The UNapproved PIX storage device list

[Chris Dickinson]

I thought it would be interesting for PIX owners/users to share their experiences of using unapproved storage devices - as the Sound Devices list is rather short at present, and as they list devices of high spec, which equals high cost, its good to test some more economic options.

Personally I have used:

1/ a Seagate Momentus 750GB HDD in the Caddy, recording ProRes Proxy. It all worked fine over a 5 day period, but I did experience some problems whereby my PIX240 wouldn't read the drive - at the moment I am guessing this is a power issue either between the Caddy and the PIX or the HDD and the Caddy, but I have to explore further. Still, my experience was positive.

2/ Sandisk Extreme 60MB/s UDMA CF card - again recording in ProRes Proxy off and on over 5 days. All was good. I've also tested at higher bit rates without any problems, but not in any depth. As I have used these cards in a Nano Flash recording at 100 mbps without any problems, I'm sure they'll be fine in the PIX.

Keen for others input...

Chris

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Chris Dickinson

1/ a Seagate Momentus 750GB HDD in the Caddy, recording ProRes Proxy. It all worked fine over a 5 day period, but I did experience some problems whereby my PIX240 wouldn't read the drive

I first tried a Momentus drive in my Samurai. It would record, but not playback. My guess is that the internal software to the drive relies on either Mac OSX or Windows on the other end to do it's caching correctly.

Later I found on the Atomos website Momentus drives were a "no-go" officially.

[Paul Kapp]

Originally Posted by Chris Dickinson

I thought it would be interesting for PIX owners/users to share their experiences of using unapproved storage devices - as the Sound Devices list is rather short at present, and as they list devices of high spec, which equals high cost, its good to test some more economic options.

Excellent idea for a thread.
You beat me to it.
Shortlist is a classic understatement, 3 SSDs, the Samsung 470 and 2 SanDisk Ultras.
Until recently there was only the Samsung.

Just got my PIX 240 2 days ago.
I put a Corsair Force 115Gb in the caddy and the PIX recorded to it fine in 1080p 25fps DNxHD 220x(10bit).
I updated to firmware v1.05 and no artefacts or issues with my initial test with DNxHD.
The PIX OSD shows that 81 minutes of DNxHD 220x can be recorded on the F115.

[Mark Kenfield]

I've also had success with a Sandisk Extreme 60MB/s CF card in my initial tests so far. Haven't really put the recorder through its paces yet though.

[A. J. deLange]

I've had the Momentus 750 work but the testing was hardly extensive. The SanDisk SDD failed and I was looking for alternatives while waiting for the warranty replacement. It was a "wonder if this works" test and it passed that. But then I found the 240 SanDisk at the local computer store for about half what B&H sold the one that I bought with the recorder for so I'm back to that. Anyone else had a problem with the SDD's?

The Momentus is extremely appealing at the cost as it holds 10 hrs of 422 (not HQ) but what I fear is that as the PIX does not apparently have the inertial sensor and circuits found in the laptops that whip the head out of the way in the case of a jolt you might lose everything on it if the rig gets bumped or knocked. And they won't be able to put that in with a new firmware revision! Of course I lost everything on the SDD.

[Chris Dickinson]

I had a problem with one of my Sandisk SSDs - straight after buying two I tested them and one was simply not up to spec - PIX could only record the lowest data rates to it, anything higher and it would stop after about 10 secs. I took the SSD back and it was tested and replaced without an issue. Haven't had any problems since.

[A. J. deLange]

Just want to make sure everyone is aware of the new firmware for the Sandisk 120 and 240 SSDs. It is available at SSD Toolkit support information.

You download the update, record to a DVD or CD and reboot from that. A subset of Linux is loaded which will find the connected SSD and update it. The tricky part is getting the CD out of your machine if it is a Mac PB. Shut it down and then reboot (press and hold power button) while holding the mouse (trackpad clicker) button down. This will eject the DVD/CD and the machine will then reboot normally. Probably easier to copy it to a USB drive but don't know if the PB can boot from one of those.

[Mark Kenfield]

The SSD I've been using with my 240 is the OWC 240GB Mercury Electra 6G. Hasn't had any issues so far (over the course of a couple of hours of material).