Blackmagic Design H.264 Format Video Recorder

by Blackmagic Design

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B001F8LIKM
• Item model number: VIDREC
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,437 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2003

Product Description

The Blackmagic Design Video Recorder allows to capture analog video from VHS, Video-8, video cameras and more, direct to the H.264 file format as used by iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and YouTube. Blackmagic Video Recorder plugs directly into your computer's USB and includes easy to use software. Get the highest quality video capture from any component video or regular video device. Blackmagic Video Recorder eliminates time consuming processing because it captures into the native file format of your mobile device. It can even copy to iTunes ready for syncing. Regular video input is included, plus you can select super high quality component video for incredible quality movies. Use regular video input to capture from VHS machines, televisions, Video-8 cameras and any other composite video device. Use super high quality component video for capture from set top boxes, DV cameras or DVD players.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Leaves Some Features to be Desired, November 5, 2009

By 

Matthew LaBerge (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blackmagic Design H.264 Format Video Recorder (Electronics)

I purchased this product because it was the only Video Recorder I could find for the Mac that had Component inputs on it. I was excited to be able to record some of my favorite TV show in stunning HD quality. The recorder is well constructed and looks sharp. It came with all of the adapters for recording Component and S-Video and the instruction booklet was very clear and easy to understand.

I was however very disappointed to discover that HD video to Black Magic Design is 480P. I have a 720P DLP and an HD receiver capable of outputting 1080P. I don't care what they say 480P is NOT HD video. I was also disapointed to discover that the video recorder will only capture in a 4:3 aspect ratio not 16:9 like most of the programming now showing on TV.

The software is also a little disappointing. I mentioned previously that I have a 720P DLP TV I also have a Mac Mini as a media center PC; its set with a vertical resolution of 720 pixels to match the TV's output. Unfortunately the application has a set interface size which is larger that 720pixels. As a result the lower portion of the software is cutoff and I cannot actually click the record button. This is just poor design. The interface for the software has no reason to be a specific size. I connected the Video Recorder to my MacBook Pro which has a larger screen resolution and found that recording was easy and the presets are nice.

Overall I'm not satisfied with the product and hope that through future firmware and software updates my issues will be resolved.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Product failed, poor support, December 21, 2009

By 

macfamily - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blackmagic Design H.264 Format Video Recorder (Electronics)

Although Hi - 8 worked great through an S-Video cable, composite does not work. Color video is black and white. Several decks and cables were used and the directions followed. A support document was sent and three weeks later, still no reply. A phone call to Black Magic resulted in 20 minutes of hold time and then we were told that the product is ineligible for phone support. No mention of this on the website.

Finally received an email from BlackMagic stating that, "we have seen a significant number of cases where issues may arise when trying to capture from a VCR". Since this is one of the primary reason that I purchased this product and since it is shown as one of its key functions. I cannot recommend this product.

They went on to suggest purchasing a Time Based Correction device. We booted our Mac into Windows Vista and tested a similar product (KWorld) that our neighbor had which was PC only and it worked fine without loss of color. They have no intention of taking this product back and we filed with small claims court. A very discouraging experience.

Update: Black Magic has now agreed to help in the return process.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worked Like a Charm - Saved Me a Lot of Time, March 1, 2010

By 

Paul Charlesworth (Houghton, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blackmagic Design H.264 Format Video Recorder (Electronics)

Before purchasing, I contacted the company to make sure it would work with an older Powerbook G4 (1.67GHz) I had set aside and thought would make a dedicated encoding machine. They were not sure whether that machine had USB-2 (It does) and It turns out that the video converter works great with the Powerbook. As the instructions state, these older machines are not capable of displaying the full frame rate, but that does not impact the encoding.

Over the space of about two weeks I have converted our entire (large) collections of VHS tapes over to H.264, which is a huge saving over the time it would have taken to bring them in as DV and encode them to H.264 using iMovie or something similar. I have a Sony Media Converter and had tried that for a few TV shows, and it is a painful route because H.264 is a resource hog. However, this unit converted them in real time and at a quality that is on-par with the original tapes. What I did was:

1. Connect the VCR to the video converter by RCA jacks (it does support component or s-video, if you player does).
2. Connect the video converter to the laptop USB-2 port
3. Install and update the software.
4. Select Full Res and then change the bit rate from 2.0 to 3.5MBPS**. It does not make a huge difference, but I have a lot of hard drive space.
5. Check how long the movie/show plays for, add 1-2 minutes, and type that into the auto stop box on the converter.
6. Start the tape and then press the big red record button.
7. Walk away and leave it to record.
** Options are available to tweak sound, color, brightness and cropping, but in most cases I just used the default settings.

It really is that simple and the quality is great. I have seen a number reviews complaining about how bad the HD quality is when this is not designed for use with HD. You can record from HD sources, but if the unit tops out at 3.5MBPS, it is not going to handle 1080p or 720p for that matter without some losses even though the AppleTV configuration option is available. You have to use the right tool for the job and this is superb for standard definition quality inputs such as VCR or most none high definition television signals. Having said that, if you accept it has limitations you will be happy with the price performance of this little units, even with HD signals, if you are planning to view it on an iPod/iPhone or something similar. Consider that more advanced encoders such as those by canopus can costs hundreds of dollars more, and generally require a two step process to get them in to H.264, and without a H.264 accelerator, that step can take huge amounts of time compared to this realtime unit.