In this video, I'm going to show you 12 things you can do with the AVMatrix HVS 0 4 0 4 0 -- HVS0402U
switcher that you can't do with the ATEM Mini Pro.
Let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Parecki.
So before we get started with this video, I do want to give a quick disclosure.
AVMatrix did send this switcher to me to review.
However, they don't get any input into what I say, and they don't get to watch this video first.
So we're going to cover 12 things this thing can do that the ATEM Mini Pro can't.
First of all, this has a power button.
Yes, you can turn it on and off.
The ATEM Mini Pro has to be unplugged if you want it off.
I've heard a lot of people complain about the lack of a power button on the ATEM Mini switchers.
I think it's because Blackmagic usually makes rack-mount stuff where it's just expected to be on 24/7.
So they kind of just did the same for their desktop stuff.
But it would have been nice to be able to easily turn on and off the ATEM.
So it's super cool that this thing has a power button.
Another thing this thing has that the ATEM Mini Pro does not, is a headphone jack.
Yes, they got that right.
Turns out you do need a way to monitor your audio when you're mixing a program.
The workaround for the ATEM is basically you have to make sure you're using a monitor that has a headphone jack and then you can monitor your audio through that.
So with this, you don't need to worry about what kind of monitor you're using.
You can plug in headphones directly into this switcher.
Ok, so that was a couple of cheap ones.
Let's get into the interesting stuff.
Like the ATEM Mini Pro.
This is a 4-input switcher.
And you can see it has a lot of similar looking buttons on the top.
But where this thing really starts to look different is once you start looking inside.
So the ATEM Mini Pro has one upstream key and one downstream key.
The upstream key is the one that lets you do chroma keying.
And the upstream key is also the one that lets you scale videos for doing picture and picture.
This thing has two of those.
You can actually do two picture in pictures on this.
That means you can have your background layer as well as two videos shrunk down.
That's just not something the ATEM Mini Pro can do.
With the ATEM Mini Pro, you're stuck with one background layer and then one layer on top that can be shrunk.
That means you can do things like an animated background and two people's videos next to each other.
Or you can do slides on one side and a video of the person on the other.
There's a lot of different options available when you can actually shrink two video sources.
Ok, the next one is actually one of my favorite features, even though it's pretty simple.
And this is just that it has two HDMI outputs.
This is actually a pretty huge limitation of the ATEM Mini Pro having only one output, which you're probably going to use for multiview.
With this, both outputs can actually be assigned to anything.
You can have multiview out on one, program on the other.
You can actually make it so that both of them are pass-throughs of any of your inputs.
You could do a program on one preview on the other.
It's super flexible.
It lets you change both HDMI outputs into any of these options for the different sources.
And along those lines, the USB output is also assignable.
You can actually make your USB output any of these as well.
You're not limited to the USB output being program.
That means if you did want your USB out to be where you're looking at your multiview, you can actually do that.
That means you can stream your multiview using OBS.
You could broadcast it over the network using VDO.
ninja. You have a ton of options available when your USB output is also assignable.
Ok. Another really cool feature this has is actually a dedicated logo overlay feature.
This is specifically for putting a logo in the corner.
On the ATEM Mini Pro, you can do this with the downstream keyer.
But what you have to do is actually make a full 1920x1080 image with the whole thing transparent except your logo, and then that takes up your downstream keyer.
In this it's actually a special feature just for doing logos.
So you can upload just a logo and then actually move it around and shrink it if you want to.
You can even make it partially transparent and adjust that in the switcher.
The next pretty cool feature is that the multiview actually shows you the input frame rate and resolution of all of your sources.
The ATEM Mini will scale several different resolutions and frame rates to match your default.
But this one actually shows you what each one is sending.
That gives you a better idea as to whether you might want to actually change the output of some of your devices if you're using a camera that can support the native resolution of
your switcher. It's usually better to change your camera to output that rather than have the device scale it.
So this way, you get to see at a glance all of the resolutions across all your inputs while we're talking about graphics.
One of the really cool things about this is that you can actually plug in a USB drive with files on it and then load your graphics from the USB drive in the switcher itself.
This makes it super easy to just drop a logo onto your USB stick, pop it in, loaded into the device, put in the right spot, all without having to use a computer.
With the ATEM Mini Pro, you can load in graphics, but you have to do it through the software control using your computer.
Speaking of computer control, this does have a network jack, but the menu on this actually gives you access to everything.
You can actually do anything the switcher can do can be accessed through the menu.
With the ATEM Mini Pro, a lot of the features you have to use a computer for and they aren't accessible through the buttons on the top.
While I don't mind using a computer for the ATEM Mini Pro, I do think there are a lot of really cool workflows available when you don't have to bring a computer.
You can take this on location and change all of your settings on it without having to worry about fiddling with a computer laptop next to it.
And because it gives you a lot more different layout options like the side by side or the logo feature, it means you actually aren't nearly as reliant on a computer in order to do
graphics as well. Let's talk about audio for a second.
This does have an audio delay feature, which is really good to see.
But one of the really cool things about the audio feature is that it actually goes up to 500 milliseconds, not just 8 frames like the ATEM Mini.
And this actually lets you delay audio across any of your inputs, including the HDMI.
The ATEM Mini only lets you add audio delay to the analog inputs.
Now, most of the time, you only need to add delay to the analog inputs because you're trying to delay analog instant audio to match the HDMI delay of a camera.
But sometimes you may find yourself doing interesting tricks with routing audio across different sources, and sometimes you do need to delay the HDMI audio also.
So you can do with this and half a second in a long time.
Last thing I want to talk about is this multiuser or saved configuration feature.
You can actually send a bunch of things up and then save the state in different profiles and then load them back in separately.
That means you can have it all set up for one show.
Go set up your second show and then quickly switch all the settings between one or the other, including swapping out graphics and things like that.
Pretty cool that you can again do all of that from the device, whereas with the ATEM Mini, you have to save those snapshots on your computer and get your computer to push the
configuration back in. So basically, if you're sensing a theme here, really it's that this is a standalone device, whereas the ATEM is usually going to be used in conjunction
with something else, either a control surface like Companion or a computer.
Now, the last thing I want to talk about is a couple of the limitations of this.
There is no streaming or recording built into the device.
So in that sense, it's actually more like the ATE Mini than the Pro.
The ATEM Mini Pro can record to a USB drive as well as stream directly to YouTube.
This one does not have those features built in.
So if you do want to record your program, you'll have to take one of the HDMI outputs into an HDMI recorder.
And if you want to stream your program, you have to take the HDMI output into an RTMP encoder.
But again, because there are two HDMI outputs, you won't be eating up your multiview if you are outputting for a stream.
So I hope this video gives you some ideas about what this thing can do and how you might want to use it in your workflows.
Let me know what your favorite feature is down in the comments.
Thanks. And I'll see you in the next one.