Rocket Dilemma

[Jeremy Neish]

I have a dilemma with our Red Rocket. After experimenting with many RED workflows over the years we've come to the conclusion that there is little to be gained, and much time and effort wasted, by going back and forth (conforming) between QuickTime files and R3D.

We've settled on a R3D > ProRes and never look back workflow. Sometimes it's just R3D to 1080p ProRes 422, and sometimes we do full 4K ProRes 4444 (especially with chroma keys), but thanks to the speed and color depth of ProRes, we've never needed to go back to the R3D files.

So our workflow is as follows:
Record to R3D > Backup R3D files > Use ROCKETcineX to white balance and do simple color correction > Transcode to ProRes > never look back

Here is my dilemma. I really, really like the workflow of ROCKETcineX for our type of workflow. I import an entire folder of R3D files, tweak the color, and batch export them out and I'm done! Fast, fast, fast.

But we are still getting the occasional video glitch. I've not been able to determine why. One of my theories is that we are using old firmware and old software. However, I really don't like the UI or workflow of REDCINE-X for our particular workflow. I find it kludgy and confusing and much more time consuming for our batch-only workflow.

That being said, I'd like to try the latest version of REDCINE-X to see if I like it better and to see if it eliminates the glitches we are seeing. But I can't because it requires the latest firmware and I can't figure out if ROCKETcineX will work with the newer firmware, and if it doesn't I can't seem to find out if it's possible to go back to older firmware.

If REDCINE-X doesn't solve our problem, I don't want to be forced to use it because I upgraded our firmware and can't go back.

tl;dr: Can I go back to ROCKETcineX compatible firmware if I upgrade to the current RedRocket firmware?

[Harry Clark]

That's my exact sentiment. I love Rocketcine 1740. FAST. Batches work. Simple interface.
I still don't love Redcine X for batching. Cluttered workspace.
Grrrrr.
Cheers,
Harry

[BigLu]

After testing, re-testing and comparing several workflows.
Your workflow is and has been my favorite for the last 2 years.
Only when a project is going to a big screen or projected do i feel going back to the R3D gains benefit and taking more time on them at that stage.

Thanks for that post.

[Meryem Ersoz]

Another vote for RocketCineX workflow. It was very simple and efficient.

Jim said at one point that they were going to incorporate all of its functionality into RedCineX, though.

[Nick Perkiss]

I've recently switched to R3D > Redcine-x 261 ProRes422 (+redrocket) > Edit > AutoDuck > Clipfinder Relink R3D > Finish in AE (4k squashed down to 1920x1080).

Uses a lot of space but it really makes editing faster than proxies, better looking end product and efficiently fast render times from AE.

[Gunleik Groven]

I have the same experience, but quickly found a workaround when I had to update the firmware to test some new colorsciences.
(I do offline/online, but that doesn't alter the scenario much, I just do this twice...)

1. Open folder in Clipfinder (or open XML if itis for online)
2. Firstlight
3. Select all, send to RCX (bin)
4. Export bin

You can make new bins and send to them to add batches to the render queue

[Chris Kenny]

The latest versions of RCX have eliminated most of the UI annoyances related to batch processing that plagued older versions. For instance, to move between clips in the bin, you used to have to drag each one to the viewer, and if you missed a clip could disappear and would have to be manually loaded back into the bin. But now you can just double-click clips in the bin to load them into the viewer, and working in the viewer there are next/previous clip keyboard shortcuts (or use the transport controls if you have a Wave).

Large transcodes are still a bit annoying in RCX. I've written an in-house command-like utility that does them via REDLine, which can use the grades saved to RMD files by RCX. It seems more stable, and I wrote it to provide batch completion time estimates, which RCX oddly still lacks. Anyone doing a lot of batch transcoding should really look at what REDLine makes possible these days.