ATEM Mini Pro vs Existing ATEMs.

Hello,

I feel the feature set on the new ATEM Mini pro is long overdue. When I saw the announcement I thought, "Blackmagic finally is getting it with regards to that segment of the market...."

But the cheap little ATEM units have much desired features like DVE for PIP, where the higher price point units are lacking (the entry 4k.) Also, the ability to handle various video refresh rates and resolutions which is only found on I think one of the entry models.

My guess is the ATEM Mini is in response to popularity of things like the free OBS software and low cost VMix software.

I'm planning to sell off my entire stack of hardware as it's pretty old now and there is a heightened desire for the equipment right now. I keep looking over the more modern ATEMs but none of them seem very compelling due to price point/features when stacked up against software solutions and some I/O cards?

Will we see more features added to the rackmount hardware at the entry level? The little plastic pro is showing that it would be possible to bring a lot of the long overdue features to the rackmount units but there is hold back? Meanwhile OBS is... pretty awesome.

The main problem you will have with any of the software solutions is latency, which may be variable if you are feeding multiple inputs into the computer.

If you wind up feeding multiple inputs into a computer and trying to switch among them, you could wind up fighting with cameras and/or audio being out of sync with each other.

If you are using it for anything "live" where there is an audience that will see the output of the switcher directly, it will also be out of sync with the action itself, so the image of what is happening that is being projected on a screen will be noticeably behind the action taking place in front of them.

Any of these things may or may not be a problem for you depending on what you are trying to accomplish - some people really need the hardware, others can get away with using the software.

Expect newer atems to have all the new functions.. But the TVS HD is not yet to be replaced.. The Atem Production studio 4k will probably get replaced first as the unit is already 5+ years old..

As someone still using the ATEM 1-M/E Gen-1 for our church, I am noticing there are a lot of things missing in the current stuff that I have in the original 1-M/E. We have just started using a ATEM Mini to take the output from the 1-M/E and encode it for a pc to send to Facebook and YouTube. And, I have already ordered the Mini-Pro to make that process even better.

Because I only need 3 inputs, the Mini-Pro comes close to eliminating my need to move the the newer 1-M/E 4K, but it does not give me everything. But, the Mini-Pro will work as a temporary option when my Gen-1 1-M/E bites the dust giving me time to order/install a new 1-M/E 4K. I may loose some things for a short time, but not much.

But, things I took for granted in the 1-M/E Gen-1 that I don't see in the new stuff:
1) Capture via usb-3 using the control panel
2) Capture via usb-3 using the included Media Express
3) Low-res options for both input and output. (Although we recently eliminated our low-res needs.)

But, to summarize, I had been thinking that upgrading to a new 1-M/E 4K when my old unit dies would be a simple pull/push install, but it will not be. And, it's not just the connections, it other things that will take me a bit of digging into the manuals to figure out.

Tony T.