Hi Adam-
Thanks! I would also emphasize that if you purchase Flash XDR only for improved video and audio quality, you will be missing half the benefits of this box. You see, if addition to improving both video and audio quality, Flash XDR will offer file-based tape-less workflow with search-able metadata and the ability to mark clips (good, better, best).

So, you should be able to save time in post by downloading only clips marked "good". Also you can search the metadata, which can be opened in Excel to locate clips based on GPS coordinates, director, event, date, camera number, etc. We'll have some predefined templates, but you can also create your own fields or entirely new templates.

We think this post-production work-flow enhancement will be as valuable as the A/V quality improvements. In the end, Flash XDR should enable you to produce a higher-quality product (video or tape) and save you time in post.

Transcend 32GB Compact Flash Card
 

We just finished some initial tests on the Transcend 32 GB CF card. This is an amazing card for only US $150; readily available from many retailers (I just purchased 4 from Newegg). It's also about 1/10 the price (per GB) of P2 or SxS cards.

Our tests indicate a write speed of 115 Mbps and a read speed of 330 Mbps. (Read speeds are, quite often, much faster than write speeds with Flash memory). So this card can easily support 50 Mbps and likely 80 Mbps MPEG2 streams (4:2:2, full-raster, Long-GOP).

We will also test the new Lexar UDMA Firewire 800 reader ($60) tomorrow. You can daisy-chain up to 4 readers together and set up an (unattended) batch transfer of 128 GB (4 cards) of video to your internal or external drive. So, for around $250, you basically get the same capability as the $1800 P2 reader (which admittedly holds 5 cards).

Given the huge price advantages of using a consumer memory and card readers, you can buy a Flash XDR + 4 Transcend CF cards for the same price of 6 of the 16GB P2 or SxS cards! You'll also get the improved video and audio quality, at no extra charge.

I am trying to figure out if this has any use for EX1 owners. The uncompressed recording is nice but 128gb for 17 minutes doesn't work for me. That's about a TB for every two hours.

I haven't tried the AJA box, but it claims to convert the footage live to 10 bit 422 ProRes HD. That is great because it is reasonable compression.

Am I missing something?

Hi Mike-
You don't have to go to full uncompressed for significant improvements in video / audio quality. Your EX1 uses MPEG2 4:2:0 Long-GOP compression at 35 Mbps rate. With the Flash XDR you can go up to 100 Mbps Long-GOP 4:2:2 or 160 Mbps 4:2:2 I-Frame only (which is above HDCAM quality). Either of these rates give you reasonable storage times. And of course, Flash XDR is certainly much more portable and battery powered compared to direct ingest into a laptop + IO HD.

I hear Mikes response to that - Flash XDR is more portable etc - and it's certainly true.

But I suspect I'm not the only one here to think "wouldn't it be nice to have a box the size, weight etc etc of the XDR that recorded to ProRes.........?" It's called having cake and eating it.

But then you wouldn't get that sweet 50 Mbps setting that should really be a sweet spot for most people.

I hear you David but the shoot hdv and render to ProRes workflow works pretty well. Apple should focus on getting Other programs (After Effects) to work with it.

Mike, can you please explain how your product would benefit me as an Gy-HD200 owner. I wanna get the best quality out of this thing, so please tell me in layman's terms, how my GY-HD200--Flash XDR--FCS2 workflow would be and what's the highest quality I can expect, as opposed to what I get now with the Firewire capture. Thank you.

We are seriously looking at a program to transfer our MXF files from the Compact Flash card and transcode to ProRes in a one step process. It won't occur in real time (maybe 2 to 3x), but we are hoping users can load up 4 CF readers, pick the files they wish to transfer (and concatenate) and optionally transcode to ProRes. Once the process is started, it should run unattended (run overnight).

Long-GOP MPEG2 unquestionably produces the best quality video for a given bit-rate below 100 Mbps. This is accomplished by the use of both spatial (I-Frame) and temporal (P and B frame) compression. MPEG2 does enable very high-quality video on low-cost Compact Flash cards, while providing long record times; a task not easily accomplished with I-Frame only CODECs.

But, Long-GOP MPEG2 is also undeniably more difficult to edit, so a transcode to the I-Frame ProRes as the data is being copied from the CF cards might be the best solution.

I would welcome your comments and suggestions.

Hi Mike

Is this 50 Mbps speed with just one card or do you need four in striped in a RAID?

