Odyssey7Q February 2014 Firmware Update

I too would have lean over DNxHD but since it can't do 4K, I believe it's a no go.

I understand the general feeling regarding the delay of the firmware, I'm disapointed too, but I hope people won't hold a grudge against Convergent Design, considering the great tool they offered us and the never ending diligence of Mitch and Dan (and the CD team). I bet you guys are having a hard time and believe it was more of a matter of bad luck rather than the developers team screwing up (well, maybe a bit, but considering the amount of features the update provides it's not a surprise)

I have the feeling we'll have the update by next week... let's just pretend february has a few more days this year guys ! ;)
 
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aerialcams said:
Hello Mitch,

A couple of questions if I may.

Very interested in purchasing some 7Q & 7s' and managed to have a look at one at the BVE show in London.

Ideally we'd like to use them as operating monitors for live work with the bonus of the recorder.
I was trying to see what they were like with a 1080 50i signal (any delay etc..) but could only get the input format to read 25psf.
So downloaded the manual, it states interlace is not supported for recording currently, do you have a time frame for this ?

On fastish pans I noticed some double imaging / lag is this an artifact of the conversion to psf or the performance of the screen refresh ? Seemed the same when inputting a 1080 50p signal.
I didn't notice the project frame rate at the time would this have affected it ?



Thanks in advance.
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Oh man, the one thing I'm not going to do at this moment is give a time frame for anything.

Accepting interlace signals correctly is high on the list and will happen ... shortly. This should account for the lag that you witnessed, although some cameras create lag in their output, which has nothing to do with the Odyssey7Q.
 
I think next time it might help if bug fixes, controllable internal issues, and issues dealing with Apple or Avid or Sony or etc... can be separated. Lumping it all together means that one bad egg screws it up for the whole bunch. The issues with bad lines/pixels/screen tearing is a bad one. I mean I can't takl to my clients (I deal in rentals and production) about ProRes when all they want to know is how something looks in front of their face. Bugs like that need fixed ASAP.

The stuff you already have control of that can just be upgraded like the ports and the histogram (GOD that thing needs some lovin' haha), the vectorscope, should be a second tier.

Finally anything that is dealt with an outside client (ARRI, Canon, Sony, Apple) should be last. Just as you have to wait for those corporations. You have the least amount of say in your timetable with them.

Just my thinking. There is a LOOOT that can be done with this recorder. It will take time I know. ProRes is a HUGE hump to get over. It will satisfy many (not me I'm DnXHD) so that people will want this recorder more. Currently as far as rentals go the 7Q is playing catch up with my other external recorders because of a lack of the usual ProRes and DNxHD recording options. That and the interface is a bit intimidating and I always have to explain it. (But hey I friggin PLAN people's shoots for them sometimes!). I want to see it catch up. I REALLY want it to turn my FS700 into more than a 1 trick pony. Good luck guys. Thanks for the update.
 
slipstrea808 said:
I REALLY want it to turn my FS700 into more than a 1 trick pony. Good luck guys. Thanks for the update.
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It already is more than a 1 trick pony, a lot more, you just have to shoot 2K RAW. The stuff looks great. I do agree with having smaller issues be dealt with in a more timely manner. 4 months seems to long to wait for the screen flicker to be fixed.
 
Dan posted something like a revised roadmap in the other popular forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachm...-7-7q-odyssey7q-spec-sheet-2014-02-27-001.pdf

So if CD catches up,
we might have the Feb Firmware update end of next week.
That would be a minor delay from my point of view.

We had too many announcements, that could not be met. Therefore, with caution and being very optimistic, reading the next one, we might expect
- a March update, bringing 4K compressed recording for the FS700 option.
- an April update, adding more recording options for the base unit.

It seems to be a good idea to break down firnware releases into a more frequent schedule for the beginning, until all key features have been implemented. Having 4K RAW and also 4K compressed recording within this quarter would over-perform my expectations. So let's give CD another four weeks and than, FS700 owners could be very happy.
 
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So the March update isn't the pushed back February update? I think they should stop naming them with months when we know it won't hit during that month.

I'm a bit salty regarding this, combined with the fact that they have been advertising the device with features it doesn't even have yet. There are 10 bullet points on B&H for the 7Q:

  • 7.7" 1280x800 Monitor w/ 3400:1 Contrast
  • Upgradeable to High-Speed RAW Recorder
  • Compressed DNxHD Included
  • Vectorscope, Waveform, RGB Parade, Etc.
  • 2 SDI In, 2 Out, 2 Bi-Directional, HDMI
  • Quad Streaming, Monitoring and Recording
  • 8-Channel 48 KHz, 24-Bit Embedded Audio
  • Touchscreen Interface / 2 Function Keys
  • ARRI, Canon, Sony LUT Support
  • 2 Slots for 2.5" Convergent Design SSDs

Out of those 10, there is no DNxHD, I don't think there is a vectorscope yet, and the multistream (at least recording) isn't in there yet. And I know the LUT button works in FS700 RAW mode, but we can't load our own. That's 3-4 of the 10 bullets that aren't even actually usable, yet they are being used to sell the device. The bullet "DNxHD included" is a joke. I'm sure in the advertising world, you could twist that into "Well, we aren't charging extra for it, it's included with the purchase price** **available at an undetermined date with an upcoming firmware update"
 
Just looking at record times on FS/ 7Q hire bundle available from VMI. Surely they've got that wrong?

