The PIX-E Series is a new line of camera-mounted recording monitors that feature 1920x1080 five-inch (PIX-E5 and PIX-E5H) and 1920x1200 seven-inch (PIX-E7) LCDs, a full suite of precision monitoring tools, SDI and HDMI I/O, plus the ability to record 4K and Apple ProRes 4444 XQ edit-ready files to affordable mSATA-based SpeedDrives™.

PIX-E Series - Video Devices (http://videodevices.com/pix-e)

Come and check them out at the Video Devices /Sound Devices booth at NAB, #C6040

These look very interesting! One thing of note, on the website it looks like it will only record 4K via HDMI (not SDI) -- is that correct?

Yes - 4K over HDMI only.

Interesting. Any future for 4k over SDI?

Also, is pricing available? Thanks.

Pricing details are not available yet, but all three models will be competitive.

The PIX-E support only 4K over HDMI e.g. from cameras such as FS7, A7s, GH4 etc
PIx-E SDI supports HD up to 1080p60.

Which cameras with 4K over SDI do you want to use?

Thanks Paul. Was thinking about 4K from the FS7 via SDI rather than HDMI since I feel more confident in SDI.

I have been waiting for SD to release a 4K recorder as I love the products and have been using them for years (including a PIX240i)!

Thanks Steve for your kind words.

Nice thing about HDMI is its a single cable approach to uncompressed 4K. With SDI it currently needs to be RAW format (which complicates workflow) or, for uncompressed, typically 4x BNC connections ... spaghetti hell:)

And as far as a single cable 12-G SDI approach, well there's no evidence to suggest that'll become an industry wide standard.

The comparison chart on the website shows "4K Input to HD Ouput Scaling."

Might be a silly question, but can the scaled output also be recorded? For realtime down-conversion from an A7s or GH4 4K output, for instance? Thanks.

Hello Paul,
Will it support the new Canon C300 Mark II 4K raw? The C300 Mark II records 4K 30p max internally and by odyssey 7Q/7Q+ one can record 4K 60p. Any idea if your product is going to also record 4K 60p? At the moment the spec sheet is 4K 24p. Not even 4K 25p. Sound devices is a company I trust. If there is a future firmware upgrade path, then I would be very interested in your product.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

The comparison chart on the website shows "4K Input to HD Ouput Scaling."

Might be a silly question, but can the scaled output also be recorded? For realtime down-conversion from an A7s or GH4 4K output, for instance? Thanks.

Hi Kris

Not a silly question at all! Down-converting from 4k output to HD is going to give a better quality HD than outputting HD from the camera. At this time the answer is no, but thanks for the feature request.

Paul

Hello Paul,
Will it support the new Canon C300 Mark II 4K raw? The C300 Mark II records 4K 30p max internally and by odyssey 7Q/7Q+ one can record 4K 60p. Any idea if your product is going to also record 4K 60p? At the moment the spec sheet is 4K 24p. Not even 4K 25p. Sound devices is a company I trust. If there is a future firmware upgrade path, then I would be very interested in your product.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Hi Sabyasachi,

Thanks for your feature request for RAW. At Sound Devices, we prefer not talk about our future feature plans - we don't like to make false promises. In terms of future upgrade path, if you look at the firmware history of any of our video or audio products, you can see that they evolve significantly over time with firmware updates. At first release, we will be supporting 4096x2160 @ 24fps and 3840x2160 @ 30fps.

Paul

If these would record the FS700 raw 4K to ProRes, they would be a no-brainer. Would much rather get one of these than the Atomos Shogun. Unless I can swing a Odyssey 7Q, but they are a bit out of my price range... As long as the PIX-Es don't record FS700 they are a no-go for me however.

Hi Paul,

I'm currently a Shogun owner and I'm looking for a second unit. Your 5 inch models seem perfect.

