Atomos Samurai recording error

T

taras4444

Well-known member
Hi all,
just wanted to start a new thread about a very frustrating and dissapointing issue I've been experiencing with my samurai I bought. I use it connected to my af 100 via hd sdi, and have timecode set to panasonic, hdsdi as the trigger, but often there is an issue where the samurai records multiple broken up files (often only a second - to five seconds long) whilst shooting in both high pro res and normal 4:2:2. Also other times it breaks up a file into different recordings (missing out little bits) which kills the recording. (thank god im recording via SD). I've even caught it on occasion "ghost recording" on and off whilst I wasnt even pressing/recording with the camera or any buttons, and when trying to recreated I can't repeat it.

I found a forum post similar to this issue here http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct...sRrarRBmcxrPxQ

However this and another Red forum discussing it was never really resolved and nothing has been further added by Atomos. I've experienced the issue with both hd drives and SSD's (an atomos recommended intel SSD). A little peeved that after spending all this money this glitch keeps happening. My firmware is up to date as well at 4.11 and i've swapped the hd sdi cable etc (though it shouldnt be causing ghost recordings anyways).

Any other users experience this multiple file issue? If so any tips? At my wits ends with the amount of files I'm getting and having to sift through and having to resort to SD footage continuously over my pro res stuff.

Thanks Taras
 
Yep, had these issues and still am. Mainly in DNXHD though. Lodge a support ticket with Atomos and hopefully you have the 3 year warranty as well:)
 
Get rid and pick up the hyperdeck, your not the first thread I've read about the samurai reliability. Most of us buy these recorders for the "important" shoots that require a certain data rate or its a short film project that you're trying to squeeze the last bit of juice out if the image for the good of the production and you can't be having these reliability demons floating around your head while you're capturing a brilliant performance or a one off corporate event.

sorry to hear if your troubles man, have you tried 24psf instead of 60i, maybe give the pull down process a miss to simplify the operation for the recorder?
 
Always ignore zealots who think the only thing you should own is what they have. I have found the Samurai to be quite reliable, as have many, many others. I was on a shoot just the other day for a major international client with four Samurais running simultaneously. The producer was quite happy with the results.

Here are some things I'd do in your situation -- some of these you may have already tried:

1) Double- and triple-check all settings on both the camera and the Samurai
2) Try a different HD-SDI cable
3) Try an alternative drive
4) Re-install the firmware
5) Do a full reset. I'm not sure how you go about that on a Samurai but the company is quite responsive (more so than I've found Black Magic to be, and yes, I own several of their products, too), so I would definitely contact them about it.

Good luck and let us know what you find out further.
 
Reading Brigham's post, I've only tested DNxHD -- I haven't used it on a job. It tested okay, but there's nothing like being in the real world on the firing line to fully wring out any device. ProRes has been rock solid.
 
John B. said:
Always ignore zealots who think the only thing you should own is what they have. I have found the Samurai to be quite reliable, as have many, many others. I was on a shoot just the other day for a major international client with four Samurais running simultaneously. The producer was quite happy with the results.

Here are some things I'd do in your situation -- some of these you may have already tried:

1) Double- and triple-check all settings on both the camera and the Samurai
2) Try a different HD-SDI cable
3) Try an alternative drive
4) Re-install the firmware
5) Do a full reset. I'm not sure how you go about that on a Samurai but the company is quite responsive (more so than I've found Black Magic to be, and yes, I own several of their products, too), so I would definitely contact them about it.

Good luck and let us know what you find out further.
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Who do you think you are calling Zealot? take the insults down a notch. I've only voiced my own opinion and disappointment for the OP, I wrote many posts helping him come to the samurai purchase and when he bought it against my advice I said congrats and that it was a great all round device and wished him well, my ONLY "non-posted" concern was its lumped in price point that was pushed the OP to the second hand market and spinning drives instead of SSDs and now he has critical failures which is a real shame considering the back and forth he did to come to the purchase decision.

John you have a habit of getting bent at my remarks and come to the Samurais defence but to be fair there are more "samurai not working" threads here than there are Hyperdeck ones so that kind of makes sense. This is not a competition, they all do the same thing but in this case we are talking about a repeated samurai failure.

To the OP, I hope Johns suggestion help you find the route of the problem
 
XSVpro said:
Who do you think you are calling Zealot? take the insults down a notch. I've only voiced my own opinion and disappointment for the OP, I wrote many posts helping him come to the samurai purchase and when he bought it against my advice I said congrats and that it was a great all round device and wished him well, my ONLY "non-posted" concern was its lumped in price point that was pushed the OP to the second hand market and spinning drives instead of SSDs and now he has critical failures which is a real shame considering the back and forth he did to come to the purchase decision.

John you have a habit of getting bent at my remarks and come to the Samurais defence but to be fair there are more "samurai not working" threads here than there are Hyperdeck ones so that kind of makes sense. This is not a competition, they all do the same thing but in this case we are talking about a repeated samurai failure.

To the OP, I hope Johns suggestion help you find the route of the problem
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The last thing a person needs to hear when they're having problems with a piece of gear is, "You should have bought something else," or for someone to insinuate, "I told you so."

I haven't seen these massive amounts of Samurai failure posts you allude to -- perhaps we're witnessing a tad of exaggeration.

FWIW, I own several pieces of Black Magic gear, so for me it isn't about my devotion to any particular brand (although, in my experience, Atomos is more responsive to user needs than is BMD). It is about each user choosing the right gear for their needs, not about coughing over hard-earned money because someone else is a fan.

But to urge a person to sell their gear and buy what you're using just because they haven't sorted out an issue yet is premature, and not what is needed at that point. The O.P. should at least follow some standard trouble shooting procedures and definitely should open a dialog with the manufacturer well before committing to a knee-jerk repurchase.

