Recording Ebosuite via HDMI

Hello Ebo friends!
I’m looking for a good and reliable way to record / export a Live/Ebo video performance, and thought I’d see if others had any experience using HDMI to record EBO performances.

I’m finding that the quality of the recordings seems to degrade when recording a session via Syphon Out (into Syphon recorder), or using a screen recorder (quicktime or IshowU), Also, getting the audio with the video is another challenge.

So I’m wondering if others have found good results using a separate HDMI recorder to render out, and if there’s any products others in the community could recommend.

Seems like something commonly used by video gamers, and something like the Blackmagic Ultrastudio (connected to a separate comp, or if I wanted to spend more funds on a stand-alone device, a prores monitor recorder (commonly used with video cameras), would be an even better solution.

Anyways, I’ve got a late 2013 Mac Pro, with a pretty decent video card, so I find the full screen playback of my Ebosuite sessions looks nice, but haven’t been able to reproduce that live stream in a saved video (with audio). Is HDMI the way to go?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!

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Hi Melton,

For the best possible quality output I’d always go for recording the HDMI output.

I’ve used a separate PC with a blackmagic Intensity Pro (pci-e)capture card and an ssd drive, and the quality was amazing.

I don’t know about specific stand-alone recorders that gamers use, but a friend of mine used a cheapo recorder and it was ok - it could record only to h264 so any fast moving or noisy parts were messed-up. But this was several years ago, maybe there are better ones out there now:)

hope this helps,
n

Thanks for the info Nesa!

At this point I’m leaning towards the Black Magic UltraStudio. I’ve found Black Magic products to be pretty good quality and reasonably priced ($150). Although there are lots of options out there. I just need to confirm that it will work with my existing set-up and how the audio will in flow into the workflow.

There’s a lot of different options out there, some include interesting functions to live stream, which could also be kinda cool, but getting a quality recoding is my main goal for a HDMI recording interface.

Cheers!

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Did you ever find a solution?

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I recently added a BlackMagic Ultra Studio 3G to my setup as a replacement for Syphon Out → Syphon Recorder which was causing CPU and audio performance issues. I’m happy to report the Ultra Studio 3G performs well for video and audio capture via HDMI @ 1920x1080. I selected the Ultra Studio 3G based on price ($150) and having no prior experience with BlackMagic hardware. My workflow is much improved with the addition of the Ultra Studio 3G, here is my latest track+visuals as an example: 52.44 4K - YouTube

As side note: I also upgraded from an Intel Mac to a M1 Max during the transition. I’m pleased with the performance of EboSuite under Rosetta using Live 11.0.11 also running under Rosetta. I can confirm that EboSuite does not work with Live 11.1b5 which is the first version of Live that runs natively on Apple M1 processors. Is there an estimate as to when EboSuite will be M1 compatible?

Hi Joe,
Thank you for sharing your experience with the Ultra Studio 3G. Very interesting solution!
We are optimising EboSuite for native M1 and for Live 11.1. Are you available to help us with beta testing this version of EboSuite? That would help us to optimise EboSuite even better.
Cheers

Yes, happy to help. Let me know how to proceed.

Ah great, thanks! Can you send an email to contact@ebosuite.com, so I can add you to the beta test list?

I am trying out Ebosuite (After a few hrs I am sold!) and am now looking at the way I can capture the video and audio. Having a large modular video setup I would like to take advantage of some of my Blackmagic Gear. Can anyone help me with the setup within Ableton / Ebosuite?
Black Magic hardware I have on hand:
Ultrastudio 4k Mini
Video Assist 12g HDR
Thanks in advance!

Hi Pagoda-100, I have no experience with Blackmagic, I use an Atomos Ninja V to record my audio and visuals. I am very happy with that solution. It works very easy and it records 4K ProRes 60fps easily.

It records the audio/visuals on its own ssd drive that is hot-swappable, so it is very easy to copy the recordings onto my Macbook. I inserted the Ninja V between my MacBook Pro and my screen, so I can record at any time. I just switch the screen resolution (to full HD usually) and change the sound output in Ableton Live and I am ready to go. This is an example of a video recorded this way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtbSHYHKDmI

Eboman, your videos are awesome!!!

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Ahh yea. That should be more or less the same situation with my Video Assist 12g HDR.
I think the only road block is understanding the setup with in Live / Ebosuite. I’m only 2 days into the trial and guilty of jumping in feet first so I guess I need to back up and check out the tutorials.
If you can explain in a basic level the setup within live I would be most happy!

As a side note, I am in love with the software! It’s like a video groovebox of my dreams. Extremely fun stuff. Going to pick up the license as soon as I get capture figured out.

To control the output window use the eOutput plug-in (in the Tools folder in the EboSuite plug-in folder). With that plug-in you can set EboSuite’s output window to full screen on the HDMI output you are using for recording. In my case I have two screens connected and I set the output window to full screen on my second HDMI output. In this example I am recording 1280x720, so I set the HDMI out resolution to 1280x720.

Use the eOutput plug-in to set EboSuite’s output window size to 1280x720 and then set its position to fit the second HDMI output exactly.

Point 0,0 (X=0 and Y=0) is at the bottom left corner of your primary display (the display with the Apple menu, HDMI output 1 in my case). Since my 2nd HDMI output is on the left side of the HDMI 1 output, I moved it 1280 pixels to the left (X = -1280) and 1692 pixels up (Y = 1692), because the resolution of HDMI 1 = 3008 x 1692 in my case. Make sure to turn off the Title Bar of the output window, because you don’t want that to be in the recording.

You can also use the Full Screen option, but I like to do it this way. I saved a few presets of the eOutput plug-in in my User Library (a preset for 1280x720 and 1920x1080), so I just drag that preset on the eOutput window to position and scale it quickly.

In Ableton Live’s Audio preferences select the HDMI output as your Audio Output Device.

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Thank you so much! This should be perfect.
These little monitors with capture are a real joy to use. Well worth the expense when purchased for my modular video system and now will be even more useful.

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