# Recording with Pearl Nano

You can stream your content and record it at the same time. Pearl Nano encodes the video and audio it captures.

There are different ways to download recordings, like automatically downloading recordings to a USB memory device. For Pearl Nano, an SD card or a SATA M.2 2280 SSD must be installed to record content.

### About recording

You can record a channel on Pearl Nano as AVI, MOV, MPEG-TS, MP4, or MP4-Fragmented. Easily stop and start recording using any of the following:

| **Epiphan product** | **Admin panel** | **Device screen** | **Epiphan Edge** | **Epiphan Live** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pearl Nano | Yes | Yes (Use front panel control keys) | Yes | No |

If an accidental system shutdown occurs while recording is in progress, your recordings are closed off so they are still playable. Physically unplugging a video source from the input port or otherwise interrupting the signal does not stop recording. A No Signal image is inserted.

Pearl Nanos also come with APIs so you can setup third party tools to control recording.

If PoE+ power is interrupted while Pearl Nano is actively recording, the recorded file could become corrupted and be unplayable.

You can set the maximum recording time or file size limit using the Admin panel. The default recording limits are set to 30 minutes or 500 MB, whichever comes first. When the time or file size limit is reached, the current recording is saved and a new recording file starts automatically without losing any content. When the local drive is full, newer recordings overwrite oldest recordings.

**Important considerations**

- If recordings are selected for Automatic File Upload (AFU) while AFU is at maximum upload capacity or when AFU is unavailable, the recordings are added to an upload queue.

- **Pearl Nano** - While actively recording a channel that includes a layout with multiple video input sources, a new file is created if an additional video input source is added to the channel.

- **Pearl Nano** - If the channel that is recording is an auto channel, a new recording is started if the video input source automatically switches from one video source to another due to signal loss.

**Tested media players**

Epiphan has tested recordings with the following players.

**Table 54 Tested Media Players**

| **Operating System** | **Tested Players** |
| --- | --- |
| Mac OS | QuickTime 10.3 QuickTime 7.6.6+ VLC 2.2.4 Playback Pro 2.3.2 Final Cut Pro 10.3.2 Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 |
| Windows | QuickTime 7.6.6+ VLC 2.2.6 Windows Media player 12+ Movies & TV (Windows 10) Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 |
| Linux | MPlayer VLC 2.2.2 |
| HTML 5 Browsers (Windows) | Google Chrome 37+ (works with MOV and MP4 files using H.264 codec) |

 Not all media players and editors support all recording formats, such as the more modern MP4-fragmented format. To playback MOV files created by the Pearl Nano, we recommend using a newer media player.

> product: pearl-nano · topic: recording · source: pearl-nano-userguide.md · updated: Oct 7, 2026