Sound Devices Pix240 is rolling out into Retail

Here's what Barry said about frame rates through SDI on the Samurai. I'm sure it's similar for the Pix240:

Barry_Green said:
Yep. 1080/60p is impossible on HD-SDI. HD-SDI simply does not support 1080/60p at all -- it was never designed for it. If you need 1080/60p, you either have to go with a dual-link HD-SDI system, or go with 3G-SDI. And that's a different product.
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eddavid said:
Dave - me likey. Also that you are on these boards answering questions is great.

I have a PIX 240 on preorder but if your samurai can also do that - I might be sold on the Samurai. What is the weight of your unit and what is the weight of the PIX 240?

Also to Ned - how quick is the boot up and shutdown time on the PIX 240? On the AJA KI Pro Mini - it's about 2 minutes. Its like booting up a computer.
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Boots up virtually immediately. I don't have the 240 specs in front of me but it is a chunky unit and its metal construction makes it on the heavy side.

Now we should all remember that we are discussing these products by and large on the basis of specs and controlled demos. When real people start using them in real scenarios....

Ned
 
To me, boot up time is more important than weight. Many of times the production has been delayed because of that Ki Pro Mini taking so long. Also, I don't know if it's because I'm feeding it Endura 7s IDX batteries and also feeding that to a monitor but the Ki Pro Mini sometimes will say my battery is low even while shooting and just basically crash. So I'll take the PIX 240 and its bulkiness and potential fan noise (which I don't think will kick in during recording) to have a more reliable system.

Now if only Convergent Designs would release a steroid-pumped Nanoflash that would record 10bit pro res and Avid DNxHD - and we would have so many options!
 
C-D is limited with Nanoflash to 8-bit since the XDCAM codec is 8-bit. There are very well situations where 8-bit might be fine-- not needing extensive grading, web or even broadcast. Nanoflash remains the only device which will do onver/undercranking or timelapse. It still has a lot of life in it. I suspect C-D needs to assess whether there is room in the market for another ProRes/DNxHD recorder. Ed, I would tend to think that the 240 would be for you. I do not any way want to disparage Samurai, either. It occupies an important market niche at a very attractive price and, as David has pointed it, Atomos' a la carte model allows you to add what you need. I believe that Andy will have Abel's demo pix unit in LA at DV Expo this coming week (where I'll be teaching and shooting as well).

Ned
 
According to a spec sheet on the Trew Audio website the Pix240 weighs 1.5 lbs. I seem to recall it was around 2 lbs from some info garnered a couple of weeks ago. So it is not as light as the NanoFlash which weighs in around 9 ounces without any cards or mounting devices. However, to put it in perspective, a 60 Watt hour Sony battery is about a pound. A Dionic 90 is about 1.6 pounds. So we are not talking about a lot of weight in the scheme of things. If you are running a shoulder rig you need ballast. That ballast could, in part, be the recorder whether a nanoFlash, Pix240 or a Samurai.
 
Dear Friends,

The nanoFlash weighs 0.85 pounds and can be powered for three hours with a low cost, light weight 2-Cell Lithium-Ion battery.


This battery, with cable and connector weighs 0.245 pounds, 3.9 ounces, or 110 grames.

The nanoFlash, with a battery pouch installed, and the above battery, weighs 1.135 pounds, 18.1 ounces, or 514 grams.
This is a complete nanoFlash, with a three hour battery, without any CompactFlash cards (with are relatively light).
 
One big selling point for the Sound Devices Pix240 is the audio pre amps, they are the same as in all Sound Devices audio recorders some of the best made. I saw a unit at NAB and was very impressed only complaint was that when the audio meters are turned on they cover a bit of the top of the lcd I wish they were transparent, it was a preproduction unit so maybe they have changed it on the final build. I own the Sound Devices 744 audio recorder I have been very pleased with it, if the final build of the Pix240 is any thing like the 744 then they will have a real winner that will never let one down!
 
