OBS SOFTWARE BY CTD
A Lightweight Silverstack Alternative Built for Live-Event Card Offload
If you're hunting for a Silverstack alternative — or a ShotPut Pro or Hedge alternative — that doesn't carry a full DIT-station price tag, CTD Ingest Studio is the focused pick. It's SHA-256 checksum-verified card offload software for Mac, purpose-built for live-event crews dumping multiple cards at the back of a club, with a self-serve tap-to-drop ingest station and a synced FCPXML timeline that hands your editor a head start.
Why look for a Silverstack alternative in the first place?
Silverstack, ShotPut Pro, and Hedge/OffShoot are the incumbents in DIT offload for good reason — they're mature, broadly trusted, and rock-solid at checksum-verified copying. But they're also built for a one-DIT, one-keyboard, on-set workflow, and the premium ones price like it: a full Silverstack or ShotPut Pro license runs well past what a working event shooter wants to spend on a backup tool. If you run live events — nightclubs, concerts, weddings, multi-cam shoots — where three shooters are dropping cards at once and nobody's babysitting a DIT cart, you don't need a $169+ on-set platform. You need a fast, verified, crew-friendly offload app that does the safety-critical part perfectly and then gets out of the way. That's the wedge CTD Ingest Studio is built for.
The non-negotiable part: SHA-256 verify before any format
A real offload tool's whole job is proving the copy is good before a card gets wiped, and CTD Ingest Studio treats that as sacred. Every file is SHA-256 hashed as it streams off the card, then the copy is read back off disk and re-hashed to confirm it's byte-for-byte identical. Only a fully verified ingest unlocks the "Format card?" offer — so you physically cannot erase a card that wasn't safely backed up first. This is the same checksum-verified discipline Silverstack, ShotPut Pro, and Hedge are known for; that safety gate is table stakes, and CTD doesn't cut corners on it. Auto-format-after-verify exists for zero-click crews but ships off by default. (Note: the Mac App Store sandboxed build disables card formatting per Apple's rules and suggests erasing in-camera instead; the direct build includes full formatting.)
Where it pulls ahead: a self-serve, multi-shooter ingest station
This is the feature pure offload tools don't have. Set a Mac on a table at the back of the venue, leave the Ingest Station screen open, and when a shooter inserts a card the app asks "Who's dropping off?" with big tap targets. They tap their name and ingest starts — no operator driving a keyboard. Add your crew once, assign which videographers are on each project, and the station handles drop-offs itself. Cards run in parallel, each with its own ingest engine and progress bar, so three shooters can offload at the same time into the same folder without filename or manifest collisions. Where Silverstack and ShotPut Pro assume one operator at one machine, CTD Ingest Studio is genuinely built for a crew.
Editor handoff: a synced FCPXML timeline, not just a folder of files
Most offload tools stop at the copy. CTD Ingest Studio keeps going. One click exports a synced .fcpxml timeline that imports straight into DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, with each videographer on their own lane and every clip positioned by capture time. Alongside it you get a ResolveMetadata.csv tagging each clip with shooter, camera, and color, plus an EditorNotes.md spelling out per-camera color settings (for example, S-Log3 to an s709 LUT). It turns a pile of cards into an edit-ready, per-shooter timeline — handoff that pure offload tools simply don't produce.
Auto-detect every card, tag every file, log every drop-off
On insert, CTD Ingest Studio auto-detects the card and deep-scans the structure — Sony PRIVATE/M4ROOT, Canon DCIM/CONTENTS, AVCHD, Panasonic, GoPro, DJI, Blackmagic — with a full-volume fallback so footage in odd folders is never missed. It handles photos and video together, with an optional Photos/ and Video/ split. Every copied file carries a JSON manifest (operator, camera, color settings, per-file SHA-256, original capture times, and the station clock for lining up multi-cam footage), Finder extended attributes, and an optional Finder tag with the shooter's name. Re-insert a card and it copies only the new clips via incremental ingest. Already have a dump on a drive? Add Folder runs it through the same scan, tag, copy, and checksum pipeline. And every drop-off is logged in History — who dropped off, which card, how many files, verified or not — a paper trail for the whole night.
Where Silverstack, ShotPut Pro, and Hedge still win — honestly
This isn't a clean sweep, and you deserve the real picture. Silverstack and ShotPut Pro have years of on-set hardening, deeper format and codec coverage, mature preset systems, and reporting (MHL reports, LTO/LTFS archiving, look management) that a dedicated on-set DIT relies on every day. Hedge is beautifully simple, cross-platform (it runs on Windows too — CTD Ingest Studio is Mac-only), and pairs with OffShoot for fast multi-destination mirroring. If you're a one-person on-set DIT working narrative or commercial jobs, those tools are excellent and may be the right call. CTD Ingest Studio doesn't try to out-DIT a $169+ on-set platform — it wins on a different axis: affordable, native, crew-first live-event ingest with editor handoff baked in.
