Versatile DIT/basic Color Rig

[Eric Ulbrich]

So I have a couple of questions and Im curious to know if anyone on the forum can help. After the RED day presentation I was convinced that a RED Rocket™ is a very valuable tool for on set and post management. I however, like many of you cannot afford a 25 grand + post suite. So versatility to key for me. I was thinking of a setup like this:

Macbook Pro 2.8 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB of RAM
Maxx digital RED Rocket™ box for laptops

HP dream color monitor via either RED Rocket™ or Mini display port from the laptop.

The RED Rocket™ output would be for dailies and look management and the mini display would be for color and grading work.

Anyone know what the bit-rate is for a Macbook pro LCD and what it is for the mini display port? Can you properly calibrate a dreamcolor from the mini display port?

Does this sound reasonable? Are their any major pitfalls Im missing here? Ive heard that the RED Rocket™ via laptop is about half as fast as if it were in a tower 14 fps vs 30 fps. Is this speed difference going to cripple my ability to do on set dailies exports quickly? Any comments?

[Imran Farouk]

It's not going to cripple your ability but it's still going to be faster then doing dailies without the Rocket obviously yet not as fast as the tower. I think it also takes up an ESATA port so your kind limited to how you are doing backups etc.

Otherwise, this would be the route I'd go...minus the dream color...
I wouldn't personally be doing anything major in terms of color on set but rather leave that for later