Question:

I currently only need HDMI UHD recording so those models seem fine for me. I know that you stated that you don't discuss future upgrades. However, would there be any future benefit to me for buying the SDI recording model? If a future Sony RAW upgrade is planned, than only the SDI could model could potentially support it. (The HDMI-only model will never have RAW in the future)

Can you state that the 5 inch SDI model will never have Sony RAW in the future? If this is the case, than I will happily buy the HDMI-only model. I need to at least know that information now before I buy either of your recorders..

Also,..when will these 5 inch models get to the stores?

Thanks!

Hi Cliff,

I cannot state that the SDI model will or will never have Sony RAW.... I'm starting to sound like a politician:)
There are other benefits to having SDI other than RAW, if nothing other than increasing compatibility with a wider range of cameras, bit depths, 444, SDI metadata....
Note that there is only a $200 difference between the E5 and E5H.

Expect shipping this Summer, E5 first, then E5H, then E7. Sorry I can't be more precise at this time.

Paul

I placed a pre-order for the E7. I'm sort of expecting it in September (plus/minus a month or so)

Am I more or less in the right ballpark?

I have a late December recording session planned that I want to use the E7 for and I'm hoping to get it a month or two before so I have time to familiarize myself with it a bit ahead of time.

Hi Cliff,

I cannot state that the SDI model will or will never have Sony RAW.... I'm starting to sound like a politician:)
There are other benefits to having SDI other than RAW, if nothing other than increasing compatibility with a wider range of cameras, bit depths, 444, SDI metadata....
Note that there is only a $200 difference between the E5 and E5H.

Expect shipping this Summer, E5 first, then E5H, then E7. Sorry I can't be more precise at this time.

Paul

Well?...as a simple consumer who knows nothing, I can only "speculate" the following:

1.) The fact that you are unable to discuss in any way, the possible feature of SDI and RAW recording, points to this being a "touchy" or "controversial" subject.

2.) If the technical answer was a simple: "No, I'm sorry this unit can't process RAW data over the SDI port"...than I'm sure you could have stated that as an EASY "no".

3.) The fact that you can't easily say "no" could mean that there is some internal discussion about it being mechanically "possible". (Again, if the SDI hardware, chip and port were wired in a way that made RAW data impossible,...than your answer would have been a very, very easy, "no")

The PIX E5 being able to record Sony or Canon RAW is very interesting. However, the company's unwillingness to discuss the matter is far, FAR more interesting to me. I wonder what the hesitation comes from. It's well known that the competition is working on it. I'm sure they suspect that you have an equal interest in SDI/RAW too. So,...there is no secret there.

Sorry if I'm speculating out loud here but you can't blame me as a consumer for trying! ;-)

I'm sure many of us would hate to buy the SDI model if we dont need SDI and I'm sure many of us would be upset if we got the HDMI model only to find out later that the SDI model CAN do RAW!

This is one of those things that you really need to know BEFORE you make your choice on which model that you need. (Otherwise you could lose a couple hundred bucks for no reason)

CT ;-)

Expect shipping this Summer, E5 first, then E5H, then E7. Sorry I can't be more precise at this time.


I was hoping for an E5H for my major project this year in July but it looks like it won't be shipping until after that. Regardless, I'm still planning to order one once it's released.

Paul you don't happen to have a demo unit you could lend for a couple weeks in early-mid July do you?

I find Paul’s “I am not going to speculate on possible future upgrades stance" refreshing! It is honest and reeks of integrity. I understand everyone’s concern about how fast technology changes. But the paranoia behind that thinking has led some manufacturers to play off of it. A lot of products are now rushed to market before they are functional just to get you to buy in. It is also now common for future upgrades to be listed in product specs, even with no release date. Some products never get the promised upgrades or it comes far later than implied. And here is the one that insults me the most, “This product is future proof!” Really???