Part of the CTD live-production toolkit
CTD Ingest Studio is native SwiftUI from CineTech Digital, running on macOS 13 or later on both Intel and Apple Silicon — happy on an inexpensive MacBook at the back of the venue. It's the offload half of the CTD suite, which pairs it with the OBS-ecosystem apps: Live Studio for OBS multiview and control on Mac, Live Mobile to control OBS from your iPhone, and Tally for an OBS tally light. Run the whole multi-cam event from capture to cut, then offload it verified and edit-ready. Ingest Studio is on the Mac App Store as a pre-order and launches June 18, 2026.
CTD Ingest Studio vs Silverstack / ShotPut Pro / Hedge
| Feature | CTD Ingest Studio | Silverstack / ShotPut Pro / Hedge |
|---|---|---|
| SHA-256 checksum-verified offload | Yes — hash on copy, read back, re-hash to confirm byte-for-byte | Yes — checksum verification is their core strength too |
| Format card only after verified copy | Yes — "Format card?" is locked until ingest fully verifies (auto-format off by default) | Yes — verify-before-erase is standard practice |
| Self-serve "Who's dropping off?" multi-shooter station | Yes — tap your name, ingest starts; no operator needed | No — built around one DIT at one keyboard |
| Parallel multi-card ingest into one project | Yes — each card gets its own engine, no filename/manifest collisions | Varies; typically one operator-driven copy at a time |
| Synced FCPXML editor handoff (per-shooter lanes) | Yes — one-click FCPXML for Resolve/Final Cut, plus Resolve CSV + color notes | No — they stop at verified copy (some export reports, not edit timelines) |
| Auto-detect Sony/Canon/GoPro/DJI/Blackmagic + full-volume fallback | Yes | Yes — broad, mature format support (often deeper codec/camera coverage) |
| Deep DIT reporting (MHL, LTO/LTFS archive, look management) | No — focused live-event scope, not a full on-set DIT platform | Yes — this is where the premium tools clearly win |
| Platform | macOS 13+ (Intel + Apple Silicon), native SwiftUI | Silverstack/ShotPut Pro: Mac (+Win for ShotPut); Hedge: Mac + Windows |
| Price | Affordable Mac App Store app — see listing | Premium licenses ($169+ for Silverstack/ShotPut Pro tiers) |
FAQ
Is CTD Ingest Studio a real alternative to Silverstack and ShotPut Pro?
For live-event card offload, yes. It does the safety-critical part exactly the way they do — every file is SHA-256 hashed on copy, read back off disk, and re-hashed to confirm a byte-for-byte match before any card can be formatted. Where it differs is scope and price: instead of a full on-set DIT platform with deep reporting and archiving, it's a focused, affordable Mac app built for multi-shooter live events, adding a self-serve ingest station and a synced FCPXML editor handoff that pure offload tools don't produce. If you're a dedicated on-set DIT who needs MHL reports, LTO archiving, and look management, Silverstack or ShotPut Pro are still the right tools.
How is it different from Hedge?
Hedge is excellent, beautifully simple, and cross-platform (it runs on Windows as well as Mac), and with OffShoot it does fast multi-destination mirroring. CTD Ingest Studio is Mac-only and goes a different direction: a self-serve "Who's dropping off?" station where shooters tap their name and ingest multiple cards in parallel, automatic per-shooter metadata tagging, and a one-click synced FCPXML timeline for Resolve and Final Cut. Both verify with checksums before formatting; CTD adds the crew workflow and the edit-ready handoff.
Does it verify the copy with a checksum before I format a card?
Yes. Every file is SHA-256 hashed while it streams off the card, then the copy is read back off disk and re-hashed to confirm it's identical. Only a fully verified ingest unlocks the "Format card?" offer, so you can't format a card that wasn't successfully backed up first. There's an opt-in per-project auto-format-after-verify switch, but it's off by default. Note that the Mac App Store build disables card formatting due to Apple's sandbox rules and suggests erasing in-camera instead.
Can several videographers offload cards on the same Mac at once?
Yes — that's the core design. Add your crew once, assign them to a project, and the Ingest Station asks "Who's dropping off?" when a card goes in. Multiple cards run in parallel, each with its own ingest engine and progress bar, so three shooters can offload simultaneously into the same merge folder without filename or manifest collisions.
Will it give my editor a synced timeline, or just copied files?
A synced timeline. One click exports an .fcpxml that imports into both DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, with each videographer on their own lane and clips positioned by capture time, plus a ResolveMetadata.csv and an EditorNotes.md describing each camera's color settings (for example, S-Log3 to an s709 LUT). It turns a stack of cards into an edit-ready, per-shooter timeline.
What does it run on, and how much does it cost?
It's a native SwiftUI app for macOS 13 or later, on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs — happy on an inexpensive MacBook at the back of the venue. It's positioned as the affordable, crew-friendly alternative to $169+ DIT licenses like Silverstack, ShotPut Pro, and Hedge/OffShoot. It's available as a Mac App Store pre-order and launches June 18, 2026; check the listing for current pricing.
Get CTD Ingest Studio
No subscriptions, no accounts, no cloud — talks only to your own OBS over your network.