DIT workflow

[KevinStanley]

First off, hats off to the software guys at red, build 221 is impressive and it is making my grading duties much easier with the still store and improved GUI. I am a few weeks out from purchasing my RR card so I've got even more goodness to look forward to.

One thing I can't figure out is how to copy a grade and paste it to multiple clips, how do I do this?

RMD copy:
I am usually doing data management and coloring on set, which means that unless I color the first copy, then copy to the other drives that are provided by production, only 1 of the 2 or 3 sets of copies ends up with RMD info. Is there any chance of implementing a "send RMD info to duplicates" function? I want to send that RMD info to my other copies!! I had the main drive (with .RMD files) fail on a pilot in Thailand last month and after an 18 hour day had to pull one of the backups and re correct everything which totally sucked. In most of my situations there simply isn't time to color before copying.

Also, a scale slider to adjust the length of cluips in the timeline would be kinda sweet too.

Data Verification:
What are people doing for data verification on MX files? I have used R3D data manager in the past but with all the stereo stuff and larger data rates I have a hard time keeping up with all but the weakest checksum. I've had more corrupt frames on MX cameras then I ever did with the originals (which I haven't been burned by because I've copied from source x2), which worries me because I'm not positive that R3D data manager can distinguish ugly unwanted pixels from pretty ones. I used to build timelines and scrub footage in old versions of RC, it would break if there was a corrupt frame in the mix. I find myself watching/scrubbing very slowly much of the footage just to be sure as RCX is more resilient to this, although it will still freeze if you scrub back and forth a few times. Most of my issues came from CF so I've gotten into the habit of rotating 3 pro lexar readers on heavy days or when they get hot. The Red CF readers will hopefully remedy this but it is one of the scary things about frame based data management.

Any new pro DIT workflow tips???

Great job guys, the MX is a HUGE improvement and RCX V.2 compliments it nicely.

[Jody Neckles]

I second this send RMD to duplicate R3D feature request. It would save a ton of time... It would be even more useful in Clipfinder for my current workflow though!

[Doug Horton]

I'm by no means a pro, and I might be late on this thread, but, I just DIT'd my first feature, and had a few corrupt frame instances. Although I wasn't doing on-set dailies or grading, I was still trying my best to ensure that the data was problem free, and so during my manual scrubbing I found multiple instances of corrupted frames. Only several times in 14 days really.

Two of them were during transfer i.e. the problem couldn't be replicated on the card, and the last time was actually a recorded corrupted frame. One of my remedies that extinguished any more problems via transfer was that, I literally didn't interrupt the transfer path while it downloaded. Early in the feature I was trying to scrub clips while it was transferring, and then I would every few days find these transfer issues. Once I stopped doing anything that had to do with my card, and my drive (during transfer), I never had another problem like that.

I also after a few days swapped card readers, but I don't think that was the problem solver. This might even be common sense, but just thought I'd share.

p.s. worked with a RR card today at work, incredible stuff. 4k playback via dvi, or as I understand 4k down-res to 2k playback via the HD-SDI that's nice and smooth is such a gift.

[Von Thomas]

I'm curious, did you use R3D Data Manager to transfer your files to hard drives? Finder copy transfer are very risky, and not an approved REDucation workflow.

Von

[Nir Shelter]

Would imagine it possible to create an automator workflow that will find the RMD files and copy them to identical RDC folders on other drives.

I second the scaling function of the time line in RCX would be VERY useful.

Would also ask for a visually clear marker on the border between clips in the time line to make it easier to pick out where one clip starts and the other ends.

In the meantime whiles RCX is great for grading and obviously compressing MX footage. I find myself doing visual checks of the R3D M and MX in RC. Simply because of the ease of use with the ability to scrub forwards on the time line across all the clips and having a visual reference of how far into a roll I am.

M or MX makes no difference to R3D Data Manager as the name implies it deals with the data and the data alone. No matter what firmware and color science created it.
To that matter R3D Data Manager wont be able to detect corrupt frames or other wise faulty footage as long as it is an in camera related error. It will only be able to detect a difference in data between what was on a Red media, faulty footage or not, and the destination copies.

About the copy and checksum speeds I have noted that reading a Reddrive connected via FW800 for checksums in R3D Data Manager is around the 56MBps on average.

Then when copying to destinations using R3D Data Manager even when the destination is a single raid connected via esata to express slot. Read drops to about 29-30MBps and write to about 26-28MBps on average.

I tried copying via drag and drop in the OS and the read was around 56-60MBps of the Reddrive and the write to the esata raid was around the same. When I added a second drive via FW400 the write shot up to approximately 97MBps on average.

I then ran a checksum check of the copied roll to the raid via the esata connection and the read was about 110MBps.

My conclusion is that R3D Data Manager is reasonably slow when it comes to copying the R3D files. But can be used as a checksum creation/check with an OS drag and drop copy if time is short.

May be that the next version of R3D Data Manager should take better advantage of the FSB or the RAM. As these are the only factors I can think of that would influence the read/write speeds on separate buses that I mentioned.

[Conrad Hunziker]

My conclusion is that R3D Data Manager is reasonably slow when it comes to copying the R3D files. But can be used as a checksum creation/check with an OS drag and drop copy if time is short.


Not true:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=601986&postcount=2

[Nir Shelter]

Not true:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=601986&postcount=2

Yup V.6 certainly seams like it solves many of the speed limitations, will test it and see very soon.