Transcode costs

[Peter Cote]

I don't normally transcode because I am editing R3D's directly in Premiere. For that reason I don't own a Red Rocket card. I need five 128 GB Redmags transcoded to 1080p H.264 files.

It's all 5K FF. Half at 96 FPS and the rest at 24 FPS.

Any idea how much transcoding this much footage would cost around LA? Ball park estimates are all I need.

[Ryan De Franco]

Why not do yourself? Start the transcode now tonight in RedCine, have your footage tomorrow morning, even on the slowest computer out there.

[Dan Kanes]

I'll bang this out for you for a good price. Call me : dan 323.445.0999

[Peter Cote]

It would not be ready by tomorrow morning. I was transcoding 4K footage a month ago on my iMac in RCX pro. I was transcoding to 3K ProRes 422HQ, so it's not a perfect comparison. A single 128GB Redmag took 3+ days to transcode.

[joe hedge]

PM sent

[Dan Kanes]

haven't received a phone call yet. If you don't call soon I won't be able to unleash my redrocket on the footage because I will be at a party instead.

Oh Well.

[Lee Saxon]

I can't believe people charge for stuff like this.

[David W. Jones]

I can't believe people charge for stuff like this.

Unless you are a hobbyist, it's called business. You know, where one earns a living.

[Greg Huson]

We provide this service. Typically $125/ or 175/hr depending on what machines are involved (in your case not going to tape). With a one-hour minimum. Happy to flat bid the job- and I'll be in the office tomorrow, even though it's a US holiday. We can also do LTO, HDCam, SR- whatever.

[Greg Huson]

Sorry- slightly unclear. Hourly rate is labor time, not tape (or file) duration. Generally transcode jobs are negotiated, to be completely honest.

[Dan Kanes]

I can't believe people charge for stuff like this.

Can I also make you a Latte and Give you a dollar in your bucket while I'm at it?

[Bob Gundu]

I can't believe people charge for stuff like this.

People payed for transferring film to VHS
People payed for transferring VHS to DVD
People payed for transferring CDS to MP3

Time is money.

[Luis Caffesse]

Time is money.

And red rocket's (http://www.red.com/store/red-rocket/product/red-rocket) aren't free.

[rod bradley]

Hey, maybe Lee is a really generous guy and has a lot of time on his hands and was offering to do it for free!

[Daniel Pitta]

generous,rs

[Robert Ruffo New]

Unless you are a hobbyist, it's called business. You know, where one earns a living.

Yes, it always pisses me off to see people who think that just because they can't or will not make $$, they expect other people not to. How would you amortize your $4000 Rocket card if you just let other people access it for $0. For that matter, why would anyone buy one from Red, and how would Red ever amortize their tech investment, if free access was available at every corner.

It's as crazy as the pro-piracy argument.

[Roy Rossovich]

Use Media Encoder, works much fast then redcine x if you don't have rocket... I batched 300 gigs the other day, said it was going to take 25 hours from redcine x cancelled and pushed it into media encoder instead and bam 90 minutes later all done. After experiencing that transcode time I don't think I'll ever get a rocket...

For those curious the Computer system is a water cooled socket 2011 hyper threaded 6 core sandy bridge e 2.8 ghz (which thinks its a 12 core) with an amp II 3gb zotac GPU and 32 gb corsair ram

[Shiblon Wixom]

If all you need are uncorrected low-res offline files, then media encoder is great.

[Marc Wielage]

I can't believe people charge for stuff like this.
They do, if you want the dailies to look reasonably good. Experience, equipment, and time all costs money. You can try to do it all yourself, but me personally, I'd always prefer to hire somebody who knows how to do this stuff better and faster​ than I do.

[Gunleik Groven]

I can't believe people charge for stuff like this.


because it is work?


Why not do yourself? Start the transcode now tonight in RedCine, have your footage tomorrow morning, even on the slowest computer out there.



Good advice, if you can. Bad if you cannot.

If you have some computers on a network, you could divide the job into batches with RedLine or manually with several RedCine installations.

But it will take time/computing cycles from other work, so it can be a good thing to outsource this kind of stuff to someone with a Rocket if you're in a hurry and don't have overcapacity...

[Gunleik Groven]

They do, if you want the dailies to look reasonably good. Experience, equipment, and time all costs money. You can try to do it all yourself, but me personally, I'd always prefer to hire somebody who knows how to do this stuff better and faster​ than I do.

Which is often a good idea, if that is thecase!