Mitch Gross
Veteran
Please contact cdsupport@convergent-design.com and we will assist you with this directly.
Odyssey 7Q Firmware 2.11.110
- Thread starter Jim Ritscher
- Start date
cuervo
Veteran
hmmmm....C-D has a shaky rep. Years ago I invested in the Flash XDR, a very costly investment.Within a year it was discontinued in favor of the much more compact Nanoflash. This time around, I resisted the Gemini, waiting for the Odyssey. These devices must be very expensive devices to develop and bring to market. I think C-D sells development devices in order to pay for non-recurring costs for follow on models. Caveat emptor applies. Not to say the O7Q isn't useful. It was sold under false promises, that's all. Their customer support somewhat balances out their verbal claims, however, this is just a questionable way of doing business. Just my .02 worth.
Hi Mitch,
very interested in in your statement about 2K raw to HD prores. I presume that will also be available for the FS700? How does that compare to 4K2HD? Is there any reason at all to use 2K2HD over 4K2HD? Processing power / battery life / heat production etc etc? I presume the image quality with 4K2HD is still far superior?
or is this just for the FS7?
very interested in in your statement about 2K raw to HD prores. I presume that will also be available for the FS700? How does that compare to 4K2HD? Is there any reason at all to use 2K2HD over 4K2HD? Processing power / battery life / heat production etc etc? I presume the image quality with 4K2HD is still far superior?
or is this just for the FS7?
Mitch Gross
Veteran
I won't comment on the rest but Athena was a "Product Preview" at NAB, which meant that it was akin to an auto manufacturer showing a Concept Car. We received an immense amount of feedback from real clients who would purchase such a device but only if it functioned in certain ways. With that in hand, Athena went back into development for what will eventually become a very different machine. This is how the process works and it is one of the main functions of a trade show such as NAB.
Mitch Gross
Veteran
Yup, just assumptions and thoughts.Announcing 4K compressed early i think was more about damage control and sales than we think. But maybe im wrong too. Its just assumptions and thoughts
We do not aim to mislead or deceive. We have been racing to complete 4K ProRes and have in fact been pushing hard on development from all sides. May I remind you all that we had firmware releases in July and August? Convergent Design received our 4K ProRes certification from Apple just a few days before we made our announcement. Because we cannot make such an announcement without it. This was at the start of IBC and I'm sure you all understand that there is a great deal of media attention paid at that time. When we made the announcement we fully believed we were still on track for the firmware release to come by the end of the month, just a couple of weeks later. Again, we have been working on this for many months and there are checklists and flowcharts to indicate progress so we can get a sense of where we stand. But unforeseeable issues can arise, and one in fact did. It is not unsurmountable and we should have it worked through in a couple of weeks, but it did delay us slightly. So close to the finish line on this one but not quite there yet.
We are not trying to trick anyone here. I have a draft of release anouncement on my desktop with a September 29th date on it. We honestly thought that was when we would release. Sorry.
steve phillipps
Veteran
Of course you're entitled to your opinion, but I was just going to post saying how important I think CD have been over the last few years. I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to revolutionised the industry with the Nanoflash - allowing cheap cameras to attain broadcast spec, and now it seems that the O7Q is pretty much doing the same thing.
In my view at least, CD do 3 things - 1) they release well-thought-out and functional items with impressive specs; 2) they price them very reasonably; 3) they have really good communication with users via various forums - something I think almost all users find incredibly useful (and I'm sure CD find the feedback useful for them too).
Just my .02 - no more valuable than cuervo's of course, everyone has their own opinions and views.
Steve
cuervo
Veteran
I don't disagree with you, Steve. All I'm saying is that C-D has a questionable track record on product promises. If one chooses to buy into their product line, then one chooses to buy into their rhetoric; and, this endless stream of C-D bashing and complaining serves no purpose. One accepts that this is how they function, and moves on. On a very personal level, I run a small business. I don't have deep pockets. And I don't appreciate being a beta tester for development projects. But then, I did choose to buy an O7Q, so, that shows where I stand.
