Topic: New firmware for 7XX recorders

[F.O.Bean]

OK, after running tests on my 8GB CF Card writing to FLAC, I BARELY got over 9hrs of actual recording, while the counter on the cf card once the cf card is formatted reads 16hrs of recording. I think a letter to SD is in order........

A little over 1 hour a GB. That doesn't seem right. That's close to the same size as a 24/48 wav file not?
I would have thought Flac would give you more run time then that.

EXACTLY, I BARELY got more record time recording in FLAC than I do recording in WAV.

OK, after running tests on my 8GB CF Card writing to FLAC, I BARELY got over 9hrs of actual recording, while the counter on the cf card once the cf card is formatted reads 16hrs of recording. I think a letter to SD is in order........

Strange.  I am going to run my on the 4GB CF tonight.  I would think I would get twice the amount of recorded time for the same bit depth/sampling rate as WAV.  I will try it at 16/44.1 for the first test and then try it at 24/48. 

L8R

Thats what I thought too. Boy was I wrong

Also, the extra battery drain recording to FLAC is DEFINITELY not worth it. I ONLY GOT 2hrs 40mins recording in FLAC to my 8GB CF Card on a FULLY CHARGED 6000mah 722 battery. That is HORRIBLE IMO. I can normally get about 7hrs SAFELY on my 8GB CF Card with a fully charged 6000mah battery. Thats saves me about 2hrs per 6000mah battery writing to JUST my 8GB CF Card compared to writing to JUST the INHDD or BOTH the CF Card/INHDD. Just another reason why CF Cards KICK MUCHO ASS No moving parts is awesome!  When you put the INHDD in the picture AT ALL and record to the INHDD in any way/shape/form/config, you lose battery power, and the battery drain is worse. I couldnt believe I could save 2 whole hrs on each 6000mah battery when writing to JUST the CF Card, instead of writing to JUST the INHDD or both the CF Card/INHDD. I think recording to WAV is the best bet right at the moment, until SD fixes the bugs associated with FLAC recording. Hell, I have had such a bad taste left in my mouth just from my FLAC recording tests, that I will simply spend the extra $100 bucks and just get an extra 16GB CF Card and just stick with recording to WAV I actually dont care if SD even fixes the FLAC bugs, because I will continue to record to WAV from here on out regardless It would be nice if SD did get the FLAC recording under control and we could actually see a 50% space reduction recording to FLAC, just for those pinches when you need that extra recording time, but if the HUGE battery drain consists while recording to FLAC, then I dont EVER see myself recording to FLAC again NUF SAID!!!

[JD]

Can you choose the level of encoding(compression), like on FLAC frontend?
If so, maybe the default setting is at the lowest level of compression?

 

[F.O.Bean]

Can you choose the level of encoding(compression), like on FLAC frontend?
If so, maybe the default setting is at the lowest level of compression?

 

not to my knowledge, but thats a GREAT thought. I didnt even think of that at all. it never even crossed my mind. I know you CAN choose the mp2/mp3 encoding bitrates, but there is only ONE FLAC option in the menu

[boojum]

Bean et al -

I set my 722 running last night at 16/44.1 FLAC and it is showing 10+ hours to a 4GB CF as of now.  I am running on wall current so I am not testing battery life.  One test at a time.  I will let you know at what size this puppy stops recording.  So far, so good.

L8R 

[F.O.Bean]

Bean et al -

I set my 722 running last night at 16/44.1 FLAC and it is showing 10+ hours to a 4GB CF as of now.  I am running on wall current so I am not testing battery life.  One test at a time.  I will let you know at what size this puppy stops recording.  So far, so good.

L8R 

screw 16/44 time recordings, we want to know 24-bit recording times

[Crumbo]

can you record wav to the hdd and flac to the cf card?

[boojum]

can you record wav to the hdd and flac to the cf card?

That would be nice, but the file type selection from the menu does not allow the medium(s) to have separate formats.  If there is a way, I cannot figure out how to do it.  Anyone???   

[scb]

even the creator of flac wouldn't claim 50% compression ratio with 24 bit material...is SD claiming it should be 50%?

[F.O.Bean]

can you record wav to the hdd and flac to the cf card?

DEFINITELY NO. You can ONLY record to ONE recording medium while recording to flac too. You HAVE TO choose EITHER CF Card OR INHDD OR EXHDD. When recording to WAV, you can write to all 3 mediums simultaneously. I ALWAYS write to BOTH the CF Card+INHDD for total redundancy And if I want/need to save some battery power, I write to JUST the 8GB CF Card. That saves me ABOUT 2 hrs per 6000mah battery compared to writing to the INHDD or the INHDD+CF Card

And liek I emntioned folks, the battery drain while recording to FLAC was UNREAL. My 6000mah battery only lasted about 2hrs 40mins recording to FLAC on my CF Card. I can only imagine what the battery drain would have been if I wrote to the INHDD and not the cf card So unless you have AC power and want to save MAYBE an hr per 8GB CF Card, Id STAY AWAY from recording to FLAC ANYTIME SOON I'll just buck up and buy an extra 16GB CF Card for $110.00/Shipped from A-Data and continue writing WAVS

[F.O.Bean]

even the creator of flac wouldn't claim 50% compression ratio with 24 bit material...is SD claiming it should be 50%?

well then, why does my freshly formatted 8GB CF Card counter read 16hrs before I start writing to it then? That would lead me and everyone else to believe that the FLAC compression would be 50% since the 16hrs is DOUBLE the size of the card at 24/48 I know that usually FLAC encoding to 24-bit files yields about a 30% reduction, whereas 16-bit files MIGHT see about a 50% reduction in size, but I didnt even see NEARLY that when I ran my tests. I say about a 10% reduction IF THAT and AT MOST And FWIW, I ran my tests at 24/48 like I normally would record in the field I would say that SD has some explaining and working to do