Uncompressed Option in Flash XDR
 

There will be a formal press release coming out this week on the uncompressed option on Flash XDR. But, I wanted to give dvinfo members an early release.

The uncompressed option for Flash XDR will be priced at US $995 and available as a firmware upgrade this Fall. With the advent of low-cost high-speed Transcend 300X 16GB Compact Flash cards (US $168) users can now record approximately 10/8 minutes of uncompressed 4:2:2 1080p24 8/10-bit footage for under US $700! (Thank you Dan Keaton for finding a low-cost CF card retailer: http://www.theupgradeplace.com/produ...ckage=Flash#34).

The video will be striped across 4 CF cards configured in a RAID0 configuration. Initially the only playback scenario is HD-SDI out of the Flash XDR box. We are investigating the possibility of a program to recombine the files, but capturing via HD-SDI will always remain the fastest route into your NLE. The datarate to the Compact Flash cards will be limited to about 130 Mbyte/sec, which will cover 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080i50 and 720p50/30/25/24 at 8/10-bit. 1080i60, 1080p30 and 720p60 will be limited to 8-bit. (Note the theoretical bandwidth to the four CF cards is about 180 Mbytes/sec, so the 130 Mbytes/sec limit is quite conservative).

As a side note, here's how you calculate the uncompressed datarate:
1080p24 8/10 bit uncompressed rate = 1920 (pixels/line) x 1080 (lines/frame) x 2 (samples/pixel: luma, chroma) x 24 (frames / sec) x 8 or 10 (bits / sample).

1080p24 4:2:2 8-bit = 796 Mbps or 99.5 MBytes/sec
1080p24 4:2:2 10-bit = 995 Mbps or 124.4 MBytes/sec
(Note that the total HD-SDI bandwidth = 1485 Mbps, but some of this bandwidth is allocated to audio, time-code and blanking information)

So uncompressed 1080p24 4:2:2 10-bit is about 1 Gbps (Giga bit per second). In other words, a ton of data. Hence the obvious advantage of compression.

There are, of course, applications that demand uncompressed, which will always be an option for Flash XDR users. For most applications, we find the 100 Mbps 4:2:2 8-bit Long-GOP to be virtually indistinguishable from uncompressed, even in high-motion applications. But, then again, we also provide I-Frame only compression up to the 160 Mbps level, if you're concerned about Long-GOP artifacts or editing issues.

In the end, Flash XDR should cover just about every conceivable compression need, from uncompressed, to I-Frame only, to Long-GOP. Flash XDR spans a range from over 1Gbps to 17 Mbps.

Crikey!

Steve

We have just learned from a Transcend dealer that Transcend 300X 32GB Compact Flash cards will be available this winter.

This will increase the uncompressed record times to approximately 20 minutes @ 8-bit and 16 minutes @ 10-bit, using four of the 300x 32GB cards.

For uncompressed, or for any recording above the 100 Megabit speed, a fast CompactFlash card is necessary. The Transcend 32GB 133x works up to and including the 100 Megabit speed.

For uncompressed, we currently recommend the Transcend 16GB 300x card.

We welcome the news of the upcoming 300x 32GB card. At this time we do not know the projected pricing of the new card.

Ready.
 

Got a few Transcend cards now.

You got my 'numbers'.

Ready and waiting!

Hi Justin-
Thanks, we'll keep pouring the coffee!