Cinedeck Extreme onboard HD recorder for R1, Epic, Scarlet,...shipping now

[Sanjin Jukic]

The Cinedeck Extreme onboard HD recorder with touchscreen monitor that also can be used with R1, Epic, Scarlet, etc,...is shipping now.

The cinedeck Extreme can input HD-SDI in 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, as well as HDMI,
and record it to the wavelet-based Cineform codec. Coming soon (with a firmware upgrade)
will be Avid DNxHD, as well as Uncompressed HD.
That’s right — an Uncompressed 12-bit RGB HD recorder for under $12K that sits right on top of your camera.
Recording media are consumer 2.5″ SSD drives designed for laptops.
The cinedeck’s monitor offers functions such as waveform, vectorscope, false-color exposure meter,
audio meters, pixel-to-pixel zoom for focus, grid and frameline overlays, etc.
All this in a package about the same size of a standard on-board LCD.

AbelCine Blog page>>>

Cinedeck Extreme front with monitor sizes.

Cinedeck Extreme I/O on both sides.

Read DV review>>>

Cinedeck extreme webpage>>>

YouTube review>>>

Cinegear Expo 2010 review 1>>>

Cinegear Expo 2010 review 2>>>

 

[Brian F Kobylarz]

Sanjin,

There is a thread on this unit that was started by Ray Frisby back in September of '09.
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=34831


I added this entry to his thread about a month ago:

Spent a bit of time checking out this unit last night at a tech expo in Boston at Rule. Very impressed - I'll likely be adding it to my inventory.

Turns out that the manufacturer announced "immediate" availability yesterday - though it looks like they are a few weeks away from actually shipping (room to admit I could be wrong there).
[EDIT: Just found out they had a number of units they are shipping to fufill pre-orders, more units being produced now]
The following is excerpted from the online info:
____________________________________

"Cinedeck EXTREME is available immediately with support for the following formats and frame rates:
• 8/10 bit 4:2:2 recording via HDMI/HDSDI
• 12bit 4:4:4 recording via dual link 1.5G HDSDI or single link 3G HDSDI
• HD Format Support: 720p50, 720p59.94, 720p60, 1080PsF23.98, 1080p23.98, 1080PsF24, 1080p24, 1080PsF25, 1080p25, 1080PsF29.97, 1080p29.97, 1080PsF30, 1080p30, 1080i50, 1080p50, 1080i59.94, 1080p59.94, 1080i60, and 1080p60.
• SD Format Support: 625/25 PAL, 525/29.97 NTSC, 525/23.98 NTSC and 480p (plus realtime up/down conversion with hardware de-interlacing and 3:2 pulldown removal, and 23.98 -- > 59i on playout options)
*Not all frame rates available in all codecs/quality settings, and results may vary depending on recording media.
Cinedeck EXTREME is priced at $9,995 US MSRP. An available Hi-Brite display option for maximum readability in bright sunlight is available for an additional $995. For more information, please visit www.cinedeck.com."

_____________________________

Of some interest to our community is the way they built the enclosure to protect the 2.5" SSD from impact - mentioning that because there's been a lot of discussion on this forum about a concern with the EPIC SSD module design.
However, on the CineDeck Extreme, while the SSD side is well protected, the opposite (left) side is also recessed, but the Lemo connectors for aux power, time code, etc. would extend outside the protected area which could transfer any connector impact force to the receptacle area on the unit. There may still be time to fix that before the units ship.

There are a lot of features built in to the display - including histogram, improved touch screen menus, a positionable zoom area for checking focus during both record and playback. Plus all the normal audio, waveform, vector...
It is a bit power hungry, around 65W, but with both record and display in the same compact unit, I won't complain for now. The unit I saw had a V mount on the back, understand that they are planning on an A/B gold mount - unknown if that will be an adapter plate or OEM - plus there is the Lemo on the side that takes a 4pin XLR adapter cable.

There is a planned upgrade (believe they mentioned a fall time frame) to permit stereo recording - for some 3D work at lower rez, that will be a good feature. I could see this working integrated directly into a rig - it is small, lightweight and a friendly form factor for mounting.
It's recording through either HDSDI or HDMI to CineForm mov files onto the SSD - while that will certainly will not replace the RED onboard file recordings, it may be just right for some client projects.

I know that Rule made several sales immediately - should be a very popular product now that it is out in the wild.

I'm delayed on the purchase only because I just bought a ProTools HD system to support a client project. As soon as that project finishes, I'll be ordering the Cinedeck - will post in the field test results (unless others beat me to it!)

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

warning

warning

I honestly hate to rain on the parade-it looks like a great product.
However I have to mention a legal issue with this type of device.
Back in 1999 I built a video assist system very similar to it but with composite video(analog SD) recorder board built in. I thought it would be a great product because it combines LCD monitor with a digital video recorder for "all in one " video assist.
After putting all this effort and money into it I found out that it violates the rules of the two main unions:the local 600 and the 695. It turns out that monitoring devices are under care of the camera dept-600 and the recording devices under audio recording-local 695. A device like this only requires one person to control(not even that -my recording monitors had "autoroll" feature that used the shutter pulse from the film camera to start and stop the recording) and it became an eye sore of the union stewards on sets. An assistant was literally chased out of the ("Terminal" by Steven Spielberg)set by a steward. It ended up as an rather obscure device on camera cars and helis since they can claim that it's an integrated part of the setup.
Maybe the rules have changed since then but I would check first if I worked on a lot of union jobs.

 

[Evin Grant]

Although technically it is a union violation it's becoming much more common with data centric camera systems for camera dept. personnel to do limited playback from camera or the data cart. It makes sense with the march of technology and I think the unions will have to figure this out a little better.

 

[jonnycom]

Looks cool, I'll buy a couple if they get ProRes on that thing.....