Blackmagicdesign H.264 Pro Recorder Operation Manual

Operation Manual

H.264 Pro Recorder

Mac OS

Windows

August 2019

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Welcome to Blackmagic H.264 Pro Recorder!

Thank you for purchasing H.264 Pro Recorder. Now you can easily convert
your videos to H.264 in real time for the web, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, YouTube
and more!

Previously, H.264 encoding was either a very slow software process or required
fast, expensive computer hardware. H.264 Pro Recorder has a built-in high
quality H.264 hardware-encoding engine and image processor so you get
amazing quality H.264 video in real time.

H.264 Pro Recorder produces stunning quality digital video from the highest
quality SDI, HDMI and component analog video as well as regular composite
analog video. It can even work with S-Video via a third party S-Video breakout
cable (not included) and supports 2 channels of professional balanced audio
input. With all these connections supported, you can encode from practically
any device out there. It even has an RS-422 remote control port so you can
batch capture H.264 video from your decks just as you would with normal video!

We think it should take you approximately 5 minutes to complete the
installation. Before you install H.264 Pro Recorder, please check our website at
www.blackmagicdesign.com/support and click the support page to download
the latest updates to this manual and H.264 Pro Recorder software.

Lastly, please register your H.264 Pro Recorder when downloading software
updates. We would love to keep you updated on new software updates and
new features for your H.264 Pro Recorder. We are constantly working on new
features and improvements, so we would love to hear your suggestions for
improvements to the software!

Grant Petty

CEO Blackmagic Design

Contents

H.264 Pro Recorder

04

08

18

22
29

Getting Started

Introducing Desktop Video 05

Your Computer's System Requirements 05

How to Install Your Blackmagic Video Hardware 05

Install the Blackmagic Design Software 05

Blackmagic Media Express

What is Media Express? 07

Capturing Video and Audio Files 09

Playing Back Video and Audio Files 15

Browsing Media 15

Help

Which Connections Should I Use for Best Quality Video? 17

Consumer Level Analog Audio Signals 19

RS-422 Remote Device Control 19

Connection Reference Guide

Warranty Information

4

Getting Started

Blackmagic H.264 Pro Recorder

Y or NTSC/PAL

Analog video input

Analog audio input

on 1/4” TRS jacks

R-Y or S-VIDEO C

Audio Left

Audio Right

RS-422 Deck Control

3G/HD/SD-SDI Input

USB 2.0 Connection

Power

5

Getting Started

Your Computer’s System Requirements

H.264 Pro Recorder does the hard work of encoding uncompressed video into the H.264 format so you only
need a modest computer to capture the encoded MP4 files.

You will need to provide a USB 2.0 type A to mini B male cable to connect H.264 Pro Recorder to your
computer.

All platforms require the installation of Blackmagic Desktop Video software to configure and control your
H.264 Pro Recorder. Your computer will need 4GB of RAM and a dedicated USB 2.0 port to capture video.

Mac OS

Desktop Video software runs on the latest Yosemite and El Capitan versions of Mac OS.

An Intel-based Mac computer is required.

Windows

Desktop Video software runs exclusively on 64-bit versions of Windows7, 8 and 10 with the latest service
pack installed.

The latest version of Apple QuickTime for Windows is required to open the MP4 movie files.

How to Install Your Blackmagic Video Hardware

Step 1. Connect the included external power supply to the H.264 Pro Recorder and switch on the power.

Step 2. Connect a USB 2.0 type A to mini B male cable between the H.264 Pro Recorder and a dedicated

USB 2.0 port on your computer.

Step 3. If Desktop Video software has previously been installed and offers to update the internal software,

click Update and follow any onscreen instructions.

Install the Blackmagic Design Software

After installing your hardware, the next step is to install the Blackmagic Design Desktop Video software.
Please jump to the installation instructions for Mac OS or Windows in this section.

6

Getting Started

Desktop Video Installer for Mac

Installing Blackmagic Desktop Video

Mac OS Installation

Make sure you have administrator privileges before installing any software.

Step 1. Ensure you have the very latest driver. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com/support

Step 2. Launch the Desktop Video Installer from the media included with your hardware or from a

downloaded disk image.

Step 3. Click the ‘continue’, ‘agree’ and ‘install’ buttons to install the software.

Step 4. Restart your computer to enable the new software drivers.

Automatic Updates

When your Mac restarts the software will check the internal software version of your hardware. If the internal
software version does not match the driver version, you will be prompted to update the internal software.
Click OK to start the update and restart your Mac to complete the process.

Windows Installation

Step 1. Ensure you have the very latest driver. Visit www.blackmagicdesign.com/support

Desktop Video Installer for Windows

Step 2. Open the “Desktop Video” folder and launch the “Desktop Video” installer.

Step 3. The drivers will now be installed on your system. An alert will appear: “Do you want to allow the

following program to install software on this computer?” Click ‘yes’ to continue.

