Convergent Designs Flash XDR
 

Convergent Designs has announced a device to capture and encode, at various bit rates, an HD-SDI input data stream to Compact Flash media.

Full details:

http://www.convergent-design.com/dow...%20XDR.pdf

Convergent Designs Website:

http://www.convergent-design.com/

There we go, solid state for everyone! If I owned a Canon XLH1, Canon G1, or JVC HD250 right now I'd be jumping up and down with excitement. Heck, if you wanted to upgrade to a RED in the future you'd have a bunch of CF cards ready to go! =D

Awesome solution, truly awesome.

Here's the press release:

Convergent Design announces Flash XDR™
the First CompactFlash® based HD Field Recorder

(Colorado Springs, CO, 28-Aug-07) Convergent Design announced today Flash XDR (Xstream Data Recorder), the first CompactFlash based ultra-portable HD field recorder. Flash XDR features HD-SDI (with embedded audio and time-code), 1394, LTC (time-code), and ASI (MPEG2 over SDI) I/O, 4-Channel AES inputs as well as two CompactFlash card slots in a lightweight, battery-powered box. The innovative design utilizes scalable HD MPEG2 compression to capture video at HDV, XDCAM® HD, or 50 Mbps 4:2:2 data-rates. Flash XDR carries a list price of US $4995.

Portability and Affordability ReDefined

Flash XDR redefines portability and affordability in HD field recorders. By utilizing MPEG2 encoder / decoder technology combined with CompactFlash storage, Convergent Design has substantially reduced the weight (2 kg), power (8 watts), size (127x89x165 mm), noise (no fans) and cost compared to disk-drive or tape based recorders. The low-power, compact design makes it easy to carry Flash XDR on any shoot and enjoy a full-day of battery-powered operation. The rugged, all solid-state construction allows use in extreme conditions, (such as helicopters, back-packs, and race-cars), where traditional disk or tape based systems would fail.

Innovative CompactFlash Based Design

Compactflash is now an ideal storage media for an HD field recorder. CompactFlash is an industry-standard memory, widely available, offering 2X the performance and 1/3 the cost (16GB ≈ US $300) of proprietary flash-based cards. CompactFlash is hot-swappable, highly-reliable, and 100% solid-state; so there are no heads to crash, tapes to jam, or drop-outs. Very low power consumption (5% of disk drives), combined with long-life (10K insertions/removals, 100K read-write cycles) and price-parity with HDV Firewire drives (on a GB basis) make CompactFlash an attractive media. Capacities are ever increasing, with 16 GByte cards (69 minutes of 1080i HDV storage) readily available today and 32 / 64 GB cards expected in the near future. Finally, a Firewire-800 based reader (included with Flash XDR) supports 340 Mbps file-based transfers, so an hour of HDV (1080i) footage can be transferred to a laptop editor in under six minutes!

"Edit While You Shoot" in 50 Mbps 4:2:2 MPEG2 HD Quality

Flash XDR writes video footage to CompactFlash in either QuickTime® or .m2t file formats. When one of the two hot-swappable Compactflash cards is filled, Flash XDR automatically starts recording to the 2nd card. Editors can then eject the first card; quickly transfer the video (using the Firwire-800 reader) and edit while continuing to shoot. Now your laptop can be productively used as an editing tool, avoiding the lengthy ingest from the old Firewire direct-to-laptop capture method.

You are no longer limited to just HDV data-rates; dial down the compression and select XDCAM HD (35 Mbps) or 50Mbps 4:2:2 (422P@HL), full-raster 1920x1080 / 1280x720p video with up to 4-channels of uncompressed 16-bit 48Khz audio. In addition to the standard 1080i/p and 720p formats, you can also utilize 1080p23.98, perfect for digital cinematography. The high-quality Sony MPEG2 CODEC employed in Flash XDR enables selectable bit-rates, so you can match your rate to the job requirements. Non-proprietary, industry-standard MPEG2 means you have a wide range of editing and transmission options.

Numerous Applications

Light weight, portability, and low-power consumption combined with HD-SDI, ASI and 1394 connectivity, as well as CompactFlash storage open up a wide range of applications for Flash XDR. Live-event capture off an HD-SDI switcher, satellite uplink via the ASI output, pool-feed recorder from a news event, and off-line editing of a high-end HD production (HDCAM® SR) are but a few of the many applications. Flash XDR works with virtually any HD-SDI source and is a perfect choice for pole-cams, sports, ENG, EFP, houses of worship, medical, helmet cameras, post-production, etc.

