Major announcement from Convergent Design

Dear Friends,

Thank you.

It is very nice to hear that you approve of our team's work to reduce prices while adding functionality to our Odyssey7Q.

Respectfully,


Dan Keaton
Convergent Design
 
Hello Dan,

This is awesome! Wonderful news...

Now we can record off the F3 and the FS700 with the same Sony+ Option at a lower price... Great!

Do we still require 2x 256GB SSDs to record 2K 12Bit RAW 120/240fps continuous off the FS700?

And a last hard question for you... In another thread you posted:

"We increased the capacity of our SSD's while lowering the price, we added more features and lowered the price of the Recording Option that supports the Sony FS700, and we changed to recording 4k from the fs700 in dpx mode to recording it in compressed mode using the very popular compressed codec"

Can you elaborate more on which one "the very popular compressed codec" is?

Thank you so much again.
 
"Can you elaborate more on which one "the very popular compressed codec" is?"

That is what Pro Res is being called until licensing is worked out.
 
Thank you very much Paul for your expected enthusiasm but I would prefer an authoritative voice from CD to confirm your expectations.

By the way, I do expect the same!

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
CinemaElectronika said:
Hello Dan,

This is awesome! Wonderful news...

Now we can record off the F3 and the FS700 with the same Sony+ Option at a lower price... Great!

Do we still require 2x 256GB SSDs to record 2K 12Bit RAW 120/240fps continuous off the FS700?

And a last hard question for you... In another thread you posted:

"We increased the capacity of our SSD's while lowering the price, we added more features and lowered the price of the Recording Option that supports the Sony FS700, and we changed to recording 4k from the fs700 in dpx mode to recording it in compressed mode using the very popular compressed codec"

Can you elaborate more on which one "the very popular compressed codec" is?

Thank you so much again.
Click to expand...


Dear Henry,

I hope you do not mind a little humor.

"Can you elaborate more on which one "the very popular compressed codec" is?"

No. (Short Answer)

We are not allowed to name the codec until we obtain formal certification. (Long Answer)


"Do we still require 2x 256GB SSDs to record 2K 12Bit RAW 120/240fps continuous off the FS700?"

You may use 2x 256 Gb SSD's or 2x 512 GB SSD's for 240 fps 2K 12-Bit Linear.

You must use two for 240 fps, only one is required for 120 fps.

"This is awesome! Wonderful news..."

Thank you very much!


Respectfully,


Dan Keaton
Convergent Design
 
Glad to see that the response has been big enough to allow you to price even more competitively. Big kudos CD!
 
Dan Keaton said:
Dear Henry,

"Do we still require 2x 256GB SSDs to record 2K 12Bit RAW 120/240fps continuous off the FS700?"

You may use 2x 256 Gb SSD's or 2x 512 GB SSD's for 240 fps 2K 12-Bit Linear.

You must use two for 240 fps, only one is required for 120 fps.

Dan Keaton
Convergent Design
Click to expand...


Dan,

How does this dual SSD system work? Does Odyssey stripe the two discs as a RAID-0, then both drives have to be connected as a virtual RAID in a PC or notebook for off-loading? What happen if there is a mixture of 25fps and 240fps on the drive(s)? Is the 25fps footage spanned across two drives or it is recorded to just the primary drive?
 
I think they do it the right (simple, reliable) way: frame 1 to drive 1 frame 2 to drive 2, etc.

Cheers.
 
powervideo said:
Dan,

How does this dual SSD system work? Does Odyssey stripe the two discs as a RAID-0, then both drives have to be connected as a virtual RAID in a PC or notebook for off-loading? What happen if there is a mixture of 25fps and 240fps on the drive(s)? Is the 25fps footage spanned across two drives or it is recorded to just the primary drive?
Click to expand...

Dear Peter,

"Admit One" got it right! Thank you!

When we have to record using two SSD's, we write even numbered frames to one SSD, and odd numbered frames to the second SSD.

This, in effect, in practice, means that we are constantly writing to both SSD's (when in this mode).

We have decided to use 420 Megabytes per second as the threshold for requiring two SSD's.

