Redcode Ppc ?

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

Hello

I do understand REDCINE and REDALERT will always be Intel only apps and I think it is very reasonable choice as far as deploying limited dev resources.

But I was wondering if the REDCODE could possibly one day be ported to PPC to allow some "not so old" and still very powerful editing stations (based on G5 quads etc) to still work as viable offline tools using FCP and AfterEffects with the QT proxies.

So, any hope of a PPC [co]dec only or is it something that for sure will never happen ?

Thanks to anyone who might have an answer... will help plan hardware upgrades around here in preparation for RED workflows.

[Cüneyt Kaya]

just intel...it was said severel times here on the board

[Jeff Kilgroe]

mikael,

I think your best bet is to just edit on the G5 quad in ProRes or other such codec and then conform later on a supported Intel system. I doubt they're going to go and support PPC for anything from here on out. I may be working this way for a bit. I plan to buy a new Mac Pro, but I don't know if Apple will ship new system models before I get my camera so my G5 quad and Macbook Pro and AMD Windows PC will have to get the job done.

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

Jeff, thanks for your reply.

Yes the solution will be convert to ProRes and edit on G5 or better yet, update all our machines to be able to decode R3D directly.
We do plan on having updates anyway but it's a pity to see a loaded Quad G5 machine with lots of RAM and decent graphic card being put aside so quickly.

There is right now very few apps that do not support PPC architecture (Adobe Premiere and REDCINE beeing 2 of them) and I can understand the heavy work involved to make new dev project work on the 2 architectures but one could image a QT codec might require less work to port to PPC and less issues debugging as it has no interface, not a hundreds features and could make good use of velocity engine. I guess we better have REDCODE on intel than nothing now and support for intel+G5+G4+G3 in 2 years

Hopefully our G5s will be so slow in a few months compared to new machines we'll have no regrets looking forward to that shiny new intel world.

[CJ Roy]

mikael,
I think your best bet is to just edit on the G5 quad in ProRes or other such codec and then conform later on a supported Intel system. I doubt they're going to go and support PPC for anything from here on out.

The only rub about an Intel-only solution is that a lot of (my) clients are still PPC. Now I have to convert to QT on set, or at home. And on set, I'll have to go with Red Alert over RedCine because of the output times.

-CJ

[Mikael Lubtchansky]

the easiest 'PPC' workflow might be to use compressor on a fast intel machine to convert quicktime proxies to a PPC supported codec then edit from that one.

Quality would be higher if you go with REDALERT and do proper conversion from real 4K file but I think I'll go the fastest route after shooting when we have a lot of material and only do high quality transcode with the much shorter edited version once we figure out a conform workflow.

Maybe some 3rd party will offer PPC R3D decode if it is doable legal-wise.

Jim mentioned recently that they have short term agreements (with assimilates as part of deal to develop REDCINE based on the SCRATCH architecture ?) that wouldn't allow other NLE to native R3D decode...