Stefan

Mike,
Forgive my ignorance on codecs... but recording to a codec that one could also use as a delivery codec makes a lot of sense to me - no renders, no transcodes, it stays "pure"... so if one of the HD delivery darlings for High Def is H.264, what would be the disadvantages of using this codec with the same dialup options of Mbps?

Thanks,
Lonnie

Hi Stefan-
We can easily record the 50 Mbps on one card, no striping required. It looks like the Transcend 32 GB card will work up to 75 to 80 Mbps.

Hi Lonnie-
Ultimately, the H.264 will be a better solution. But, we have not found a high-quality reasonably-priced hardware CODEC. In a few years, I am sure the semiconductor technology will be available.

Can you stripe and hit 160 Mbps with 4 cards?

S

Hi Stefan-
Very cool idea! Yes, this is certainly possible, but would require some additional development work. We could go one of two routes: 1) Limit the playback to HD-SDI output only (no file transfer) or 2) Develop a program to stitch the files back together during transfer off the CF card.

Let me discuss with our engineers. But I do like the idea of using cheap 32GB CF cards to get better than HDCAM quality video. Excellent suggestion.

I'd agree with all that. Trouble is, "best solution" can take on different meanings depending which side you look at a puzzle from! :-)

I suspect what you are advocating is the most practical solution, given available hardware at a realistic price. That said, the "ideal" (from the users side!) would be for the XDR to code directly to whatever the NLE is most happy with - ProRes or whatever - and then allow download and ready to edit at a fraction of real time, rather than 2-3x. But presumably the chips simply do not exist (yet) to do that?
Shouldn't be necessary. Mike's comments are referring to a specific CF card which is pretty cheap - he quotes 32GB for $150. You can get much faster CF cards if you pay more which should easily make 160Mbs (and more) individually.

[EDIT]
Ah - point taken, getting a very high bitrate recording, whilst still using very cheap memory. Interesting idea.

Hi David-
You have to make a lot of trade-offs when designing a portable, low-power, high-quality HD recorder. Yes, it is possible to capture into an I-Frame CODEC such as ProRes, Cineform, or DNxHD but we would take a big hit on power consumption and the size of the box.

We can likely get closer by striping the 160 Mbps I-Frame across multiple cards. There is considerable merit to this idea, since the Transcend 32 GB card is $150, while high performance 32 GB cards are in the $400 to $500 range.

I-Frame only MPEG2 at 160 Mbps should be very close to ProRes in quality and playback performance.

Hi Mike,

Here's a BLUE SKY THINKING question ... forgive my ad agency background.

Say I was shooting 3D Stereoscopic with two cameras, is there a way to multiplex both HD SDI signals into one - record at say 100 Mbps - and later, on playback, separate into two discrete 50 Mbps signals?

S

Hi Stefan-
Any great idea, but no this is not technically possible. You can lock two of our boxes together and do the 3D captures.

Do I get a discount?

S

Mike, I don't envy your position of offering an awesome product... only to be asked for MORE, LOL.

That said, the merit of being able to choose DNxHD, ProRes or Cineform is that the transcoding step for many would be eliminated. Vegas users would have Cineform, Avid users DNxHD and Apple users ProRes right out of the recorder.

But in addition to power and size issues, you'd now have to support three additional codecs with different quality settings and intermittent upgrade releases. That sounds like a RPITA.

Hi Peter-
I couldn't agree more. We would also never get this product out of engineering. We have to make compromises to meet size, weight, power and cost constraints.

Transcoding is always a possibility. We know it's not ideal, but until the world settles on one CODEC (which will never happen), this will always be a fact of life.

Mike,

Any news on the EX1 mounting option (which many are interested in), and the PAGlock mounting option (which I am personally interested in)?

Also, any details on delivery date to those having preordered?

Hi Piotr-
We are looking at a couple of options for the EX1 and batteries, including mounting with the parallel rods found on some high-end cameras. But, to be honest, we'll be busy for another week or so working on the final details of the basic box.

We're doing a pre-production board build next week. The cabinet and rubber overmold are also due next week. We hope to go into production as soon as this proto is tested.

I promise to keep you posted.

Congrats Mike

You've made the front cover of NAB Show Special DV Magazine!

http://www.dv.com/news/news_item.php...leId=196603897

S

Ah Peter, but if more could be given, a desirable product becomes irresistable, and even more are sold..... :-) But in all seriousness, I do understand the constraints.