It could be a cable, it might be the hard drive, it may be settings, the firmware could need resetting or reloading, there are many things to be investigated prior to assigning blame.
 
John B. said:
The last thing a person needs to hear when they're having problems with a piece of gear is, "You should have bought something else," or for someone to insinuate, "I told you so."

I haven't seen these massive amounts of Samurai failure posts you allude to -- perhaps we're witnessing a tad of exaggeration.

FWIW, I own several pieces of Black Magic gear, so for me it isn't about my devotion to any particular brand (although, in my experience, Atomos is more responsive to user needs than is BMD). It is about each user choosing the right gear for their needs, not about coughing over hard-earned money because someone else is a fan.

But to urge a person to sell their gear and buy what you're using just because they haven't sorted out an issue yet is premature, and not what is needed at that point. The O.P. should at least follow some standard trouble shooting procedures and definitely should open a dialog with the manufacturer well before committing to a knee-jerk repurchase.

It could be a cable, it might be the hard drive, it may be settings, the firmware could need resetting or reloading, there are many things to be investigated prior to assigning blame.
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Hes tried those things and has asked for help in other threads and linked you to similiar complaints. You shouldn't all be having these errors on a $1500 device, reliability is all these units need to have without that they're useless. I have no idea how quick Blackmagic are but then again I haven't had to call them, not once!

I was expressing my shared anger at his purchase not working out after all of the helpful debating we all went through which lead to that decision and I was talking to the OP not you! so dont call me a Zealot because my opinion is not yours ok!
 
John B. said:
The last thing a person needs to hear when they're having problems with a piece of gear is, "You should have bought something else," or for someone to insinuate, "I told you so."

I haven't seen these massive amounts of Samurai failure posts you allude to -- perhaps we're witnessing a tad of exaggeration.

FWIW, I own several pieces of Black Magic gear, so for me it isn't about my devotion to any particular brand (although, in my experience, Atomos is more responsive to user needs than is BMD). It is about each user choosing the right gear for their needs, not about coughing over hard-earned money because someone else is a fan.

But to urge a person to sell their gear and buy what you're using just because they haven't sorted out an issue yet is premature, and not what is needed at that point. The O.P. should at least follow some standard trouble shooting procedures and definitely should open a dialog with the manufacturer well before committing to a knee-jerk repurchase.

It could be a cable, it might be the hard drive, it may be settings, the firmware could need resetting or reloading, there are many things to be investigated prior to assigning blame.
Click to expand...

And stop with the brand loyalty rubbish, that's not me at all, not one bit! my choice was motivated by cost plain and simple if there was a cheaper device or one that had a removable battery I would own that but a $1500 recorder was only taken off of my list because it was a $1500 device, jeez I already said to you before that the samurai was my intended purchase.

anyway, lets put the thread back on track.
 
We have a couple of Samurai's and yes they can be buggy. Our most common problems is they burn through hard drives at an alarming pace.
 
Paul Hudson said:
We have a couple of Samurai's and yes they can be buggy. Our most common problems is they burn through hard drives at an alarming pace.
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I'm curious what you mean by "buggy" and by the term "burn through." In my case, once I understood the settings, and when using top-notch SSDs, it's been rock solid. I tested it with a standard spinning HD, but wasn't entirely satisfied, so I now only use SSDs and am continually pleased with the results.
 
John B. said:
I'm curious what you mean by "buggy" and by the term "burn through." In my case, once I understood the settings, and when using top-notch SSDs, it's been rock solid. I tested it with a standard spinning HD, but wasn't entirely satisfied, so I now only use SSDs and am continually pleased with the results.
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We use the Atamos recommended SSD and have a disturbing failure rate of drive on the two units we have. Note; we use these things hard, may not be up to the rigors we put them through.
 
If appears you're having trouble sourcing good SSDs. You might wish to try the ones I mentioned above. I've been really happy with them.
 
taras4444 said:
Hi guys apologies for the delay and sparking another bit of a battle between you guys! I appreciated all the posts though and advice. I have indeed tried all of the above (short of messaging atomos myself but I do not have a warranty as I bought second hand). Unfortunately the problem has still been persisting, with phantom recordings and a million files being generated often, not to mention the samurai freezing as well.

Yesterday I was using the recommended Sandisk Extreme SSD and still the same thing when I got back to the edit, incredibly frustrating. Interestingly enough too John but the SSD you recommend above is actually listed on the Atomos site as one of the not recommended drives :S Here's the link:

http://atomos.activehosted.com/kb/article/compatibility/what-drives-do-we-recommend

To be honest my experience has been incredibly disappointing with the Samurai after so much research and consideration (but that's the way it goes sometimes) and after this feature shoot finishes I will be selling the Samurai and probably getting the hyperdeck. I appreciate many people may have had positive experiences with the Samurai but if anyone was to ever ask me about it I would vehemently advise against purchasing the Samurai. Maybe I just got a bum product, maybe not, but it has really soured my experience with external recorders and given me a lot of grief! Not reliable at all :(
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Man, I am really sorry to hear how your external recording expierence has been :(
 
Yes, sorry to hear all your issues. One thing they say about buying used is that you could be buying someone else's problems. That may just be the case here.

I think you're doing yourself a large disservice by not contacting Atomos, though. That should always rate high on anyone's list of equipment remedies, either new, used, or even with discontinued gear. A good manufacturer cares about the gear they've sent out into the world, so I don't understand who someone would not contact them in a situation like this.

It's very interesting that the drives I'm using are not recommended. Based on my success, I wouldn't have ever guessed it.
 
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