UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording

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EditEd4TV

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UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording

PostThu Aug 22, 2013 11:55 pm

Hi 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?
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Liam Kennedy

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Re: UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording

PostFri Aug 23, 2013 1:41 am

Do you not have the option of capturing in Motion JPEG in Media Exress (rather than Uncompressed)? The files will be significantly smaller.

In the PC world there are lots of other way to capture to different codecs... I'm sure there are likely many different tools for the Mac world too. Hopefully others here will post some simple solutions for you.
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EditEd4TV

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PostFri Aug 23, 2013 4:32 pm

Thanks Liam for the reply. In the Media Express prefs, for Capture File Format i only see QuickTime Uncompressed 8-bit YUV, QuickTime Uncompressed 10-bit YUV, and DPX 10-bit RGB. A friend suggested installing Final Cut Pro 7 but i only own FCP Studio 2, which is Final Cut Pro 6.x.x, so that's not going to work for me. Well there's gotta be more options out there for Mac users so hopefully someone else chimes in soon. Thanks again Liam.
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EditEd4TV

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Re: UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording

PostSun Aug 25, 2013 7:41 pm

So... anyone out there with a Mac setup find a solution to this? I'd love to get another reply please - thanks!
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Dominic Irving

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Re: UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording

PostSun Aug 25, 2013 10:11 pm

I'm afraid media express is pretty thin on what you can capture with. It's going to be FCP or Premier Pro. Look on the bright side on a PC it's just Premier Pro!!!
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Liam Kennedy

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Re: UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording

PostMon Aug 26, 2013 3:52 am

On the PC side there are lots of capture choices... not just premier pro. I use Sony Vegas. I have also used ffmpeg to capture and transcode to h.264.

I'm sure there are other options on the Mac. Maybe posting this question over on the Mac forum here would get the attention of "those folks"?
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Adam Simmons

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Re: UltraStudio Mini Recorder options for recording

PostMon Aug 26, 2013 6:32 am

DominicI wrote:I'm afraid media express is pretty thin on what you can capture with. It's going to be FCP or Premier Pro. Look on the bright side on a PC it's just Premier Pro!!!
You couldn't be more wrong, As Liam says It works on Vegas as well as ffmpeg, it also works with EDIUS and Avid as well as a range of other programs. There appear to be a lot more programs on the PC that it just works with than on the Mac, and some of those programs also allow you to capture into formats other than the standard BM ones.
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