Different users will have different needs, and those of long term projects will be different from those of fast turn around. But for the latter, a potential appeal of solid state could be *ZERO* download time - shoot, insert into reader(s) and immediately edit directly off the card(s), consolidating the edit at the end. It's the cheapness of CF and it's readers relative to other solid state memory that makes such a workflow more viable.

Hi Stefan-
Excellent! That's better than being on the cover of the "Rolling Stones".

Hi David-
Agreed! If you are under a time-crunch, then editing in the native MPEG2 format is always an option. When ever increasing CPU power, this becomes a more reasonable option.

Using the Transcend 32GB card and shooting at 50 Mbps, your download speed on a Firewire-800 reader is 6X real time (ie 60 minutes of footage can be transferred in 10 minutes).

We had great results with th stackable Lexar Firewire-800 reader yesterday. Each card shows up as a separate drive on the desktop. You can perform an unattended transfer from up to four cards, by stacking four of these readers.

So our new "tape-deck" is four stacked Firewire-800 readers, which weight in total less than 1 lb, require no external power (other than the Fire-Wire bus), takes up less space than an external hard-drive, holds 4.5 hours of footage (at 50 Mbps), transfers video at 6X real-time, has essentially zero drop-outs or time-code breaks, and costs $250. Welcome to the world of solid-state recording on Compact Flash!

Sorry, I meant "Rolling Stone" as in the magazine, not the group.

Calumet # IM20902
$69.99 - $35.00 Rebate
$34.99 Your final price after mail-in rebate

4 x 35 = $140 (not $250 - you was robbed)

Hurry offer ends this month
http://www.calumetphoto.com/pdfs/Lex...ebateApr08.pdf

Yes, agreed.
But for real rush jobs you don't even need that 10 minute download. As example, the Firestore can be used for acquisition, then plugged in to an NLE as an external harddrive and editing start immediately - no download time at all. Useful under some circumstances, though it means it can't then be used for anything else until the edit is over, and requires constant powering.

Using your "tape deck" should enable the same "instant edit" capability but without powering issues, and the XDR can still be used for other filming - assuming enough CF cards.

Hi Stefan-
Geez, good find. I am ordering more readers today, so thanks for the tip!

Hi David-
You are absolutely correct. This approach will support instant edits, especially since we get 40 Mbytes/sec transfer speed using the FW-800 reader (on the Trasncend 32GB card). And, since we use removable media (unlike the HDV Hard-Drives) you could continue to capture more video (on a different card) while editing.

We just tested a long write on the Transcend card in the Flash XDR and got 16.6 MBytes/sec. So, this would easily support 80Mbps rate and maybe a bit faster.

Mike-
So A) are you showing at NAB (location) and B) when is the firm release date?

Jim Martin
Birns & Sawyer Inc.

Hi Jim-
We're in booth SL7828. We're scheduled to start shipping product in May 08.

Transcoding is always a possibility. We know it's not ideal, but until the world settles on one CODEC (which will never happen), this will always be a fact of life.[/QUOTE]

JPEG 2000 may be considered as an option. At present not an NLE friendly
CODEC but can change any time.

Rajiv

JPEG 2000 may be considered as an option. At present not an NLE friendly
CODEC but can change any time.

Rajiv[/QUOTE]

We seriously looked at JPEG 2000. While certainly a great CODEC, it's very complex to encode and decode. Reports indicate 1-stream playback at best. So, you likely would be forced into a transcode with JPEG 2000. The much touted AVC Intra suffers from the same problem, you absolutely must transcode to edit this format.

While no CODEC is perfect, the playback performance of MPEG2 has become reasonable with the development of native HDV editing. The highly efficient temporal and spatial compression found in MPEG2 produces very high-quality video at bit-rates below 100 Mbps. This allows the use of low-cost Compact Flash cards as storage media.

Every product is a compromise use of the available technology. This is an ever evolving field.

I've noticed that the GY-HD200u is missing from the list of cameras supported, whereas the HD250u is supported. Why?

hd-sdi ouput not available with the hd200 .

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.

Mike, since you've been up to your elbows in CODEC's, I was wondering if you'd be willing to riff a little on the some of the more popular ones, e.g. DNxHD, ProRes and Cineform. I realize you are not using these in your recorder, but I imagine you've become very familiar with their abilities, and would love to hear what you have to say about them.

From my meger understanding, Cineform is the best b/c it's a wavelet CODEC. DHxHD and ProRes are a small step down interms of quality and are essentially indistiguishable from each other. Is that accurate?