Feb
Blackmagic Design announced a few days ago the release of HyperDeck 2.5 public beta, an update to the software used when working with HyperDeck recording models.
This version includes support for HyperDeck Shuttle and HyperDeck Studio. Both perform recording on SSD storage devices and their input and output connections are SDI or HDMI.
Many professional cameras integrate “start/stop” systems within their SDI video output. Taking advantage of these factors, they have made HyperDeck Shuttle able to recognize these commands and start or stop recording in sync with the camera, without the need to separately activate the camera and the recording device.
Even so, there are still some cameras that do not have this system in their standard way, so the update also includes a solution to be able to open up the market to cameras like ARRI ALEXA, among others. Based on the RP-188 HD timecode and a new timecode recording feature, virtually any camera (that pulls this code) can also enable or disable recording. When the camera code starts counting, this information reaches the HyperDeck Shuttle and it automatically starts recording.
The two recorder models (Shuttle and Studio) feature DNxHD (Avid’s native codec) recording and playback, which is also fully certified by Avid.
Version 2.5 of this software includes the option to record and playback these files whether they are in Quicktime or MXF format. This option to “encapsulate” DNxHD files in a Quicktime format offers the possibility of being able to extend the use of Avid’s standard encoding in other software for more specific working systems.
When working with this codec, it is perfectly compatible with the entire Avid Media Composer family, including NewsCutter and Symphony.
It can also record uncompressed Quicktime files (10-bit) that can be easily used in Final Cut Pro, Premiere, After Effects and others.
With HyperDeck Utility you can change the recording format; we could have on the same disc the files with and without compression. However, when setting a recording format we are also doing it with the playback, so we will be limited to the format that is programmed at that moment.
The latest news is that it now supports embedded timecode (for both DNxHD compressed and uncompressed files). Based again on the standard RP-188 HD protocol, the original timecode information can be retained.
The software is free and can be downloaded from the Blackmagic Design website. Here is the link.
It is available for Mac OS X Lion (from version 10.7), Mac OS X Snow Leopard (from version 10.6.8) and Windows 7 (32 or 64 bits).
