Things of Note
– set camera to 1/60 (NTSC) / 1/50 (PAL) shutter speed
– turn off lights in room and/or utilize/make a monitor hood
– adjust back light on monitor if possible otherwise adjust brightness/iso until a desirable image is found.
– on my camera in a dark room an iso of 100/200 is necessary for rescanning
Cameras used for rescan
Mevo plus
I’m using a mevo plus (only because the place I work for bought one and it isn’t getting used currently)
I would not really recommend this camera unless you understand how it works as it is weird…
that being said a newer version has been released so this version is fairly cheap on ebay now.
In order to get a useable input into the hyperdeck shuttle from the LZX visual cortex component output use the Extron 300a to get the video into the YUV colorspace.
with the intensity shuttle you can get a ton of different formats and resolutions into your computer once you have it in the computer you’ve got to figure out where to go from there
BMD driver and app download
then search for the intensity shuttle and look for the correct “desktop video xx.x” download for your machine. If you are using an older mac I had to go back to like 10.7. The problem may have been fixed since then but I haven’t tried another download since it works.
Make sure to set up your shuttle to be looking for the right resolution at the correct input or else you may feel like the thing doesn’t work. On a mac you go to system preferences > Black magic desktop video > intensity shuttle
set things for whatever you are trying to capture
for instance my LZX component capture settings are
Maybe there should be some points about Timebase Correctors in the VHS section? Additionally, it might be worth mentioning MiniDV for recording, and the fact that VHS will typically hold an image for 20-25 years, at least. . . So, ultimately VHS is kinda a nice archival format, as well?
I’ll still need to put up some capture demos of VHS / SVHS / HDMI > USB
I think now that things are pretty well setup I’ll do a capture with each unit of the same material + maybe some test images so you can compare demos a little more meaningfully (as much as youtube allows for anyway…)
One thing that isn’t specifically mentioned here which I cover in my video is pointing the camera at a projection, which is the same pretty much as rescanning, except because the projection is so big, it offers unique opportunities for producing camera feedback in ways that are otherwise not possible.
Any recs for a decent, not outrageously expensive HD camera/camcorder for the end of my chain? I may have a deal on a nice BVM so would like to capture solid high quality images/video to “publish”.
So it looks like Black Magic has discontinued the Intensity Shuttle? It’s no longer on the Black Magic website, and I’m guessing they stopped supporting and updating since when I use it on my new laptop it disconnects ever few minutes.
I can’t find a machine to replace it with that captures such a large gamut of SD signal inputs. Absolute shame.
@BleuNuitVideo What Intensity Shuttle (USB 3 or Thunderbolt) and what OS and version are you using?
Check out the Pro Capture HDMI from Magewell. There is a DB9 connector with a breakout cable for CVBS, S-Video, and YPbPr. I haven’t used it myself, but have heard good things about their other cards.
Personally, I’ve had the best results with upscaling my CVBS or S-Video to VGA (usually 1080i) and then from VGA to HDMI (1080p). Many more good options out there for capturing HDMI than analog stuff these days, and this came out a lot cheaper than Analog → SDI then upscaling SDI with a Decimator or a BMD UpDownCross. Elgato just put out the new Cam Link Pro card with 4 HDMI inputs for $359, could be interesting and you’d still have 3 more HDMI inputs to play around with.
While I don’t have much experience with rescanning or comparing professional capture hardware, I have been more than happy using a RetroTink 2X Mini at the end of my chain to upscale the Edirol V4’s S-Video output to an HD signal. It’s a lagless line doubler designed for retro game consoles, so it has no issue processing really fast video. I haven’t tested how it holds up with direct input from circuit-bent gear (my setup usually has those devices going through one or two mixer TBCs before the final output), but I have never seen it drop a frame in the few months I’ve been throwing glitches at it.
The 2X Mini is the cheapest of RetroTink’s products ($80 for S-Video/CVBS → HDMI), and there are other higher end ones if you desire more input options like component/RGB and higher output resolution (the 5X-Pro appears to provide a massive upscale and is top-tier in its class among gamer-types). As for capture, I just connect the HDMI output of the 2X Mini to a generic USB-C capture card from Amazon (~$20) into my Macbook Pro, then record + export via Camtasia, Quicktime, or OBS. The results aren’t cinema-level HD or anything, but more than acceptable for being thrown on the club projector during my DJ sets. Really affordable way for me to get started sharing my glitches with the world, figured the 2X Mini and RetroTink upscalers deserve a shoutout.
Sample of capture (plus some YT compression ) here:
Just an FYI that the new Apple M1 chips don’t support Black Magic Intensity Shuttle / Shuttle Thunderbolt, which I learned the hard way during an install this weekend lol. Blackmagic released a new Desktop Video driver for M1 chips but no Intensity Shuttle support, which I assume to mean there never will be.
) here: