F3 PIX240 Users

petermullett said:
Just checking with everyone on the Sony F3 / PIX 240 thread of the DVX Forums......I've a question. I just updated the firmware on my PIX 240 last week and since then I am having a problem with the 240 playing back the recorded files. On pressing Play the clip plays for just 10-15 seconds then quits switching back to the main window. It does this if you select the file to playback via the file menu and / or just pressing play for the last recorded take. I am in touch with SD on this but I wondered if anyone else is having this problem. It didn't happen prior to the firmware upgrade. The recorded files are ok, they transfer to FCP 7 just fine and are complete as far as I can tell right now, it's just that the 240 will not playback complete clips, just the first few seconds or so......and again, this didn't happen prior to the firmware upgrade.
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Wondering if this is just your unit. I just checked mine and am able to play back recorded files.

Is it occuring with a specific codec/data rate?

Ned
 
Peter You are not alone. I had the same problem after firmware upgrade. I was on with tech at SD and they finally sent me a 1.02 firmware link and that completely resolved the problem. This happened on both F3 and Red Epic. They were super helpful and responsive but as of yet I don't think the problem has been resolved.

Taylor
 
Thanks Taylor....so you had to re-set the 240 back to the shipping firmware version? Interesting.
I'll see what SD has to say tomorrow when I contact them again. I was sure that I was the victim of a bug in the upgrade, but then others on this forum reported that they didn't have the problem, that was puzzling.
But it's good to know that you can in fact "backward downgrade" the firmware to resolve the problem.
I do agree that SD are super responsive, it's a great company and their products are extremely well made, ( I have a SD mixer too )...So I know this will be sorted one way or another by them, and probably quickly enough. At least with this problem no media gets lost or corrupted. Thanks again for the response!....Peter
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Hello again Taylor, just wondering if you have that link to the 1.02 firmware that SD sent you. If so could you forward it to me, I'd like to try it.....Thanks, Peter
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Peter,

Actually I was having some recording issues as well as no playback. At times the PIX would look as if it was recording but in fact not be. I don't know if you were having this issue or not.

Taylor
 
Peter I don't want to give that out over the forum. I don't know if SD would want that. I will try to PM that to you now.
 
Agreed, but thanks I did get it and will try that later this morning. As for recording issues, no nothing that I noticed. We were filming, ( with the F3 ), some long 30 minute plus interview takes on Thursday and so far all the media seems to be there without any drops or problems. It was just when we tried to playback the takes for verification on set with the PIX 240 that we ran into this playback problem. We downloaded the files right away to a Mac PB to verify that the files were ok and on first cursory looks all seemed just fine. Will have a closer look tomorrow in edit.
Is the downgrade method the same way as upgrading?.....Will post how it turns out....and will be in contact with SD late tomorrow after I've managed to have a closer look at all the media. Thanks again!. Peter
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I am testing mine right now with the 1.03 and still have not run into an issue. I've just recorded a few 30-40 sec clips an d played back through the Pix. They all record and play without issue. What I cannot get to work is the SDI flag to start/stop recording. Timecode on the Pix increments in lower left corner of Pix screen, but it does not record. When switching back to timecode trigger, it works.

Ned
 
nsoltz said:
I am testing mine right now with the 1.03 and still have not run into an issue. I've just recorded a few 30-40 sec clips an d played back through the Pix. They all record and play without issue. What I cannot get to work is the SDI flag to start/stop recording. Timecode on the Pix increments in lower left corner of Pix screen, but it does not record. When switching back to timecode trigger, it works.Ned
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I turned on Sony SDI flag as well and couldn't get it to work at first. However, there is a setting on the camera (I think in the SDI output menu) where you can choose to send an SDI flag out. With this setting activated on the F3 I was able to get the PIX to record just fine.
 
JDDalllas said:
Here's a helpful link on data rates, for ProRes 422/ 24 @ 1080 = 176Mbps So 256(SSD) divided by 176(bit rate) is 1.45. So one hour and 45 minutes of record time. 64gig CF will be 36min. etc...in Proes 422
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Isn't ProRes 422 / 23.98 @1080 more like 288KBytes/sec with two channels of 48KHz audio?
That would give you about 254 minutes on 256GB and 63 minutes on a 64GB CF card including overheads?
 
I think I see where the confusion is.... by quoting 176 Mbps (bits not bytes) you actually mean ProRes 422(HQ) not plain 422 !!!
Why not try your Pix240 at ProRes 422 and see how much fits onto a 64GB CF card?

ProRes 422 is 117Mbps!
 
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Just set it for the highest quality

Just set it for the highest quality

Isn't the objective to get the highest possible quality? Just set it for ProRes422 10bit @ 220mbps. You'll get over one hour on a 256gb SSD. Easy!
 
That might be true for the cinema or personal projects, but for broadcast TV work too much data can often cause problems along the production chain for clients and in archive. If your footage is not going through a lot of post colour work and the program delivery is at a lower data rate than you're providing, what's the point? In the UK, minimum broadcast specifications for HD acquisition is now accepted as 50Mbps (L-GOP) or 100Mbps (I-Frame). While I certainly understand that we all want the best quality possible, the sweet spot for a lot of HD broadcast TV work in ProRes is often plain 422 (which is 122Mbps in the UK). You'll get over five hours on a 256gb SSD. Even easier!
 
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PaulReam said:
That might be true for the cinema or personal projects, but for broadcast TV work too much data can often cause problems along the production chain for clients and in archive. If your footage is not going through a lot of post colour work and the program delivery is at a lower data rate than you're providing, what's the point? In the UK, minimum broadcast specifications for HD acquisition is now accepted as 50Mbps (L-GOP) or 100Mbps (I-Frame). While I certainly understand that we all want the best quality possible, the sweet spot for a lot of HD broadcast TV work in ProRes is often plain 422 (which is 122Mbps in the UK). You'll get over five hours on a 256gb SSD. Even easier!
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Same here in Canada... No need for overdoing it for TV broadcast. Editors/producers will hate you... Sweet spot is the word... And thanks for clearing up the recording time!
 
PaulReam said:
That might be true for the cinema or personal projects, but for broadcast TV work too much data can often cause problems along the production chain for clients and in archive. If your footage is not going through a lot of post colour work and the program delivery is at a lower data rate than you're providing, what's the point?
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and when the project does involve a fair amount of compositing, many post-prod services increase dramatically based on file sizes and processing time.
 
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