Downrezing

[RedMagent]

I cant seem to find any info on the downrezing software specs (2k to 1080p for example). If the downrezing is software driven it will take forever to downrez. I mean 2-3 24hr days to downrez an hour of 2k to 1080p with, say, compressor and the quality is ass. Are we sure they have a solotion that is viable? Traditionaly you would use a snell & wilcox device but these things cost tens of thousands of dollars and at 2k probably hundreds of thousands. Remember the quality of the downconvert needs to be perfect for the red cam to work for pros. Even the Kona 3 does a terrible job at up down and cross-converting. The picture goes totally soft due to rounding errors in the algorithms.

Please let me know if you have any info on this. I know about REDCINE and that is what scares me. It a software program. I think they need a hardware solution for reel time down-converting. This is what the industry will demand.

Or, maybe you edit at your native resolution and then use hardware to down-convet as a final step to dbeta or HDcam. I think this should be done using hardware and I dont mean the Kona card.

[tj williams]

The RED can also record at RGB 720/1080 direct to the digital mag. (although appearantly this will not be implemented in the first version of the software, in the first cameras, there will be an update) So my related question is the direct recording quality the same better or worse than 4K downconverted?

[Graeme Nattress]

Downrezzing is done using high quality fllters using the GPU for accelleration. I don't see the issues you mention being a problem at all.

I don't see why you think hardware is necessary. No hardware could cope with 4k data, and down converting is not especially hard, nor complex. It just needs to be done right, and it will be done right, and on the GPU for speed.

Or ofcourse, if you're just going to HD or SD, why not shoot 720p or 1080p in the first place, using the high quality down converter in-camera as you shoot?

Graeme

[RedMagent]

Thanks Graeme!

[Graeme Nattress]

No problem!

Graeme

[Rob Lohman]

And if you need on-set down convert you have HDMI & HD-SDI outputs.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Or you could even load up your compositing application of choice. Most have about 8 or 9 choices for resize algorithms.

When it comes down to it, any hardware solution is just going to be an optimized version of one of those.

[tj williams]

stuart/Graeme I would like a clarification here concerning window size of the windowed sensor!!!!

Super 16mm exposed area is 12.35 by 7.5 mm The Abakus adapter for B4 lenses converts the lens to cover this dimension for super 16mm use with Pl mount.

I had concluded that the RED windowed sensor was recording a target this size(12.35 by 7.5 mm) regardless of whether the image being recorded was 2K or 1080P or 720P Is this true?

[Chris Kenny]

The distinction between hardware and software is getting pretty vague these days with software leveraging high-performance GPUs -- those are dedicated graphics processing hardware, just a little more flexible than the stuff you find in black-box appliance-type devices.

[Rob Lohman]

TJ: why are you posting the same question into multiple threads? This is also not really related to what we're talking about here.

Why not post your question in a separate threads so it's more easily found?