New price, More Features for nanoFlash

[Mike Schell]

(Colorado Springs, CO, May 7, 2009) Convergent Design announced today a $2,995 MSRP price for the highly anticipated nanoFlash, which will ship in June, now with analog audio I/O. nanoFlash is the world’s smallest, lowest-power professional HD/SD recorder/player creating visually lossless Quicktime or MXF files stored on affordable Compact Flash media.

The diminutive (4.2x3.7x1.4” / 107x94x36 mm) nanoFlash easily mounts on any professional camera, adding less than 1 lb (400 grams) additional weight. The very low power consumption of less than 6 Watts assures long battery life, while the very wide power input range of 6.5 to 19.5V makes nanoFlash compatible with most power sources.

nanoFlash utilizes the very high quality XDCAM HD 422 CODEC (from Sony) at 50/100 Mbps (Long-GOP) or 100/140/160 Mbps (I-Frame-Only). Quicktime and/or MXF files can be played/edited in Avid, Final Cut Pro, Edius, Vegas and Premiere (restricted usage) without transcode or re-wrap. HD/SD-SDI and HDMI I/O ports support 1080p30/25/24, 1080i60/50 and 720p60/50 video formats. nanoFlash can also be used as an HD/SD-SDI to HDMI or HDMI to HD/SD-SDI converter.

nanoFlash records embedded audio over HD/SD-SDI or HDMI. Users can optionally input analog audio (stereo unbalanced line, stereo unbalanced mic or one balanced mic) via the 3.5 mm jack recently added. Audio monitoring is available via a headphone output. All audio is recorded at 24-bit, 48KHz sampling.

Two Compact Flash slots (32GB CF cards are US $75) provide 80 minutes of 100 Mbps record/playback time without touching the hot-swappable cards. Video can be played directly off the CF cards using a FW-800 reader (attached to your NLE) or transferred at 3X to 6X faster than real-time to your hard-drive.

Utilizing the same CODEC technology as Flash XDR, nanoFlash is capable of video quality compatible with D-Cinema movies and very high-end cameras, including Thomson Viper. nanoFlash can be used for a wide variety of applications, including tapeless recording, presentations, POV/field recorder, SDI switcher recorder, and video assist among others. The small size and lightweight makes nanoFlash ideal for skydivers, underwater video, 3-D, racing, jet planes, helicopters, medical and virtually anyplace high quality recording and/or playback of HD/SD video/audio is required.

The nanoFlash is scheduled to ship in June with a list price of $2,995.

More information including sample MXF and Quicktime files, a comprehensive FAQ and photos can be found at HDV To HD-SDI Video Converters Professional Video Equipment HDMI To HD-SDI Television Studio Equipment

[Steven Thomas]

Thanks for the news Mike!

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Great news, Mike - so you've decided to go with the audio recording, after all:)

I guess I'd express every body's strong wishes, if I ask you to make your best and enable the analog channels to be added to the SDI/HDMI embedded audio (for 3 or 4 channels total).

PS
May I also ask for - even though most NLE do not accept it at this time - the 720p/24/25/30to be added as the output format? When planning slow motion with EX cameras, we usually shoot most of our projects in this format, with only the fragments planned for slo-mo overcrancked to 50/60 fps. Now, I realize the NanoFlash doesn't support overcranking, but those fragment could be recorded on SxS card, and incorporated at post...

Or is there a definite, technical reason why no NLE can support 4:2:2 720p/24(25) at 50/100 Mbps?

[Mike Schell]

Hi Piotr-
OK, I spoke with our engineers and adding the 2 analog audio channels to the embeded audio (to create 4 channels) is doable and on our list of future updates.

Yes, we are going to add 720p30/25/24 support also, at least in MXF file format. There is no technical reason it is not support ny the NLEs, I think they have just not added to their CODECs.

Also overcrank and undercrank looks very likely. We are studying the implementation now.

Best-
Mike Schell

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Thanks Mike !

[Bob Willis]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Piotr-
OK, I spoke with our engineers and adding the 2 analog audio channels to the embeded audio (to create 4 channels) is doable and on our list of future updates.

Yes, we are going to add 720p30/25/24 support also, at least in MXF file format. There is no technical reason it is not support ny the NLEs, I think they have just not added to their CODECs.

