UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording
Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 11:55 pmHi everyone - new to the forum here, and I apologize in advance if this is already covered somewhere else (I looked around for 30 minutes or so and couldn't find anything [probably looking up the wrong terms, words, etc] so I thought I'd post a new thread).
A company I do freelance video work with just picked up the UltraStudio Mini Recorder (from here I'll just call it the USMR) a few days ago, and they handed it off to me to learn the ins and outs before we use it next week. I have a Sony NEX-VG20 with HDMI out, running into the USMR, then TB into a 2012 Mac Mini. With the proper settings on both the VG20 and the system pref settings and the Media Express software pref settings, I can see the image on the Media Express window, I can record, I can play back the files, etc, it's all good.
Problem is - we're chewing up 6+ gigs per minute, and the stock hard drive in the Mac Mini can barely handle it. I realize this is uncompressed video obviously, so yes, it's going to burn up the hard drive exactly like that. So I've been looking for an alternative recording solution...
I tried QuickTime 7 Pro, which can see the USMR, but using the QT7Pro settings of Good, Better, or Best, I'm only looking at a 640x480 capture, not HD. I can switch to 'device native' but now we're back to the massive uncompressed capture, so I may as well use the Media Express software.
I tried QuickTime X, which seems as though it would capture HD somehow, but, alas... it does not see the USMR.
My goal is to record about an hour+ of content, live, from a Panasonic switcher which outputs SDI. We have some sort of AJA box that takes the SDI out of the Panasonic and merges it with audio and sends this audio+video SDI signal to the wall at the silicon valley company we're working with (they're in the news, you've heard of them for sure, I just can't say who), where they take it and stream it out to the planet... not sure what they're doing to stream it out but that portion of the setup is not under our control, but they did request 720p 59.94 1280x720. But what we DO need under our control is a way to locally record that SDI content, just as a backup. We were hoping to use the USMR.
So... is there any software out there that I can use, which does play nice with the USMR, and can encode H.264 or ProRes or AIC on the fly? I mean, I know this little Mac Mini can't work miracles, but, sheesh... really can't just do a simple H.264 encode? I know these are all compressed formats, but yeah, this stuff doesn't need to be edited, we need it captured as is... and that uncompressed signal is killing us at 6+ gigs per minute. At least we're at 1280x720 720p 59.94 and not 1920x1080 60p.
Can anyone help please?
A company I do freelance video work with just picked up the UltraStudio Mini Recorder (from here I'll just call it the USMR) a few days ago, and they handed it off to me to learn the ins and outs before we use it next week. I have a Sony NEX-VG20 with HDMI out, running into the USMR, then TB into a 2012 Mac Mini. With the proper settings on both the VG20 and the system pref settings and the Media Express software pref settings, I can see the image on the Media Express window, I can record, I can play back the files, etc, it's all good.
Problem is - we're chewing up 6+ gigs per minute, and the stock hard drive in the Mac Mini can barely handle it. I realize this is uncompressed video obviously, so yes, it's going to burn up the hard drive exactly like that. So I've been looking for an alternative recording solution...
I tried QuickTime 7 Pro, which can see the USMR, but using the QT7Pro settings of Good, Better, or Best, I'm only looking at a 640x480 capture, not HD. I can switch to 'device native' but now we're back to the massive uncompressed capture, so I may as well use the Media Express software.
I tried QuickTime X, which seems as though it would capture HD somehow, but, alas... it does not see the USMR.
My goal is to record about an hour+ of content, live, from a Panasonic switcher which outputs SDI. We have some sort of AJA box that takes the SDI out of the Panasonic and merges it with audio and sends this audio+video SDI signal to the wall at the silicon valley company we're working with (they're in the news, you've heard of them for sure, I just can't say who), where they take it and stream it out to the planet... not sure what they're doing to stream it out but that portion of the setup is not under our control, but they did request 720p 59.94 1280x720. But what we DO need under our control is a way to locally record that SDI content, just as a backup. We were hoping to use the USMR.
So... is there any software out there that I can use, which does play nice with the USMR, and can encode H.264 or ProRes or AIC on the fly? I mean, I know this little Mac Mini can't work miracles, but, sheesh... really can't just do a simple H.264 encode? I know these are all compressed formats, but yeah, this stuff doesn't need to be edited, we need it captured as is... and that uncompressed signal is killing us at 6+ gigs per minute. At least we're at 1280x720 720p 59.94 and not 1920x1080 60p.
Can anyone help please?