Blackmagic Design Ultrastudio Mini Recorder Review – How to Stream with your DSLR

Blackmagic Design Ultrastudio Mini Recorder Review

In this article, learn how to get a crisp DSLR quality picture to use as a Webcam for your PC. With that, you can have nice Zoom or Skype camera quality for your meetings, or even leverage it to do Facebook Live Streams or Youtube Live Streams.

The Hardware – The Ultrastudio Mini Recorder

The BlackMagic Design Ultrastudio Mini Recorder is a Thunderbolt 2 device that can work with Macbooks by connecting to that port. If you have the newer Macbook Pros (2016 or later models) then you will need to get the Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adaptor. Also, it does not come with a Thunderbolt cable, so you will have ot pick that up as well!

After you get all thet cables together, there are two methods to get the device connected to your camera. You will either need to connect the SDI cables of your DSLR to the SDI in, or you will need to connect the HDMI from your DSLR to the HDMI IN Mini Recorder spot. Most DSLR cameras will have a HDMI min output, so you will also need to gert the a cable for that as well.

Once you connect all the software, you will need to install the drivers so that you can get the Black Magic Video Assist Setup up. You can download the software here : Desktop Video

One important thing to note is that when you get into the software, you must adjust the input to state if it is HDMI or SDI depending on the cable you have.

The Software – OBS Recording

After you have the hardware connected, you will have to download either OBS or I recommend using Streamlabs OBS if you are on a windows machine.

When you are adding the scenes, be sure to choose the Blackmagic Device so that you can leverage this in your OBS Scenes. Once you select that, select the appropriate device and your DSLR should now appear on the OBS screen for you to record.

Depending on your computer, you should be able to get 1080p settings for your computer, though I have found most Macbooks to only support 720p settings.

You can check the videos we have recorded on on youtube here. Almost all of our reviews and videos are recorded on OBS using the Studio Recorder so that we will not have to sync up multiple cameras in post.

Blackmagic Mini Ultrastudio Mini Recorder Review Conclusion

Overall, this is a great device to use IF you have Thunderbolt parts on your computer. If you have USB 3.0 – you may want to invest in the Elgato HD 60S which will connect over USB 3.0 instead of Thunderbolt.  The one drawback with the Elgato method is that on Macbook’s they typically do not allow you to record on OBS. They will work fine on Windows machines or if you do bootcamp, but if you are recording on MacOS software, it will not work. Only the Mini Recorder will work on MacOS to use your DSLR to your laptop.

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