Blackmagic Media Express
9
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.
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.
Video formats are provided for popular devices as well as full
resolution, Native (Progressive) video.
Select H.264 Pro Recorder from the Device menu.
