HyperDeck Studio Review

[Juan Salvo]

You’re missing the single biggest glare in my opinion. The hyperdeck does not record timecode. Period. From any source. It’s advertised on the product package as having full frame accurate timecode support. But in fact does nothing of the sort. The thing has been shipping since August. They’ve had a full hardware revision of the shuttle, and multiple firmware updates. They’ve added codecs. But they still haven’t fixed timecode.

We’ve got two hyperdeck studios and one hyperdeck shuttle sitting around collecting dust because we can’t use them for anything without TC.

Very frustrating.

[Mark Walleman]

Ahh… Thank you Juan!

In addition to his post of “They say it does Timecode” But it doesn’t do anything even mildly related to timecode (Also a function of a “Professional VTR”).

In testing it this very morning, I discovered:
1. Record a few minutes of footage.
2. Hit stop.
3. Record a few minutes of footage.
4. Hit stop. (Rinse and repeat).
5. So… You want to play the first clip?
6. Can’t.
7. Want to play the second clip?
8. Nadda.

Let’s say you record 3, 5-min clips. You can only review/play the most recently recorded clip.

Heck… I’ll refer to an old CD player here: You can skip to the song you want on a CD player right? Yes, even a $1 used CD player from a 2nd-hand resale store can perform this very basic function.

The almost $1000 HyperDeck Studio??? Well… No.

Sure, I can pull the clips off the drives with a PC/Mac. But I just want to see what I recorded a few minutes ago.

More to follow I’m sure. I haven’t even hooked the remote controller yet.

Mark D. Walleman
Relay House Inc.

[Tyler Edwards]

I would like to second the comments and points from above. I recently purchased 5 Hyperdeck Studio units for a live production system (4 iso plus 1 directors cut). I was going to slave the entire system to house timecode via LTC. I purchased 5 Adrienne Elections LTC to RS422 converters for this purpose. No matter of cables or settings will let the hyperdeck see the timecode. The pinout of the DB9 connector is even listed in the latest manual, but seems to do nothing. I suppose until we yet another new firmware lining up visually is our only option. The other issue I’m having is the DNxHD contect is unusable in Premiere Pro Cs5.5. Calibrate software is coming out with an MXF import that will make these files available to PPro, but that’s another $250 per seat. I’d very much like to see a ProRes or other .mov compression type. I think these units are excellent in what they CAN do. I’m waiting for that magic firmware update!

[Juan Salvo]

Actually with the calibrated software you’d only need one seat as you can use Premiere or something else to rewrap the MXF into QT and then just use the free DNxHD qt codec in your NLE of choice. I’d love to have QT wrapped DNxHD, but if BMD is prioritizing… usable TC is issue #1, everything else is just an inconvenience. no timecode… makes it a doorstop.

[Patrick Sproule]

As much as we love (and have heaps of) Blackmagic’s products, we have been using an Aja Ki-Pro since it’s inception in our OB truck as a simple backup recorder. It’s 4 times the price and although similarly unfinished it does address all of the issues above. Only drawback is it does not do DNxHD, which given the professional demise of FCP around here – could be an issue int he longer term.

Thanks for the review – we were close to buying a couple of Hyperdeck’s for the studio but will hold off.

Pat

[Kristian Lam]

[Mark Walleman] “Let’s say you record 3, 5-min clips. You can only review/play the most recently recorded clip.
“

Hi Mark,

This is certainly not the case. I suspect there’s more going on. You should be able to browse through all your recorded clips just like a CD player. Have you contacted technical support?

regards

Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design

[Kristian Lam]

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your feedback.

We’re currently working on implementing a very popular compression format that everyone has been requesting and that’s very close to being done. We should be able to support TC as well and I’ll have the guys look into this as a priority.

regards

Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design

[Mark Walleman]

I have. I’ve sent two emails and have not received a single response.

I’d absolutely love to talk to them! We really love this unit and honestly want to purchase more! We just need it to work as advertised.

Learning about the lack of timecode support was a huge disappointment.

My personal email: mdwalleman@gmail.com
My company email: mark@relayhouse.com

Mark D. Walleman
Relay House Inc.

[Tyler Edwards]

Kristian,
In my experience with the Hyperdeck I couldn’t browse clips or playback any other clips on the drive except for the last played clip. Not a HUGE issue for my install, but an issue none the less. I’m very excited to see what compression format you are rolling out and definitely the timecode.

[Kristian Lam]

[Tyler Edwards] “In my experience with the Hyperdeck I couldn’t browse clips or playback any other clips on the drive except for the last played clip. Not a HUGE issue for my install, but an issue none the less. I’m very excited to see what compression format you are rolling out and definitely the timecode.
“

That’s really strange. What video format are you working in? 1080i59.94? PAL?

regards

Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design