Sound Devices PIX 240 ProRes/DNxHD Video Recorder with EPIC

[bert tan]

Bert,

Not quite getting what you mean. Do you mean that connecting a mounting arm to the 1/4-20 mount point is causing interference with the fan on the unit?

Matt Mayer
Sound Mixer
Applications Engineer
Sound Devices, LLC

Hi Matt,
Yes when fix the arm to the mounting point the back cover hit the fan and cause the fan to stop spin .

Bert

 

[A. Clint Litton]

I've been shooting a feature in Sicily with somewhat limited Internet access, so haven't been able to peruse these forums as much as I might otherwise...it would be massively helpful to get an email blast from SD whenever there's a firmware update (just like I receive from Red)...that way pix owners stand a better chance of keeping their investment up to date. Is that an option thru the SD website? I've already filed support tickets via tech support as well as signed up for the forum.

Nevertheless, I appreciate the SD presence here as it will help to make this pix/epic marriage a stronger one...

 

[F. Malmer]

Why don't anyone "simply" build a module that hooks onto the back of the epic that does the prores/dnxhd recording from there. Drawing power from the camera, etc. In general, why are there no third-party epic back modules? Is it a secret specification for the pin-outs? I guess that is a data bus. Must be many hardware vendors interested in making modules for the epic. Does red have a hardware developer program so we can expect lots of useful modules from third party vendors in the future?

 

[Björn Benckert]

wow, thats convenient... but requires an SDI output.

Some where some how our epics are outputting the video tough the small pins in the back as well. If red are a bit overloaded with scarlet orders and other such things... could not any 3rd party start doing IO modules an such or is it advanced data communication coming out of the pins or is it like pin one power.. pin two SDI...

I guess it some complex shit but does we know for sure?

 

[Matt Mayer]

Hi Matt,
Yes when fix the arm to the mounting point the back cover hit the fan and cause the fan to stop spin .

Bert

Bert,

I mentioned this to one of the deign engineers yesterday. He told me that there is a possibility the fan power cable is mis-routed.

Please take a detailed picture of the back of the unit when mounted on the arm.

Remove the battery mount plate by taking out the four corner screws and pull straight up so that you do not bend the battery connections.

Once the plate is removed, please take a picture of the fan and where the power cable is routed.

Send you pictures to support@sounddevices.com and cut and paste the text of these messages so that they know what they are looking at.

Be extrememly careful that the battery contact pins are properly aligned when putting the plate back on.

 

[Matt Mayer]

Understood- but I think it helps would-be-PIX RED owners (AND maybe SD?) if you are interactive and have a presence here as well. Not to suggest short-circuiting SD's Support infrastructure. Seeing the back-and-forth here has _really_ gone a long way to reinforce my desire to use PIX with my Scarlet. So thanks again-

Stu Aull
Alaska

Stu,

Yes, we will definitely keep an eye on Reduser. I just don't want any to get mad that we didn't respond here in a timely manner. If you have a pressing problem, call support at the factory or post on our forums.

I am a working Production Sound mixer, so when I get up to my eyeballs in production work, usually the first thing to go is my internet habit...

This discussion is great, we always learn quite a bit from end user feedback.

 

[Matt Mayer]

I've been shooting a feature in Sicily with somewhat limited Internet access, so haven't been able to peruse these forums as much as I might otherwise...it would be massively helpful to get an email blast from SD whenever there's a firmware update (just like I receive from Red)...that way pix owners stand a better chance of keeping their investment up to date. Is that an option thru the SD website? I've already filed support tickets via tech support as well as signed up for the forum.

Nevertheless, I appreciate the SD presence here as it will help to make this pix/epic marriage a stronger one...

Clint,

Email is definitely part of our MO. Make sure your unit is registered at http://www.sounddevices.com/register/.

You would not believe the number of our products that never get properly registered.

If you use social media, subscribe to our Twitter feed and our Facebook page. We will often post and tweet about new firmware there as well.

 

[Olivier Madar]

Understood- but I think it helps would-be-PIX RED owners (AND maybe SD?) if you are interactive and have a presence here as well. Not to suggest short-circuiting SD's Support infrastructure. Seeing the back-and-forth here has _really_ gone a long way to reinforce my desire to use PIX with my Scarlet. So thanks again-

Stu Aull
Alaska

+1
I (and probably other reduser people) are ready to buy the best beetween tomos and SD. And to be in Reduser and solving Red problem is a big value for me.


Olivier

 

[bert tan]

Hi Matt,

Will do that on Monday and email it to Sound Device .

Bert

Bert,

I mentioned this to one of the deign engineers yesterday. He told me that there is a possibility the fan power cable is mis-routed.

