The camera’s menu system allows you to review the amount of takes on the CineFlash, their size, and the drive’s remaining capacity, however they can not be played back on the screen.  Files that are still in the camera’s RAM can however be played over video and on the screen. 

There are two ways to view and save stored Cine files from CineFlash drives.  The camera can be connected to Phantom PCC software via an Ethernet connection, or the drive can be mounted outside the camera via a CineFlash Dock where files can be viewed and saved over an eSata connection, from PC or Mac operating systems.

No, you cannot record directly to the CineFlash. There is no “run/stop” mode on the Miro cameras.

The cine is stored on the CineFlash as a 10-bit log raw cine file that can be read from a CineFlash installed in a camera over the Ethernet connection using PCC. This is the default method for accessing a cine file on the CineFlash.

For user convenience, we also provide a CineFlash Dock that can be connected to a computer using an eSata port. While this is not the default method for accessing a cine on the CineFlash, the CineFlash can be recognized by PC or Mac computers once inserted into the CineFlash Dock connected to a computer that has the appropriate driver installed. This will allow 3^rd party solutions that can read 10-bit log raw cine files to see the file directly on the CineFlash. This also means that you can “drag and drop” the file from the CineFlash to local storage on a computer.

The CineFlash is formatted using the Linux EXT2 file system format, and a driver that recognizes this file system must be installed on any computer that will read the CineFlash directly using the CineFlash Dock. With the driver installed, the cine file appears just like any other file on a mounted disk. And, is thus available to 3rd party software and PCC.

For a Windows PC download the driver from:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/files/Ext2FSD/

Download the latest version to your PC and run the downloaded file to install the driver. (On Windows 7, be sure to run this as an administrator.) This will install the driver and a program called Ext2 Volume Manager, which you can use to assign a drive letter to the CineFlash. The Ext2 Volume Manager can be found in the (default) program folder Ext2Fsd. You might want to create an alias to this program and place it on your desktop. Reboot your PC after installing this software to complete the installation.

The CineFlash is less tolerant of being removed from the dock (disconnected from the computer) than a typical USB drive. Therefore, you should ALWAYS unmount the CineFlash before removing it from the dock or disconnecting the dock from the computer if it has a CineFlash in it.  You can do this in the Device Manager. Or, to make this easier, download the HotSwap! utility from this location:

http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm

Download the latest version, extract the appropriate program (either 32 bit or 64 bit) for your computer and put this in a logical place for your computer and operating system. Run it once and it will place a control in the notification area (utility tray) of your computer. You will now get notifications when the CineFlash is inserted, and you should always use this utility to unmount the CineFlash before removing it. This ensures that all data is written and flushed to the disk before removing the CineFlash.

Once the CineFlash is mounted, a user can access, play, edit and save the cine files using Phantom PCC or the Phantom CineViewer software. CineViewer is available for download from the Vision Research web site at no charge.

For a Macintosh computer running OSX:

You can use a commercial driver from Paragon Software Group. This costs about $40, but seems to work reliably on a Mac. On a Mac Book Pro with an ExpressCard slot, we’ve had success using the 1-port ExpressCard eSATA Controller Adapter Card ECESATUSB1 from StarTech.com, as well as the Tempo™ SATA ExpressCard/34 interface card from Sonnet. (To view and play the cines on a Mac, you will also want a copy of the GlueTools PhantomCine plugin available from GlueTools.com.)

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/extfs-mac/

Again, be sure to unmount any CineFlash from the Mac OS before removing it from the dock.

None of the above solutions are provided by Vision Research and we cannot guarantee they will work or continue to be supported. You can always access and manipulate cine files stored on a CineFlash using the PCC application to access the camera over Ethernet, and the above mentioned solutions are provided for convenience. We will continue testing under a variety of conditions so we can provide the best possible customer experience.

No, you must power the CineFlash Dock using the included power supply.

Using PCC, you can select any cine stored on the CineFlash while it is in the camera. Once selected, you can play that cine in PCC, trim it, adjust it and save it over Ethernet to the computer. You cannot, however, play the cine over the NTSC/PAL, or HD-SDI (M320S only) port using PVP.

{This FAQ was updated on 29 March 2012]

Yes using PCC.

When inserted in the CineFlash Dock and connected directly to a computer, the read times for the CineFlash will be very fast, ranging between 120-250MB/s depending upon the size of the CineFlash and the performance of the target disk drive on the computer. (Files downloaded via PCC when the CineFlash is still in the camera will be slower since those go over the Ethernet connection.)

The CineFlash can save data at about 4 GB/minute (about 65 MB/second). So, a 4GB file will take about one minute. A 6GB file will take a little over 1.5 minutes. A 12GB file, about 3 minutes.

[This answer was updated on 29 March 2012]

If you can estimate the typical daily usage of the CineFlash, it is easy to estimate its expected lifetime.

The formula is: Years of CineFlash life = (Drive Size in GB * 20) / (GB Recorded per Day)

For example, if you plan to save 10 x 12GB files to a 120GB CineFlash each day, your estimated CineFlash lifetime is: (120 * 20) / (10 * 12) or 20 years. If you have the same daily usage but use a 60GB CineFlash, the lifetime is 10 years (and, you’ll need to remove some cines from the CineFlash at some point during the day.)

CineFlash lifetime is determined by the number of times you write to a specific memory location. The hardware in the CineFlash will automatically ensure that all memory cells are used equally across the CineFlash lifetime.

Note: Due to CineFlash formatting and bad block allocation, not all 120GB on a 120GB CineFlash will be available for user storage.