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Uses SSDs for Easy, Inexpensive Uncompressed File-based Recording

When I first heard about the new HyperDeck Shuttle by Blackmagic Design, I immediately wanted to learn more: Here is a compact, inexpensive ($328 street) shell that that works like a VTR, records uncompressed video onto solid state drives, offers easy connectability, and allows anyone to experience the benefits of a file-based workflow using even tape-based camcorders. Since you can also use its HDMI output to screen projects without the need for bulky equipment, the HyperDeck Shuttle becomes your own portable pocket-sized uncompressed HD video deck.

For my review of this newly introduced product—it was announced this year at NAB–I created two videos. The first offers an overview covering its important features. The second video (seen later on in this article) incorporates a sequence of shots, which I edited together to give some idea of the quality it delivers.

Why am I so excited? I feel that the HyperDeck Shuttle offers a breakthrough price on an easy to use tool for media creators, especially filmmakers seeking to shoot the most visually rich scenes possible or VFX supervisors generating uncompressed plates for intricate visual effects and compositing. When I received a unit for review, I quickly put it to use to see if it would live up to its promise.

The HyperDeck shuttle records uncompressed full 1920 X 1080 4:2:2 HD video from any HDMI or SDI source (such as video cameras and DSLRs) onto inexpensive, consumer-level SSDs (solid state drives). Why’s that important? Anyone who owns an older tape-based HDV camera can suddenly enjoy the conveniences of tapeless, file-based workflows without needing to purchase new camera gear.

Meanwhile, those with newer file-based cameras will also benefit by being able to acquire their footage in the highest quality and clarity possible. For independent filmmakers this can mean gorgeous, film-like images worthy of projection. For those shooting green screen footage, it means you can key out your subjects easily and cleanly without worrying about ugly and annoying visible compression artifacts resulting from codec algorithms.

According to Dan May, President of Blackmagic Design, a major consideration when creating the HyperDeck Shuttle was to make the most simple and ergonomic design possible.

SSD, Anyone?

The HyperDeck Shuttle records to many brands of commonly available 2.5-inch SSDs. The drives, which are purchased separately, constantly drop in price and gain in capacity. You know the drill too: SSDs, which have no moving parts, are lightweight, very portable, and need very little power. While it’s not easy to directly compare the two, SSDs can rate at up to 5x the speed of today’s standard magnetic HDDs.

Before you buy an SSD to use with the HyperDeck Shuttle, however, be aware that you shouldn’t buy one indiscriminately. According to BlackMagic, some models of SSD can’t save video data at the speed the manufacturer claims. That’s because some SSDs speed things up by using hidden data compression techniques to compress the data first before saving it on the drive.

Since video streams have to be recorded in ways that are different than plain data, drives that use proprietary data compression techniques won’t work. Thus, even though some manufacturers may claim their SSDs have speeds fast enough to handle video, they may in fact be much slower. How much slower? Up to 50-percent slower write speeds, in some cases, according to Blackmagic.

Therefore, to help navigate around this problem, Blackmagic has tested and certified several makes and models of SSD drives for use with the HyperDeck Shuttle. The preferred disks makers include Kingston, OCZ, and Crucial, quality brands you’re probably familiar with already. For a full list of recommended drives, check with BlackMagic Design. For this review, I used a Kingston SSDNOW 128 GB.

Uncompressed footage requires a lot of disk space, obviously much more than compressed footage. Even so, on a 512 GB SSD drive you can record about 50 minutes, a 256 GB drive will contain about 25 minutes and a 128 GB fits around 12.5 minutes. If you’re shooting SD, multiply those amounts by 4. With a few spare SSDs in your pack, you should be covered for almost any shoot unless you’re shooting a conference or live event, in which case you’ll need a bunch of them — unless you are swapping out drives, downloading your files and re-using them.

In truth, if you’re shooting those kinds of events, you probably don’t need the level of quality that uncompressed acquisition delivers. Instead, think of the HyperDeck Shuttle as an effective solution for feature production, shorts, dramas, commercials and certainly any kind of visual effects work.

First Things First

SSDs come unformatted and leave this step up to you. That makes sense since there are a variety of disk formats to choose from. In the case of the HyperDeck Shuttle, you’ll format using the HFS+ file system (journaled HFS, a standard Mac format). On Windows, use Mediafour’s MacDrive, an inexpensive utility. If you use a Mac, you can use the included disk utility.

