Red Rocket, holy cow!

[Mark Phelan]

So the RED store now carries refurbished cards at a substantial discount pushing me over the edge since I'm working on a new project and just couldn't bear the thought of rendering another job without it. Ordered it and it came VERY quickly, and here's the results from one of the first renders:

Shot at 4KHD, rendered down to ProRes 422 HQ 1920x1080. Runtime: 20:02, rendering time: 25:26. Amazing. It's like walking to work then suddenly being given a Ferrari. Hootchimama. Not to mention being able to work in Redcine-x at full rez.

Thanks RED Team, you're making some outstanding products!

[Rob Gardner]

Good time. What was your machine and set-up?

[Mark Phelan]

Mac Pro, Quad-Core, Intel Xeon 2.8GHz, 8 cores, 16GB RAM, 12TB Dulce Pro RX RAID in RAID 5 configuration, 750MB/sec.

[axel ebermann]

Mark - was that material graded ?

(not belonging to the exclusive Red Rocket club yet that usually bumps up my rendering time considerably...

[Mark Phelan]

Axel,

Define "graded". If you're asking did I make any color corrections, yes. I adjusted the color temperature down from 3200K to 2400K, adjusted the tint -2.40, changed the ISO from 320 to 400, put a pretty decent curve onto it, meaning a bit steeper than a "normal" S curve. Other than that, I didn't adjust anything else.

That's a good question though, which adjustments make for the most computations and thus, longer render times? Anyone have a good answer?

[Anson Fogel]

In my experience doing grades in RCX with Rocket since RCX came out, the mods made in RCX seem to make no noticeable difference in the render time. But I have not done a real test, just based on experience.

[Michael Moreno]

Hey Mark
How fast was your Mac pro before
You got the rocket ?
Just curious
Thanks.

[Steve Sherrick]

Hey Mark
How fast was your Mac pro before
You got the rocket ?
Just curious
Thanks.
Way slower. I have the same setup as Mark (except a different RAID). It's night and day, not even close. :-)

It's been a while, so I'd have to go see what the exact numbers are but the rendering time was quite substantial compared to almost realtime with RR.

[axel ebermann]

Impressive....



Axel,

Define "graded". If you're asking did I make any color corrections, yes. I adjusted the color temperature down from 3200K to 2400K, adjusted the tint -2.40, changed the ISO from 320 to 400, put a pretty decent curve onto it, meaning a bit steeper than a "normal" S curve. Other than that, I didn't adjust anything else.

That's a good question though, which adjustments make for the most computations and thus, longer render times? Anyone have a good answer?

[Mark Phelan]

Way slower. I have the same setup as Mark (except a different RAID). It's night and day, not even close. :-)

It's been a while, so I'd have to go see what the exact numbers are but the rendering time was quite substantial compared to almost realtime with RR.

Yep, Steve knows my setup. As for how much slower, like he said, WAY slower. Hours, Days, not kidding. On my last project, I had figured that what would take a week with a Rocket rendering was going to take me 85 days without it. That's essentially three months of nothing but rendering. It was a slow boat to China kind of project, but excruciating nonetheless. I'd set it up to render then leave it for a day for each file. Ugh.

But here's the proof of the pudding. What was going to take me over six days on my current project, I finished tonight in about four hours.

[David Battistella]

I think this puts the price of a used RR at about $2500 now if you can buy refurb with warranty from RED.

They are so much faster than 8 cores.

David

[conrad gaunt]

Axel,

Define "graded". If you're asking did I make any color corrections, yes. I adjusted the color temperature down from 3200K to 2400K, adjusted the tint -2.40, changed the ISO from 320 to 400, put a pretty decent curve onto it, meaning a bit steeper than a "normal" S curve. Other than that, I didn't adjust anything else.

That's a good question though, which adjustments make for the most computations and thus, longer render times? Anyone have a good answer?

Red rocket can't process DRX, its too complex so doesn't work with the rocket cards. I think Red are still trying to get it working through the rocket.. I can rarely see what it does, but maybe because I tend to expose to the left

[Matthew Conrad]

I think this puts the price of a used RR at about $2500 now if you can buy refurb with warranty from RED.

They are so much faster than 8 cores.

David

Wanna sell me one for $2500? :) I'll gladly take that price!

[Frazier Nivens]

Yep, Steve knows my setup. As for how much slower, like he said, WAY slower. Hours, Days, not kidding. On my last project, I had figured that what would take a week with a Rocket rendering was going to take me 85 days without it. That's essentially three months of nothing but rendering. It was a slow boat to China kind of project, but excruciating nonetheless. I'd set it up to render then leave it for a day for each file. Ugh.

But here's the proof of the pudding. What was going to take me over six days on my current project, I finished tonight in about four hours.

So how long was your project, 30 min?? 1 hr.?? or longer, the renders on my non RED Rocket have been really incredible. 25 min took me a day and half, Mac Pro 8 core, 8 GB ram. Now that there's some reconditioned RED Rocket cards at a reasonable price it would have to be worth it if it was real time.

So tell me that it will make my life with RED R3D files so much nicer.

Best,
Frazier Nivens, #3002

[Mark Phelan]

Well there were two projects I was referring to in my post. The first one has a runtime of 1:02, but that doesn't include all of the footage that wound up not being used, but still rendered.

The second project is about 30 minutes finished, again with much footage not used, but still rendered.

The RED Rocket card is the real deal. It will change forever how you work. That 25 minutes that took you a day and a half would be completed in around 25 minutes. No comparison. Like Jim said to me a while back, once you try it, there is no going back.

[Frazier Nivens]

Well there were two projects I was referring to in my post. The first one has a runtime of 1:02, but that doesn't include all of the footage that wound up not being used, but still rendered.

The second project is about 30 minutes finished, again with much footage not used, but still rendered.

The RED Rocket card is the real deal. It will change forever how you work. That 25 minutes that took you a day and a half would be completed in around 25 minutes. No comparison. Like Jim said to me a while back, once you try it, there is no going back.

Thanks Mark for the reply, so many things to buy...now SSD modules. EPIC...
But time is money....seems like it's a major time saver. Were you going to Pro Res 4444?

Wonder how the transcode times are with that?

Best,
Frazier

[Mark Phelan]

I did some testing with 4444 and 422 and saw no real time difference. Others have said the same. The file sizes are huge with 4444 which was one of the reasons I decided to go 422 for these projects. Just didn't need the extra headroom.

[Frazier Nivens]

ok, don't hesitate, I did for a long time, finally broke down and got my Rocket, can't believe it, worth every single dollar...

If you're on the fence about buying one, don't hesitate, just do it, somehow, make it so...
You will be glad...

Incredible, will make your day when you see what it does.

Frazier Nivens, Ocean Imaging