- Posts: 16
- Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 5:23 am
- Real Name: Dan Lane
I've seen some posts here and elsewhere regarding trouble recording 12k. I've been shooting 12k at 60 fps for months now without any issues and thought I'd chime in with my formula and what I've learned.
I'm sure there are other storage solutions but this is one that works for me.
I first tried Samsung T5 and T7 cards but wasn't happy with their performance. They just can't handle the full range of recording options with the camera and I didn't feel comfortable running on the knives edge of dropped frames.
I had to reach at least 60 FPS at 8:1 constant bitrate recording 12k 17:9 DCI and 12k at 40 fps 5:1.
I'm solely using a stack of Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 SSD 2TB drives. They work fantastic and the team can do DIT, review footage, and rapidly copy files on to archival. The drives are also (relatively) very affordable and available anywhere. The EVO drive is installed in to Plugable USB C to M.2 NVMe enclosures and mounted on to the camera body.
The NVME enclosures will get very hot and this will in turn cause the NVMe drive to throttle down before it cooks itself and that could lead to dropped frames. I haven't personally experienced this after many hours of recording... but it's possible it could become an issue in hot climates. I am looking in to purchasing NVME enclosures with active cooling fans inside.
Before I came to my solution there were a few things to work around. Even though everything appeared prepared to handle the throughput, at first I was still getting random frame drops and the camera would freeze up. I found the reason for that to be the USB C cables. Just because it's a USB C cable doesn't mean it will support the USB 3.1 Gen 2 datarate. So be careful with your cable selection - it's a critical component. Your maximum throughput will always be defined by the weakest link.
I also spent a bit of time researching any potential TB3 solutions. I hoped to find a USB 3.1 Gen 2 compatibility with the Ursa (at the regular 3.1 speeds) and a TB3 compatibility when plugged in to a TB3 port. This was a dead end.
I'm personally not a huge fan of thunderbolt because it's a proprietary (Intel) technology and not an open standard. You'll have a hard time finding TB3 available for an AMD motherboard (it does exist though). Hopefully USB4 will change this. If I could ask for anything on the next blackmagic camera it would be for USB4 to future proof (ha) for the next generation of storage.
We're pushing the limits of USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds already.
I'm sure there are other storage solutions but this is one that works for me.
I first tried Samsung T5 and T7 cards but wasn't happy with their performance. They just can't handle the full range of recording options with the camera and I didn't feel comfortable running on the knives edge of dropped frames.
I had to reach at least 60 FPS at 8:1 constant bitrate recording 12k 17:9 DCI and 12k at 40 fps 5:1.
I'm solely using a stack of Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 SSD 2TB drives. They work fantastic and the team can do DIT, review footage, and rapidly copy files on to archival. The drives are also (relatively) very affordable and available anywhere. The EVO drive is installed in to Plugable USB C to M.2 NVMe enclosures and mounted on to the camera body.
The NVME enclosures will get very hot and this will in turn cause the NVMe drive to throttle down before it cooks itself and that could lead to dropped frames. I haven't personally experienced this after many hours of recording... but it's possible it could become an issue in hot climates. I am looking in to purchasing NVME enclosures with active cooling fans inside.
Before I came to my solution there were a few things to work around. Even though everything appeared prepared to handle the throughput, at first I was still getting random frame drops and the camera would freeze up. I found the reason for that to be the USB C cables. Just because it's a USB C cable doesn't mean it will support the USB 3.1 Gen 2 datarate. So be careful with your cable selection - it's a critical component. Your maximum throughput will always be defined by the weakest link.
I also spent a bit of time researching any potential TB3 solutions. I hoped to find a USB 3.1 Gen 2 compatibility with the Ursa (at the regular 3.1 speeds) and a TB3 compatibility when plugged in to a TB3 port. This was a dead end.
I'm personally not a huge fan of thunderbolt because it's a proprietary (Intel) technology and not an open standard. You'll have a hard time finding TB3 available for an AMD motherboard (it does exist though). Hopefully USB4 will change this. If I could ask for anything on the next blackmagic camera it would be for USB4 to future proof (ha) for the next generation of storage.
We're pushing the limits of USB 3.1 Gen 2 speeds already.