I was over at my local audio video emporium today and got to play with the new SD 240 video recorder. Just to set the record, I am an early purchaser of the CD Flash XDR recorder. This unit has served me well, I am sorry its no longer being made or really supported.

The SD 240 recorder for a similar price to the Nano, does everything and then some. The very nice SD preamps on XLR connectors, Ambient TC generator/reader, Prores, .Mov QT or Avid DXnHD formats, up/down/cross conversion, AES inputs, 5inch color monitor, SDI and HDMI, Tri level sync, word clock, records to CF and SSD with a third eSATA output to an external drive if needed for longer record times. Can be powered from on board Sony L type of camcorder batteries or external power. All in all a very nicely made bit of gear.

My time was limited and I was not able to examine any of the 10 bit files, so I can not comment on the video. One down side it is a bit bigger and heavier than the Nano and has a small fan to keep things cool.

These are exciting times.

David Rogers

what brand? can you give a link to the website?

He's talking about the Sound Devices PIX-240.

I was over at my local audio video emporium today and got to play with the new SD 240 video recorder. Just to set the record, I am an early purchaser of the CD Flash XDR recorder. This unit has served me well, I am sorry its no longer being made or really supported.

The SD 240 recorder for a similar price to the Nano, does everything and then some. The very nice SD preamps on XLR connectors, Ambient TC generator/reader, Prores, .Mov QT or Avid DXnHD formats, up/down/cross conversion, AES inputs, 5inch color monitor, SDI and HDMI, Tri level sync, word clock, records to CF and SSD with a third eSATA output to an external drive if needed for longer record times. Can be powered from on board Sony L type of camcorder batteries or external power. All in all a very nicely made bit of gear.

My time was limited and I was not able to examine any of the 10 bit files, so I can not comment on the video. One down side it is a bit bigger and heavier than the Nano and has a small fan to keep things cool.

These are exciting times.

David Rogers

Iam sure its a nice bit of gear.. but sounds more of a studio based kit.. can it be powered by D tap? it must draw quite a bit of power.. has a fan .. I need something small,light,and easy.. for those needing these attributes the nano still seems to be the best around..

I own the nanoFlash, but I got to use the PIX 240 tonight recording S-Log from a F3. A couple of impressions:

1) it does not work well at all with Sony L batteries. We had 2 L batteries with 50-65% juice left and only one with 65% could provide enough voltage to power it.. We ended up connecting both batteries which gave us about 20 mins of recording time. On screen, it shows the voltage reading and both batteries dropped from 7.0/7.2 to 6.8 and the PIX240 would shut off due to low power (with a warning). I put these batteries in a FS100 and there was still over 40% juice left.

2) Never ever heard the fan.

3) The LCD is not any better quality than the F3 LCD. I became accustomed to using a TVLogic LCD on the F3 so there was a major let down with the drop in quality.

4) Its menu and interface are very well laid out and easy to navigate.

5) It can use a d-tap to hirose but I didn't have mine with me because we were going to use a Cinedeck Extreme, but someone forgot to charge his AB batteries.

6) Playback was quick and fluid.

I recorded onto a SSD but will try my CF cards next time. I plan on doing a comparison of Pro Res HQ vs DNxHD 220Mb. We had someone taking stills of our shoot; so, I can post a pic of the F3 rig with PIX240 if someone wants.

In the end, I want a Gemini even more if its LCD lives up to the hype.

I saw the Gemini LCD at NAB and it was very, very good. Very bright even under the lights of the show and resolution looked very good. We use SmallHd monitors and the Gemini was comparable and would alleviate the need for the added gear of a separate monitor.

Now if we only had an F3....

1) We ended up connecting both batteries which gave us about 20 mins of recording time. On screen, it shows the voltage reading and both batteries dropped from 7.0/7.2 to 6.8 and the PIX240 would shut off due to low power (with a warning). I put these batteries in a FS100 and there was still over 40% juice left.


How big were the Sony L batteries?


3) The LCD is not any better quality than the F3 LCD. I became accustomed to using a TVLogic LCD on the F3 so there was a major let down with the drop in quality.


The LCD looks the same or worse than the F3 LCD?

Thanks for the report on the SoundDevices 240. It lists a processor with 336 cores optimized for video compression. I wonder what is inside? nVidia? AMD ? Given the number 336, I'm guessing the Ambric AM2405. Ambric is now owned by Nethra, a company known for its high definition video compression / processing product line. Such a processor would have the potential for high-quality noise reduction before compression. Hmmm.

Processor
http://www.ambric.com/pdf_files/Am2045_ProductBrief.pdf
"Available software libraries include component modules for advanced video codecs (deblocking, motion estimation and compensation, DCT, IDCT, VLC, intra-prediction, scaler), and AVC-intra, VC-3 (DNxHD), and DVCPRO-HD. Coming soon: video and image processing libraries such as MPEG-2, XDCAM-HD/EX, HDV, and other proven video codec formats supplied by Nethra and by third-party software partners."

Low light product
Nethra Imaging - Capturing Your Imagination (http://nethra.us.com/products_ni_9065.php)