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“Unbelievably terrible.”

written by Ollie999 on 13/11/2011

I was after a video capture card that supports HDMI input to capture XBOX 360 gameplay. Seemed a bit expensive at £150 but figured I'd be paying for a good quality product that would be reliable. Nothing could be further from the truth.

First thing I noticed was that the unit itself looks very cheap and poorly constructed it's like a piece of perspex with the ports stuck underneath and looks like it was put together by an enthusiastic amateur in a shed maybe. When connected to the computer, there's no lights or anything to indicate that it's connected and switched on. The build quality seems very poor indeed.

Next problem was that there's virtually no instructions whatsoever. It just says on the box to connect it to a USB3.0 port and install the drivers from the DVD that comes with it. The driver DVD has no auto-run, you just have to select "open folder to view files" after inserting it and then there's no setup.exe file in the root directory, just about 10 folders full of various files and it's up to you to work out which files you need to install and find them on the DVD. After spending half an hour trawling various forums, found out that it's the folder called "Windows video desktop" that contains the files needed.

Once installed your computer restarts and you're on your own again. The blackmagic software doesn't automatically start back up, you have to go and search in program files and find "Blackmagic Media Express". Again there's no instructions or help as to how to go through the over-complicated setup procedure, it's a case of searching through internet forums in the hope of finding somebody who knows what to do, or alternatively sitting and playing with all the settings in the hope you can get it working. It turns out that there's a separate Blackmagic control panel under windows control panel with some extra configuration options. At no point are you given even the slightest clue that this is there and needs adjusting.

In the end I couldn't get it working. I don't exactly know what the problem is other than suggestions from a couple of forums that my motherboard might not be compatible even though my PC exceeds all of the stated hardware requirements.

The Blackmagic website is completely pointless and offers no help at all. Tried e-mailing them for technical support twice but they didn't even reply.

Even if I had managed to get this working in the end would rate it as very poor indeed. For £150 I'd expect a well made product that's simple and easy to install, have clear easy to follow instructions and have effective technical support available if needed. The intensity Shuttle does none of this. I simply wasted a week messing about with it and then sent it back.

Absolute rubbish and a complete rip off.