Atomos just announced a firmware update for their harddisk recorders that brings the long awaited Avid DNxHD codec support.

People who have been using the Atomos Ninja 2 and Atomos Samurai field recorders were limited to the use of the Apple ProRes codec the devices support. Last year Atomos announced the addition of Avid DNxHD, but up until this point people have been waiting for the upgrade to happen.

The new firmware is already available for download here: LINK

Press Release:
Melbourne, Australia – October 31, 2012: Atomos, the creator of award-winning field recorders Ninja-2 and Samurai, announce that AtomOS 4.0 will support the Avid DNxHD® production codec in addition to Apple ProRes. With immediate effect, Samurai owners will be able to download this new update, absolutely free of charge from the Atomos web site.

“There has been huge demand from our customer base for Avid support”, said Jeromy Young, CEO and Co-Founder of Atomos. “Now, editors have a choice of native codec for their editing system. Both Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD provide higher quality, with higher bitrates and 4:2:2, 10-bit resolution. Both are ready-to-edit straight from the Samurai’s HDD or SSD, in your preferred NLE”.

AtomOS version 4.0 for Samurai allows encoding to Avid DNxHD in the following formats: High – 220x/185x/175x Mbps (10-bit); Medium – 220/185/175 Mbps (8-bit); Low – 145/120/115 Mbps (8-bit). The firmware has been extremely well received by customers who have been invited to beta test it following a successful preview at IBC in September.

The Ninja and Samurai field recorders allow the recording, monitoring and playback of pristine, 10-bit uncompressed images straight from your DSLR or camcorder directly to Apple ProRes or Avid DNxHD.

Pricing and Availability
The AtomOS 4.0 pre-release firmware for Samurai is available for download from www.atomos.com with immediate effect. It is a full working version – the term ‘pre-release’ is used because it will be further updated to support Ninja-2 in late November.

About Atomos
Atomos make smart production tools. We design and manufacture affordable, easy to operate, field recording and conversion equipment to save people time and money, without sacrificing quality.

Atomos is based in Australia, with offices in the UK, USA, Japan and China, partnering with a worldwide distribution network. Further product information can be found at www.atomos.com. Connect with Atomos on Facebook or follow on Twitter (@Atomos_News)