Please take a detailed picture of the back of the unit when mounted on the arm.

Remove the battery mount plate by taking out the four corner screws and pull straight up so that you do not bend the battery connections.

Once the plate is removed, please take a picture of the fan and where the power cable is routed.

Send you pictures to support@sounddevices.com and cut and paste the text of these messages so that they know what they are looking at.

Be extrememly careful that the battery contact pins are properly aligned when putting the plate back on.

 

[martinnoweck]

Hello, not trying to resurrect an old thread but i have two questions regarding the PIX (and hope they have not been adressed before ...):

- will the SDI start / start trigger flag will be passed through the PIX, so if i daisy chain TERADEK CUBE and PIX, they both get the trigger?

- is there a possibilty of sync playback of two PIX units, that one is the master and the second the slave? (Someone at Ambient told me, there might be a lanc solution, but this is already 2 months since i heard this - maybe there is a new software version, etc.) Anyway I would love to press play on the master PIX and the slave PIX will just follow for A/B camera work.

best wishes and kind regards,
martin

 

[Ben A.]

Is there an easy way to route the audio from the PIX to a Scarlet so that the RED footage has sync sound?

 

[Shane Kelly]

Is there an easy way to route the audio from the PIX to a Scarlet so that the RED footage has sync sound?

I was thinking the same thing. There's a line out from the pix (xlr5pin) but it's 120 ohm. Maybe the headphone jack could be used for a scratch track. I'll ask one of my sound buddies.

 

[kylebainter]

I was thinking the same thing. There's a line out from the pix (xlr5pin) but it's 120 ohm. Maybe the headphone jack could be used for a scratch track. I'll ask one of my sound buddies.

Why don't you run audio to the scarlet, and have it send it to the pix via SDI?

 

[Shane Kelly]

Why don't you run audio to the scarlet, and have it send it to the pix via SDI?

Because I'd rather have the good audio on the pix and a scratch on the epic. The epic audio has dropped out on me sometimes. It's not a huge deal as I always run double system but the configuration that I'd like is: mixer - PIX240 - epic mic level in (via innocinema xlr adapter).

It looks like I can attenuate the level from the pix240 out so that may a solution. I'm not an audio guy and I just got the pix yesterday so any suggestions are welcome.

 

[Ben A.]

I can't imagine that they did not design it to output the audio to the camera. You would need some kind of audio if you want to use the audio to auto sync footage ( Dual eyes).

 

[Shane Kelly]

I can't imagine that they did not design it to output the audio to the camera. You would need some kind of audio if you want to use the audio to auto sync footage ( Dual eyes).

I'm sure that they did, it's just that the epic audio is a little "unstandard" right now, and I'd like to make the pix work with it. As I said, I'm pretty clueless about audio.

 

[D Fuller]

I was thinking the same thing. There's a line out from the pix (xlr5pin) but it's 120 ohm. Maybe the headphone jack could be used for a scratch track. I'll ask one of my sound buddies.

Why couldn't you use a line to mic pad?

Watch out for delay, though, the PIX is likely to introduce one on the sound going to camera, and the Scarlet another (on the image) going to the PIX. Could be ±6 frames.

 

[Shane Kelly]

Why couldn't you use a line to mic pad?

Watch out for delay, though, the PIX is likely to introduce one on the sound going to camera, and the Scarlet another (on the image) going to the PIX. Could be ±6 frames.

Good point, looks like I'm back to going into the epic and using the sdi audio. That or taking 4 cables from the mixer.

 

[stu aull]

AND-
has RED got a time-line when they will address the Crop on the SDI output that results in bars on the top and bottom of the PIX screen - and subsequent recording....?

These recorders will go a LONG way to keeping clients happy that want a 1080 ProRes (or Avid) file instead of 4K. (and us keeping those clients!!)

Stu Aull
Alaska

 

[Ken Willinger]

AND-
has RED got a time-line when they will address the Crop on the SDI output that results in bars on the top and bottom of the PIX screen - and subsequent recording....?

These recorders will go a LONG way to keeping clients happy that want a 1080 ProRes (or Avid) file instead of 4K. (and us keeping those clients!!)

Stu Aull
Alaska

I heard that Sound Devices may be working on a fix for this, which would be nice. Red has so much on their plate that this would be way down on their list of priorities, IMHO.
BTW, there is a delay of about 170ms in the audio, which fortunately can be corrected via the Pix 240. It may be a sync problem sending that audio out of the pix and into the Epic/Scarlet. We've been going double system, sending main audio to the pix as it is beautifully TC and metadata synced (as well as recording seperately at the mixer) and sending a scratch track to the Epic via the monitor out on the mixer.