SSD Drive Storage

Compact Flash is a great choice for most compressed recorders, but it simply lacks the required performance for uncompressed video. Compact Flash tops out at about 90 Mbytes/sec, while uncompressed video ranges from 100 to over 300 Mbytes/sec; so clearly, it’s impossible to record uncompressed video onto a single CF card. Additionally, CF card capacity maxes out at 128GB, while SSDs are now available up to 512GB.
VMI offers both 256GB and 512GB SSDs (1.8").
As standard, the 4K on board recorders are being supplied with 3 x 256GB storage and the multicamera record versions with 2 x 512GB storage.
256GB SSD storage → 32 minutes @ 1080p24 4:2:2, 10-bit
Thus, you have sufficient storage of 90 minutes of 1080p with 3 x drives and more storage is available at an additional charge :
 
I dont even have SSD readers yet, so im stuck just looking at my fancy smancy monitor for now :-(

Unit arrived just now on friday...
 
how can someone have a beta firmware when im feeling like a beta tester for 4 months ... oh wait its the holy pbloom :D
 
SKYLIKE said:
how can someone have a beta firmware when im feeling like a beta tester for 4 months ... oh wait its the holy pbloom :D
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+1 løl

(and I bet he got it for free)

edit
DL #1 finsihed, loaded footage into Resolve. Now you know why you need the new MacPro.
 
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sunnyjimfilms said:
Just looking at record times on FS/ 7Q hire bundle available from VMI. Surely they've got that wrong?

SSD Drive Storage

Compact Flash is a great choice for most compressed recorders, but it simply lacks the required performance for uncompressed video. Compact Flash tops out at about 90 Mbytes/sec, while uncompressed video ranges from 100 to over 300 Mbytes/sec; so clearly, it’s impossible to record uncompressed video onto a single CF card. Additionally, CF card capacity maxes out at 128GB, while SSDs are now available up to 512GB.
VMI offers both 256GB and 512GB SSDs (1.8").
As standard, the 4K on board recorders are being supplied with 3 x 256GB storage and the multicamera record versions with 2 x 512GB storage.
256GB SSD storage → 32 minutes @ 1080p24 4:2:2, 10-bit
Thus, you have sufficient storage of 90 minutes of 1080p with 3 x drives and more storage is available at an additional charge :
Click to expand...

Well the numbers would be right for uncompressed 10bit 422 1080p, but that is not a format that is supported by the 7Q as far as I know. DPX is 10b or 12b but only 444 RGB, so I don't know what 10b 422 uncompressed format they would be listing record times for. I would recommend just using the record times listed on CD's website.
 
S.Blanchardon said:
Philip Bloom is teasing us hard, he posted 2 clips shot 4K RAW 50p with a beta firmware OD7Q :

http://philipbloom.tumblr.com/post/78198602870

DL will take a few hours on my side but the 2 thumbnails looks already stunning !
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Thanks for the link, I downloaded the files and tested it on my system (Late 2013 MacPro, Quadcore, D700, 64GB):

Each DNG frame is about 13.4MB – so its pretty huge. But even working with DaVinci Resolve (non lite version) is's really fast!
You can even hold up to 38 fps realtime playback with the Optimized for sharpness-settings and more than 8 nodes so both D700s are pretty fast. Btw its now fine if you fix your wrong white balance later (Bloom was shooting at very cold 3200K, Photoshop works as well now – but be prepared: you now deal with raw-stills!)

To reduce the extreme storage size of the 2K/4K DNG I always get the DNGs to a compressed DNG with Abobe DNG Converter – so we will end up with manageable and lossless 6.5 MB 4K DNG frames. It reduces the realtimeplayback on the MacPro to 32 fps (but its still good).

Before we finally get the new O7q firmware check the storage system. Even at "only" 6.5 MB/s 4K DNG @ 30 fps you need a minimum of 200MB drive speed. For that I use thunderbolt Lacie's 5big, its more than fast enough. One of the two shots was 2.6 stops underexposed but its still usable.

Its such a great tool CD gave us, now lets go out and use it (maybe starting next week)!
 
nyvz said:
Well the numbers would be right for uncompressed 10bit 422 1080p, but that is not a format that is supported by the 7Q as far as I know. DPX is 10b or 12b but only 444 RGB, so I don't know what 10b 422 uncompressed format they would be listing record times for. I would recommend just using the record times listed on CD's website.
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Thought they were referring to 10 bit 422 ProRes which didn't make much sense. Perhaps they should take a look at CD's website!
 
Thanks for the info McReedy. Crazy file sizes but almost manageable with the DNG converter. I think I'll be using 4k raw veeeerrry sparingly, lol.
I don't suppose you could upload 1 DNG frame from each clip? Downloading 14gb is pretty epic and this is the first "new firmware" 4k clip ever right?
I'm sure everyone is eager to peep at those pixels!
 
Kyron said:
Thanks for the info McReedy. Crazy file sizes but almost manageable with the DNG converter. I think I'll be using 4k raw veeeerrry sparingly, lol.
I don't suppose you could upload 1 DNG frame from each clip? Downloading 14gb is pretty epic and this is the first "new firmware" 4k clip ever right?
I'm sure everyone is eager to peep at those pixels!
Click to expand...


here you go:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8273739/bloomDNG.zip

it seems also that you can adjust the white balance now in Resolve in camera settings. Great progress!
I have a late 2012 iMac with 20GB RAM, 2GB GTX 680 and I have to quit every other application
to have a play back (15fps) at all of these files. I wonder how could a preview be manageable on location.
 
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I thank you again Clermond! Really appreciate it :)

Ahhh, so good to finally be able to open a Convergent Design DNG in adobe camera raw!


edit: Man, dropping these down to 1080p makes for some deliciously sharp imagery. The sunset shot is quite noisy isn't it. Wonder what his settings were for this.

Don't really need to take a stills camera along anymore with this sort of resolution
 
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