Step 4. You will see a dialog bubble saying “found new hardware” and the hardware wizard will appear.

Select “install automatically” and the system will find the required Desktop Video drivers. Another
dialog bubble will appear saying “your new hardware is ready for use.”

Step 5. Restart your computer to enable the new software drivers.

Automatic Updates

When your computer restarts the software will check the internal software version of your hardware. If the
internal software version does not match the driver version, you will be prompted to update the internal
software. Click OK to start the update and restart your computer to complete the process.

7

Blackmagic Media Express

What is Media Express?

Blackmagic Media Express is a sophisticated software application which enables H.264 Pro Recorder users
to capture video and audio to industry standard MP4 files with frame accurate RS-422 device control. It
automatically detects whether the video source is HD1080, HD720, NTSC or PAL and also automatically
detects the frame rate. Capture from progressive and interlaced video sources is supported and the
captured file is stored in a progressive format for maximum compatibility with media player software on
Mac OS, Windows and portable video players.

Media Express 3 also supports CMX EDL import and frame accurate deck control via RS-422! Media Express
is fast, accurate and easy to use. You can even grab still frames directly from your deck and save them as still
images. That's a complete solution for capture and playback!

Blackmagic Media Express 3 is a great tool when you don’t need the complexity of NLE software but simply
want to capture old or new programming content into the same file format used on the web, iPad

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iPhone

, Apple TV™, YouTube™ and more.

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, iPod™,

The User Interface

Media Express can easily be scaled for different sizes of monitors or even small notebook screens. When
you open Media Express, you'll notice the log and capture, playback and edit to tape views are color-coded
so you will know at a glance which mode is being used. The edit to tape view is not used by H.264 Pro
Recorder but may be used with other Blackmagic Design capture and playback products.

Media List

The left "media list" always displays the scratch, any bins you have created and also any media you have
imported, captured or logged for capture. Media can be displayed in Timecode List view or Thumbnail
view and you can even filter media by favorites. The Search field makes it easy to find media by name or
by attributes captured in the media metadata. The project name and format are shown in the bottom-left
corner of the Media Express window.

The top-right pane always displays the video preview. Timecode is displayed at the top of the video preview
pane and NO REMOTE will be indicated if no RS-422 device control is connected.

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Blackmagic Media Express

Log and Capture

Click on the red Log and Capture tab. The video preview pane shows the source video from your camera or
deck. Here you can enter metadata for the clips you will capture including name, description, reel number,
favorite and more. You can capture with or without device control, log clips with in and out points, and
batch capture. Double-clicking a captured clip in the media list will automatically switch Media Express to
Playback view.

Playback

In the green Playback view, the video preview pane shows the video of the clip being played. Click the
favorites button to add to your favorites in the media list.

Edit to Tape

The edit to tape view is not used by H.264 Pro Recorder but may be used with other Blackmagic Design
capture and playback products.

9

Blackmagic Media Express

Select H.264 Pro Recorder from the Device menu.

Capturing Video and Audio Files

Selecting H.264 Pro Recorder

If you have more than one Blackmagic Design capture product installed or connected to your computer, go
to the Device menu in Media Express and select H.264 Pro Recorder. In the example pictured on this page,
a DeckLink card and a H.264 Pro Recorder are both installed in the same computer. Selecting H.264 Pro
Recorder will allow you to choose suitable H.264 settings for your project.

Setting Up a Project

Before capturing any clips in Media Express, you will need to select the settings for your project. Go to Media
Express>Preferences on Mac OS or Edit>Preferences on Windows. Any settings which are grayed out are
only used with other Blackmagic Design capture products and are not required by H.264 Pro Recorder.

The Project Video Format defines the frame size of the current H.264 project. Choose “Native (Progressive)”
for full resolution encoding of your video or select from a number of popular device presets including iPad
and YouTube. H.264 Pro Recorder automatically detects the frame rate of your video.

The Capture File Format always sets the video codec to H.264, and the file format to MP4, when using H.264
Pro Recorder. Other choices appear in this menu when using other Blackmagic Design capture products.

The Quality button provides access to the H.264 encoding settings and is only available when H.264 Pro
Recorder has detected a valid video input signal. We recommend leaving the maximum bit rate unchanged
from the default setting.

Video formats are provided for popular devices as well as full
resolution, Native (Progressive) video.

Set the storage location for your captured video and audio and choose whether to stop capture or playback
if dropped frames are detected.

Standard definition projects are set to the 4:3 aspect ratio unless you enable the Anamorphic SD 16:9
checkbox.

Usually video applications stop playing video if you send them to the background. If you want Media Express
to keep playing video through your Blackmagic video hardware, even if you open another application in the
foreground, enable the checkbox to "Continue playback when in the background".

The final options relate to tape decks with RS-422 deck control.

Your tape deck requires a pre-roll of a few seconds before performing an edit so the tape speed is stable by
the time it is used for an edit.

Timecode offsets can also be set to calibrate the timecode to the video.