RED CFExpress - 3rd party compatability

[Matthew Hood]

Looks like as of Firmware 1.2.3beta, the only approved memory cards for the V-Raptor are the RED PRO CFEXPRESS (660gb and 1.3 Tb) and the Exascend Archon 1tb. Does anyone have an idea when other brands will be approved by RED for use on the Raptor? I see the Angelbird cards have been approved on the KOMODO but not sure how long that took for RED to approve these cards rather than the RED branded Angelbird ones.

 

[Phil Holland]

There's been a great deal of conversation regarding media since Raptor's launch on the Facebook groups and here.

Things I'll forward along in this case.
- some cards require new controllers
- some cards require new firmware updates
- cards go through rather extensive testing at RED

There's more, but that's explaining why some will never make the list and why some are just "in waiting" as things are updated.

Jarred recently also started a pole regarding what type of flash types RED should be focused on.

I'll quote that here:

"Media related… If you could choose between two media cards at the same price SLC ( more life writes but smaller capacity ) or TLC ( larger capacity but less lifetime writes ). For example, between a 660gb SLC vs a 2Tb TLC, again both options at the same price."

Cycles are an interesting topic, but both types in my mind should service people well in 4-9 year spans depending on workload from my experience. Most people don't have the cards working 365 days out the year, but I based my calculations on 4X full read/writes for each day.

I suspect we'll be getting more RED branded and RED approved cards with a range of capacities relatively soon.

And now for some personal experience! Some people aren't hitting the max data rates on V-Raptor and some cards, though unapproved, will indeed roll fine. But head this warning, you are doing any and all of this at your own risk. We right now are experiencing some of the pros and cons of opening things up to 3rd party media. The pros being you have a choice of what to buy, the cons are you may be setting yourself up for failure. To that point, I strongly urge you to use RED Approved stuff as it is approved as that likely means the specific version of the card from whatever manufacturer is out or the firmware update required to the media can be applied.

I've been in the zone of testing all types of media because I jumped in early to V-Raptor and can handle the variables at play as well as testing. I've learned a lot in that span of time. Not even recommending anything based on those tests because of my experiences.

 

[Matthew Hood]

Thanks Phil. For now im hedging my bets with some RED PRO CExpress approved cards and some Angelbird 2tb cards that I am hoping will get approved in the near future.
Have you been able to get all unapproved cards to at least mount/record on the Raptor? For now, the Raptor does not recognize the Angelbird cards at all.

 

[Phil Holland]

Have you been able to get all unapproved cards to at least mount/record on the Raptor?

It's been a journey in testing. I've had media here that doesn't detect, has hung at formatting and frozen the camera, and cuts while shooting. This was all last year early on when my V-Raptor arrived. I mainly have been testing media because I need media for certain types of work I do that is as of yet not out. I've come up with solutions along the way, but the key thing to understand is what I've also learned.

Prior to RED V-Raptor's release pretty much anything using CFx B was setting below a 1/3rd of the maximum data rates that V-Raptor can hit. This allowed for manufacturers to really focus on the tech that existed then versus what would exist in the future. This is interesting because the CFx spec was "known" from the get go and theorized to a degree as well, just like the upcoming Type-C cards when that reality takes hold.

What you are seeing now is manufacturers thankfully working with RED to get cards up to snuff. That's the controller, firmware, and in some cases new models because nobody is updating controls or NAND on a card. That would be nuts.

Angelbird in particular just announced their new MK2 and XT MK2 cards that have a range of capcities. XT MK2 are 330GB, 660GB, and 1.3TB and MK2 vanilla are 1, 2, and 4TB. These were announced last week and Jarred stated they are going through testing now and I believe their existence is to cater to V-Raptor. We already know the 660GB card is a rebranded Angelbird card and it works as expected.

Hard to know what other manufacturers are going to do or when, but that's pretty much what's going on right this second. I am still testing media as companies send me a card or two to look at. I mainly forward anything I can discern or discover to RED to see if that helps or not. This was I think a bigger deal last year because I had maybe half a dozen things here that I was cranking on with hopes that they would work somehow. Only a couple things have and I really would not publicly suggest anything because getting burned by media compatibility having an impact on a production day is one of the worst things that can ever happen.

As I've said before, these are the pros and cons now having 3rd party stuff wrangled into the mix. Fortunately reputable brands usually get the job done. Just takes a bit to hammer down all the nails.