What’s Up Dock?

The HyperDeck Shuttle has a USB 2.0 port which is used purely for firmware updates. Even if you wanted to use it to transfer large files to your RAID or preview your clips, USB 2.0 is too slow to be practical. Instead, the HyperDeck Shuttle should be used for what it’s designed for, recording uncompressed HD with your camera crew in the field rather than being tied up for hours in your editing suite transferring large files to your RAID.

So how do you get the clips off of the SSD? The solution comes in the form of a hard drive docking station. These handy devices, which only cost around $30-40, allow you to drop in a 2.5 or 3.5 inch SATA hard drive (SSD or not) and start using it right away, no enclosure needed. Docking stations are available with an eSATA port which supports a transfer rate of 3000 Mbs or with a USB 3.0 port which is significantly faster at 5000 Mbs or about ten times faster than USB 2.0. With a dock, not only will the transfers be done in no time, but your HyperDeck Shuttle will be immediately free to record with after you’ve slipped in another blank SSD.

With the docking station, you have ample bandwidth to preview your clips and even edit directly off of the SSD in your NLE. While you’ll still want to transfer your footage to your RAID at some point, you’ll save time and disk space by using the dock to choose takes, log your clips and perform rough cuts.

I also used the transfer dock to format the SSD in the field by connecting it to the eSATA port on HP’s new 8760w Mobile Workstation, which is, in my opinion, perhaps the best mobile platform for video production (see my review of it here).

A Decision Made

My initial intention was to try out the HyperDeck Shuttle with a recent file-based large sensor camera such as the Sony NEX-FS100, or a Canon 5D Mark II, two hot cameras which offer great quality yet won’t break the bank. As I went about making preparations, however, I suddenly remembered my Canon HDV tape-based camcorder, which just happens to have an on-board HDMI port.

I realized that this older HDV camera—which was a very popular consumer model among filmmakers and video enthusiasts that still has a following on the web–might make for a more interesting test. First of all, the NEX-FS100 and the 5D Mark II were already file-based and record at 1920 X 1080, though these AVCHD cameras would still benefit from the increased clarity that uncompressed acquisition offers by using the HyperDeck Shuttle.

I also realized that a major draw for the HyperDeck Shuttle will be its ability to transform an older tape-based HDV camera into a modern file-based system with all the benefits that tapeless workflows enjoy. (This assumes it has an HDMI-out port). An older rig might once again become one’s primary camera, or at least be useful for taking B-roll or alternative angles.

A Wide Question

An important question popped into my mind after I decided to use the HDV camera: would the HyperDeck Shuttle truly record uncompressed 1920 X 1080 HD video directly from the Canon’s CCD? That could be a problem since the HDV format does not record at full 1080 HD resolution (1920 X 1080 pixels), but rather at 1440 X 1080 (with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.33). (Among other issues, this was due to cost concerns when this consumer-oriented technology was developed prior to its 2003 release.)

As a result it has significantly less horizontal resolution. Thus, a common question that often gets asked when outputting video from an HDMI port on an HDV camera is whether the signal is 1440 X 1080 or 1920 X 1080. In other words, does it get sent out before or after the built-in circuitry (codec) has the opportunity to squish it to 1440 pixels wide? (You’ll find this question asked a lot on various online forums, although it is hard to get a definitive answer).

If the HyperDeck Shuttle recorded the footage uncompressed at 1440 X 1080, I suppose that would still be kind of cool — but not that cool. It would only be marginally better, and it certainly wouldn’t hold off any decision I might have to upgrade my gear. On the other hand, if it bypassed the initial HDV processing on the camera and recorded the footage uncompressed directly from the CCD at 1920 X 1080…now that would be something to get excited about. Obviously this was an important question for which we’d find out the answer soon enough.

The Park

After formatting the SSD, I packed up the Canon HDV camera, the HyperDeck Shuttle and set out one late summer’s day to Washington Square Park in downtown New York’s historic Greenwich Village. Since this was a weekday, the crowds weren’t heavy. I set down my rig and recorded whatever I felt like— a little bit of everything.

Back in my studio, I slipped the SSD out of the HyperDeck Shuttle and into the dock, which in turn was connected to my editing station, an HP Z800 workstation and a ZR30w high performance display. You can read my review of this potent workhorse here.

The HyperDeck Shuttle saved the uncompressed video clips within a QuickTime wrapper, which I easily imported into Adobe Premiere Pro.

