RED ROCKET Lifespan?

[Zakaree Sandberg]

thinking of getting a rocket...I could hold off a few months..
will this card be current in the next few months? or is there something I could do with my computer to get the same type of playback speeds/ rendering that the rocket can give me?

Id hate to buy this thing, then Have red announce the ROCKET 2 or find out there is a graphics card that can do the same stuff for WAY cheaper.

[Mike Prevette]

Hard to tell whether the RedRay pro will eventually work as some kind of replacement. For now however it's the only real option. I've had mine for two years now, and it has paid for itself about a billion times over in not having to baby sit the computer for hours at a time.

[Johnny Friday]

Well, love my Rocket CARD, BUT......i'd think there would be changes not too far off seeing as dual HDSDI isn't even an option on some newer monitors....most seem to be going 3g. Like my new FSI monitor. So, to get full 10 bit RGB from my dual HDSDI (from rocket) into my single SDI (3G) monitor, i have to buy a AJA mux connector to convert dual sdi to single 3g sdi......i would bet that red has that planned for the future, but they seem to have a lot going on and i can't imagine that happening anytime soon....but who knows?

[Deanan]

No new rocket models or GPU replacements planned for near or mid term.

[Mike 'Fireman' Ross]

...is there something I could do with my computer to get the same type of playback speeds/ rendering that the rocket can give me?

Id hate to buy this thing, then Have red announce the ROCKET 2 or find out there is a graphics card that can do the same stuff for WAY cheaper.

That is a most excellent question.

I wonder if RED (or anyone else) is working on a software solution that can utilize the GPU power available on high-end graphics cards these days that could make them work as a poor mans rocket? It's a very obvious step, and I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I'm bloody sure a 6990 could hack it, if someone would just code the support into Redcine-X...

Mike

[Chris Parker]

although i hope RED builds .r3d debayering capabilities into off-the-shelf graphics cards at some point, our 20 or so Rockets are AWESOME. and we've had many for a couple of years and they have proved to be ROCK solid.

i'd get one Zak.

and for EPIC....I'd get 2.

[Mike 'Fireman' Ross]

Point of order... is there an RCX SDK? I haven't heard of such... if there isn't, there should be! Harness the hackers! Figure out how RCX talks to the Rocket, fake it with another card. SMOP :-)

Mike

[Deanan]

Quiet a bit of work has been put into GPU accelerated wavelet decoding but GPUs are not good at some parts of the wavelet process. At the end of the day, it's not any faster than CPU decoding present. Future GPUs will likely be more hybrid cpu/gpu and show more promise. For now though, rocket is the best choice.

[jake blackstone]

That is a most excellent question.

I wonder if RED (or anyone else) is working on a software solution that can utilize the GPU power available on high-end graphics cards these days that could make them work as a poor mans rocket? It's a very obvious step, and I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I'm bloody sure a 6990 could hack it, if someone would just code the support into Redcine-X...

Mike
It's been already done internally by a couple of manufacturers, but RED SDK specifically prohibits GPU debayer. It's kind of ironic, considering, that RR is a GPU device...
Nevertheless, ARRIRAW is been debayered in GPU as demonstrated by Speeedgrade. Funny, but they have no problem doing it in real time using standard GPU. Incidentally, ARRI's SDK also prohibits GPU debayer:-)

[Mike 'Fireman' Ross]

It's been already done internally by a couple of manufacturers, but RED SDK specifically prohibits GPU debayer. It's kind of ironic, considering, that RR is a GPU device...
Nevertheless, ARRIRAW is been debayered in GPU as demonstrated by Speeedgrade. Funny, but they have no problem doing it in real time using standard GPU. Incidentally, ARRI's SDK also prohibits GPU debayer:-)

Why on earth would GPU debayer be 'prohibited'? It may not work as well as an actual RR, but it probably is a considerable help. If it's been done, it should be released!

Mike

[jake blackstone]

It's their intellectual property, so they can do whatever they want with it...