Owner`s manual

nanoFlash FAQs
10-Apr-10 ©Convergent Design, Inc. Page 16 of 42
63. How does the video CODEC in nanoFlash compare with other industry standards?
Manufacturer
Panasonic
Sony
Panasonic
Apple
Sony
Convergent Design
Sony
Format
DVCPRO
HD
HDCAM
AVC-I
ProRes
XDCAM
422
nanoFlash
HDCAM
SR
Compression
DV
MPEG2-I
Intra
Intra
MPEG2-
LG
MPEG2-I
MPEG2-LG
MPEG-4
Sampling
4:2:2
3:1:1
4:2:2
4:2:2
4:2:2
4:2:2
4:2:2
4:2:2 /
4:4:4
Resolution -
1080
1440 x
1080
1440 x
1080
1920 x
1080
1920 x
1080
1920 x
1080
1920 x
1080
1920x1080
1920 x
1080
Resolution -
720
960 x 720
1280 x
720
1280 x
720
1280 x
720
1280 x
720
1280 x
720
1280x720
1280 x 720
Quantization
8-Bit
8-Bit
10-Bit
10-bit
8-Bit
8-Bit
8-bit
10-Bit
Bit Rate (Mbps)
100
112 - 142
100
220
50
280
180
440
64. Does MPEG2, especially Long-GOP, suffer from motion artifacts?
Not at the higher bit-rates supported by nanoFlash. We see little or no motion artifacts at
50 Mbps and at 100 Mbps these artifacts are nearly impossible to find, even analyzing on
a frame by frame basis at 400% zoom level.
MPEG2 can add I-Frame macroblocks into the P or B frames to compensate for parts of
the image that were not present when the I-Frame was processed. So MPEG2 Long-
GOP can adapt to very complex changing scenery, such as a water-fall or sparklers in
which every frame is different from the next, or for situations like a ball dropping from the
sky in the middle of the GOP.
65. Does nanoFlash support DV, DVCProHD, DNxHD, Cineform or ProRes 422?
No, nanoFlash only supports MPEG2 compression (that’s why the power dissipation, size,
and weight are so low!)
66. Can I transcode to ProRes 422, DNxHD or another CODEC?
Yes, the transcode can either be performed in software or by placing nanoFlash in
playback and capturing via an HD-SDI/HDMI input on your NLE.
67. Does nanoFlash actually record at higher quality levels than HDCAM?
Yes, HDCAM resizes 1080i/p video from 1920x1080 → 1440x1080 and then applies 3:1:1
color sampling. nanoFlash retains the full 1920x1080 raster and samples in 4:2:2.
nanoFlash also has a higher compressed data-rate (less compression).
68. How does this compression compare to HDV?
HDV is also a form of MPEG2 compression, but it is always 4:2:0, and limited to 25 Mbps,
and is 1440 x 1080. NLE’s (Non-Linear Editors) have to go through a very compute-
intensive task of converting each line of video from 1440 → 1920, while expanding the
color from 4:2:0 → 4:2:2. This is a very compute intensive task, which creates long render
times and less than full frame-rate playback. Our MPEG2 is always 4:2:2 full-raster, 1920
x 1080, so render and playback performance is greatly improved.