Blackmagic makes some awesome and affordable stuff that are must have items in any amateur or professional's gear collection. The HyperDeck Shuttle 2 is another solid offering that delivers amazing performance in a very affordable package.Snap in a supported SSD drive, plug in an HDMI source, and hit record. That's it. The drive will write an uncompressed HD quicktime file to the solid state drive that can be ingested into most popular editing packages on both the Mac and Windows. A quick configuration utility can set the device to record in ProRes 422 or an Avid format as well. In my testing I was able to work on the recorded ProRes file immediately in Final Cut Pro X with no conversion or transcoding necessary.
The device has both SDI and HDMI inputs and outputs. The outputs can either playback recorded content from the drive or mirror what's being recorded back out. That output can be run through another piece of hardware like the Blackmagic Design Intensity Extreme to allow for simultaneous live streaming.
I am using the HyperDeck with the equally amazing Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio Production Switcher to record product reviews and podcasts in my basement. It reduced the complexity of my recording process and helped me work with a better quality video file.
Compatible SSD drives like the SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB or the OCZ Vertex 3/4 Series are now around $200 making the cost of entry a lot less burdensome.
If you need a capable recording deck look no further. This is a great piece of hardware.
The Scarlet functionality works without a hitch. I would give it 5 stars if it recorded the clip name meta data, would start recording off of the first SDI record trigger (you have to manually record/stop once) and if it used a common file format like ex-FAT. You need a copy of MacDrive or equivalent on every PC you want to read from which is annoying.
Another annoyance is that it has no built in USB3 or eSATA plugs. So you have to remove the drive in order to read or format necessitating an extra piece of gear to offload footage to a laptop. You also can't format drives in the field, you need a PC (with aforementioned sata cable). I had one instance where I ran out of drive space and wanted to simply format a drive with less important footage but alas there was nothing I could do.
Overall it does what it needs to do very incredibly cheap. If you need more than the barebones I recommend going with something that can manage drives and footage better like the Atomos Ninja or Samurai. However at 3x the price and increased bulk you have to balance the value. Personally the hassle is worth the savings for me.
Bonus Tip: Get the Small-HD PTap -> DC power adapter and get extended batterly life off of the PTap on your camera for only a couple bucks.I am a professional photographer dabbling my feet in videography using DSLR's. Therefore I wanted something where I could record more than the limited 20 minute clips limits from my D4. Since I am just getting started in videography I didn't want to spend the almost $1,000 for its closest competitor (Atomos Ninja 2)
This is a very easy unit to use. Get the correct SSD for it, format it to the recommended format, insert it, plug in your camera live feed, and press record. Its build is very solid and I am certain that is built to last.
However, there are certain things that I found annoying after the first use:
1.Where do I put it!? I cannot mount it anywhere without buying the additional plate, too big to fit in a pocket. Therefore, unless I am recording from a steady position (ie, fixed tripod location) I was having issues. I was hoping there would be at least a 1/3 screw in mount on the bottom but there wasn't. SO I am being forced to buy the plate if I want to secure this hardware if my filming requires any movement.
2.No external batteries.You can plug it into an outlet but, once again, if you are going to do any on-location shooting that requires moving around that is not a viable option.
3.Limited recording formats. You can either record unformatted video (get ready to spend a lot of $$$ in SSD Drives) or DNxHD MXF-compressed video. Although DNxHD is all I need I know there are some who will find this limitation annoying.
Overall it's a great external recorder for the price. However, I can see myself being limited by some of the items that this recorder lacks so I returned it. I will save to purchase the ATOMOS Ninja 2. But if you just want a good solid external recorded this will get the job done.I've been looking for "this" device for a long time. Something that can record uncompressed HD video in 422 format. The Hyperdeck Shuttle works very well...does exactly what Blackmagic claims it can do, cheaply and simply. There are some issues to take into account before purchasing. Most notably is the cost of SSDs. With uncompressed video, the Shuttle consumes SSDs like crazy. A 128 GB SSD will only last me 20 to 25 minutes, meaning I don't consider buying an SSD smaller than 240 GB. At last, the cost of the SSDs are starting to drop. Another issue is that you need a good SSD, as not all will handle the bandwidth throughput. And it's hard to judge an SSD's real throughput based on their specs. I've had good luck with all SATA 3 drives. My other issue, also related to throughput, is the capacity of my computer to handle the bandwidth of this device. It's not just drive speed, it's video card, plus CPU speed, plus storage hard drive, plus...all the potential speed bottlenecks in a standard computer. I had to upgrade my computer to handle the Shuttle. Assembled a new computer just to work with the Hyperdeck Shuttle. Used an SSD for my "C" drive (OS plus main software), high-end i7 CPU and MB with overclocking ability, plus a good video card that meets Adobe CS-6 criteria. Bottom line...I love it! It was all worthwhile.One of the reasons I like using a high-end DSLR for video work is that the HDMI outputs on these cameras often emit totally uncompressed video at least, this is the case with both my Nikon D4 and D800. Connecting a device like the Blackmagic Shuttle 2 to this type of camera gives you a way to record video at a level of quality not easily matched with conventional recorders. Between the camera's large sensor (24x36mm), the wonderful pro-grade lenses available in this format, and the uncompressed video stream, you can truly get amazing results.
The Blackmagic is made well and is rugged enough to survive being jolted along with my camera. As the description says, the case is machined out of a solid block of aluminum, so it looks like the internal SSD would fail long before the Blackmagic ever would. Still, the add-on case is good additional insurance against wetness, and I recommend it as well. I tend to velcro mine to my video tripod and it's withstood a few falls with no ill effects.
For SSDs, a number of choices are available. They're pricey (like $2500), but there are a few 1TB drives out there if you need huge capacity (1TB gives you about 75 minutes of uncompressed 10-bit 1080/30p). I find the Samsung 512GB drives much more practical I carry a few, and at about $500 each (as of July 2012), they seem to be a good balance of capability and cost. Any drive should be capable of keeping up with the bitrate of uncompressed 1080/30p (which is about the max this drive supports). 1080/30p at 10 bit color requires about 250MB/sec uncompressed well within the range of most SSD drives. Some non-SSD drives work too though most of them have the dreaded "TCAL" (Thermal Calibration) problem that causes irregular recordings if you aren't careful...they are much less expensive if you can find one you're happy with (or if you tend to record short bursts of video instead of long streams).
Just can't say enough good things about this whole approach it's giving me the edge in video, without having to break the bank on commercial grade equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars.
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