Odyssey7 & Odyssey7Q October 2014 Firmware Update

Mitch Gross said:
Richard,

My post was not just from me, it is from Convergent Design. We have all discussed it and are in solid agreement on our accounting. There were numerous forms of contact by you with various members of our team and we have track of it all. Including your SKYPE messages with Dan where you accepted the refund for your Odyssey7Q in August/September only to not follow through on returning the unit through your dealer as you had agreed and we had then arranged.

You are the one who asked for SSDs. Dan said that he would see what he could do, and the answer was no. It is still no.

I did not write that you had slandered us, I warned against slandering us in the future. As we read fairly clear inferences within your emails and other contacts, we felt it prudent to do so.

We could go on but there really is no point. Your accounts do not particularly align with ours. And as stated previously, Convergent Design considers this matter closed.
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Mitch,

The post was from you and was not stated as being from the CD team. You were not involved in any of the communication. That was deliberate on my part.

Here's a fact, both Dan and Mike repeatedly tried to convince me on several occasions that CD never promised or even mentioned compressed 4k at 50/60fps. Here is a quote from Mike's email on 19/10/14;

"I checked with Dan regarding FS700 4K ProRes support. No where in our documentation do we find promises or references for 50/60p support."

Either Dan and Mike don't know their own product or they are trying to back peddle on the original marketing. Take your pick. It was the growing frustration with the their attitude, plus your post on the 05/11/14 regarding 4K ProRes beyond 30fps that prompted me to post the review from Matthew Allard. I felt this was need, as to inform you and other users that this was a feature that was solidly on your road map from the beginning.

I'd like to point out that it was you that decided to air the dirty laundry by posting your irrelevant skewed opinions in an effort to belittle me. Bravo. Evidently no one is interested.

This forum is about helping others and giving real user feedback. In the spirit of the forum, I don't think it would be unreasonable to start a new thread to give fellow users an honest testimonial, backed up with facts, about your product and services. I sure wish someone had done the same for me.
 
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As someone who uses their Odyssey 7Q frequently and is very pleased with the product as it currently stands, I'd just like to stand up and say that I appreciate the Convergent Design team for what they've done so far. No other device on the market can boast the features the O7Q has given me, breathing new life in a camera that had begun to frustrate me over so many image quality issues. And above and beyond producing a quality product, Mitch and Dan have been available to us to answer our questions to the best of their ability at any given time. Yes, they were wrong at moments, but that's what happens when they're providing information on a fluid development process.

I'm not going to get into the personal stuff happening here, but I feel very justified to put forward my very positive anecdotal experience with this product and the CD team in public.

For all those people on the fence about this product, I say it's a no brainer. It is hands-down the best purchase for my Sony FS700 I've made.
 
brazzam said:
As someone who uses their Odyssey 7Q frequently and is very pleased with the product as it currently stands, I'd just like to stand up and say that I appreciate the Convergent Design team for what they've done so far. No other device on the market can boast the features the O7Q has given me, breathing new life in a camera that had begun to frustrate me over so many image quality issues. And above and beyond producing a quality product, Mitch and Dan have been available to us to answer our questions to the best of their ability at any given time. Yes, they were wrong at moments, but that's what happens when they're providing information on a fluid development process.

I'm not going to get into the personal stuff happening here, but I feel very justified to put forward my very positive anecdotal experience with this product and the CD team in public.

For all those people on the fence about this product, I say it's a no brainer. It is hands-down the best purchase for my Sony FS700 I've made.
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I happen to agree with much of what you say. I have never complained about the IQ from the 7Q. I have always said that the image that it records is outstanding. I would have never purchased the FS700 with only an internal recording option. The 7Q is the reason that I invested in the entire system. If I only invested in the system for the current features that it has and they managed to release a stable FW release, I would have no complaints. But that isn't the case.

I guess I just don't like being lead down the garden path. And when I contacted them to let them know this, they denied the path ever existed. That's my grievance.
 
True North said:
What is the latest on the 7Q being able to record off of a GH4?

Thanks
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Currently the Odyssey7Q can do it in 4K or UHD up to 30p (I believe the camera can only go up to 24p in true 4K mode). The Panasonic YAHG base is needed to convert the HDMI signal to SDI. In the future there will be a path for Odyssey7Q owners to record 4K/UHD directly from the camera's HDMI output.
 
As much as i like the 7Q, Convergent-Design's user support and the open communication CD offers, but in defense of Prendi, i just had to post this screengrab of a cached version of the CD Website, (cached December 12th), which clearly states the features promised a year ago.

screengrab.jpg

Any opinion on this, other than "All specifications are subject to change without notice." Which i cannot find on these cached versions of the old CD website.

This has nothing to do with me knowing Prendi, this are just simple facts.
 
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stefanhuberfilms said:
As much as i like the 7Q, Convergent-Design's user support and the open communication CD offers, but in defense of Prendi, i just had to post this screengrab of a cached version of the CD Website, (cached December 12th), which clearly states the features promised a year ago.