Last edited:
Mitch Gross
Veteran
It will be for both FS700 and FS7 as the data streams to the Odyssey7Q are the same.
You could use it for slower frame rates if you wanted, but the main reason is for access to the high frame rates recorded in ProRes rather than RAW. At this point we are fully confident for delivering up to 120p, and we shall see if we can indeed go faster without compromising image quality. It's a lot of data to process very quickly.
I think Black Magic are significantly worse though!
I really dont think CD set out to decieve anyone either.
Ah yes - fantastic
Now, if you could get to compressed 2K 240fps that would certainly be a killer! Of course, you know that! 120fps would be pretty good though.Mitch Gross
Veteran
It's a goal. If we can do it and it works well we will make it available. It is one of those things with enough variables that the only way to know is to try it.Ah yes - fantastic
On a related subject - are there any plans to allow some kind of balanced SSD recording mode where alternate takes (HD prores) get spread across the two SSD's?
I ask as I only currently have 2 x 256GB drives. When I was away filming in Barbados last week, I nearly filled one SSD with interview footage. When the unexpected opportunity arose to film some beach scenes in 240fps, I was scuppered as I didn't have the space available on both drives. Even the ability to select the recording drive without physically swapping them would have helped a lot I think.
cuervo
Veteran
yep, I agree, Paul. I don't think C-D is dishonest. My only intention of posting my opinion, and that's all it is, is to try to make C-D aware of how they are seen by others. They have made some nice products. I just think they need to be more judicious and explicit about their claims.....
I'm on the verge of buying a PMW F5. My only hesitation is that it's a huge chunk of change, for me. And a one or two year life cycle, on this kind of purchase, is a deal killer. The one thing that has me decided against the F7 is that it's on a one year life cycle, to be replaced by a newer offering, probably at NAB2015. If the O7Q is useful with the F5, its purchase price amortizes out to have been a good purchase. And this is the kind of thing I have to think about to make my business fly.
edit: as a side note, it must be exceptionally difficult to run a product development small technology company. Trying to be on the cutting edge is always full of problems.
Last edited:
I almost feel that this is the same thing you did with the O7Q, except you released it into the wild.
I don't mind that it is taking until mid octorber, it just is frustrating when you send this hype email, hype it up at your trade shows, and then do this... AGAIN.
I do agree to some extent - I too feel the O7Q was released WAY too early - probably at least 9-12 months too early. It really was a beta unit on release. We've only just got to a point where a significant amount of the features are now available but even then, there are still a fair few bugs and issues.
My main gripe is that there just doesn't seem to be enough robust testing of new firmware releses, so pretty obvious bugs slip through (like the black screen zoom bug or the vertical video offset bug after zooming). To me, they're bugs that definitely shouldn't be there on a final release and they didn't take me very long to find either. I guess there's so much pressure to get a new release out that testing gets squeezed.
steve phillipps
Veteran
I reckon there's plenty of users that would disagree there - those that did get the functionality they needed straight away (FS700 for example, or perhaps an HD tape camera user wanting a 10 bit field recorder and monitor). Think it may be better to suggest that those users interested in a future promised update should perhaps wait until that functionality has actually been released before buying?
Steve
Maybe - don't disagree that those users that wanted RAW got some of what they wanted early on. BUT there are other features that I feel should have been in there from day 1 - like the playback system we have now. The old system was really clunky. Maybe some of the problems came from the timescales that were communicated early on for new fetures were WAY out.
I still strongly stand by my views that the firmware updates when they are released, aren't as robust and bug free as we maybe should expect.
I still strongly stand by my views that the firmware updates when they are released, aren't as robust and bug free as we maybe should expect.
cuervo
Veteran
The original marketing media did not indicate that these features were development features that might take over a year to develop. I put heavy emphasis on the capability to record DNxHD, which, to date, has not materialized. Had I known the development would take this long, I might have made a different purchasing decision.