Blackmagic Forum

Good morning all,

We were using one of our BMD Hyperdeck Studio Pro 4Ks to record an event last week. It's on the latest firmware. Had a Sandisk 480GB UltraII SSD formatted to ExFAT in it before the event. We were recording in DNxHD220 at 1080/50i.

Part way in things went hinky as you can see.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CcualXgmdsnxtq6E3

The PPM beneath is receiving from SGI A output from the Hyperdeck.

Audio was capturing okay for part of it then seemed to struggle to encode. Video alternated between normal and as you see in the picture.

The operator working the event tried two separate matching SSDs with the same result. The error also translated onto the SDI output which was feeding a backup recorder, although only later into the event.

Has anyone encountered something like this before?

Kind regards,
Richard

Sounds you are not using the HyperDeck Recommended SDDs - on the list in the manual and on the support page only the Sandisk Extreme are mentioned.

The picture looks like more of a signal/processing issue rather than an SSD issue.

How warm was the unit? as I have had issues with my Hyperdeck Studio Pro overheating before I added more managed airflow to the case it lives in.

Also, Have you tried replicating the issue again?

Your drives are not on the list>> Recommended SSD drive list for Hyperdeck
But that would not translate into a problem like you encountered. Because using the wrong drives for recording would only mess up the recording / drop frames..

This does much more look like a FPGA that crashed.. FPGA is the processing unit inside of the recorder.
This can happen for numiours reasons.. But happens often due to heat.

Looking at the picture tells me that you have the Audio monitor, Hyperdeck and Atem TVS? racked up very tightly in a case..
This can lead to heating problems. These devices all generate a lot of heat and the Atem even should be forced cooled!! (It can even die because of heat..)

Also good reminder to feed a backup recorder straight from the mixer OR use the SDI Loop Trough output. This one is often linked directly to the input with only a EQ and reclocker in between and not running trough the FPGA where it can be processed.. Or fail in this matter.

Yep, you need to give it room to breath.. I'd agree this looks like an overheating failure.
Place the gear in a 12u case with 2u vent grills in between each unit.
Then place a large fan in the back to blow air through the case.

A.

So would heat have caused all the lights to look like disco lights?....all different colors; it's like it's not rebooting all the way. Cannot figure out what's up. Power cycled it down a couple of times. We keep the air in this room on "stun" so I doubt seriously it's overheating.
I'm sure the firmware needs updating, but I cannot find how to update the HYPERDECK firmware, only the cameras firmware.
Any advice?

spippin wrote:So would heat have caused all the lights to look like disco lights?....all different colors; it's like it's not rebooting all the way. Cannot figure out what's up. Power cycled it down a couple of times. We keep the air in this room on "stun" so I doubt seriously it's overheating.
I'm sure the firmware needs updating, but I cannot find how to update the HYPERDECK firmware, only the cameras firmware.
Any advice?

That's a definite sign of a hardware failure.

As others have mentioned, heat is an major issue and it will cook the units. They are not good at dissipating the heat. On the replacement unit, get some space between the units. Even a 1/3 rack space helps a ton.

I agree with Jacob - add some breathing room, or add fans to your rack to remove the hot air that's going side to side in the units.

2U per unit is overkill though. Just remember, hot air travels up, so add a 1U ventilator-panel above your most critical/most heat-generating unit, often the video switcher. This will remove a lot of the hot air from the case, which means that the other units also will run cooler.

Hi,

Thanks for the responses. We cracked the unit open and came to the same conclusion - it’d basically fried itself internally. New unit bought and now racked up with 1u spacing throughout.

On the TVS, i was using the other SDI feed for PGM Out to a projector. However we have also switched the backup deck to loop rather than output.

Always learning. Thanks again.
Richard