View attachment 93296

Any opinion on this, other than "All specifications are subject to change without notice." Which i cannot find on these cached versions of the old CD website.

This has nothing to do with me knowing Prendi, this are just simple facts.
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As I have said, we have to do certain work in stages. While we still believe that we will be able to accomplish 4K60p, we need to stabilize our work at ever-rising frame rates. Remember that the Odyssey7Q functions as a real-time recorder. If we were a post program crunching the numbers at our comfort speed, we could take a long time to process a simple frame and much longer to handle a complex one with lots of movement and patterns. But instead we must always fit within a narrow window allotted to us by the frame rate. So the faster the frame rate the harder it gets.

This is why we released the function when we were able to stabilize up to 30p. That speed cover about 99% of current use. We still are pushing forward of course, but we wanted to make this useful tool available while we work.

This function is not a "no" but instead much more likely a "not yet".

Please recall that we introduced HD ProRes 422(HQ) up to 30p in March and then upped that to 60p in August. We do expect to get there faster this time.
 
Prendi said:
Just get all the promised features finished, then we'll all feel better. Yeah?
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We are working on it, including the ones you have expressed the most interest in.

Please understand that while the FS700 market is a very important one to us, it is also not our only client base. C500 owners are constantly feeling left behind as we add functions for the FS700 before there are more functions for their camera. Many of our clients use the Odyssey mostly as a monitor and want those functions expanded before any recording operations. We are trying to service all of our clients as quickly and effectively as possible.
 
Mitch Gross said:
We are working on it, including the ones you have expressed the most interest in.

Please understand that while the FS700 market is a very important one to us, it is also not our only client base. C500 owners are constantly feeling left behind as we add functions for the FS700 before there are more functions for their camera. Many of our clients use the Odyssey mostly as a monitor and want those functions expanded before any recording operations. We are trying to service all of our clients as quickly and effectively as possible.
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The 7Q is without a doubt one of the most versatile pieces of equipment on the market. The fact that there are now all those options within the recorder is astonishing. It doesn't surprise me that the engineers run into issues with conflicting code. Kudos to them for getting this far.

Anyways, I've vented and said all that I needed to say. It sounds like all the features may happen at some point. Here's hoping.

Cheers
 
Hey Mitch, when are 16x9 markers that can be adjusted to 95,90 percent and a center marker coming? Just purchased a unit, and this was the one thing I missed the most. Also, how about an anti reflective matte plastic overlay for the screen? Not sure if this would interfere with touch screen but reflections could present a problem.
 
Various new framelines and adjustable frame lines are planned for the future. Having recently completed a major hurtle in the recording end, we are able to devote more resources to other areas such as some of the monitoring functions. This is definitely on our list.

Our current supplier for our screen protector (did you realize there is a peel off one already installed?) makes a matte finish version but when we tested it we found that it didn't make a significant difference. As in, I and others could barely tell any difference. So we are looking into options from other suppliers. This is an active search at the moment. You might be surprised to learn that there are only a few manufacturers of the cling film material used for screen protectors, and their products are sold under a variety of brand names. As soon as we can find an option worth offering we will offer it.
 
Thanks for the info Mitch. Very slick product. Did not know there is a protector on already, good to know. One other question, can input two sources, do a split screen on the monitor and then output to another monitor and see the split on the external monitor?
 
jameswmulryan said:
Thanks for the info Mitch. Very slick product. Did not know there is a protector on already, good to know. One other question, can input two sources, do a split screen on the monitor and then output to another monitor and see the split on the external monitor?
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Yes, you can do that in Multi-Stream Monitoring mode. It works for 1920x1080 HD video sources (no 4K, no RAW) and it is currently viewing only. You can actually view up to four inputs, all from SDI. You can also switch between them and they will then fill the screen. We will soon add 720p and HDMI input as well. Also coming soon will be record options for this mode, starting with two-channel and moving up from there.
 
Hi Mitch. Why does it now take up to 3 minutes to change from 4K>UHD ProRes to 4K>HD ProRes mode and visa versa? In previous firmware versions you could quickly change between 2 modes and now that doesn't seem possible
 
Jim Anderson said:
Mitch, curious if the installed LUTS would pass on to another monitor if you are looping through the HD-SDI on the 7Q as the first stage from the camera.


http://andersonvideoproductions.com/ Sony F5, PMW-500 XDCAM, Canon C300, BMCC and Panasonic HD
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You will have a choice if you wish for them to pass through or not. There are three available outputs to other monitors (two SDI and an HDMI) as well as three more paths for a LUT to take (the OLED screen, the imaging tools such as the waveform and baked into the recorded file if you are capturing ProRes). We are looking into giving as man options for the routing of the LUT v. the un-LUTted signal, but we also want to make sure that it is not confusing, does what clients need and won't result in people thinking they're looking at one when it is the other and lighting & exposing improperly because of it.

But yes, the short answer is that you will be able to send a LUTted image to another monitor from the Odyssey7Q.

In addition to it being a great recorder, a great on-camera monitor, an excellent engineering scope tool, and a signal converter, the Odyssey7Q will also function as a LUT box.
 
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