HyperDeck Studio Mini Settings

The record files are HUGE using the HyperDeck Studio Mini...

We are sending a 1080p60 signal from the ATEM Studio Pro HD to the Ultra Studio Mini then an SDI connection to the Hyperdeck Studio Mini for recording. We have been recording directly to the iMac (via the Ultra Studio TB3 connection) with the same settings and getting file sizes around 3-5 GB for approx one hour worth of recording give or take. The HyperDeck Studio Mini is generating file sizes for the same recording of over 32 GB - filled my 32 GB card before the event was over. I have tried all of the codecs that work with this set up and cant figure out how to make the recording file small.

Any help getting the files smaller would be greatly appreciated. I would like to free up the CPU on my iMac for other activities - the reason why I bought the HyperDeck Studio Mini in the first place. Going from 3 GB to 32+GB makes post production that much more work/rendering/uploading time...

Thanks!
Bob

Are you recording H.264 on both?

a

The recording format that will give you the smallest file sizes for recording 1080p60 in the HyperDeck Mini is H.264 in the Low bitrate setting. This will record at 22 Mbps which should result in files sizes of about 10 GB for 1 hour of video.

The ProRes and DNxHD codecs all record at higher data rates. The lowest bandwidth ProRes recording format is ProRes Proxy which for 1080p60 records at 91 Mbps (about 41 GB/hr). The lowest bandwidth DNxHR recording format is DNxHR LB at about 86 Mbps (39 GB/hr).

Note that video codecs like ProRes were designed as edit friendly intermediate codecs, which is why they use faster (but less efficient) intraframe compression with higher data rates (to preserve as much quality from the original video as possible).

A data rate of 3 to 5 GB/hr (6 to 11 Mbps) for 1080p60 video would be considered extremely low for an acquisition or editing format. Most cameras record 1080p60 at considerably higher data rates than this, for example. 6 to 11 Mbps for 1080p60 is closer to what you might see in a delivery format (like H.264 for example). A lot of the streaming services (YouTube, Netflix, etc.) encode their videos in this range, or sometimes even smaller (depending on the codec used).

If you need a hardware device that can record at these kind of data rates, the Blackmagic H.264 Pro Recorder can do this (records H.264 1080p60 at selectable data rates up to 20 Mbps). This still requires a computer to connect to, but does not use the computer's CPU for encoding. The Blackmagic Duplicator 4K can record in H.265 at 10 Mbps which should actually be a little higher quality than H.264 at the same data rate, but is more resource intensive to decode so it may be less edit friendly.

Beyond that, you could look into some of the live streaming hardware encoders out there. Many of these have an SD card slot or USB port that allows for local recording at delivery bandwidths of 20 Mbps or lower.

Thank you for the information. I tried H.264 Low and the device could not recognize the video. I changed to H.264 Medium and the device was able to see the video (shown video on small screen in front) but could not record with an error code of "Unsuitable Codec". Could this just be a simple modification to make the recording work at this setting?

The H.264 recording modes on the HyperDeck Mini only work for recording progressive video signals (720p or 1080p). Recording in H.264 is not possible for interlaced video (1080i) or for 4K Ultra HD recording (2160p).

You'll need to use ProRes or DNxHD if you need to record interlaced video, unfortunately.

There has been additional discussion about this in these earlier threads:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=77367
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=76151