What I find so exciting about these new monitor/recorders is the price. So my question is can we expect all Video Device products to be built with the same quality standards as the Sound Devices line? SD products are in a league almost of their own and you pay dearly for that quality standard. Are Video Device products cheapened up in manufacturing to be competitive price wise? They look great. I will be keeping my eye on them for future needs. I hope you stay honest, stay real, and stay the best in the business.

Steve

I was hoping for an E5H for my major project this year in July but it looks like it won't be shipping until after that. Regardless, I'm still planning to order one once it's released.

Paul you don't happen to have a demo unit you could lend for a couple weeks in early-mid July do you?

Hi Matt

There will be no demo PIX-Es prior to shipping of production units. All our energies are currently focussed on intensive debugging and thorough testing of PIX-E firmware so that we can get a rock-solid PIX-E shipping soon. The PIX-E5 model with SDI and HDMI I/O will be first to ship. Things are progressing very well, but I don't want to promise an exact shipping date at this time.

Paul

Things are progressing very well, but I don't want to promise an exact shipping date at this time.

Paul, I'm sure I'm not the only one here who thinks that these devices can't ship soon enough!

What I find so exciting about these new monitor/recorders is the price. So my question is can we expect all Video Device products to be built with the same quality standards as the Sound Devices line? SD products are in a league almost of their own and you pay dearly for that quality standard. Are Video Device products cheapened up in manufacturing to be competitive price wise? They look great. I will be keeping my eye on them for future needs. I hope you stay honest, stay real, and stay the best in the business.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Fair question and one we are asked regularly, but I can assure you that there is absolutely no compromise on the PIX-E's build quality. It has the same rugged industrial design characteristics that all Sound Devices and Video Devices products are well known for. The affordable price is primarily down to advances in technology combined with some rather clever engineering.

Check this video of a car driving over PIX-E
https://youtu.be/UVgc3ghJzYk?list=PLKpAunZPiGRmmUM7DpwOM96oVKVp-eWEx

Paul

Before NAB, I was about to buy a second Shogun. However, once i picked up a Pix 5e, i was completly sold on it. Im very excited about this recorder, its exactly the size and form factor im looking for.

I love this video too....very nice job on the build quality!

I know you dont want to commit to release days but are we looking at June, July or August?

Im holding off buying a second recorder just to wait for this unit. :-)

Hi Steve,

Fair question and one we are asked regularly, but I can assure you that there is absolutely no compromise on the PIX-E's build quality. It has the same rugged industrial design characteristics that all Sound Devices and Video Devices products are well known for. The affordable price is primarily down to advances in technology combined with some rather clever engineering.

Check this video of a car driving over PIX-E
https://youtu.be/UVgc3ghJzYk?list=PLKpAunZPiGRmmUM7DpwOM96oVKVp-eWEx

Paul

Interesting. It seems if someone manhandles you in a busy street, you can hit back with your Pix-E. :)

I would be glad to atleast know the month of shipping, if not the exact date. It helps in planning.

I'm sold on the Pix - only problem now is actually getting one!

Hi Paul,

It was great to meet you at InfoComm.

Can you give us any status update on when the Pix E5 will hit the streets?

We're anticipating PIX-E5 will ship within a month. That's not 100% but as of now, looking good.

Paul

We're anticipating PIX-E5 will ship within a month. That's not 100% but as of now, looking good.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for the update. Even a tentative one. Another question, will the XLR attachment ship at the same time as the unit?

The PIX-LR will ship about 1-2 months after PIX-E5.

Paul

Paul - I've got a technical question about screen types. One of the annoying problems with screens used in video equipment is they typically don't work very well in sunlight. By comparison, the screens used in many marine applications actually seem to work better in bright sunlight.

See the radar and chart plotters at West Marine: Chartplotters | GPS & Radar | Marine Electronics | West Marine (http://www.westmarine.com/chartplotters)

There must be some reason why screens used for video purposes are different. Is this anything you can shed some light on?