So far everything was going without a hitch. The only thing I still needed to check was whether the footage was recorded at 1920 X 1080.

“Something’s got to go wrong,” I thought as I leaned over to check the resolution. “It can’t be all good news”. But it was good; Murphy’s Law just didn’t take hold in this case. The HDMI port had indeed delivered the video to the HyperDeck Shuttle at true HD resolution, not scaled back to HDV’s dimensions of 1440 X 1080. That means 550 extra horizontal pixels of goodness on each frame to work with.

Uncompressed footage is gorgeous to behold, and thanks to the HyperDeck Shuttle, even my older HDV camcorder could deliver the goods. There were no jaggy edges or other noisy compression artifacts. Each frame was pristine. It’s nice to know that my Canon HDV camera has gotten a new lease on life, at least as a second unit camera.

I edited the shots from Washington Square Park in Premiere and added some music. Here, for your consideration (Oscar or otherwise) is The Park:

Conclusion

The HyperDeck Shuttle is like having a miniature, battery-powered, portable uncompressed recording deck complete with HDMI and SDI in and out. But it’s also affordable for creative independents or students, while useful for the highest quality and demanding production scenarios.

The list price of the HyperDeck Shuttle is $345. The Kingston SSDNOW V+ Series 128 GB drive that I used costs around $235 (list). Throw in another $30 bucks for a Thermaltake BlacX eSATA docking station too. (You will pay a bit more for the USB 3.0 version.) All in all, a package, similar to the one I used, will run you less than$600.

SSD prices will no doubt continue to drop and I would recommend you get as large a drive as you can afford, say 256 GB or even 512 GB.

As mentioned in the beginning of this review, there are other uses for the HyperDeck Shuttle besides shooting video. You can use it to present your movie after you finish it to audiences in theaters, trade shows, lectures or other venues via its HDMI or SDI output ports. The HyperDeck Shuttle works with both Windows and Mac gear; it’s also compatible with most popular NLE and graphics programs including Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Final Cut, Avid and others.

The HyperDeck Shuttle could be a key product for your production and help take it to the next level. I don’t hesitate in highly recommending it.

UPDATE: January 18, 2012 – Blackmagic Design has just announced that the HyperDeck Shuttle can now record natively into Avid’s DNxHD format. We’ll report more on this later. In the meantime, see my review of the recently released HyperDeck Studio for information about recording to DNxHD.

If you’re involved in production—be it as producer, director, DP or editor—today’s multiple video formats can be confusing.

Can you talk and think coherently about the different formats, or specifics of resolution, color space, or color versus temporal compression? Well, you’ll have to if you need to make judgments about production workflow.

That’s where AbelCine’s upcoming class—it’s this Tuesday, August 16^th—might come in handy. It’s a three-hour event where you’ll get a handle on the various HD formats and what workflow each of them is best suited.

According to a post on the rental and sale house’s site, topics covered in the three-hour class include broadcast standards, frame rates, compression, color space and recording media. Formats covered include Sony XDCAM, Panasonic P2, ARRI ALEXA, RED RAW, Canon HDSLR, Canon XF, AVCHD and HDV.

Click here for more info.

Attracting interest as Sony’s first AVCHD codec’d camcorder—it’s an upgraded variant of the already successful HDV-based HVR-Z5E, a camcorder that won best of show at IBC 2008—the Sony HXR-NX5U NXCAM turned up at the Sony/Band Pro open house this past week. The relaxed event (okay, not that many folks turned up, which I attribute to minimal outreach) gave me a chance to have a closer look.

Sony’s Juan Martinez at the Band Pro demo

Also helping was the camera demo’r, none other than Sony’s Juan Martinez, who, I understand, had much input as to camcorder’s final design, which offers loads of practical, useful touches. That’s because Martinez, who came over from JVC and is now senior manager of acquisition systems at Sony, not only has plenty of ideas of his own as to what makes a good camcorder, but ferries requests and info between Sony’s engineers in Japan and the many DPs, directors, and others that he listens to here.

There are plenty of good ideas here. Simple ones count, such as the ability to change peaking colors for focusing: a red, white, or blue edge around the subject in the viewfinder, for example, makes it much faster and easier to focus, as a thin edge pops in and out of resolution, while the different colors allow choice of a color that best stands out with the subject’s color.

