PIX 240 start up time

S

steve phillipps

Veteran
Just wondering if someone could tell me roughly how long the PIX240 takes to boot up and be ready to record?
I liked the look of the Ki Pro Mini until I found that it takes about 40 seconds to boot up! The Nanoflash takes 5 seconds.
Cheers,
Steve
 
Being the owner of a NanoFlash and having had two KiPro mini's (both returned after big heat issues) I'm now enjoying the PIX240. You've just encouraged me to go and test the boot up time on the PIX... two different times I'm afraid, depending on whether you're using CF or SSD cards. The SSD seems to be ready to record slightly quicker at 16 seconds while the CF cards take closer to 20.

I'm powering the F3 and PIX 240 off the same v-lock batteries and to be honest there's not that much difference between the camera boot time and the PIX. If you turn the PIX on first they come up at about the same time!

You're right about the KiPro mini. My first one would often be a lot longer than 40 seconds, sometimes it would take 2 or 3 goes before it was usable at all. Sent it back and the replacement wasn't much better. The delays each time you change a battery or power down were intolerable in my work. Get's embarrassing when the whole crew's staring at you as you try to get it going again! When that replacement unit also started dropping out of record each time it got hot, I needed to get rid. AJA technical service were superb though and very helpful.

If I could stay on 8bit I'd still be using my NanoFlash, but my clients are loving the whole PIX SSD workflow and ProRes 422.
 
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Thanks a lot. I did eventually find a Youtube vid showing someone boot it up and I timed it at around 20 seconds. Planning on using a solid state recorder on a tape Varicam, and the PIX240 seems a good candidate. Looks like it work well with variable frame rates, seems it'll take in the 60P feed and allow you to choose various speeds to record at. Never sure how these things will work until you try it however!
Steve
 
I've never used the PIX with a Varicam but I did notice the latest firmware now includes the SDI-Varicam flag for record start/stop, so there must be other users out there.

I don't know if it helps but the PIX240 will up or down convert any incoming signal in order to record at the following resolution/rates:

1080p30
1080p29.97
1080p25
1080p24
1080p23.976
1080i60
1080i59.94
1080i50
720p60
720p59.94
720p50
720p30
720p29.97
720p25
720p24
720p23.976

I presume that whatever frame rate the Varicam is set to the HD SDI output stays static at 60Psf?... which should be fine.
 
All correct, but reading the manual it talks about only certain frame rate conversions working well (a red indicator comes on if it's asked to do one it doesn't like much), so reckon 720-60P into 25P might be one of those. Obviously a question of what sort of frame removal is needed, so 60 to 30 is easy as it's 2:1, but 60 to 25 is a bit awkward?
Steve
 
True - I didn't realise Varicam's weren't NTSC/PAL switchable.
I've just tested with the F3 outputting 59.94P and the only frame rates the PIX seems happy with are obviously the 59.94 and 29.97 (interlaced or P). Everything else will record but as you say the displayed record rate is highlighted in red which usually means it's not advisable - you're likely to be missing some frames in there somewhere!

P.S. Yes 23.976 was red as well... until I switched the F3 output to 59.94i. It seems as though the 3:2 pulldown removal automatically detects the interlaced signal and can tell the difference between that and a PsF signal - very clever. On 59.94i output 23.976 record seems okay.

Hope that helps.
Paul
 
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Yes, thanks Paul, intersting stuff. Obviously the Varicam itself can do it, it can record anything from 1-60fps, it records all 60 frames all the time and the hardwire Frame Rate Converter extracts what's needed. It seems that even when it displays the record rate in red it will still record? Wonder what it looks like when played back?
Steve
 
Yes, it still drops into record even when highlighted in red. To my eyes the pictures also looked okay on the inbuilt monitor, but to be honest, I didn't try with much movement and I don't have a Varicam to test it with. I wouldn't like to say for sure. It's probably something you need to try with your own camera (maybe shoot a timecode display) and check frame by frame to see exactly what's being lost... something must disappear?
 
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