I was dead keen on the PIX240, but am now leaning towards the Samarai. I can save $1500 here in Australia over the PIX, and I'm not really sure I ned those HQ audio inputs. Plus the Samarai can also use cheap fast standard 2.5" spinning drives. ATOMOS has tested the WD Scorpio Black drive and rates it as excellent in shock ability and performance. And they only cost 80 bucks for 500gb.

http://atomos.com/ninja/techspecs.xml#hddssdsupport
 
Just speaking for the Samarai, most of my work is commercials, not extreme sports, so I'm think the hard drive might be okay. At least you can get started cheaply and add SSD's as you can afford them.
 
powervideo said:
I was dead keen on the PIX240, but am now leaning towards the Samarai. I can save $1500 here in Australia over the PIX, and I'm not really sure I ned those HQ audio inputs. Plus the Samarai can also use cheap fast standard 2.5" spinning drives. ATOMOS has tested the WD Scorpio Black drive and rates it as excellent in shock ability and performance. And they only cost 80 bucks for 500gb.

http://atomos.com/ninja/techspecs.xml#hddssdsupport
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Do not forget the recording device is only as reliable as its weakest link, I am not sure I want to record my projects on a "cheap" media, inexpensive yes cheap no. Make sure it is above all reliable, there is a reason that solid state recording may be preferable to a spinning drive that is that solid state wii never have a "head crash"
 
Yeah me personally, i wouldnt risk my footage with spinning hard drives, id be much more confident in using CF or SSD's. No a place you want to save a few $'s in, unless all you shoot is hobby work or dont care if you lose a bunch of footage
 
I think for event or static studio shoots a high quality spinner will be okay, but yes SSD's are preferred for multiple scenario usage.
 
Still a couple of question I was wondering if anyone knew the answer to

One is it easy to edit pro res in Premiere cs5/5.5? How is the work flow? Thus far I have been working mainly with the XDCAM 422 codec and it works beautifully. Second, does it give you the option to dial in the specific bitrates or does it go just based on flavor of pro-res?
 
vcfilms said:
Yeah me personally, i wouldnt risk my footage with spinning hard drives, id be much more confident in using CF or SSD's. No a place you want to save a few $'s in, unless all you shoot is hobby work or dont care if you lose a bunch of footage
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Well, just for information, I see all the support calls worldwide for Atomos, and 1) most of our customers are using good-quality hard drives and 2) I haven't seen a single support ticket that said footage was lost due to a failing hard drive.

Of course this can happen - but, to be honest, I've seen more reports of SSDs failing than hard drives. Both cases are extremely rare.

I'm talking here of situations where it is appropriate to use a hard drive. In helicopters or on motorcycles it certainly is not, but for most other things - go ahead and use them.

Dave Shapton
Atomos
 
To follow up on David's comments re: spinning hard drives, I used a Firestore FS-100 for years when I owned an HVX-200. I shot on location with rugged use. Drive never crashed. Granted, FS-100 was ruggedized, but it was dependable. After I sold it, my buyer had some problems but I suspect that was due to his dropping it on concrete.

Ned
 
nsoltz said:
To follow up on David's comments re: spinning hard drives, I used a Firestore FS-100 for years when I owned an HVX-200. I shot on location with rugged use. Drive never crashed. Granted, FS-100 was ruggedized, but it was dependable. After I sold it, my buyer had some problems but I suspect that was due to his dropping it on concrete.

Ned
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Lol, yeah that'll do it. I dropped my firestore back in the day, and while it did still work, it started having some problems. The point is, yes you can and many will use spinning hard drvies with no problem. If you are getting paid good money to shoot someones project and can afford SSD or CF media, I would suggest going that route. I prefer to cut down any risks of losing footage if I can. Although, everything I shoot now is internal and to an external recorder so if it does crash you can always use the internal footage, but still, buy what you can afford.
 
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