Red as HD Player

[Markus Rave]

I read the latest news about build 16 and saw that HD output is possible now with playback. This is a huge advantage for ENG/EFP as well as for the documentary world.
I have not found something on this issue so maybe someone can enlighten me posting an existing thread if there is one.
If Red plays back R3D files in HD and supposed it uses REC 709 gamma to do this and supposed it embeds or plays out audio at the same time, many of us could use this machine as a player as well to import footage directly into the edit suite. I know that this will probably not take advantage of the capabilities of RAW but in some cases this will not be neccessary as for instance when time matters. And it matters all the time, doesn´t it? For a filmmaker who is dependent on fast turnaround this would definetely be a huge benefit. You could edit on lacation and still use Red with it´s advantages.

Any thoughts?

[Keith Neff]

Markus; we are really interested in this as well. Haven't had a chance to load the B16 yet since all the guys are out shooting. If this output is usable it would be a huge help for our workflow.
Keep your fingers crossed. Has anyone recorded this output yet?

[Steve Sherrick]

I'll be testing this today. I'll let you know the results.

[Sam Roberts]

I really like this idea too. Keep us posted.

[Keith Neff]

Well Steve, we're waiting, did it work?

[Joseph Ward]

did it work??

[Steve Sherrick]

Yes, absolutely. i started another thread over here
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15419

Only thing needed now is audio to be embedded in HD-SDI signal and having TC travel with it would be very cool. You can get the audio out through the 5 pin audio out section on red into analog inputs on your capture card, but having it all linked together in one signal would be much more preferable. Also, it would be digital.

The key to getting it to work is use the preview out for 1080P 4:2:2 and the dual link HD-SDIs for 1080P 4:4:4.

Give it a whirl. Just keep in mind that it's first cropped to 3840x2160 and then scaled to 1920x1080. So you will lose some, but you can actually frame for this by using the safety guideline in the LCD or EVF. So if you know this will be your workflow, then just frame for it. The quality is surprisingly good. Not as nice as transcoding from Redcine, but the time you save sure seems to make it look a lot better. :-) Only thing I have to do (as suggested by Mitch Gross) is shoot some test charts and do a comparision between captured and transcoded versions.

[Anarri]

I can't wait for redray for this very reason.

[Brian Broz]

I understand and have always thought this would be great for shoots that have no post budget or no time. The qt playback out of the camera is still pretty phenomenal.
But once you clear/offload a card on set then you lose that playback capability. You are stuck will small, choppy QT reference files and have to navigate through folders to play them back. Unless I'm missing something, QT reference playback is a lot "clunkier" on the computer.
Has anyone successfully offloaded a card to a computer, formatted the card and then transferred the material back to a card for HD/1080 playback in camera?
If I want to play back a days select clips/cards on a large LCD or plasma, wouldn't this still be the best way?
Of course ideally you could have tons of cards you wouldn't need to format:-)