What am I missing?? Can't even set it up...

Do you have questions about Desktop Video, Converters, Routers and Monitoring?
  • Author
  • Message
Offline

Jen Selles

  • Posts: 2
  • Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:52 pm
  • Location: North Carolina

What am I missing?? Can't even set it up...

PostTue Jun 20, 2017 10:18 pm

Hello,

I just bought a Blackmagic Design Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt and I cannot get anything to work, other than the HDMI input.

My objective is to digitize my old VHS home movies. I do NOT own a high-quality VCR. I have an "SVHS" - a Mitsubishi HS-U747. It does NOT have TBC. So after I read around and did some research, it sounded like I will need a more professional quality VCR or to buy a separate TBC. But I was wondering --- is it really right that I can see NOTHING?? Like NOTHING but a black screen; it doesn't appear to be reading anything at all. Shouldn't I at least be getting a low-quality image and sound???

My other VCR is a JVC HR-VP654U. With this one, when I hooked it all up, I recorded about 15 seconds. And I would say of those 15 seconds, it captured about 3-4 frames. Does this seem right either??

So, I was trying to determine what/if anything I am doing wrong, or if I just straight up need to go buy a high-end VCR.

So I hooked up my TiVo box to the shuttle and sure enough a picture comes through. (Too bad the picture is of the TiVo error message that says the HDMI cable won't work because the source is copy protected... but whatever, it doesn't matter. I was just testing that a source would come through and it did).

So now I am thinking ok it works, I just need a better VCR. So meanwhile, I try to bring in some footage off another old home video camera. It's a Sony "Digital Handycam." DCR-TRV520, "Digital 8."

So, I plugged that in... and again NOTHING APPEARS. NOTHING, it's reading NOTHING. I don't get it. I could accept that maybe the shuttle can't read VCRs at all because the signal isn't digital or something. But this camera IS digital. So I think... hmmm maybe something is wrong with the camera or the cables or something?? No. I plugged the camera into my TV and it plays fine, both video and audio.

I mean, am I missing something here???

What I am doing is

- I open the "Blackmagic Desktop Video Setup."
- Click on that little circle in the middle (which annoyingly has no hover text)
- Under "Video Input" I click on whichever source I'm trying to use
- Go back to "BlackMagic Media Express"
- Go to the "Log and Capture" tab

And voila --- NOTHING. Seriously what am I missing?? I mean, I got it to read the HDMI cable. Is this unit busted or something?
Attachments
Tivo.jpg
Tivo.jpg (139.95 KiB) Viewed 2200 times
Offline

Jen Selles

  • Posts: 2
  • Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:52 pm
  • Location: North Carolina

Re: What am I missing?? Can't even set it up...

PostWed Jun 21, 2017 3:57 am

So I've been reading more of the forums and I would like to thank Colin for all your posts. I still don't really understand why I can't see anything from my digital 8 camera, but irregardless it looks like I will have to buy a TBC.

So what TBC do I buy? Can you ONLY get them used? They don't make new ones? I found two on eBay. One is $112 and one is $259. What's the difference?

US $259.00
For.A FA-125 Time Base Corrector & Analog Frame Sync/TBC 10-Bit

US $112.50
FOR-A FA-220 TBC & Frame Synchronizer Used

Is For-A the best brand?

Here's a $30 Sony:
US $31.00
Sony BVR-50 TBC Remote Control Unit Excellent Condition

Should I also go out and invest in a professional vcr with composite output?

Also, why can't I post URLs? I want to link to the TBCs on eBay, so I can get input on which ones to buy.
Offline

Dave Johnstone

  • Posts: 223
  • Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:12 am
  • Location: Adelaide

Re: What am I missing?? Can't even set it up...

PostThu Jun 22, 2017 11:58 am

Are you reconfiguring the MediaExpress project settings to SD (PAL/NTSC)? I see from your screenshot the project setting is 1920x1080i/59.94, MediaExpress does not auto-detect capture format and shows a black screen when mismatched.

As for the URLs, you will need more posts before being allowed to include them - forum spam reduction, I believe.

Regards,

Dave.
Freelance Television Broadcast Engineer
and Software Programmer.
Offline
User avatar

Glenn Sakatch

  • Posts: 658
  • Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 5:36 pm

Re: What am I missing?? Can't even set it up...

PostSat Jun 24, 2017 4:42 pm

I was going to say...remember VHS is an SD capture.
Offline
User avatar

Colin Barrett

  • Posts: 603
  • Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:23 pm
  • Location: Milton Keynes, UK

Re: What am I missing?? Can't even set it up...

PostTue Jun 27, 2017 3:06 pm

Media Express will only capture video to a digital file if the file format (frame rate, aspect ratio, resolution) is consistent with the source. Any conversions need to be done in other appropriate hardware - but the Shuttle Thunderbolt won't facilitate this. So, your source is SD (standard definition) video; having set this in the Desktop Video Utility, as you describe, you then need to go to Media Express's Preferences pane and make sure that the video spec matches, followed by a selection of the actual video codec (eg: ProRes422) that you wish to be used to create the captured file.

You cannot expect the Shuttle to perform a standards conversion in any way. It has to be a like-for-like A-D capture.
Blackmagic Teranex 2D, Ultrastudio Express, Intensity Shuttle (Thunderbolt), Two H.264 Pro Recorders (Mac OSX) & lots of old VTRs used for digital archiving of legacy video formats for major libraries, broadcasters, universities and public archives.

Return to Post Production

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests