"Fix" Suggestions for Video Recorder.

To simplify your use of the Video Recorder, I would suggest using a short USB cable extension which will help prevent the crowding of the Video Recorder itself when it is plugged in alongside other USB port Connections. This will also help prevent the accidental bumping of the video recorder which could then damage the USB connection to inside your computer board.

I had the misfortune of TWICE, on two entirely different times and locations, having the video recorder just ever so slightly disengage when I was well into the recording session and the last thing on my mind was the Video Recorder needing to be reseated. Yes, the red light went dark, but it does that when a recording has ended.

The other more obvious hint now is the file name location "grays out" if the video recorder becomes unseated from the USB Hub. At the time it happened to me on two different occasions, the graying out of the file name seemed related to the renaming of the file as I recorded new segments because both times it was completely fine for the first recording I had made.

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If just one thing could be added to the video recorder, it would an outline of the USB port connection within the big red record button. When the connection is active, the USB outline would light up, when disconnected or the outline would go dark.

Don't ignore the useful color, contrast, brightness and audio controls (as long as your monitor is properly set-up), they can be a lifesaver if one is coming off of a dvd or other source that requires an overall adjustment to the image or sound levels.


For purposes of efficiency I have now deleted all the other stuff.

Video is typically very large - and you need to use one of the many (some FREE) services to email large files. To blame Blackmagic for this issue is simply silly.

Try http://www.YouSendIt.com (free up to 100MB) or if it’s bigger than that you might try http://www.Sendthisfile.com – that allows you to send up to 2GB free

Now... as for your other issue (the apparent bug)... now that is some good detective work.. and Blackmagic should fix that. (although spaces and minus signs are not invalid characters for a file name... so I wonder why that's an issue)

more unnecessary stuff, sorry.

I cant comment on the specifics of this "encoding/trimming function" and how that's working or not. what i am trying to help with is the simple facts of file sizes for video files and how its inappropriate to expect to be able to email pretty mich ANY of them.

Just how small do you expect the video files to get? Even "dramatically smaller" files would likely still be far too big to email. You seemed to be suggesting that Blackmagic caused you problems in emailing the files and they should refund your purchase because of that. That is what is simply ridiculous.

Unless your video files are just a few seconds long and low resolution and very high compression your expectation of file size and having the ability to email them will be completely inappropriate. Just learn how to send large files without trying to do it using your email client alone. If my suggestions for how to do that are not helpful to you..then fine.. You are welcome to Ignore it. I was however simply trying to help you.

Good luck.

Lets talk ratios.

If encode at the highest speed, resolution and size the video recorder allows, and then I do a second pass at the second lowest speed and the smallest size, and second lowest resolution, how much percentage less should there be between those two encoding methods?

An educated guess would suggest that making the video size from largest to smallest, and the encoding speed from one of the fastest to the second slowest, should produce around an 80% - 90% reduction in file size. I just don't think that is what I achieved in file reduction.

However, what I can do is two more transfers specifically at these two speeds and see what the file size difference is.

You have to talk REAL NUMBERS... not just percentages before you can seriously consider the impact of encoding settings on file size.

File size is ONLY ever a function of bitrate (bits per second). All other settings (pretty much) are irrelevant as far as the actual file size of the encoded video. e.g... a Video that is encoded at constant bit rate of 500Kbps will always be a particular size on disk for a given length of video. If a variable bit-rate is used - then there can be differences depending on that max/average.

For instance a "Quality Setting" won't necessarily be linked to an actual bit-rate. And changing that may have limited impact on the file size - unless there is another setting for Bit rate that is also adjusted.

Just curios... are you still trying to argue that Black Magic caused you problems with "emailing" the video.. or have we put that issue to rest?

Unless you want to send people videos that are of the lowest possible quality (like you would get from a low quality phone camera)... the file sizes will still be inappropriate for most email systems.

The BMD recorder is not a tool for emailing files. In fact it is practically the opposite. You would generally be using it to record in an edit friendly codec @ a much higher bitrate than the internal codec of your camera. It also may add 4:2:2 chroma sampling for better chroma key work/colour correction work depending on the camera. I'm not suggesting these are the only uses for the recorder by any means but the designers never envisioned it as a tool to generate emailable video files. Itis designed to generate broadcast quality files.
If you need to email video files (problematic at the best of times) you need to use a software encoder like Episode, Compressor, Sorenson, Adobe Media Encoder etc. Or you need an H264hardware encoder.
Even with these tools you are better off using YouSendit, Dropbox etc to send large files as a lot of corporate firewalls will limit you to 5-10 MB. As Liam said it is all about bitrate and the length of your video that determines final filesize..

I recently had some a master on videotape that I needed to upload online and the video recorder worked flawlessly. The extension cable makes all the difference from a physical input perspective.

From time to time I have a time limitation requirement. For instance, I may need to upload a video file that is exactly 30 seconds, or 60 seconds. However, if the actual tape master is 30 or 60 seconds, when I add in a second or two in front of the video and a second or two at the end of the video I end up with a 32 to 34 second or 62 to 64 second video file.

Is it possible to have a trim digital file function that simply removes a defined portion from the front or back of the encoded video file? Every now and then I may enter some type of contest with strict running time requirements and am concerned I could be disqualified even though the actual video portion is the correct length.