Upcoming nanoFlash Firmware Release

[John Quick]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

One can take a Final Cut Pro timeline, render it to our specifications, then using a utility that we will be offering, create files on CompactFlash cards for playback on the nanoFlash.
.

What would be your specifications for a render from the Vegas timeline?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear John,

XDCam 50 Mbps (4:2:2 Long GOP @ HL, 2 channels audio, 24-Bit/48K)
Quicktime file (".MOV)

I hope this helps. We may be able to support other formats. For example, when Final Cut Pro supports 100 Mbps or higher Long-GOP files, then we could also support that.

Please note that if you system supports playing out full uncompressed via HD-SDI, just setup the Flash XDR or nanoFlash to record that output stream. This is easy. Then you do not need to render, or copy files back to the CompactFlash cards.

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

We have special bit rates for the ".MPG" and ".M2V" file formats.

When you say "m2v" are you referring to "elementary stream" video and separate audio files? My Blu-ray authoring program (DVDitProHD) only accepts those.

Is the workflow then HD-SDI in from the EX1 camera and then each "clip" is written as an "m2v" file and then edited in the NLE (I use Edius Pro 5.12)?

[Dan Keaton]

Originally Posted by Barry J. Weckesser

When you say "m2v" are you referring to "elementary stream" video and separate audio files? My Blu-ray authoring program (DVDitProHD) only accepts those.

Dear Barry,

Yes, M2V is an elementary stream file, one which only contains video.

At this time, we offer MPG (which includes both audio and video), and M2V (which includes video only).

At this time, if one chooses M2V, we do not record audio.

We are looking into adding an option where we would offer the ability to record M2V in one file and audio in a second file. I am not promising this at this time, but if we can overcome some technical hurdles, we expect to offer this in the future.

We are testing our new MPG and M2V modes with various burning programs.

Is the workflow then HD-SDI in from the EX1 camera and then each "clip" is written as an "m2v" file and then edited in the NLE (I use Edius Pro 5.12)?

Sorry, but I do not think I fully understand your question. I do not think I understand the context, or where you are in the overall process of shooting/editing/burning.

If you are asking if one can record the original event or shoot in M2V, using the HD-SDI Output of your EX1, into the HD-SDI Input of the nanoFlash, recording video only to M2V format, then bringing these video only files into your NLE or DVD / Blu-ray buring program, then the answer is "Yes, but no audio is recorded in this scenario."


Our MPG and M2V files are offered as major step forward to reduce the workflow, in certain situations, when creating DVD's or Blu-Ray disks. In other situations, in makes more sense to record in MOV or MXF as one has higher quality options available.

But, for same day edits, documenting presentations, or projects in which a SD DVD is all that is desired, etc., these new tools have the potential to dramatically reduce your workload to create a SD DVD or HD Blu-ray.

At this time, I see two major ways of using these new features. There may be many other ways.

1. One can record in any file type, MOV, MXF, MPG, or M2V in the nanoFlash, then edit the files in your NLE, provided that the file type is supported.

2. One can then play the timeline out to HD-SDI or HDMI and record the timeline to a nanoFlash in MPG or M2V (no audio). You may need to render your timeline first, depending on the complexity of your project and/or the speed of your computer.

3. One can then inport the MPG or M2V into DVD or Blu-ray burning software.


or

1. One can record the shoot in MPG (with audio), or M2V (recording audio separately - dual system sound).

2. One can then import the MPG, or M2V and the separately recorded audio files, into your DVD or Blu-ray buring software.

[Alister Chapman]

If you do record .mpg there are some free, very fast tools to de-multiplex the file to get separate m2v and audio. I use Mpegstream clip which is free for both the mac and PC. As you are not doing any re-encoding there is no quality loss and the process is very fast.

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Sorry Dan but I was confused about what was trying to be accomplished with the .m2v option but then I realized - the Nanoflash is now a realtime hardware encoder with output from the computer (HDMI or HD-SDI from your NLE) and then encoding to .m2v - cool!!!

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Barry,

Yes! I feel that it will be interesting to see how our friends start to use our new features.

[Steve Brown]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Dear nanoFlash users-
We are now in the final stages of tests on a new nanoFlash firmware update. Highlights of this new code include:

2) 24p Pull-down removal added. If your video source is aquired at 24p, but outputs at 1080i60, then you will be able to remove the extra frames and record at the native frame rate (24p). This will be especially useful for Canon XL-H1 users. Currently this feature only works for HD-SDI 1080i60 streams.

