Hyperdeck Studio Pro 2 DNxHD Codec Bitrate

BMD Community,

We recently purchased a couple of BMD Hyperdeck Studio Pro 2s and would like to reduce our file sizes.

The Black Magic Hyperdeck Studio Pro 2 manual seems to give the impression that the bit-rate for the DNxHD codec is selectable on page 21 (attached) as DNxHD 220x, 145, and 45 are all listed and are all 1080p/30 formats. Yet there does not appear to be a way to select the bit-rate of DNxHD via the Hyperdeck front panel nor the Hyperdeck Setup software.

Is there a way to select the DNxHD bit-rate?

If not, what bit-rate will a 1080p/30 signal be recorded as? 220, 145, or 45?

Thanks.

Are the hyperdecks running the latest firmware?? Last thursday there was a new update 5.3 with new software for the Pro and 12G models.

From the manual it is clear that Pro recorder also support DNxHD codecs.

Selecting Your Video Format
All HyperDecks record compressed HD video using Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD codecs.
HyperDeck models that record on SSDs can also record uncompressed HD video.
HyperDeck Studio Pro records Ultra HD using ProRes codecs. HyperDeck Studio Mini and
HyperDeck Studio 12G support ProRes and DNxHR for Ultra HD recording

Which is not true from the following list because the Studio mini only does DNxHR and not HD.. So it can be a bit confusing.

Hyperdeck Codecs FW5.3.png (101.12 KiB) Viewed 4306 times

If you are not able to set it by the frontpanel try the software dropdown menu.

Hi Xtreemtec,

Thanks for the reply.

I updated to firmware version 5.3 just before posting this to see if that was my issue but after the update I still don't see where to select the bit-rate for DNxHD. It doesn't appear to be available from the front panel nor the drop down in the Hyperdeck Setup software.

To be clear I can selected between Uncompressed, ProRes, DNxHD, etc, just not the DNxHD bit rate.

Cheers.

DNxHD bitrate is fixed, depending on what flavor of DNxHD you select, i.e. DNxHD vs DNxHR (which has the higher bit rate) from my understanding.
Cheers

Denny Manual says DNxHD 220 145 and 45.... Only doesn't explain how

Hyperdeck codec text.png (99.8 KiB) Viewed 4278 times

Hyperdeck bitrates.png (38.33 KiB) Viewed 4278 times

I was playing with this the other day, having mostly avoided DNxHD, and tried an export from Adobe Media Encoder as "DNxHD/DNxHR MXF OP1A, DNx HQ" setting. This, I believe, is essentially the same as what the Hyperdeck records for HD footage (the HR is for higher resolutions). EXCEPT, that the Hyperdeck records the audio separately, while AME multiplexes them together. Makes them pretty incompatible. Unnecessarily complicated stuff here. Can't developers ever get on the same page?

But it looked to me like the DNxHD was essentially equivalent to the ProRes HQ setting in quality and bitrate, with no equivalent to regular ProRes, LT, or Proxy ProRes settings.

I have said it before, and I will say it again. I really wish Blackmagic would add a more compressed codec like a high quality h.264 into these decks. Seriously. I love Prores, but often times a good h.264 would be preferable.

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your input. I just confirmed your comment that DNxHD MXF on our Black Magic Hyperdeck Pro 2 (Firmware Rev 5.3) records at 220mb/s (equivalent to ProRes HQ bit rate).

So DNxHD220 it is with no way to change the bit rate. Hopefully we will see that feature added in a future firmware update.

Cheers.