Hi first time posting here,
I have a question on what to buy to integrate an old video mixer (I have a Roland v8 and a Panasonic mx50) in my workflow.
I want to send two or multiple video to composite inputs of the mixer and receive back form composite output, all of that in realtime.
I’m looking at blackmagic design products but I’m lost in all the different lines that they have and had.
Con someone recommend me one?
I work on a windows laptop
Very few products use composite, a lot of what I saw are SDI and from what I can understand they are totally different connection
Hello,
I doesn’t see the interest of using an external mixer, partucularly if you need/want real time.
With the cost of BM interfaces, the place or connections to use it (be it PCI or thunderbolt) and principaly the delay caused by 1 output card, 2 input in mixer, 3 mixing, 4 output of miwer, 5 input card…
You have in TouchDesigner perfect TOPs to do that using a modern graphic card with very little or no delay and you can use homemade UI or chep midi controler to have all the buttons and sliders you find on old video mixer.
Definetly not a good idea IMHO.
Jacques
I bought a used BM Intensity Shuttle a while back for doing stuff like this with a beta deck. They come up on eBay every now and then. Here’s one:
edit: it says “thunderbolt” but pics show USB-3 so I’d ask about that before ordering
The issue I found is that a lot of other capture interfaces for legacy interconnects use h.264 encoding. The intensity predates that so you get more of the aesthetic that you’re looking for.
edit 2: It’s been a while, but I think I might have struggled to get it working bi-directionally, so that might be an issue with your application since you want simultaneous I/O. maybe you can connect two at a time?
I think the boss move would be to set up a camera and CRT with a blackout.
Yeah I was looking at the manual of the intensity shuttle, I saw that there are usb3 and thunderbolt versions, one is more recommended than the other?
How TD see the interface? As different inputs and outputs? Because I read this “ All of the video and audio outputs of intensity are active all of the time. This means that when you play video through Intensity, it will be play out through all video and audio outputs simultaneously.” but it is possible to send through output and receive through input?
I don’t have the box with me but as I recall, once it’s installed on the system it shows up under the videodevice in and out TOPs. I think I remember only being able to access it for capture or playback exclusively. This wasn’t a problem for me since I was mostly using it to output to the beta deck, and then reviewing the results.
For Windows you’d want the usb3 one. Obviously a big problem with it is that the device is old and no longer supported. So whatever latest driver you can get working on your laptop would be the best. I’d be curious if you can connect 2 of them and use them at the same time in TD (for simultaneous I/O).
Obviously you’ve signed up for a bit of a hack job by deciding to use legacy tech. If your budget is more expansive, the correct way to do something like this would probably be to get a high-performance SDI I/O card (Aja Konas are wonderful) and use extra scan converters to go from component/composite to SDI. This would be a lot more buy-in but you would have a more reliable system that isn’t hacked together and can be used for other stuff.
Hello,
I can attest that you cannot duplex in and out on the Intensity Shuttle and also that drivers are not updated by BM.
You are more lucky on Windows because of the stablity of the system allowing use of old drivers and software, not the same story in macOs…
Concerning stability, I strongly recommand using a tower with PCIe card (unfortunately limited to Windows or Linux now) and you can find not so expansive card by Aja or BM. I am not fan of SDI because it limit you to video format and many prosumer material (camera etc.) are HDMI only.
Thunderbolt connection is possible (but I have not tested it) but is more expansive and the bandwith is not the same.
Another solution would use the graphic card outputs to feed the mixer and using only an input card in return.
I’ll probably try with two USB3 shuttles to avoid having so many steps that require external power, not using a desktop PC the PCIe cards should still be connected to an external dock and then connected to USB C. Maybe in the future.
For now I have saved some used card ads