Flash XDR breaks new ground in portability, affordability and usability in field HD Recorders. The innovative use of CompactFlash and high-quality HD MPEG2 compression greatly reduces the weight, power, size, and cost while providing high-quality video which can be quickly transferred to a laptop editor. The rugged, all solid-state construction opens up previously unrealized applications in extreme environments.

See Flash XDR and the full range of Convergent Design products at IBC, Stand 7.703. More information is available at http://www.convergent-design.com

XDCAM and HDCAM are trademarks of Sony. CompactFlash is a trademark of SanDisk. Quicktime is a trademark of Apple. Flash XDR is a trademark of Convergent Design.

The Flash XDR is a very welcome device.

Specifically for the Canon XL H1, based on the preliminary specifications, there is a problem directly importing the audio.

While the Flash XDR has timecode inputs, which is necessary to allow it to work with the Canon XL H1, it only has AES (Digital) audio inputs.

Since the XL H1 does not embed the audio into the HD-SDI, we will need another method to get the audio imported into the device.

I sent Mike at Convergent Designs an email concerning this issue.

Personally, I would like for the Flash XDR to also accept analog audio.

Please note that the above issue does not affect the Canon XH G1 as the audio is embedded in the HD-SDI data stream on the G1.

We've been jumpin' up and down all day!

We just need some tweaks for the H1...

Great time to introduce the H1s!

I'm usually impressed everytime I receive a press release from Convergent Design, but I must say that I was simply overjoyed when I read this one today. These guys really do "get it." Widely available consumer based flash media is the key to the success of tapeless acquisition for indie filmmakers.

SanDisk 16GB Extreme III cards are under $400 at BestBuy. How much is a P2 of the same capacity? $900 last I checked.

There are huge advantages for the JVC HD250 as well. The HD250 does embed audio in the HD-SDI signal (as well as TC) and the HD250 is capable of outputting live 1080i. 1080i cannot be recorded to HDV on the JVC ProHD products, but the Flash XDR will allow for that.

I hope they add an HDMI interface / option also. Would be very nice with the Sony V1. 50 Mbit mpeg2 4.2.2 should look great and nearly lossless.
but 5k$ .. ough !

I agree, $5,000 seems like a lot for a CF storage option.

This seems like the norm for anything HD, way more expensive than what we are used to paying for SD.

For $5,000, can one record straight to a laptop with external drives?

The SDI output will probably not be used for "run & gun" shooting anyway.

Dear Tim,

The Flash XDR device is small enough to be used for high quality, camera mounted, shooting, or run and gun.

The recorder could be mounted on-camera, or in a backpack, or other arrangement.

It is difficult to power a laptop and the necessary raid for mobile shooting.

Reading through the material, the impression that I got was that it would be useful in run and gun applications because it was battery powered, and consumed very little power.

Thanks for the feedback and recommendations! I'll study the analog audio input options for the Canon XL H1 and see if we can engineer a resonable solution. This is a clearly an issue with this camera.

We had studied the HDMI input option and decided to leave this off the initial version of the box, as we already have a very low-cost converter (nanoConnect) which does HDMI to HD-SDI. Yes, this requires 2 boxes, but you can use a very long HD-SDI cable (150 meters) to go from the camera +nanConnect to the Flash XDR box.

Regarding the price, please keep in mind that this box is not merely a CF Storage option. Flash XDR includes an HD MPEG2 Encoder/Decoder, ASI, 1394 IO with 1080i, 720p support at HDV, XDCAM HD and 50Mbps 4:2:2 support. HD MPEG2 encoders typically cost $25K+. PC Based Digital Disk Recorders start at $17K and go up quickly in price (although some do support uncompressed capture). HD-SDI to HDV converters (with no storage option) list for $8.5K. So, compare our price to the competition and $5K does not seem unreasonable.

I welcome your continued comments and thoughts.

Mike Schell
Convergent Design

Nanoconnect HDMI --> HD-SDI Converter - $400
Flash XDR - $5,000

= $5400 Compact Flash recorder for Canon HV20, Sony V1, and various other HDMI cameras.

Still a neat value, especially for the HV20 crowd. Kind of erring on the side of HVX200 territory but Compact Flash is still cheaper than P2 and is more widely used and available. Don't get me wrong, P2 does have its advantages and is still relatively in its infancy, I'm just saying for comparisons sake.

Sorry, I did not mean to say the device was not a good value, just that everything HD is a lot more expensive than SD.

Also, I meant that SDI output seems to be mainly a studio output, but maybe this device will change that.

Thanks for your presence here, Mike.

Whilst the design announced is very welcome, would you have any thoughts on it becoming part of a 'family' of products?

