Blackmagic Design adds Avid DNxHD Recording and Playback to HyperDeck Studio

Blackmagic Design

announced HyperDeck Software Update 2.0, a new software update for it’s popular HyperDeck Studio that adds broadcast quality compressed 10 bit recording and playback to the Avid DNxHD format.

DNxHD is a broadcast industry standard for media files and adding native support for this compressed video format into HyperDeck Studio will allow dramatically longer recording times, lower media storage costs, and full file format compatibility with Avid Media Composer® systems. All media is recorded in MXF format, so it’s immediately available in Media Composer without any time consuming file copying or import processing.

HyperDeck Software Update 2.0 will be available at the end of November 2011 free of charge for all HyperDeck Studio customers.

HyperDeck Studio still includes support for perfect quality uncompressed 10 bit video, for the ultimate in high quality mathematically perfect recording and playback. With this new software update, customers will now be able to choose between uncompressed or DNxHD formats and then all recordings and playback will use that format. This is all available on the same model of HyperDeck Studio and without any upgrade costs. Customers can change between compressed and uncompressed formats depending on their needs and the work they are doing.

HyperDeck Studio records direct to Solid State Disks, (SSDs) which offer incredibly fast read and write speeds, so they have the high bandwidth required for full SD or HD recording and playback. SSDs are used in regular laptop and desktop computers so are constantly increasing in size, while purchase prices have been dropping dramatically over the last few years. This means the cost per minute of recording is now much less than any other broadcast format, and getting cheaper every day.

HyperDeck Studio is the perfect solution to replace aging broadcast decks due to it’s higher quality, direct file format compatibility with NLE software, and easy to use broadcast deck features. HyperDeck Studio allows recording and playback from SDI and HDMI sources, and includes support for RS-422 deck control. Unlike broadcast decks, HyperDeck Studio can record forever because it includes dual SSD slots. This allows a new blank disk to be inserted while recording, and when the current recording disk is full, HyperDeck Studio will seamlessly continue to record across onto the new blank disk. Disks can be swapped constantly for continuous recording!