, your first answer was fine, and to the point. I also came to the same conclusion reading Brett's first post.

Brett Welcome aboard, we are a loose collection of pro and semi-pro (including Cinematography students) who come from many different backgrounds, to join together in mutual support and try to help each other out. As Robert pointed out, we work mainily with more expensive, high end equipment used in Cinematography and broadcast applications. Robert was just suggesting an additional resource (DVNet) you could use, one which I have also turned to from time to time for answers to questions not found elsewhere. DVNet is a larger community, with many sub forms broken down by camera types, and other categories.

To answer your live streaming question, yes, you are going to need a video card for your computer, or an outboard video capture device, that can use USB3 or Thunderbolt connections for 1080p60, which is a high bandwidth resolution. For live streaming, you might want to consider going to 1080p30, or 1080i60, as your choices of a video card/box will be increased. You might want to do a search on live video streaming on the web, to see what other users are doing. Again, welcome aboard, and good luck in your quest.
Cheers

So is there anyway to get a hold of Blackmagic and actually get sales support? I am still have zero idea what video capture card will work with my hardware after being warned by their website and a sale rep for my computer make sure your hardware is compatible yet Blackmagic can't be bothered with providing a comprehensive list. I have talked to a sales rep at NCIX (computer store) who made it clear don't just randomly buy a Blackmagic video capture card because the last customer who did so found out that modern cards were not supported and had to buy an older video card. Yet none of their cards even mention compatibility with video cards on their specs.

No Blackmagic reseller in my area has any clue, which kind of makes the idea of an official reseller a bit of a joke. And no one here seems to know and Blackmagic doesn't actually seem to have anything to do with these forums other than host them. No idea why they (Blackmagic) are making this process of finding the right hardware so difficult. And I still have no bloody idea how a bloody conversation about which Blackmagic video capture card is right for my needs is an "off topic" conversation.

Seriously what is the point of Blackmagic having a forum when you can't even get a simple question like mine answered? Where the advice I get on what Blackmagic video capture card I need amounts to "go look somewhere else." And people are shock I fell condescended to?

Brett, why not order the Intensity Pro 4k from Amazon.com, put it into your PC, try it with any a camcorder (with HDMI out) borrowed from a friend and if it works fine and if not send it back to Amazon?

Like I said earlier: I see no reason why it should not work with your ASUS board. You got a high quality board there.

I think it is pretty impossible for Blackmagic Design (or other companies) to test every board combination out there for compatibility. There exist just too many. If a board is not on the list it does not mean it won't work. It just hasn't been tested.

About this forum:
This forum is a user to user forum, but Blackmagic stuff usually chimes in from time to time.
But I have no idea too, why your posting went to the Off-topic section.
Anyway, I think the best section for your question would have been the "Live Production" section, as your intention is capturing for live streaming.

Other options to contact BMD:

You could also contact Blackmagic directly here:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/contact/email

or if you prefer a phone call:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/contact/phone

/snip
Other options to contact BMD:

You could also contact Blackmagic directly here:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/contact/email

or if you prefer a phone call:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/contact/phone

The contact via email requires you to fill in which blackmagic product you own. I have none so I suspect this went to support and they ignored my email because there has been no response from them in over 2 weeks. So I took that to mean not a general inquiries email.

However seeing the phone number again reminded me of a trick you can use of googling a number to find what pages use that number. So I did and doing so got me to this page https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/sg/company which tells me Dan May is my contact for sales info and his name is linked to his email address. So this has been helpful thank you.

Great! Keep us updated how it went and what you are going to buy.

Yes, please do. Dan May is a great way, and should be able to help you out. Dan is in charge of West Coast sales, so give him some time to respond.
Cheers

Yes, please do. Dan May is a great way, and should be able to help you out. Dan is in charge of West Coast sales, so give him some time to respond.
Cheers

I have written off expecting a response until December with the US Thanksgiving Holiday. I imagine issues with the sales and dealing with panicked retailers trying to get stock in because of selling out and so on will require at least a week to get things back to some normalcy.

Great! Keep us updated how it went and what you are going to buy.

It went terribly. I asked about motherboard compatibility and video card compatibility and what capture card would best fit my needs and I got a really lazy response.

Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, since we have not tested with the Asus X-99 A II motherboard, it is not listed as supported and I can not guarantee that it will work work our products. However, after looking through the tech specs for the motherboard, I have been able to confirm that it is a full form ATX motherboard. Given this information, there is a good chance that it will support our PCIe cards, because we have heard from many customers that they have had success using full form ATX motherboards that are not on that list. With that in mind, all of our PCIe capture cards, except for the DeckLink Mini Recorder and DeckLink Mini Monitor, do support 1080p60 video, and there is a good chance they will work with your computer.

by Zach Saunders

I assume the "...and I can not guarantee that it will work work our products," actually means "...and I can not guarantee that it will work [ON] our products." However since I was quoting Zach I didn't want to change his words in anyway.

So Dan May couldn't even be bothered to answer my questions and Zach Saunders says it might/should work but if it doesn't we wont guarantee it so you are out of pocket. Gee thanks guys. Every other company that I talked to said, "Yep we guarantee it will work, if it doesn't return it by X." But oh no blackmagic is no guarantees, WTF? And Zach can't even be bothered to help me find which video capture card is the best fit for my needs. Great service. I ask for help and you narrow things down to every !@#$ card in your product line but two?? I asked about compatibility of video cards and met with no response, doesn't even address this question at all. How is the above helpful in anyway?

Frankly I don't know how blackmagic stays in business. I think it is the conceit of being 'best in their field,' colour correction, and so they don't have to work to help customers. One day, like so many other companies that were "best in their field" a competitor will come a long and they will be eclipse, and Blackmagic will wonder what happened. What happened is that the competitor will have had to work to get every customer, so they will do so, which results in them building customer loyalty and customers like myself which Blackmagic think isn't worth their time go elsewhere and get treated well. Our word of mouth for the competitor and against Blackmagic starts to get traction.

I will NEVER buy a blackmagic product, ever! I found a competitor's card and a competitor's editing software spending ~$900 CND. Sure for Blackmagic that isn't anything but as I grow in my hobby I will encounter others, some new to the field and I will tell them to STAY CLEAR of blackmagic which will cost sales. And they have lost any future sales they might have gotten from me. All because they were too lazy to answer my questions, too lazy to ask what my needs were to narrow down which product was best for me, if my questions about which card was best wasn't sufficient to narrow things down from their entire line of cards less two. Instead they answered one question of three and left me as uninformed as I was when I first went to Blackmagic looking for solutions. So F@ck'em.

My new card is shipped and should arrive next week. I am happy I finally got some answers and help from people actually trying to get my hobby up and running. I'm already learning to edit, at least gaining technical skills to do so, with my new software. The service was like night and day.