There are two ways to make LCD screens more visible in the presence of bright light (sunlight etc): reflect the light, or overpower the light with even brighter light. A purely reflective LCD is pretty difficult to see in the dark, so there are not many of these other than on cheap alarm clocks etc. "Transmissive" displays are the most common - these are backlit, and what you have on most products at this point with color displays (iPhones, 688/633, PIX-E, etc).

Many marine displays use "transflective" displays, which reflect a portion of the incident light back at you as well as transmit the backlight through (about 20% reflective and 80% transmissive). These have mostly fallen out of favor, as they look fairly terrible in all conditions. The colors often look very washed out, and they suffer from very poor off-axis fidelity. Newer transflective displays simply are not made. Most of the transflective screens available are larger, lower-resolution displays. A good portable video monitor needs to be small, have accurate color representation, be high resolution and have great off axis viewing.

The other way to deal with this issue is to use a transmissive display and jack up the backlight power. This works to a point. Eyes respond logarithmically. So if you want 10dB more light, you'd need to put about 10x more power into the backlight. There are a few issues with this: the display would get very thick to accommodate such LEDs, it would get hot such that you might need a cooling system (especially in a small chassis), it would be expensive, and the batteries in the unit would not last very long!

OLED displays are fundamentally different than LCDs: each pixel is a small LED. While they offer superior contrast ratios and color compared to LCDs, they are way dimmer and wash out in sunlight.

The bottom line is that the perfect display has yet to be invented. Said display would be mostly reflective, with great color fidelity, fast-response pixels, low power, reasonable cost, and small.

That said the PIX-E5 IPS LCD offers a great overall performance with its 500nit brightness, 1920x1080 (441ppi) resolution, and great off axis viewing

Paul

Any more news on the PIX e5?

B&H says my pre order will ship August 1.

Also, is there any news on when the Speed Drive will be released?

Last question: Will 500gig Samsung M-SATA's work in the Speed Drive?

Getting very excited. It's been a long wait since NAB!

We are in the final throws of QA testing, so we expect to be shipping any day now.

SpeedDrive will be available at launch.

At launch, only the 250GB Samsung 850 EVO mSATA is tested and on Approved List. It is an excellent drive. We do aim to expand the list.

Paul

Darn...I just ordered the Samsung 500 gig - 850 EVO mSATA tonight from B&H

Even though the size is not officially supported, it does come from the same family and product line. Do you know for a fact that this will cause problems?

I guess I will be a beta tester for this M-SATA! I need it for long form 4k shooting.

If not, I'm sure you folks will work it out soon enough.

I also have the sun hood on pre order. Is that also slated to ship with the the speed drive?

Hi Paul, glad to read that you are on schedule releasing the pix-e's and that they will be in the hands of customers these days. My dealer in Germany gave me mid to end of August as a date for delivering pix-e5h and pix-lr. Hope you can meet that too.

I remember reading from Art Adams that he is confident, that the pix-e's will bee a complete product on release and that you at sounddevices will not release something half backed. Lets say with playback software enabled later. Hope there will be no such frustrations after release.

For me the Pix-e5 monitors are perfect to go with the Sony a7s. Not only as not to big video monitors and to record 4k. I will use them as a top audio solution, as a live view monitor for outdoors stills photography e.g.. focussing tilt shift lenses. And with the solid double battery slots as a external power solution for the a7s.

Wish you all success with this product line.

Hi Paul,

Quick question. Does the Pix E5 firmware "lock out" any drive that is not approved? Another manufacturer does this with their recorder today.

I'm hoping that I can keep my Samsung 850 EVO - 500gig drive for my PIX E5. I'm hoping that it will make your list eventually.

Started shipping PIX-E5 today!!!

Hi Cliff,

I would highly recommend sticking with the approved drives. We have not tested the 500 GB version. It may work, but it is at your own risk. Although it is the same 'family', it's performance will likely be different.
We do plan to start seriously evaluating this and other mSATA. Media approval involves much analysis and deep testing - not a quick process. See here for what's involved in the testing process:

https://youtu.be/bTjBzoLInvk

We do not lock out use of unapproved media.

