Thunderbolt Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle

Hello –
I have a relatively newer MacBook Pro with two USB-C inputs. Can someone confirm that the Thunderbolt output from the Intensity Shuttle is compatible with USB-C, or if not, do I need an adapter?
Thank you–
Jim

I have a very similar computer… i’m pretty sure you need an adapter… tb2 to tb3 (usbc)
I think it’s mentioned in another thread somewhere and it works well apparantly

You’ll need an adapter, the Intensity Shuttle has an older style Thunderbolt port.

Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter

It’s bidirectional which is nice.

Its annoying to buy these adapters but I just recently got the Intensity Shuttle and the Apple adapter and after watching a tutorial form youtube to set it up I got it working in 15 minutes and there has been no problems what so ever with it.

I use one of those Thunderbolt 3 to THunderbolt 2 adapters with the Shuttle as well. The Blackmagic Ultrastudio Mini HD is Thunderbolt 3 natively, which is nice.

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I’d almost rather give Black Magic an extra $300 just on principal rather than buy yet another Apple adapter. But I think the Intensity Shuttle offers more bang for the buck for home use with it’s analog outputs. And I don’t need the SDI I/O.

With the Vidiot issue having a workaround - just sync it externally - I don’t see a downside, other than the software being a bit of a PITA.

No arguments there – the Shuttle does so much and looks incredible for its pricepoint. Personally ours have been very stable, we usually use them to capture with our Lenovo Thinkpad P70 laptops.

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Thanks for your replies, everyone. I just pulled the trigger and got me a Shuttle and annoying 2 to 3 adapter. Can anyone tell me whether the Shuttle includes a Thunderbolt 2 cable?
Jim

Thunderbolt cable is not included.

Do one need a TBC between the component out (from Cortex) and the ins on the Shuttle?
Cheers BTR

@BongoTeethRunning No TBC needed between them.

If the unit is powered by a Thunderbolt connection, why don’t they include such a cable? Are you sure they don’t?

@jambirn I bought mine last week and it did not come with a Thunderbolt cable.

I don’t need a TBC for the visual cortex/vidiot
I do need one for a VHS player

It seems to be a standard of sorts to NOT include thunderbolt cables with equipment that rely on them. I’ve purchased at least 5 devices that absolutely need thunderbolt cables yet do not come with them. My guess is that as they are costly cables, manufacturers choose not to incur the additional cost of including the cables & leave it up to end users to secure them. I suppose it’s a bit like gasoline; absolutely necessary to run my car but it’s not included.

This is common with broadcast gear in general, I believe. With broadcast gear the cables can be incredibly high end and expensive, and with the expectation being a professional user base, there’s no customer support liability involved like there is with consumer gear (where a customer will likely just return the item to the store if it doesn’t have all the cables they need.) Blackmagic definitely want you to use good cables, but I bet including decent cables in the box prices them out of the competition (which likely also doesn’t include cables.) So my bet is on this being an industry specific thing.

About the Thunderbolt cable non inclusion:
I only have two thunderbolt ports on my machine, which means that my need for cables are saturated when i got two cables. Even if i have 5 units to choose from (that does not have thunderbolt daisichaining) i will not need more than two cables. So why pay for an expensive cable each time i need a new unit?

/Lau

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Hi!

I’ve had my LZX modules sitting in a box for months since I did not have a display solution, but I finally had a chance to get an Intensity Shuttle! yay!

Anyways, I have not been able to get any image from the VC to show up in Media Express yet. I have been able to successfully get an image from a DSLR to show up in Media Express when the Desktop Video input is set to HDMI; however, when I set the Desktop Video input to Component, I do not get any image from the VC. Right now, I just have the H+V output of VC plugged in to the Colorize input of the VC, so I should just be seeing something…

Any troubleshooting tips would be appreciated.

Have you tried changing the Preferences in Media Express? If your VC is set to NTSC, try the 525p23.98 NTSC as Project Video Format.

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yes if you were just capturing via HDMI you will need to change via preferences to NTSC or PAL

black syphon into syphon recorder

or

OBS

are also options for seeing intensity shuttle output (I haven’t tried OBS for this but it should work)

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