Most Cost Effective (cheapest) SDI monitor recording solution?

[Steve Cutler]

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm looking at all the Atomos stuff but they make you buy all the bits and pieces separately, seems like kind of a cash grab.

Fully willing to DIY something if necessary

thanks!

Steve

[Nojus Drasutis]

Blackmagic? I used video asist 7" and really liked it. Records prores to sd cards:) also they make separate recorders.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Nojus Drasutis

[Phil Rhodes]

Depends what you need. ProRes, raw from various cameras, SDI, HDMI, 1080, 4K?

Get something used, maybe.

[Steve Cutler]

Nice - yes I've had my eye on the Black Magic - although I didn't know they made standalone recorders.

I just need something on camera for playback, doesn't need to be a high fidelity file.

[Nojus Drasutis]

I am sorry, i just researched a bit and BM offers these recorders:

Video Asist with 5" screen. Quite comfortable to navigate the playback via touchscreen. downside - has micro bnc conectors.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/blackmagicvideoassist/techspecs/W-VASS-05

(7" version has full bnc conectors)

I thought the Ultra Studio Recorder 3G is a recorder, but that's just a capture device that lets you record using your computer

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio/techspecs/W-DLUS-12

 

I also found this one, cannot recommend because it looks sketchy but maybe worth to try.

https://www.zowietek.com/product/hd-sdi-micro-dvr/

Edited August 24, 2022 by Nojus Drasutis

[Patrick Baldwin]

I have the first gen BM recorders in 5 & 7 inch versions which I think you can still buy. I also have two Ninja V's. The Atomos is a far better product than the BM's. You cannot calibrate the BM but you can with the Atomos. The BM are tied to SD cards which is very expensive in the case of the 4K version. They eat batteries and are only 400 nits so useless outside. The battery circuit failed on my 5 inch so I use a battery adaptor into the mains socket. BM wanted more than the cost of a new one to repair it! The 5 inch has false colour but no waveform. The Ninja V is a 1000 nits so much more usable outside apart from full sunlight. It records to SSD's which is a much better solution than BM. 

The second gen BM's look like a much better product and are 2000 or possibly even 2500 nits and aren't tied to SD cards. 

If it really has to be cheap then find a second hand 5inch BM but with all the caveats I mentioned in mind. 

[Matthias Fleischer]

Steve, I needed something to quickly review previous shots, something lightweight close to the camera - and with a not too small monitor. So I've bought a screenport by in2core, the slovenian programmers of QTake (www.screenport.io); it allows you to stream an SDI signal via cable or (reliable) wifi to up to 8 newer iOS devices like iPhones, iPads - and let them record the H.264 directly onto the device . So you get a quite a good and lightweight monitoring with various functions (waveform/histogram, framelines, LUTs, metadata etc.) and even audio input, and it can be put to auto-rec for various cameras. It's around 1100€. I've made adapters to power it from d-Tap or camera outlet, and with it's 160g it's light enough to keep it mounted permanently on the assistant's side: many teradeks swallow the metadata, this little streamer transmits them if fed via SDI directly from the camera, so you keep your reference well documented.