FatBird19
06-01-2006, 03:57 AM
I've liked the idea of using a swappable digital mag for a long time, one that attaches to a universal output connecter with HDMI level data rates. This connector could additionally be connected to a hard-drive storage housing on the back of the cam, a blu-Ray writer, a P2 card storage housing, or even straight to a computer or recording deck by way of a long cord.
My thought is that it'd be nice to have this thing completely future proofed and highly flexible.
I guess those are just ideas I'd want if I was designing my own cam: 2-3 universal high-data rate connector on the back of the camera with interchangable "digital film magazines" that connects to the data port and mounts on the cam.
Then I could have several swappable magazines on set, each filled with a RAID 1 pair of 200GB hard drives! Or I could have swapable magazines with 5 P2 card slots!
If it were my camera with my design(which it's not obviously), I'd rather have 2 or 3 high bandwith dataport plugs on the side that can then have devices plug into them that can convert formats and bandwidth as needed.
Why have a plug for only sata drives, a plug for only firewire, a plug for only etc(I'd have to look at the list again to know what exactly's on there), when you could just have 2-3 universal plugs that can individually adapt to anything you need?
I'm pretty sure that HDMI is not a pure data transport, I think it's limited to video only, but I think that 2-3 ports with the bandwidth of HDMI ports would probably fit this bill. They can transmit 1.65Gb/s, correct?
There are sooo many advantages to using this type of technology! It makes RedONe more flexible, it's more user intuitive(especially for those coming from a film environment), more user centric(why should a Red customer pay money for a port type they may never use?), and most importantly it's more forward thinking--putting several high bandwidth format agnostic data ports on the RedONe ensures usability with the latest storage technology for years and years to come.
Some further exposition:
What if RED wanted to include a codec later that gives a less compressed image but the bandwidth of the hard-drive slot couldn't handle it? Or what if users want a redundant RAID 1 enabled device like the HVX users are desiring out of the Cineporter?
Like I said, if I were designing a camera system, I'd love to have several 200GB RAID 1 hard drive unit Cineporter-like devices on set that I could just lock onto the back of a camera like a film magazine and then plug into a universal data port.
And as the technology gets better, the workflow can improve.
Like if there was a professional speed flash-based storage card that came out in the future(or if Panasonic just licensed out P2 ;)), then I could use a similar device in basically the same workflow as before; plug the P2 cards into a housing, lock the housing onto the camera like a mag, plug into the data port, shoot.
Then from there, detatch the housing when it's full and dump it to a laptop and switch it for a different one, or I could keep the housing attached to the camera and swap out the P2 cards individually like regular P2 workflow.
And I know there are defenitely a few people out there(like the George Lucas types, who btw desires to shoot a Star Wars TV series with a cheaper digital camera) that would want to be able to send their video from the cam through a high-bandw cord directly to a computer for immediate editing without all the storage requirements of HD-SDI. And I know there's defenitely people that would want to be able to send the video straight to a large capacity recording deck.
I'm not saying anyone would have to make these devices immediately, but at least it's a possibility if someone wants to put the work into it later.
I would defenitely contend that there should be an HD-SDI, component, and maybe SVHS port on camera; no need take a digital signal into an out-of-camera device to convert it into analoge. But for digital formats, I say output from the camera in the most flexible and futureproof way possible, and then limit the bandwidth to devices specific to the camera user's needs.
anyway, just dreaming about what I'd want to work with on set.... :)
My thought is that it'd be nice to have this thing completely future proofed and highly flexible.
I guess those are just ideas I'd want if I was designing my own cam: 2-3 universal high-data rate connector on the back of the camera with interchangable "digital film magazines" that connects to the data port and mounts on the cam.
Then I could have several swappable magazines on set, each filled with a RAID 1 pair of 200GB hard drives! Or I could have swapable magazines with 5 P2 card slots!
If it were my camera with my design(which it's not obviously), I'd rather have 2 or 3 high bandwith dataport plugs on the side that can then have devices plug into them that can convert formats and bandwidth as needed.
Why have a plug for only sata drives, a plug for only firewire, a plug for only etc(I'd have to look at the list again to know what exactly's on there), when you could just have 2-3 universal plugs that can individually adapt to anything you need?
I'm pretty sure that HDMI is not a pure data transport, I think it's limited to video only, but I think that 2-3 ports with the bandwidth of HDMI ports would probably fit this bill. They can transmit 1.65Gb/s, correct?
There are sooo many advantages to using this type of technology! It makes RedONe more flexible, it's more user intuitive(especially for those coming from a film environment), more user centric(why should a Red customer pay money for a port type they may never use?), and most importantly it's more forward thinking--putting several high bandwidth format agnostic data ports on the RedONe ensures usability with the latest storage technology for years and years to come.
Some further exposition:
What if RED wanted to include a codec later that gives a less compressed image but the bandwidth of the hard-drive slot couldn't handle it? Or what if users want a redundant RAID 1 enabled device like the HVX users are desiring out of the Cineporter?
Like I said, if I were designing a camera system, I'd love to have several 200GB RAID 1 hard drive unit Cineporter-like devices on set that I could just lock onto the back of a camera like a film magazine and then plug into a universal data port.
And as the technology gets better, the workflow can improve.
Like if there was a professional speed flash-based storage card that came out in the future(or if Panasonic just licensed out P2 ;)), then I could use a similar device in basically the same workflow as before; plug the P2 cards into a housing, lock the housing onto the camera like a mag, plug into the data port, shoot.
Then from there, detatch the housing when it's full and dump it to a laptop and switch it for a different one, or I could keep the housing attached to the camera and swap out the P2 cards individually like regular P2 workflow.
And I know there are defenitely a few people out there(like the George Lucas types, who btw desires to shoot a Star Wars TV series with a cheaper digital camera) that would want to be able to send their video from the cam through a high-bandw cord directly to a computer for immediate editing without all the storage requirements of HD-SDI. And I know there's defenitely people that would want to be able to send the video straight to a large capacity recording deck.
I'm not saying anyone would have to make these devices immediately, but at least it's a possibility if someone wants to put the work into it later.
I would defenitely contend that there should be an HD-SDI, component, and maybe SVHS port on camera; no need take a digital signal into an out-of-camera device to convert it into analoge. But for digital formats, I say output from the camera in the most flexible and futureproof way possible, and then limit the bandwidth to devices specific to the camera user's needs.
anyway, just dreaming about what I'd want to work with on set.... :)