The number of video signal sources we're faced with almost on a daily basis has seriously increased over the past few years, whether we're talking about video cameras, cable tv, mobile phones, etc. On the other hand, the content distribution methods have also diversified quite a lot, ranging from the iTunes service to Apple TV and, of course, the famous YouTube. So how about a device that could actually help make the transition between the two a lot easier?



Well, this is exactly what the people over at Blackmagic Design have come up with back in the first half of 2008, namely the Video Recorder and Video Recorder SDI, a couple of devices that allow users to capture either analog or SDI video from VHS, Video-8, video cameras and more, directly to the H.264 file format as used by iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and YouTube.



One of the most interesting things about these 2 products is that they're quite easy to use, since all one has to do is select the specific device they want to capture for and the included Video Recorder software will automatically set the size and quality.



On the other hand, should the user want to transfer video to a custom device, he/she can always enter the resolution and data rate required for their media files, and Video Recorder SDI will take care of all scaling.



Furthermore, for recording videos automatically, the time can be set so the recording process will stop at a specific moment. And for even more convenience, if you're uploading movies to YouTube, then you can select to auto segment files into 9 min segments, or if you want to put captured videos on CD's you can also select to segment recording into MB sized files.



It's also quite important to mention the fact that the standard version of the device from Blackmagic design features YUV Component, NTSC, PAL ans S-Video video inputs and stereo consumer level RCA audio inputs, while the Video Recorder SDI has been equipped with a 10-bit video input and a 8-channel audio recording capabilities. Both versions provide support for the 625/25 PAL and 525/29.97 NTSC SD resolution file formats, while the SDI version is also compliant with SMPTE 292M, SMPTE 259M, SMPTE 296M, ITU-R BT.656 and ITU-R BT.601.



The two devices described above are not even that expensive, as they retail for around 120 and 300 US dollars (the SDI version), which is more or less an OK price range, given the features and specs these things can provide.