If the bandwidth needed to write a particular format/frame rate to the SSD's exceeds 420 Megabytes per second, then we will use two SSD's.

(The actual bandwidth of our SSD's is greater than 420 Megabytes per second, but this gives us plenty of headroom, thus we are being very conservative.)

So most formats/frame rates require only one SSD.

The folders (directories) and the clips, on the SSD's are numbered SSD 1, SSD 2, but this is completely transparent to the user.

This works (if I may say so) amazingly well.

After shooting is complete, one performs a "Safe Eject" on both SSD's, a simple short step
(This takes only a few seconds, maybe up to 10 or 15 seconds maximum.)

Then one uploads the SSD's to a computer disk subsystem (a single Hard Disk Drive, or a multiple drive array).
(With a dual Thunderbolt equipped Mac, with a Promise Technologies Pegasus Raid, the real-world throughput is 375 Megabytes per second.)

One can upload the SSD's in any order, SSD 1 first or SSD 2 first, and both are uploaded to the same destination folder (directory).

Then one runs our "Clip Merger" (available for free on our website).

This performs all of the "Magic" to adjust the folders and files so that the clips are just as they would have been if one SSD was used originally.
(One clip folder, files numbered sequentially, in ascending order.)

This happens very quickly.

If one uploads 512 GB (SSD 1) and 512 GB (SSD 2), then the Clip Merger will always take less than a minute to run.

(I am being very conservative, it typically takes less than 30 seconds for the Clip Merger to perform its tasks,
and many times it takes just a few seconds for less than full SSD's.

Our Clip Merger was developed for our Gemini 4:4:4 and this has worked in the field, flawlessly.
This is field proven software that runs on PC's or Mac's.



Another mode that we will implement, most likely sometime after our initial firmware release, is the ability to create dual Master's simultaneously.

Thus, in this mode, we will write the same clips to two independent SSD's.

Respectfully,


Dan Keaton
Convergent Design
 
powervideo said:
Dan,

What happen if there is a mixture of 25fps and 240fps on the drive(s)?

Is the 25fps footage spanned across two drives or it is recorded to just the primary drive?
Click to expand...


Dear Peter,

If one records in a format/frame rate/mode that requires 420 Megabytes per second or less, then only one SSD is used.

We do have a current limitation with our Gemini 4:4:4 firmware, and this may or may not apply to our upcoming Odyssey7Q firmware, at least initially.

When starting to record in any mode that requires two SSD's, we insist that the two SSD's be freshly formatted in our device.

Then one can continue to record in this two SSD mode until the SSD's fill up.

And one can also switch to a mode that requires only one SSD.

But, before switching back to a mode that requires two SSD's, one must either use another set of SSD's, or upload the SSD's and reformat them.

This is a restriction that we want to remove. I do not know if we will have time to remove this restriction prior to our initial Odyssey7Q firmware release or not.

Another simple way to get around our restriction is to have two SSD's for when two are required, and have another, single SSD, for the regular modes.

One can take out (remove SSD's after part of a shoot, then use other SSD's, then put the original SSD's back into the unit.)


I hope you do not mind the thorough answers. I do want everyone to know our weaknesses as well as our strengths, as well as any operational recommendations.

Respectfully,


Dan Keaton
Convergent Design
 
Thanks Dan for the detailed replies. There's no such thing as too much information! I guess it would be better to operate in two-drive mode all the time if this is possible. It would be problematic if shooting on a single SSD mode(with two drives installed), and the directors says "let's do a 240 frame shot" and we have to do an eject/data backup and reformat to do the high-speed stuff. This assumes only owning two SSD's.
 
Dear Peter,

I feel that we should consider your idea, it certainly makes a lot of sense.

The other solution is for us to change it so that we do not require the two-drive mode to start out with freshly formatted SSD's.

I have already discussed the second option with our engineers.

Respectfully,


Dan Keaton
Convergent Design
 
Yes I would prefer to have two SSD's active for all modes (standard frame rate and high-speed) if it meant not ejecting/backing up/reformatting in the field to change framerates. I think you will find also that most initial FS700 buyers will just want to dip a toe in the water and only buy two SSD's upfront.
 
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