Sun hood is shipping today too, yes.

Paul

Hi Albrecht,

Yes - we are currently on target to ship the PIX-E5H end of August. PIX-LR will be more towards the end of September.

Yes - playback is enabled in the initial release

I recommend reading the online User Guide for the full details on implemented functionality.
http://videodevices.com/download/guides/PIX-E5-ug_en.pdf

best

Paul


Hi Paul, glad to read that you are on schedule releasing the pix-e's and that they will be in the hands of customers these days. My dealer in Germany gave me mid to end of August as a date for delivering pix-e5h and pix-lr. Hope you can meet that too.

I remember reading from Art Adams that he is confident, that the pix-e's will bee a complete product on release and that you at sounddevices will not release something half backed. Lets say with playback software enabled later. Hope there will be no such frustrations after release.

For me the Pix-e5 monitors are perfect to go with the Sony a7s. Not only as not to big video monitors and to record 4k. I will use them as a top audio solution, as a live view monitor for outdoors stills photography e.g.. focussing tilt shift lenses. And with the solid double battery slots as a external power solution for the a7s.

Wish you all success with this product line.

A

Thanks Paul for the info.

Does the PIX E5 come with 110v to DC power transformer?

If I need to buy my own, I will probably by a 12v but how many amps does the PIX draw? Will a 2 amp DC transformer work or is more needed?

Yes it comes with an AC to DC PSU.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I might have missed it but I didn't see LUTs for SLOG or any other gamma.

Does the PIX E5 support look up tables? I'm interested in SLOG-2 and SLOG-3

Cant wait to get my pre-order processed!

My PIX E5 shows it's shipping from B&H on Aug1 however, the SpeedDrive and hood have no info or even picture on their site. My order still says "7 to 14 days until shipping"

Thanks!

LUTs didn't make it into the first firmware release, but they are coming soon.

See here for pics of accessories:

Accessories - Video Devices (http://www.videodevices.com/products/portable-video-recorders/pix-e5/accessories)

LUTs didn't make it into the first firmware release, but they are coming soon.

That's sad to hear. Might need to hold off until this is ready. Are there any plans for a record LUT option like the Shogun has? That comes in handy for clients who I know will not do much for color correction.

Also, what is the triggering support like? I have a C100 Mark II, a GH4, and the A7R II. Will the Pix-E5 support record triggering and timecode from these cameras?

HI Gary,

What do you mean by a record LUT option? Ability to record the log signal un-processed or the ability to record it as REC 709?

HDMI triggers and timecode are coming. SDI triggers and timecode already supported.

Paul

What do you mean by a record LUT option? Ability to record the log signal un-processed or the ability to record it as REC 709?

The Shogun lets you load a .cube file into memory and then load it for viewing over your signal or actually recording the LUT burned in on the ProRes file. This can be handy for quick turnover of footage that you know won't actually be graded. This would really be handy for C300 Mark II shoots in which you can deliver color corrected ProRes files straight from the drive for the client (especially if they are still editing in a FCP classic environment) while having the XFAVC Clog2 files for demo reel material.

HDMI triggers and timecode are coming.

Hope this is added soon!

I have heard that the menu item for selecting the ProRes flavor lists ProRes LT and Proxy as being 8-bit. This is not correct. Every single version of ProRes is 10-bit except 444 and 444 XQ, which are 12-bit.

Cinema 5D has a review:
https://www.cinema5d.com/video-devices-pix-e5-review/

Saw that the Pix now accepts HDMI start/stop and timecode with the latest update. Unfortunately for GH4 users, it is only for Sony/Canon cameras.

Still no LUTs. Once viewable LUTs are made available, then it will be a consideration for purchase. Would definitely love to have the ability to burn LUTs into the footage as well.