Also overcrank and undercrank looks very likely. We are studying the implementation now.

Best-
Mike Schell

Overcrank and Undercrank would be a deal maker for my needs.

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Bob Willis

Overcrank and Undercrank would be a deal maker for my needs.

Hi Bob-
I now understand how we can implement over/under crank. I am adding this to our feature list, will need to discuss with our engineers next week to set an implementation schedule.

Best-

[Bob Willis]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for the quick response. Even if you could only implement the over and under crank in 50mbps 4:2:2 Long GOP that would work for me.

This looks like a very interesting product for upgrading and expanding the capabilities of my Sony PDW-F350.

[Billy Steinberg]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Two Compact Flash slots (32GB CF cards are US $75) provide 80 minutes of 100 Mbps record/playback time without touching the hot-swappable cards.

Can I infer from this ("hot-swappable") that the shipping unit, while recording, will allow me to swap out a full card with an empty card? e.g., Allowing me to record as much as I want without interrupting the recording, by just swapping out the full card with an empty one?

Billy

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Billy,

Yes.

While we do not have "Hot Swapping" feature ready just yet, it is scheduled to be ready by the time we are ready to ship the initial nanoFlashes.

We fully expect to meet this deadline.

[Bill Ward]

If you add under and overcrank to the Nanoflash, will it also be able to record the long time-lapses possible from the EX-3?

Or, for that matter, generate and record its own interval time lapse from an HD-SDI signal?

[Billy Steinberg]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Audio monitoring is available via a headphone output

I forgot to ask in my last message, does this mean I can monitor any pair of embedded audio channels, or just the analog input audio channels?

And great news that I will be able to record long shows without having to shut down to swap cards!

I've been waiting a long time for the nano, and I'm very excited!

Billy

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Billy,

You will be able to monitor the channels being recorded, as selected in the menu.

Yes, you can record long shows, but remember, it is illegal to record shows that are protected by HDCP.

By law, our device has to be designed to check if the HDMI input is receiving protected content. If the content is protected, then the nanoFlash can not be used to record HDCP protected content.

HD-SDI is considered a professional interface and does not have HDCP.

HDMI is considered a consumer interface and must respect HDCP.

HDMI to HD-SDI converters also detect HDCP and will not pass protected content.

Any content that you produce via a camera, or a computer, is typically not protected.

[Dan Keaton]

Originally Posted by Bill Ward

If you add under and overcrank to the Nanoflash, will it also be able to record the long time-lapses possible from the EX-3?

Or, for that matter, generate and record its own interval time lapse from an HD-SDI signal?

Dear Bill,

I am not up to speed on the long time-lapse capabilities of the EX-3. My best answer would be yes, we should be able to handle the long time-lapses from the EX-3.

However, it is in our plans to add time-lapse recording to the Flash XDR and to the nanoFlash.

One part of our project to add time-lapse was to add internally generated time-code. This is now a feature of our recorders.

Our plans for time-lapse also required I-Frame Only, which we now support.

Our time-lapse feature will use our internally generated time-code or externally generated time code as the clock to determine when to record one or more frames.

This should be very flexible, as one could record one frame every so many frames, or minutes, or hours, or days, etc. I expect that we will also allow you to control how many frames you want every time the frame timer goes off.

Just be prepared to power the recorder for the duration of your recording session. In standby mode, the nanoFlash just draws 0.1 watt and just 6 watts while operational.

If you are away from utility power, then a large car battery should power the Flash XDR for a long time. Add a solar panel to charge the battery and one could record time-lapse for years (until the media is full), or the battery dies of old age.

If one does use a solar battery charger, one would not need to use a battery as large as a car battery, one just powerful enough to handle to nights and very cloudy days.

Add Hot Swapping, a feature that we are scheduled to have soon, then it would be possible to record time-lapse for a very long time with proper swapping out of the cards.

[Brian Cassar]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

(Colorado Springs, CO, May 7, 2009) ... Quicktime and/or MXF files can be played/edited in Avid, Final Cut Pro, Edius, Vegas and Premiere (restricted usage) without transcode or re-wrap. [/url]

I happen to edit with Premiere CS3 + Axio LE. What are the restricted usage with Premiere please? Thanks