AJA Ki Pro Mini now records to Avid DNxHD codec! Will greatly help s log

eddavid

eddavid

Carbonite Member
Excited to download and test this out - to see if it doesn't have any low light macroblocking issues originally found with the PIX 240. If so, this should be better for s log recording.
 
eddavid said:
Excited to download and test this out - to see if it doesn't have any low light macroblocking issues originally found with the PIX 240. If so, this should be better for s log recording.
Click to expand...

I've been using the DNxHD codec on the new update from AJA on the mini, works great. However I stupidly tried to consolidate DNxHD files from the Ki Pro Mini to my Avid MC and they would not consolidate. I thought that the AJA DNxHD codec would be the same as the DNxHD codec that Avid uses but I was wrong. AJA uses OP-1A MXF and what I learned about the OP-1A (Operational Pattern 1a) is that the Ki Pro records the encoded files along with sound and Meta Data in one DNxHD MXF container which by the way is still a quick time file.

Avid’s DNxHD uses OP-ATOM which records picture and sound in separate MXF containers. I believe Convergent Design’s recorder uses the OP-1A format also Arri Alexia uses the same format. Before finding out about the different types of MXF files I had been having problems consolidating the linked AJA Ki Pro Mini files in MC 6. Sometimes they would consolidate and other-times they did not. I’d get a message saying all clips were skipped, See console for details. To consolidate these clips please transcode them to native compression type first. The console message said the consolidation operation was skipped because it is a foreign compression type.

So the files must be linked via AMA and transcoded into Avid the same as ProRes. Using the native DNxHD format would most likely work better then ProRes, you could link, edit and then transcode the timeline. It was too good to be true to think I could save some time by not having to transcode files onto my media drives.

I was also surprised to see in the release notes this:

Improvements and Fixes
• Improved the behavior for handling voltage changes when used with batteries.
• Improved the sensitivity to minor SDI RP188 time code disruptions.

I did have some serious issues with the file stopping and starting continuously during an interview resulting in multiple files instead of one file during a few interviews in the past, the native XDCAM files saved my behind on that one.

I had a shoot the other day where I shot 5 hours of material (DNxHD) throughout the day on AC mains and battery and did not have one hiccup with the mini it simply worked flawlessly. Shooting 24fps S-Log 4:2:2 10 bit to the mini, the files look cinematic, just wonderful. I would like to get my hands on the new Ki Pro Quad and shoot 4:4:4 S-Log just to see how everything works with that new deck. I’m very happy with the mini’s performance now and highly recommend it.
 
For those who are interested - here is a link to the firmware page:
http://www.aja.com/en/support/ki-pro/ki-pro-mini/

"*UPDATED* This firmware version adds the ability to encode to Avid DNxHD QuickTime files in addition to the previously offered support for encoding to Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files. Some additional improvements have been included in this version as well."
 
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