MC5 and RR confusion

[Mathieu Marano]

The "What's new" PDF of Avid Media Composer 5 says:
Avid supports the use of the REDRocket Accelerator card for transcoding, rendering and mixdown at half or full debayer settings. Playback is not supported. We do not use the video output connections on the card. The card is not supported on 32-bit Windows operating systems.

But the READ ME says:
Disregard reference to the Red Rocket card in the PDF documentation. The card has not been fully qualified.

Any clue on what this means?

[Kaku Ito]

probably MC5 takes the redline to render and now the redline sdk supports RR?

[MichaelP]

Not fully qualified means it has not been fully qualified in all configurations. For example, a Mac based system attached to shared storage with hardware I/0 will have slot limitations. In single systems, where slots are not an issue, etc. it has been tested.

Michael

[Mathieu Marano]

Here is the final version:

Red Rocket Card Support
The Red Rocket card reference in the PDF documentation should have stated that this card
has been qualified for transcode only when used with a Media Composer software only
system with local storage. The minimum drivers currently supported are Red Rocket driver
v1.3.2.0 and Red Rocket firmware v1.1.8.6.
In the HPz800, the Red Rocket card can be installed in slot 4 and the local storage controller
(if required) can be installed in slot 3.
In the HPz400, the Red Rocket card can be installed in slot 4 and the local storage controller
(if required) can be installed in slot 5.
In the Mac Pro (Nehalem), the Red Rocket card can be installed in slot 2 and the local
storage controller (if required) can be installed in slot 3.


So it will debayer in realtime for Media Composer Software.

Here is the link to the PDF:
http://bit.ly/ddxaM8

[Kaku Ito]

Okay, I jumped for joy for a second, but I still suspect that RED ROCKET will only transcode, which means to render out but not playback in realtime.

"Debayer in realtime", to me it means to playback and render in realtime, but the document only says, "transcode only" sounds to me, it will only transcode for rendering.

[Kaku Ito]

Plus I heard that the Red Rocket SDK does not include the HDSDI output function yet, so even if it plays back the R3D in realtime with full debayer, it won't output from HDSDI.

So, what do you think?

In any case, even rendering support is a plus and shows Avid's dedication to support R3D.

[Mathieu Marano]

What I understand is that it will help for transcode AND give realtime R3D in the composer (Mac display). No output supported

[Kaku Ito]

Oh my, now we have the launch pad with Mac Book Pro, so we'll see how it works.

[Kaku Ito]

I found a note saying that RR only works for rendering with MC5. It does not work for realtime playing back.

[Job ter Burg]

What I understand is that it will help for transcode
Correct.

AND give realtime R3D in the composer (Mac display).No Rocket is used for that. RT R3D playback in Yellow/Green mode on fast machines.

[Troy Smith]

So wats the final verdict on this, does the rocket help with playback or not?

[MichaelHalsell]

I attended an Avid/Sony demo yesterday. Explicitly the Avid operator explicitly said the Red Rocket has no functionality within the Avid framework or app. The card can co-exist within the same box, but again, provides no improvement of performance within Avid.

[MichaelP]

Oy... when on the same system with a Media Composer, it will accelerate transcode to DNxHD from the native R3D files. In order to do this, the debayer setting in "Media Creation" settings for Transcode/Render must be set to FULL. It also accelerates renders since you cannot create R3D files, so a render forces a transcode - thus the acceleration when a card is present.

It is not used for full debayer real time play.

Michael

[Troy Smith]

Will playback acceleration be added in future updates, or is Avid planning to keep the rocket for rendering?

Thanks

[MichaelHalsell]

MichaelP, thanks for the clarification. Isn't the purpose of the AMA tool to reduce the transcode demands when using RED footage?

[MichaelP]

We're looking into full debayer playback for a future release. AMA is a plug-in architecture that allows Media Composer to access files via a "link to" process. Using the RED SDK the R3D files gets debayered, then sized to the closest matching resolution of the project. For example, in a 1920 x 1080 project, a 4K files gets debayered to 2K then scaled as 1080. Using the Format column in the bin, you can choose how you want to deal with aspect ratios that are non 16:9. From there, selecting green/yellow, or yellow/yellow in the timeline can debayer to 1/4 and 1/8 for more performance for real time playback for editorial before a transcode is needed.

This is the first phase implementation of R3D, we know there is more to do.

Michael

[Kaku Ito]

We're looking into full debayer playback for a future release. AMA is a plug-in architecture that allows Media Composer to access files via a "link to" process. Using the RED SDK the R3D files gets debayered, then sized to the closest matching resolution of the project. For example, in a 1920 x 1080 project, a 4K files gets debayered to 2K then scaled as 1080. Using the Format column in the bin, you can choose how you want to deal with aspect ratios that are non 16:9. From there, selecting green/yellow, or yellow/yellow in the timeline can debayer to 1/4 and 1/8 for more performance for real time playback for editorial before a transcode is needed.

This is the first phase implementation of R3D, we know there is more to do.

Michael

Michael,

That is really a hot news!!