Versatile it may be, but for some a simpler, cheaper option (also smaller and lighter) may be more appropiate? Effectively giving the facilities of a Firestore with solid state removable media? Valuable though the features may be on occasion, much of the time light weight is of prime importance when attached to the camera.

Another thought would be to have a degree of compatability with Sonys SxS system (2xCF slots and 2xSxS, maybe?). This could be valuable for a user required to work for a future SxS client, and requiring a degree of compatability with their workflow, whilst using their own camera. The client would be able to issue a stock of cards at the beginning of the shoot, gather them at the end with material.

Flash XDR is not for HV20 owners this is for professional cams such as XL H1 and JVC HD250. If you pay 10k on a camera and maybe another 10k-20k on lenses you can pay 5k to get full raster 1080p in 4:2:2 color space.

I am sure someone will come out with a HDMI version for under 2K. Great job Convergent Designs I see this being big with the rental community. Let me get the XL H1 with the mini 35 and the Flash XDR. It seems like a no brainer for commercial work.

Why not? If the HV20 is part of you professional setup....then....with the Nano-XDR combination it can be used for the HV20 and other HDMI capable cams. Grant it this is an expensive solution for the average consumer...but not necessarily for pro-sumers.

Keep in mind that this box ENCODES to XDcam HD, HDV or 50 Mb/s 422 profile MPEG2 HD. Laptop options capture existing bitstreams, but there are very few practical options for real-time capture/encode.

SDI can and is used for all kinds of things. The connection has very little to do with the devices portability. This thing is slightly bigger than four decks of playing cards...you can velcro it on the camera.

I think when anyone compares pricing on these "HD" items to "SD", they're actually not thinking "SD", they're thinking "DV". Capturing (and usually encoding) 4:2:2, high bandwidth standard definition material isn't nearly as cheap as all the solutions for capturing 4:1:1/4:2:0 DV material.

I think this a significant point as this device has capability beyond HDV workflows...

What kind of batteries does it use ? just wondering if it also has a commercial mount option eg- vlock or anton

The thing comes with an Anton Bauer ElipZ 10K Battery, which will run the device for 8 hours by preliminary calculations.

Hi David-
Yes, this very well may evolve into a family of products with different feature sets at different prices. We'll be listening for feedback from intiial customers to determine the configuration of future versions.

Regrading the cheaper, lighter version, are you proposing a simple recorder box that accepts HDV over 1394 and records to Compact Flash instead of a hard-drive? So, a version of the Flash XDR w/o MPEG2 encoder and HD-SDI I/O?

Yes, we thought about the Express (Flash) card as a storage option. It looks attractive and offers high read-write bandwidth (800 Mbps). But the design time for the PCIe interface is lenghty and we don't want to delay introduciton of out box. Secondly, most laptops only have one PCIe external slot, which most videographers would like to use for a RAID hard-drive. If you use Express card memory, you are forced to Firewire-800 external drives.

So, we think using a Firewire-800 reader for the Compact Flash and leaving the PCIe slot for the RAID hard-drive is a better overall solution (at least for laptops). Besides, Compact Flash already has a read speed of 340 Mbps, which supports file downloads of 60 minutes of XDCAM HD material in under 8 minutes.

Mike Schell
Convergent Design

Good to hear, Mike!
That would certainly be one option, and may be more attractive to some than what you have already announced - not just because of cost, but also because it's less weight to hang on a camera. Not just HDV, but also DV, and maybe DVCProHD to make it compatible with the HVX200. Effectively a solid state Firestore with removable media. (And hopefully more weatherproof, and without any fan noise.) I do stress I would see this as an ALTERNATIVE to the XDR - not instead of - the enhanced feature set of the XDR may well outweigh the cost/weight penalties in many instances.
At the moment, much production (at least in the UK) is still SD widescreen, and the use of such DVCAM cameras as the DSR500/570/450 is very widespead. High Definition and tapeless working are on the agenda, and likely to form two essential items when camera upgrades are required.

In practice, the tapeless facility of a camera is likely to be used much earlier the High Definition capability, though this will obviously vary from user to user. A lot of advance interest has been generated by Sonys announcement of SxS development. A device such as yours with SxS cards would enable a broadcaster to move on to a solid state infrastructure based on that platform, without needing to immediately replace all existing cameras. It would also enable a DVCAM tape recording to be made as backup/archive simultaneously to a tapeless recording intended for more immediate use.

It would also be potentially very valuable to such as a freelance with a DSR450, who may be working for clients who start to demand SxS compatibility. Until they start to require HD, he would be able to satisfy their needs without having to buy another camera.

