A venue I work has the need to record video for musical artists often. They have a Broadcast Pix switcher running 5 HD cameras for IMAG (Image Magnification). We can output HD-SDI out of the switcher into a recorder but I'm having a hard time finding a recorder that records into a smaller size format like MP4. Most all good quality recorders are recording into ProRes.

The artists are only here for a short time before heading on to the next gig, so any render time to a format that they can watch on any common computer and take with them, is ZERO. They're currently using a DVD recorder but the image is just too low quality to use for anything. Many times they like to use footage for promo stuff.

I looked at some Blue Ray recorders but I'm not seeing very good reviews and there is still render time. Has anyone used the Panasoninc AG-HMR10? AG-HMR10 | AVCCAM series | Broadcast and Professional AV (http://pro-av.panasonic.net/en/sales_o/02products/products/ag-hmr10/) I'd love to just be able to hand them an SDHC card and be done with it.




www.sublime-lighting.com

I'd think about a different direction:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/h264prorecorder

This $500 box encodes from HDSDI to h.264 (mp4) on the fly as a capture device that outputs to a mac or pc via USB.

No, I've not used it, though I have used other Blackmagic capture devices. Their capture software tends to be a little twitchy to set up, but once set up for a particular workflow it has run fine.

If you convert to HDMI, there are TONS of cheaper (but just as effective) options for direct to SD card recorders. Avermedia has a box that records 60mbps 1080p30 H.264 direct to Class 10 SD cards.

Thanks Seth. I'm looking into that option.
Jack, all the cameras are running SDI and the switcher is SDI. We want to try to keep uniformity and remain versatile. We may want to record a camera feed (SDI) at times also.


www.sublime-lighting.com

I've been using the Blackmagic procorder for around 3 years. It works well. I was having some problems but figured out what happened. Once you have the recording interface open and recording, it will corrupt the file if sync is lost during the recording. It will continue to record and look like nothing is wrong, but when you stop recording the file is not usable. You can set your record level from 1 to 20 mbs.