Anyone with experience with Blackmagic Design Ultra Studio Mini Recorder.

[dfisher052]

Trying to set up streaming using the above with a windows system. Need help.

[dfisher052]

I know that its designed to work with Mac computers, but is there a way to get it to feed it's output to a Windows PC. I can find Thunderbolt cables to connect to Macs, but Windows PC's do NOT have a Thunderbolt input and I can't find anywhere an adapter. Has anyone been able to use this devise in a PC?

[usually_quiet]

I know that its designed to work with Mac computers, but is there a way to get it to feed it's output to a Windows PC. I can find Thunderbolt cables to connect to Macs, but Windows PC's do NOT have a Thunderbolt input and I can't find anywhere an adapter. Has anyone been able to use this devise in a PC?

I have no personal experience with a Blackmagic Design Ultra Studio Mini Recorder, but I can tell you that the adapter cards used to add a Thunderbolt port to a Windows PC require a Thunderbolt header on the motherboard. You would need to build/buy a desktop PC with a motherboard that includes a Thunderbolt header onboard to use an adapter card for Thunderbolt 3.

Example of a motherboard with a Thunderbolt header: GIGABYTE H370 HD3 https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/H370-HD3-rev-10#kf
Add-on card: Gigabyte GC-ALPINE RIDGE Thunderbolt3 Certified PCI-E Expansion card Rev 2.0 https://www.ebay.com/i/123112245604?chn=ps

ASUS also has motherboards with a Thunderbolt header as well as add-on cards for their motherboards.

[Edit 2] I did not realize that the Blackmagic Design Ultra Studio Mini Recorder is a Thunderbolt 2 device. ...which means that if someone uses a PC with a Thunderbolt 3 connection, they would need an adapter like the Apple MMEL2AM/A, Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to 2 Adapter to connect their Mini Recorder to their computer.

[dfisher052]

Hi usually... thanks for the info. I was afraid what you say was the case. The more I investigated this device the more I realized that it was not going to work with what we had (it's for streaming our church service). As the video person I was asked to find a way to stream and that seemed like the easiest way seeing as our Panasonic AG160 camera has an HDMI out on it. Our main problem is we have to go into a PC laptop with only USB2 inputs and we really don't have much of a budget to start buying a lot of equiptment. Back to the drawing board.

[usually_quiet]

Hi usually... thanks for the info. I was afraid what you say was the case. The more I investigated this device the more I realized that it was not going to work with what we had (it's for streaming our church service). As the video person I was asked to find a way to stream and that seemed like the easiest way seeing as our Panasonic AG160 camera has an HDMI out on it. Our main problem is we have to go into a PC laptop with only USB2 inputs and we really don't have much of a budget to start buying a lot of equiptment. Back to the drawing board.

If all you have is a laptop with USB 2.0, then a capture device that supplies uncompressed HD output definitely isn't going to work. USB 2.0 doesn't have enough bandwidth to accept such output and maybe the laptop doesn't have enough computing power to encode the stream in real time either.

You would need a USB 2.0 capture device that hardware encodes, but I don't know what to recommend. I don't think a typical game capture device would be reliable enough.

[dfisher052]

I was sure also that we would need a minimum of USB3. I will be talking to them and let them decide just how much they are willing to invest in streaming. I am surprised though that there is not an adapter that will convert a thunderbolt cable to even USB3 especially by the Blackmagic Design people. I'm sure they would find more customers for their device if wasn't just limited to Mac's.

[usually_quiet]

I was sure also that we would need a minimum of USB3. I will be talking to them and let them decide just how much they are willing to invest in streaming. I am surprised though that there is not an adapter that will convert a thunderbolt cable to even USB3 especially by the Blackmagic Design people. I'm sure they would find more customers for their device if wasn't just limited to Mac's.

USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 2 may be too different. They use different protocols and the Thunderbolt 2 connection provides more bandwidth. In addition, a Thunderbolt 2 connection can supply more power than USB 3.0, and the Mini Recorder is powered via its Thunderbolt connection. I don't know if USB 3.0 would be sufficient to power the device.

[dfisher052]

Thanks for that. I've stopped considering this route for streaming. I'm starting to look for some other way. The main thing I really want to do is take a feed from our camera as it has an HDMI output. I really didn't want to go into a mixer but if I have too that's the way I'll have to go. Looking into Vmix or OBS Studio. I also found out that I can use an Express Card to USB3 adapter to get the USB3 out that I probably will need from our laptop.

[usually_quiet]

It might be too expensive for your budget, but a couple of people whose opinions I trust (VideoHelp's Cornucopia and YouTube tech reviewer Lon Seidman)
rate the Magewell USB Capture HDMI Gen 2 as one of the best and most reliable USB 3.0 capture devices for streaming that they have ever used. It uses PC software to compress video for streaming, so you would have to check the laptop to make sure it has the computing power required to handle the load.

[dfisher052]

Usually, thanks for the tip. Looked into the Magewell and it looks that might be the solution to what I'm looking for. I'm going to check it out.