XDR Firmware Update Questions
 

Hi Dan:
I have observed the Time Code display intermittently blinks off and on at a very fast rate between the message "NO TIME CODE," and displaying the running numbers. The TC signal is actually there in the video file itself, because Avid says it is, but upon playback in the XDR , the running TC display blinks of and on. It's really annoying and it makes it impossible to read. This anomaly is not present during the Record process. Is there a fix for this in the upcoming XDR release ?

Thanks,

Dear Mark,

This is due to a quirk in our firmware.

We are displaying the timecode (during playback), and displaying the fact that we are not receiving timecode from a camera or other timecode source.

But, since the Flash XDR or nanoFlash is playing back, we really do not need to be connected to a camera, nor need the timecode input to be present.

Thus, while the message is accurate, it is not really necessary.

Time Code Playback Quirk
 

Hi Dan:
OK. Understood. This makes sense. Is there any way to correct this ?

Dear Mark,

We will have to change the firmware so it only puts out this message during recording.

But, at this time, this is a reasonble way to determine that the unit is not receiving timecode, and thus not ready to record (if timecode is important).

Of course, this was not planned, it is just an accident as far as I know.

Blinking Time Code Display
 

...I don't follow you. (??) During record my XDR auto locks to the incoming TC and video frame signals being fed to it from my Canon XL-H1. If, for any reason, I lose either the LTC input signal, or the HD-SDI video input signal, then I automatically receive an error indication on the XDR menu screen, and my XDR will not go into record mode until this condition is repaired. I'm not sure I follow you why you need to TC display to *Blink* rapidly upon playback ??? In fact, I am happy to report that the TC display is normal during all record procedures as I stated before. I literally have to look away from the TC display when I playback takes for the producer, since this rapid blinking nearly gives me an epileptic seizure if I look at it too long ! If there's anything which could be done about this, then I would be most appreciative. Also, I hope something can be done for the excellent XDR display window menu script size. I really like the XDR's menu design, but I'm having a great deal of difficulty reading the display, as the characters are very small. I know this may sound like nit picking, but I have found this to be a big deal in production situations when I have to make a menu setting changes rapidly on the spot. I hope you can understand this ?

Dear Mark,

The "Missing Timecode" warning message should not display during playback.

It is a quirk, and an accident.

We will remove it from playback as soon as we can.

I will look into the script size on the Flash XDR display.

To change this we will have to manually redesign all of the characters.

Display Character Size
 

Hi Dan:
OK. Understood. I hope I wasn't asking for too big a change. Sometimes you request something not having any real idea how big a deal it is the programming to change. I like the script font and layout style Convergent Design is using for the menu system on the XDR. I hope you folks can make it a little larger. I love the hour glass thingy used to indicate the XDR is Recording. If you could make that 3 sizes bigger, then it would be wonderful. I know that's probably a picky thing on my part.

There was a playback thing as well, which CD may have already fixed in this upcoming release. (??) Sometimes (Not always), when I hit play, I always get the picture, but I don't always get the sound. Sometimes I get the sound as well, but it's screeching and popping at me. Other times when I press Play I get both picture and perfect audio, and this audio will play perfectly through all four cards until the last file is reached. ??????? I have a theory about this, but since I am not a CD technician I do not know if I am correct. The playback from the XDR anomaly may have something to do with how the XDR reads and writes the data to the CF media, but I do not know if this is so. You had written in an earlier post some weeks back about changing the Nano Flash code in the way it reads and writes data to the CF cards. Perhaps this issue may have resolved itself if you have included this new code in the port over to the next XDR firmware release ??

New firmware tomorrow!

XDR Firmware
 

Hi Aaron:
Maybe not ? Tommy found some anomalies in the code at the last minute, so it maybe held back until they can double check a few things. Personally, I don't really mind at this point, because it's been so long that another week or two while they fix and check stuff will not make much difference. I would rather they took the extra time if they really need to and iron out any kinks Tommy may have discovered in Quality Control.

Dear Aaron,

As much as we would like to release the firmware tomorrow, we found some problems in our testing.

These are some very basic things that we have done since day one, and we should be able to fix them, we just need some extra time.

This is a major release and we have incorporated many new features so I hope everyone will be understanding.