Flash Recorders Road Map

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by Mike Schell

Hi Mark-
We'll do the best we can, but our engineering resources are tapped out for the immediate future.

Best-

...Hi Mike: OK. Understood. We're nearly tapped out on engineering resources as well with our SD recorder box development, so I do sympathize. I will continue to wait and hope for these features to come hopefully sooner than much, much, much later :-) Speaking of new recorder boxes, there's this guy in New York City named Charles Dautrement, who's got a box which can do uncompressed HD up to 4:4:4 12 bit uncompressed, as well as 2k and compressed HD recording in the brilliantly clear Cineon codec. He calls his box the Cinemadeck HD. This box seems to be a hybrid tablet PC running what looks like it could be Windows 7. The thing looks exactly like a Marshall 7 inch on camera LCD monitor, but it's touch screen and much, much more. Looks like we've been scooped again on our SD recorder box. Oh well, we've started it, so we will finish it, but I digress.

[Daniel Symmes]

Mike -

Please consider the first character of the file name generated to be ALPHA NUMERIC.

For multi-camera work, this is better than all numerals.

I've brought this up before and hope it's on a list somewhere.

Thanks.

[Paul Inglis]

That’s a really nice list of up coming features. Personally am looking forward to the following features most;

• Over / Under Crank
• Audio Level Meters on Playback
• Hot-Swap Compact Flash cards: replace a card while continuing to record with the option to force the recorder to switch to the other card (you can remove the current card and immediately start the edit).
• 8-Channel Audio including the ability to add the two analog channels to the embedded audio (the max number of audio channels is still limited to 8)
• Redundant Record – two identical CF cards created simultaneously – one for the edit and one for the producer, etc.
• Delete Last Clip
• Configuration Program with 8 Up-loadable Profiles (via CF card) defined on the PC/MAC
• Meta-Data Support
• Revised Menus, including the display of the total playback time
• Record Indicators on Loop-out Monitors
• Record Review of last 10 seconds
• New mounting options from 3rd parties, including underwater housings.

• Image Flip to compensate for special lenses and prisms

I have to say that I think the nanoFLASH is the best investment I’ve made this year.

Merry Christmas Guys!!!

[Aaron Newsome]

I understand that development by committee is not how development gets done. I know this isn't a democracy, but if it were, and I had a vote then it would look something like this:

1.) Hot Swap Recording
2.) Uncompressed Recording (10 bit 4:2:2)
3.) Minimum 4 Channels of Audio
4.) Headphone Output Level Adjustment
5.) Audio Level Meters on Playback
6.) Information overlay in SDI Monitor Output
7.) Add clip metadata via Wifi/Bluetooth/Anything (understand there is no hardware for this)
8.) Sync XDR time to time of day via GPS (cheap multi-camera sync to time of day)

And finally a feature that would require a whole new box:

A small, single card, self contained, very simple, no controls "SLAVE PROXY RECORDER" for the Nano/XDR. This box would have no settings or controls to mess with, only a single SDI input, 12v input (or on-board battery), timecode in (to start stop the recorder). Since the box is recording low bitrate proxies, a single card will do just fine.

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Daniel Symmes

Mike -

Please consider the first character of the file name generated to be ALPHA NUMERIC.

For multi-camera work, this is better than all numerals.

I've brought this up before and hope it's on a list somewhere.

Thanks.

Hi Daniel-
Thanks for the reminder, I will add this to the list for updates. Good suggestion.

Best-

[Mark Job]

Hi Mike:
Let us also add fixing the Jam-Sync feature to not drift away @ 24 F, please.

Respectfully,

[John Mitchell]

I realise this will be something that is probably added with hot swap, but having used the nano on plenty of shoots now I would like the logic of the recording system to be the same as my JVC 700. For example if I put an empty SD card in my 700 it will continue to record to the card it is on until it is full. However if I do the same thing on the nano and the new card goes in slot 1 it starts recording on the empty card instead of filling up the one in the existing slot 2.

Also one really minor feature - the ability to format cards one slot at a time would be nice :)


I've had a look at some green screen material of the 700 @ 100Mbs with the Nano and all I can say is wow - what a difference. Perfect key on Avid and didn't have to touch it.