The basic images the camcorder turns out look improved over comparable HDV offerings anyway, as it’s using the high quality Z5 lens and front end along with the more up-to-date AVCHD codec. No matter how good the Carl Zeiss zoom lens used in the earlier comparable Sony camcorders might be in the abstract, by developing its G Series zoom in-house Sony has been able to optimize the optics and mechanics of the lens for the sensors. The wide angle of view available with the bottom of the zoom–29.5mm—is great for filming in-doors and other tight spots.

Another useful new feature, SteadyShot Active Mode, uses the built-in accelerometer and other technology to reduce the impact of camera shake and movement. If you can hold the camcorder and walk without too much movement, this allows you to turn out a convincing tracking shot without relying on a bulky, expensive stabilization rig.

Here’s a list of some of the more useful pages I’ve found on the NXCAM:

DV User editor Nigel Cooper, who had early access to a prototype NXCAM, offers his take here.

If you don’t care to read, here’s a short video of Cooper’s overview.

Find Adam Wilt’s first review, which I mentioned earlier, as posted on the ProVideo Coalition website here.

D.W. Leitner’s first take on the millimeter site is here.

Here’s a little back and forth on DVInfo.net discussing the merits of the Z5 versus Nexcam.

Nothing especially enlightening here as yet, but Creative Cow usually runs good forum pages, so wait until this heats up.

Not exactly sure why this would be useful or interesting before the camera has shipped (too little footage available), or after it’s hit the market en masse (too much footage), but here’s a Vimeo page devoted to footage from anyone shooting with the NXCAM.

Finally, here’s the pre-order page at B&H where they quote a $3999 price that will supposedly be lower if you make the now time-honored Web sales move to “add it to your cart”. I could never exactly figure the logic of that ploy, although I suppose it’s similar to the enticement a spider might use on its own web site to urge its target to take a step that’s just a little further into its clutches…

Jan Ozer favors the Canon 7D’s results in video mode over two camcorders–Canon’s XH A1 and JVC’s GY-HM700U.

My colleague at millimeter magazine, Jan Ozer, has posted an in-depth look at Canon’s EOS 7D at his blog, which you can find here. With its maximum record time of about 14 minutes and primitive audio capabilities, Jan advises, the 7D isn’t the optimal first or only camcorder you should consider, though he calls it “easily the most capable” digital SLR that he has worked with.

Priced around $1700 with a kit lens, with its introduction this past September the EOS 7D offered an alternative to the pricier top of Canon’s HDSLR line, the 5D Mark II. I use the past tense, since Canon delivered a mid-January price cut on the 5D, bringing it closer to the 7D by knocking the retail price to $2499 (sans lens) with a mail-in rebate (B&H pricing here).

The price drop in mid-January serves a strategic purpose: the rumor going around is that Nikon is readying a number of new cameras for introduction within a few weeks, with new HDSLR-capable models sure to be among them. Canon obviously hopes to sweep up any wavering potential buyers it can before its rival’s launches.

Mo Better Video on the iPhone

Vimeo’s video distribution service has gained a rep in the indie production communities and among bloggers as a favorite video-sharing and embedding site, with its clean, simple interface and good quality Flash encoding. Now, the New York-based company has added the ability to distribute to iPhone/iPod Touch and Google Android devices.

This past Wednesday Vimeo announced that its staff picks and HD video showcase, two of the most popular parts of the site, had been re-encoded to H.264. The next step, says Vimeo’s director of community Blake Whitman, is to extend iPhone support to all Plus members over the next few weeks.

Avid users include many pro types such as HDSLR pioneer Philip Bloom. The attraction? Rather than the free-for-all mix of high and low, rube and pro of a YouTube, Vimeo feels more like a self-selected club of supportive enthusiasts. This is especially the case among those who buy the Plus membership (the basic site is free). At $60 a year, perks include unlimited HD uploading and the ability to embed videos elsewhere in HD, while users self-police to make sure everyone sticks by rules such as postings uploaded only by actual content creators—no reposted TV episodes here.

Vimeo, part of Barry Diller’s IAC empire, will soon relocate to Frank Gehry’s iconic West Chelsea “sailboat” building. While the site faces competition from YouTube (which already re-encodes all uploaded video for smartphones), Vimeo prides itself on listening to its pro-oriented users closely. Expect the Plus site—which is already finding use as a dailies delivery system—to add future products that more closely address the needs of production professionals, says Whitman.