Mike or Dan,

Just to be sure I understand, the 3:2 Pulldown choice in the nano's Video menu is for input, not output, correct?

Does this mean I will be recording only the 24 frames from the HD-SDI output of the camera and not the 60 frames my HDX900 records on tape when shooting 24p? If so, that should save CF card space, right?

Will this feature have any effect on SDI output of 1080i60 at 30p? Obviously, 30p doesn't require 3:2 Pulldown, but a way to ignore the redundant frames in 30p would be great. Personally, I don't like 24p, but I like the progressive look. It would be great to save the extra space by only recording 30 frames instead of 60, when half of those are flagged to be ignored on playback.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Steve,

As far as I know, our 3:2 pulldown removal is only for 24p.

Yes, this makes 24p files smaller as we are not recording redundant frames.

To the best of my knowledge, we have not addressed 30p.

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Steve Brown

Mike or Dan,

Just to be sure I understand, the 3:2 Pulldown choice in the nano's Video menu is for input, not output, correct?

Does this mean I will be recording only the 24 frames from the HD-SDI output of the camera and not the 60 frames my HDX900 records on tape when shooting 24p? If so, that should save CF card space, right?

Will this feature have any effect on SDI output of 1080i60 at 30p? Obviously, 30p doesn't require 3:2 Pulldown, but a way to ignore the redundant frames in 30p would be great. Personally, I don't like 24p, but I like the progressive look. It would be great to save the extra space by only recording 30 frames instead of 60, when half of those are flagged to be ignored on playback.

Hi Steve-
The 3:2 pulldown removal only works on input, it has no effect on the output. Yes, you will only record 24 fps, so you will indeed save CF card space (and also elimiate the need to do the pull-down removal in post).

The 3:2 pulldown removal only works for 1080i60 at 24p.

Best-

[Rafael Amador]

The m2v implementation is great, but I think that 9Mbps is a risky data-rate. If you keep the audio in PCM, the total data-rate of the DVD will be some 10,3 Mbps. many domestic players won't cope with that.
The only solution would be AC3 audio, but you would be also very limited with the number of audio channels you can lay.
When using Compressor or BitVice I set "average data-rate: 7,5/7,7" and max to 8,3/8,5.
Best,
rafael

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Rafael,

We will take your input into consideration.

It appears that we should offer some additional bit rates.

What would you recommend?

[Lance Librandi]

Sorry Admin I no sure where to post this please feel free to move.


Hello Mike & Dan,
Congratulations on the NanoFlash to coin an old Australian expression it’s “BLOODY AWESOME”. I spent yesterday trying it out it’s a bit like buying a new car let’s see what she will do flat out at 220 Megabits per second. Well the picture quality blew me away well done guy’s.
My only problem now is to try to maintain as much of the quality through Final Cut Pro for delivery to DVD and BD. Now the real pain starts trying to find the best settings combination.
I would love to have had a look at the SD stream off the card but this feature is unavailable. The other feature that I really would love to see is variable frame rate recording (Time-lapse ).

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Lance,

We appreciate your kind words about the nanoFlash!

We recommend that you try 100 Mbps Long-GOP, test if you can see any difference between the live HD-SDI or HDMI and playback. Even on very detailed scenes with lots of motion, they look the same to us and to everyone that has run this test, as far as we know.

We are currently developing both over and under-cranking and time-lapse.

As you state, while we record SD (Standard Definition), we have not enabled playback of SD from within the nanoFlash itself at this time. This will come, but we place higher priority on some other features, such as over and under-cranking and time-lapse.

[John Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear Rafael,

We will take your input into consideration.

It appears that we should offer some additional bit rates.

What would you recommend?

Hi Dan - we never take video on DVD much above 7.8Mb/s and at that data rate even CBR works exceptionally well (meaning a total data rate of just over 8Mb/s with a decent quality AC3 track). While the format dictates that 9.8Mb/s is the maximum (for video + audio), cheap players mean it is safer to keep it well below this on recordable media. Press disks are more reflective and therefore easier to track.

So I'd vote for that sweet spot around 7.8Mb/s but only if that is practical. I'd also go the other way and offer .m2V + .wav rather than .mpg. Nearly all decent authoring applications require elementary streams so .mpgs just introduce another step.

Seems strange to be talking about using the nano and xdr to lower the data rate, but it is a great idea to save time.

John