Convergent Designs Flash XDR

[Tim Polster]

This HD stuff seems like it is still being ironed out as it goes along at times.

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Nikol Manning

So is there going to be a 80Mbps setting? If so I think I missed it. It sounds like the 100Mbps won't work with these cards. You could just do 50,75,100,150. 50,75 with current cards and 100 150 with newer faster cards. That would make most folks happy.

Hi Nikol-
Good suggestion. We will likely expand the number of bit-rates with newer versions of the firmware. We have not finished fully testing the Transcend card, so 100 Mbps is still a possibility. Since our CF card interface is hardware based, we should be able to get the absolute maximum bandwidth from a given card.

We'll post our test results in the coming weeks.

[Reg Carter]

Hello Mike,
I checked this thread last fall and I think I read that the Varicam will not be supported. Is that still accurate?
Reg

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Reg Carter

Hello Mike,
I checked this thread last fall and I think I read that the Varicam will not be supported. Is that still accurate?
Reg

Hi Reg-
We can accept the HD-SDI output from Varicam. We have not listed every possible camera that works with Flash XDR, but as long as the camera outputs a standard 1080i/p or 720p signal, it should work OK. Flash XDR does not support dual-link or 1080p50/60, but I think we support just about every other flavor of HD-SDI.

[Scott Webster]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Reg-
We can accept the HD-SDI output from Varicam. We have not listed every possible camera that works with Flash XDR, but as long as the camera outputs a standard 1080i/p or 720p signal, it should work OK. Flash XDR does not support dual-link or 1080p50/60, but I think we support just about every other flavor of HD-SDI.

Mike, with the Varicam I take it the XDR will only record 720 60p and not recognise the flagged frames? Regardless if the Varicam is set to 720p 24 the XDR will only see the 720p 60 output?

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Scott Webster

Mike, with the Varicam I take it the XDR will only record 720 60p and not recognise the flagged frames? Regardless if the Varicam is set to 720p 24 the XDR will only see the 720p 60 output?

Hi Scott-
We can remove the pull-down frames automatically and record at 720p24. The pull-down removal is a setup option on the box. You can send in 720p60 HD-SDI and we will immediately remove the pulldown and output 720p24 HD-SDI, while recording in 720p24 mode.

It's the same routine we use to remove the pulldown in 1080i60 -> 1080p24.

[Scott Webster]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Scott-
We can remove the pull-down frames automatically and record at 720p24. The pull-down removal is a setup option on the box. You can send in 720p60 HD-SDI and we will immediately remove the pulldown and output 720p24 HD-SDI, while recording in 720p24 mode.

It's the same routine we use to remove the pulldown in 1080i60 -> 1080p24.

OK, I'll see your 'remove the pulldown' and raise you a 'playback 60p on a 24fps base for slo mo playback' :)

[Ethan Cooper]

Good point about the 60p for 24p playback. I hadn't thought about that.

[Mike Schell]

Just a quick status update on Flash XDR Development. Using our engineering development board, we are now recording 50 Mbps 4:2:2 MPEG2 to Compact Flash. We should debug playback from Compact Flash in the next few days.

The final production boards are due Tuesday morning, so hopefully we have time to debug some of the basic features before NAB. The sheet metal chassis arrived on Friday, but we are still waiting for the rubber over-mold, due next week.

Our tests now strongly suggest that the $150 32GB Transcend CF card will work for 100Mbps 4:2:2 Long-GOP MPEG2 video + 2-channels 24-bit PCM audio. 100Mbps Long-GOP 4:2:2 will be above HDCAM video quaility. Four of these 32GB cards will provide 2.7 Hours record time at this rate.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Great news, Mike!

Your calculations on recording time using 100Mbps and 4 x 32GB cards made me thinking: when a card is filled, will Flash XDR automatically switch to another one? And can spanned clips be seamlessly stiched?

Las but not least: any news on EX1 mounting options? And PAGlock battery plates?

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

100Mbps Long-GOP 4:2:2 will be above HDCAM video quaility. Four of these 32GB cards will provide 2.7 Hours record time at this rate.

I'm pretty sure he's talking about the 4 cards being used as a Raid0 set here, so the question about spanning doesn't apply, unless that's not what you were referring to.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Ethan Cooper

I'm pretty sure he's talking about the 4 cards being used as a Raid0 set here, so the question about spanning doesn't apply, unless that's not what you were referring to.

I don't think so; as I understand RAID'ing is only necessary with 160Mbps...And you would not get 2.7 hours recoring time on a RAID like this!

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

I don't think so; as I understand RAID'ing is only necessary with 160Mbps...And you would not get 2.7 hours recoring time on a RAID like this!

Not like I've never been wrong before. Which is it Mike?

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

Great news, Mike!

Your calculations on recording time using 100Mbps and 4 x 32GB cards made me thinking: when a card is filled, will Flash XDR automatically switch to another one? And can spanned clips be seamlessly stiched?

Las but not least: any news on EX1 mounting options? And PAGlock battery plates?

Hi Piotr, Ethan-
The 100Mbps rate should be achievable without Raiding (ie writing to one card at a time). Flash XDR will automatically switch to the next card, when one card fills up. 100Mbps MPEG2 video + 2 channels of 24-bit PCM audio = 103 Mbps (or 12.9 Mbytes/sec). We're getting 16.6 MBytes/sec write speed on a single 32 GByte Transcend CF card, so we should have ample margin for this data-rate.

We are working on a program to stitch together the files as they are being transferred off the CF cards. Ultimately, you can load up 4 Lexar UDMA Firewire-800 readers (daisy-chained together) and set up a transfer of 128 Gbytes of data. I'll have more details in the coming month.

Yes, we are studying the various mounting options to the EX1. Now that we have the cabinet design finished, we have tasked our Mechanical Engineer with developing mounting options for all the various cameras. The Sony EX1 and the Canon XL-H1 are our top priorities.

[Ethan Cooper]

Ah crap, looks like I was wrong again. Well, at least Mike spelled my name right.

**EDIT**
Wait, seems I was wrong again, but I swear I thought he mispelled Piotr's name the first time I looked at his post. It's just not my day.