[Dan Keaton]

Dear John,

Yes, I have asked for that feature, so we fill up one card before going to another.
We just get so busy, we have not implemented it yet.

In the meantime, you can take the card out of slot 2, and put it into slot 1, then put the new card in slot 2.

For safety reasons, we want to format all cards that are in the nanoFlash.
Thus, it is up to the user to put the cards in that he or she wants to format, and remove all others.

If we allow two cards in the nanoFlash, and the user requests to format the card in slot 1 or slot 2, we expect some mistakes to be made. So we like our current way better.

Isn't it nice that green screen work is so much easier now?

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by John Mitchell

I realise this will be something that is probably added with hot swap, but having used the nano on plenty of shoots now I would like the logic of the recording system to be the same as my JVC 700. For example if I put an empty SD card in my 700 it will continue to record to the card it is on until it is full. However if I do the same thing on the nano and the new card goes in slot 1 it starts recording on the empty card instead of filling up the one in the existing slot 2.

Also one really minor feature - the ability to format cards one slot at a time would be nice :)


I've had a look at some green screen material of the 700 @ 100Mbs with the Nano and all I can say is wow - what a difference. Perfect key on Avid and didn't have to touch it.

Hi John: I was curious to know how you were able to pull a perfect anything in Avid with a 100 Mbps file ? Where you importing Long GOP 100 Mbps or I-Frame ? Long GOP 100 *will not work* in Avid. Perhaps you simply played the footage into Avid with the Mojo DX or Nitris DX box ?

[John Mitchell]

Hi Mark - I recorded in MXF 100Mbs MXF LongGOP. It plays back perfectly inthe Avid, except when you park it you often get FIFO errors depending on the frame - I'd say it is only decoding I Frames correctly when parked but during playback it works fine for me.

My records have been in 1080i50 and 720P50. I'm using Avid MC V4.04 and I'm typing this on a Dell laptop XPS1710 - a little old and underpowered but it still plays it back fullscreen and in overlay mode. Using Windows XP. HTH

[John Mitchell]

Oh and I have both a Nitris and Adrenaline but I imported these files...sorry forgot to add that in my original post.

[John Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear John,

Yes, I have asked for that feature, so we fill up one card before going to another.
We just get so busy, we have not implemented it yet.

In the meantime, you can take the card out of slot 2, and put it into slot 1, then put the new card in slot 2.

Yep that's what I do now.

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

For safety reasons, we want to format all cards that are in the nanoFlash.
Thus, it is up to the user to put the cards in that he or she wants to format, and remove all others.

If we allow two cards in the nanoFlash, and the user requests to format the card in slot 1 or slot 2, we expect some mistakes to be made. So we like our current way better.

Isn't it nice that green screen work is so much easier now?

Yeah I thought about that after I posted - it makes sense from a safety perspective. Well done an dhave a very safe and happy festive season.

John

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by John Mitchell

Hi Mark - I recorded in MXF 100Mbs MXF LongGOP. It plays back perfectly inthe Avid, except when you park it you often get FIFO errors depending on the frame - I'd say it is only decoding I Frames correctly when parked but during playback it works fine for me.

My records have been in 1080i50 and 720P50. I'm using Avid MC V4.04 and I'm typing this on a Dell laptop XPS1710 - a little old and underpowered but it still plays it back fullscreen and in overlay mode. Using Windows XP. HTH

Hey John:
I tried desperately to get this to work in Avid MC version 4.03, or at least perfect a decent workaround to post for others, but I gave up after 2 weeks of trying :-( I now have MC ver 4.0.4, and I haven't bothered to try it since, so your post had encouraged me to try Long GOP 100 once again in the latest version. I still hold out faint hope that it will now work :-) John, did you have any difficulty in exporting your edited sequence back out of MC at all ?

[Mike Schell]

Originally Posted by Mark Job

Hi Mike:
Let us also add fixing the Jam-Sync feature to not drift away @ 24 F, please.

Respectfully,

Hi Mark-
I am adding 24p Jam-Sync to our list of issues to test/resolve when we return back from the holidays. Appreciate the feedback.

Best-

[Mark Job]

Hi Mike:
OK. This is great to know. Thank You. May I take this opportunity to wish you and your whole family a very Merry Christmas and Happy & Prosperous New Year ! :-)

Mark