Blackmagic Forum

I've been going nuts since I got this camera trying to figure why I was getting flashing record indicator constantly, ProRes dropping frames like crazy and Raw less so but still unuseable.
I was using several different Crucial M4 256 GB Firmware rev. 000F. FAIL!
Tried reformatting in different formats. No. Downloaded Trim Patch and activated. No. Upgraded Newer Traveler Q Dock interface from Firewire 800 to eSata via Sonnet Tempo 6GB adapter for MacBook Pro. Nope.

After talking to some other users on the forum here I picked up a SanDisk Extreme 480 GB SSD for about $390 after taxes etc. PROBLEM SOLVED! I have run multiple tests recording from a clean drive to "SSD Full", in both ProRes and RAW and haven't seen ONE dropped Frame. The camera works if you've got good media.

Some additional Info:
You don't have to reformat all the time. On a Mac, Just drag the files from the SSD to the Trash and then EMPTY THE TRASH. If you don't empty the Trash the files will stay active on the drive. This is a Mac thing, my Contour Action Cams are the same way. Gotta Empty the Trash while the SSD is still mounted to the system. Then everythings fine.

I get the following Max rec times on the 480:
ProRes 29.97 800 ASA = 4hrs 45min in 3 files, 2 @ 212 GB and a 50 GB.
Raw 29.97 800 ASA = 52 min. 49 Sec. in 95,080 5mb files plus one audio file.

Remember: "Never give up. Never surrender."
And if that doesn't work throw money at it!

Whitehorsevideo wrote:I was using several different Crucial M4 256 GB Firmware rev. 000F. FAIL!

This bums me out.
I still don't have my BMCC, but I bought the Crucial 512GB m4 (since it IS on the recommended SSD list) months ago and it sucks hearing it's not working well for people.
Has anybody had luck with this SSD? Or is failing across the board?

Similarly, anybody want to trade a brand new unopened Cruicial 512GB m4 w/ data transfer kit for a 480GB Sandisk Extreme?

Yeah, I think Crucial is about to get the boot off the list. There are hundreds of them on eBay....

I have posted elsewhere that both my Crucial M4 SSDs work perfectly. 512g has been filled and dumped numerous times and not one dropped frame. 256 gets used less but no problems there either. It sounds like you gat a bad drive or its in the formatting. ...OR... you had ultrascope running via TBolt. I got completely unusable video when I was tethered. Still waiting to hear back from Kristian regarding that.
Kristian?

Could it be a matter of which version of the SSD's firmware is installed?

That's correct. There is a m4 SSD firmware update utility on their website. My 512 recorded fully through the ATEM 1 to the Hyperdeck Shuttle II without a hiccup, and I didn't have to update. Check your firmware version and also source video.

Wanna make an offer on my Crucials?

I've used Sandisk Extreme CF cards for 8 years now. Never had a single failure or corrupted image. When I started shooting video on a 5DII, I bought a Hoodman RAW 32GB CF because it was half the price of the Sandisk. While it works 99% of the time, I have had about 15 corrupted images and it's failed to load in camera (requiring a cycle of power off/on) 2 dozen times. Coming from the rock steady nature of my Sandisk experience, I found it to be pretty unacceptable.

When the BMCC was released I was happy to see a Sandisk Extreme SSD on the list. It's the only one I ever considered buying!

I realize a lot of the internals of the SSD are the same. Same controller chips, same software, etc. However, while some things look good on paper, they just don't perform as well in the real world.

Sorry for the super endorsement of Sandisk, but they have NEVER let me down and it's nice to see their SSDs are performing like I would expect

Yeah, I'm having issues with the Crucial M4 512GB SSDs. I do know that they updated the firmware, so I think there might be an issue with that and the BMCC. I don't think the Crucial M4 has any physical limitations, since both of mine are working fine with RAW, but ProRes and DNxHD are dropping frames like crazy. I've got some of the Sandisks now for the time being, but I'm waiting to see what happens with the next BMCC firmware before I let go of my Crucials.

I didnt have issues with our crucial drive until I reformatted it to run in exfat. I had a clip do the same yesterday.

sean mclennan wrote:I've used Sandisk Extreme CF cards for 8 years now. Never had a single failure or corrupted image. When I started shooting video on a 5DII, I bought a Hoodman RAW 32GB CF because it was half the price of the Sandisk. While it works 99% of the time, I have had about 15 corrupted images and it's failed to load in camera (requiring a cycle of power off/on) 2 dozen times. Coming from the rock steady nature of my Sandisk experience, I found it to be pretty unacceptable.

When the BMCC was released I was happy to see a Sandisk Extreme SSD on the list. It's the only one I ever considered buying!

I realize a lot of the internals of the SSD are the same. Same controller chips, same software, etc. However, while some things look good on paper, they just don't perform as well in the real world.

Sorry for the super endorsement of Sandisk, but they have NEVER let me down and it's nice to see their SSDs are performing like I would expect

+1

Gone through many SD and CF cards in the past, the only brand to never let me down, and always work out the fastest has been Sandisk.

I am sad to report that I experienced my first dropped frames with the BMCC. I have been using the same Sandisk 480GB cards (the discontinued version 1), always reformat on OSX before loading them, and toward the end of the day, one of my three cameras kept changing from solid red REC to flashing red REC.

I finished the shoot by switching to ProRes, which did not give any further grief.

The SDD was littered with single frame .DNG files at the top-level. Dunno what's to blame, Apples HFS+ journaling filesystem, the SanDisk card at the end of a long session, or the BMCC. The shooting environment was a well-conditioned recording studio (neither hot nor cold, neither wet nor slushy).

Kinda shakes my confidence, as this is the first time it's happened to me. Will it be the last?

as far as I know all flash media has a fixed read/write lifecycle-- so it may be your drive is just worn out. Some will wear out faster than others, obviously.