I accept what you say about development time - but maybe another idea for the future? For a self contained operation, I agree that it may offer little advantage over Compact Flash and may indeed be less desirable for the reasons you say, which is why I wondered about 2 SxS slots IN ADDITION to 2 Compact Flash - not in place of. The choice of using one or the other may be very useful.

I would think it very likely that most of the buyers of the EX would love to have the availability of a 2nd recording sysem you could run at the same time with little weight, ....just in case of a bad card?

Cheers Vaughan

Hi David-
Thanks for the feedback and recommendations. Yes, I can see that a FLASH based equivalent to a Disk-Drive based system would offer many advantages in terms of weight, power, noise, size and reliability.

I also agree with your points on the SxS cards. As this format becomes more popular, many videographers will carry these cards as part of their basic kit, so compability will becomre more important. We'll continue to study this option for the future.

If anyone is attending IBC, please stop by our booth at Stand 7.703.

Mike Schell

Again, good to hear! I feel quite a likely scenario with cards (once solid state acquisition starts to become mainstream) is that the ownership of the cards is more likely to rest with the client than the cameraman - be issued at the start of the shoot, collected at the end.

It's been pointed out to me that in addition to any simpler device being able to record HDV, DV, and DVCProHD, the obvious other candidates are 35 and 50 Mbs XDCAM-HD, for cameras able to output one or both over Firewire. This would obviously be valuable to XDCAM-HD owners - the card recording being most suitable for immediate use (faster download, easy use with laptops without separate readers etc), the disc forming the archive/backup. It would also potentially benefit XDCAM-HD disc camera owners who find clients starting to embrace SxS for similar reasons to before - they could satisfy those clients requirements without purchasing a new camera. This does assume that such a device supports SxS as well as CF.

When used with a larger camera, it is extremely useful to be able to power the Firestore from the main camera battery - the same facility would be very desirable in any device you produce. It would also be useful if the device could power up quickly as the camera is switched on, maybe using the switched power output of the camera? In an ideal world it could be fixed to the camera, connected via power and Firewire, and clone the tape or disc recording with no further user operations, switching on and off with the camera? Hopefully solid state devices could go from power up to record ready in much less time than the Firestore.

Hi David-
Good recommendations! Yes, we can power this device off the main camera battery, Flash XDR has a input voltage range of +5V to +17V, so we can accomandate a wide range of power supplies / batteries. Yes, we can trigger a record based on the Firewire connection. I don't think we can power up and down automatically with the camera, but the "boot-up" time is rather short for our box (under 5 seconds) anyway. The power consumption of our box is rather low (under 8 watts active), so we won't drain the battery too quickly if left powered-on.


Mike Schell

Does the XDR have a line-out so you can take the 50mps 4:2:2 signal out and capture it to your computer directly? I'm wanting to capture 3 cameras and switch them live, and I understand if they each had an XDR that would give a relatively high quality compression, without the massive data of the "uncompressed" signal that comes from the HD SDI output.

Keep in mind that Serial Digital (SDI, HDSDI) is a "baseband" (a term that would be more accurately applied in the world of analog) transmission method...it's uncompressed. It is an actual video signal traveling through the line as opposed to a file transfer when you bring in DV or HDV (or on a Mac, DVC ProHD) through FireWire for example.

If you took an HDSDI output from the unit it would likely be a loop through, which would of course, be uncompressed, but even if you played out compressed footage from a flash card in the box through HDSDI, the video coming out would be "uncompressed", or maybe more properly, "decompressed' to a full bandwidth stream.

Maybe the ideal thing for you might be to run a Flash XDR downstream from the switcher? remember that the encoding to the 50 Mb/s bitstream is inside the box itself and the way you would move that as data would be to perform a file transfer from the flash memory cards themselves.

Thanks Tim--that helps

...AND FWIW:

I just got clearance to mention that the device will now arrive with 160 Mb/s 4:2:2 I-Frame (No...that is not a typo. this thing will do MPEG2 I-frame at a data rate higher than HDcam).

I love these crazy guys...

Even I, who knows nothing about this, knowsd that that is amazing. I wonder how long til it's available in Oz?

Wow ... I'm very interested in this. When is the planned release date for this product?

Also, any word on the analog audio input option for use with the Canon XL-H1?

Is this something that can be mounted on the XL-mount on the back of the camera?

Incredible product. Your product is, indeed, a revolution for HD-SDI production. I would love to see AVC Intra 100 Included in a future upgrade of this, but the 160mbps Mpeg2 just looks the part.

Does this codec work natively in FCP?

Another question: Would I be benefiting for using the HD-SDI out of the Panasonic HPX500 vs using the native DVCPRO HD encoding, for 1080p?

