Odyssey7Q February 2014 Firmware Update

Mitch Gross said:
We believe we will have it in this update.

You have no idea how many little things need to get tracked down. Functions can work fine on their own, but freak one another out when integrated. Sometimes one function completely breaks another due to an odd coincidence in code. Only way to know is to stick them all together and test everything. It's a massive bug hunt. Fix one thing, break two more. Like a big game of Whack-A-Mole.
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I guess you aren't programming in FORTRAN?....:2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:
 
"I guess you aren't programming in FORTRAN?....:2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:"

A little explanation of why this is harder than programming in Fortran or even Assembly Language would be very enlightening.

It doesn't seem like Sony, Canon, Panasonic or JVC have this much trouble.
 
rejdmast...
after joking, all seriousness aside.....no really, I know a little about the subject.
one of the BIG issues in programming in c-plus, or whatever, is that everything is dependent on the clock cycles, some gigahz in speed. When a command is received for execution, where it enters the command queue is highly dependent on where in each clock cycle it enters. Since the operator can't see on the gigahertz level, a command gets entered at a different point in the clock cycle rather randomly. The place the command enters the queue highly affects how the OS implements the command....and so, if you've followed my description, every possible entry point in the clock cycle has to be regression tested....not a trivial task...this is why sometimes you get one result(or error) and other times you don't....clock cycles, it's all about clock cycles.
 
rejdmast said:
"I guess you aren't programming in FORTRAN?....:2vrolijk_08::2vrolijk_08:"

A little explanation of why this is harder than programming in Fortran or even Assembly Language would be very enlightening.

It doesn't seem like Sony, Canon, Panasonic or JVC have this much trouble.
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Wanna bet?

Those companies have very large teams of engineers working on their products. They also build one master system and then add or suspend functions to/from it. The operating control system inside the entire Panasonic professional camera line is the same, with certain operations specific for the needs of the individual machine. So they have honed this code over time but trust me, there is a huge amount of bug hunting that takes place there.

The worst situation is Microsoft and their operating systems. They have to make them backwards-compatible with everything previous, and functional with piles of devices and software, most of which are long dead and buried. The lines of code expand something like 10-fold every new generation, and it is why there are always so many bugs found by endusers. It's millions upon millions of lines and they simply cannot find all the problems, many of which are stacked upon esoteric bits of old code that have no value anymore anyway. It's mind boggling.

With Odyssey, we're starting from scratch any only building upon our own work. Still, it's amazing the strange things that crop up. Someday perhaps I'll share...
 
As a former software developer, I can only imagine that amount of coffee/Red Bull the CD engineers are drinking at this moment along with the enormous amount of stress/pressure to deliver a gold-release firmware with a publicly announced feature-set by a hard Fri deadline. Never a fun position to be. If Convergent Design has any March 1st beer donation buttons for the engineers (and for the entire team), I'd be glad to donate!
 
I have nothing but respect for programmers creating nothing out of lines of seemingly infinite and laborious code, especially under a deadline.
February is the shortest month but for some reason, this year it feels like the longest :P
 
It's an FPGA isn't it? So coding for that and also the debug test cycle is a lot more difficult that the luxury of IDEs and integrated debuggers for normal coding.

Having said that i'd happily take a release now with the majority of fixes and new bits in and another one next week. After all if the firmware upgrade is easy enough to carry out then who cares how many updates we burn through...

cheers
Paul
 
Good luck with finishing things up, Mitch and team. Resist the urge to folk a reduced feature version and be QCing two different builds, it'll never end ;)

Kris
 
Does anyone else find himself refreshing the firmware page of CD? hehe
Will be possible to convert previous recorded raw's to adobe friendly file?
I would love to uninstall Resolve this February! (Adobe, never realized how good you are!)

Jokes aside, I've lost days in Resolve, seeing tutorials, reading and it looks impossible to replicate the results I've had with adobe, would be great to edit the current raw files I've shoot with adobe.
 
hugofilipe said:
Does anyone else find himself refreshing the firmware page of CD? hehe
Will be possible to convert previous recorded raw's to adobe friendly file?
I would love to uninstall Resolve this February! (Adobe, never realized how good you are!)

Jokes aside, I've lost days in Resolve, seeing tutorials, reading and it looks impossible to replicate the results I've had with adobe, would be great to edit the current raw files I've shoot with adobe.
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I don't think so. Also right now the adobe route is not ideal, when you import (via ACR) you get to choose a 'look' of your DNGs, you don't get *all* of the range, this may or may not work for what you need.

cheers
Paul
 
hugofilipe said:
Jokes aside, I've lost days in Resolve, seeing tutorials, reading and it looks impossible to replicate the results I've had with adobe, would be great to edit the current raw files I've shoot with adobe.
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I am free to choose for my BMDPCC files whether Resolve or AE and I always prefer Resolve. Different taste, different tasks, different skills..
 
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A quick note on Adobe compatibility. At this rollout it will be a partial compatibility. We do our part and Adobe has to do theirs. So initially we will function with Photoshop but to get into Speedgrade and Premier there are some adjustments Adobe must make. They pledge this shortly, but I don't want you to think you can just toss out Resolve right away.
 
hugofilipe said:
Does anyone else find himself refreshing the firmware page of CD? hehe
Will be possible to convert previous recorded raw's to adobe friendly file?
I would love to uninstall Resolve this February! (Adobe, never realized how good you are!)

Jokes aside, I've lost days in Resolve, seeing tutorials, reading and it looks impossible to replicate the results I've had with adobe, would be great to edit the current raw files I've shoot with adobe.
Click to expand...

If you don't like Resolve to pack them into a different wrapper, I'm fairly sure Squeeze will do the trick for you. Resolve such a great tool for it though, especially if its DNG files you are working with.
 
Important status update

Important status update

Odyssey7Q February Firmware Status Update

(February 27, 2014, Colorado Springs) There are many improvements and added functions in our Odyssey7Q Firmware Update. Sony FS700 4K RAW recording, additional Canon C500 recording formats, and a host of small functions and minor fixes. The most anticipated new function is the popular compressed recording format to complement all of our other recording functions.

This codec is the intellectual property of another company, and Convergent Design needed to go through extensive technical training and then a certification process to make sure the code we wrote was qualified by the other company. We have been in continual contact with the other company and believe that we have answered all of the requirements it has posed to us. However, as of today, February 27, 2014, we have not been issued our certification.

Without this certification we are contractually bound from releasing this firmware. So while we fully anticipate full approval and certification from the other company, we must delay the release of our February Firmware Update.

Our engineers continue to work on. They sweep the code searching for programming bugs as well as work on additional functions that we have not yet announced. The firmware will improve every day.

It is not practical in the short term to release a version of the firmware update that does not include the popular compressed recording format. Its functions are intertwined with many others and locking it out could cause issues in other functions. However if the delay appears to extend beyond a minimal time we will do exactly this.

Again, we expect this delay to be very short-lived, and apologize to all of our Odyssey7Q owners for the delay.
 
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