Unlike most here, I'd like to go the other way: I'd like a box that would give me ready-to-edit web resolution files -- 320x180 -- preferably in Quicktime that could go straight into FCP for web use. Speed of production is the primary concern.

There are thousands of newspaper photographers that are looking for a solution like this. I'd like to shoot HDV to tape and low-rez proxies with good audio to a CF card at the same time. The ready-to-edit part is the key, though.

See I knew there was something that I wasn't being told when I first commented. 160 Mb/s 4:2:2 I-Frame! Now that is worth the 5K price tag. Now I can recommend this product with all my heart. You might have some Varicam/F900/ owners buying this product now. Better than HDcam What! Are you telling me that with a 720p24 camera you can up-convert on the fly to 1080p24 160 Mb/s 4:2:2 I-Frame? Also the big question will Final Cut Pro edit it? I guess what I mean is can you drop it into a ProRes Timeline and edit it? Again great job the XDR.

As an XL-H1 owner, (who has actually recorded live HD-SDI to full raster 4:2:2 codecs via computer) this is a dream come true. Cheap? Not exactly, (at least not to me) but wow, what it offers is damn cool.

Aside from all the great encoding options and CF recording (LOVE THAT!!), the fact that this is actually something a lone shooter could use in the field (pretty much like a Firestore) is the killer feature. Being able to acquire in a high bit rate I Frame codec is wonderful...but the thing that seals the deal is that it'll be a reasonably convenient recording device.

Kudos to the folks at Convergent Design!

You would get added color sampling if the SDI output of the HPX500 is pre-compression and full raster.

Full raster 4:2:2= 960x1080 color vs. 720x1080 (1440x1080 50HZ DVCPRO HD) or 640x1080 (1280x1080 60HZ DVCPRO HD)

Hi Barlow (and everyone)
Thanks for the feedback and questions. I am just returning from IBC, so sorry if this response comes al little late.

Firstoff, we had great customer response on the Flash XDR during IBC and some excellent meeting with JVC and Canon on incorporating our box onto their HD-SDI cameras. Below I'll pass along some notes from the show and try to answer some of your questions.

We will be adding support for Anton Bauer, IDX and PAG battery mounts to the back of the box (it's starting to look like swiss cheese). But you should be able to mount the box on the back of these batteries (with the appropriate plate). The power input range is +5V to +20V, so we can accpet a wide range of batteries.

We are working with Apple to get native support of the 422P@HL MPEG2 CODEC into FCP (Sony introduced 50 Mbps 422 Camera at IBC). This CODEC should support playback of the 160 Mbps captures in a manner similar to DVCProHD (which is also an I-Frame CODEC).

We are planning to automatically remove the pull-down (reverse telecine) on the 1080F24 mode in Canon and the 720p24 mode in JVC so that we can record the native 24p frames. We are 100% sure this works in 1080 mode, but need more tests to verify 720 operation.

We also plan to add support for image flipping necessary for the T+S cine lense. We can send the corrected image out the HD-SDI port and also to the MPEG2 encoder simultaneously.

We're also working on several solutions to the analog audio issue on the XL H1. Happily we can accept the time-code out of the camera directly into our box. The JVC 250 camera has the audio and time-cdoe embedded already.

Just for clarification, Flash XDR does not perform any up / down / cross conversions. The encoded format always matches the incoming signal, so no 720p <-> 1080i/p conversions are possible.

We're planning to ship Flash XDR during Q1 2008. Lots of Starbucks to drink in the meantime.

Mike Schell
Convergent Design.

All good stuff Mike, but I'm a little confused by what you say about mounting on the back of these batteries. I'm more used to other ancillary gear being mounted between the camera and battery, typically via V-mount connectors - so clip device onto camera V-lock, then clip battery to V-lock on other side of device, power being passed through, and powering the device as it does so.
Can you give any information about exactly what spec of CF memory is required here? In particular, and with reference to the Sandisk range, whether the 160Mbs codec will be recordable with their Extreme III range, or whether Extreme IV is needed?

Obviously the 160Mbs facility may be good to have, but I suspect many may feel 50Mbs is more than good enough if it allows for much cheaper Extreme III to be used - and obviously only requires one third the amount.

I've just checked my normal supplier, and for 8GB CF, Extreme IV is being shown as £110, versus £80 for Extreme III in the UK - tax included. (The latter is also available as 16GB at £135.) Pretty interesting to compare with both SxS and P2 pricings.........!

Sorry I wasn't at IBC - you would have been on my list to visit if I had been.

Flipping would be a huge time saver for adapter users.

Did you mean P+S? Or is there another adapter out there I'm not aware of?