Redcine Process Times

[sam_bond]

Just wandering, i am going to be filming 4k redcode raw, and am going to be editing using 720p, just wandering if anyone can make an educated guess as to how long it is going to take to process the footage on a quad 3ghz macpro, 4gb ram.

[Rob Lohman]

REDCINE will extract the full 4K quality and down sample that to 720p before outputting. This ensures maximum quality but will mean an export to 720p, 1080p or 2K for example will take as long (assuming there's no overhead from the output itself).

We do not have the relevant timings yet to give you an answer to how long it will take. We're still very busy optimizing etc.

I would ask not to speculate ("educated guess") since that doesn't help anyone. Things change daily here so it may very well look different in two months.

[J. Bernard Vallon]

After some tweaking and help from people on the forum i got FCP to edit using entirely H.264 720p footage. I figure that will be awesome for an offline edit, because the data-rates are miniscule, and the quality is pretty darn good. I got so excited when i saw that REDCine can output to H.264 for just that reason.

Anyone see a problem with this? Or think i'm on to something?

[Rob Lohman]

I read an article once where a professional editor talked about editing speed. He said editing speed is number 1 when editing. You don't want to wait (for rendering).

He continued saying that resolution was in his opinion not that important for the editing process. He has edited stuff on DV (originated from film) or lower resolutions to have a lightning fast edit system.

It's all cool you can edit in 4K (in theory), but that's not the only way!

[Jaime Vallés]

I agree completely. Speed in editing is everything. It allows you to have a rhythm, and having to wait for renders or dropped frames is simply unacceptable.

I'll be shooting in 4K Redcode RAW. Once in REDCINE, I'll export in 480p for a super-fast offline. Once everything is done, I can make a great looking 480p DVD to show distributors. If they bite, then I'll go to a post house and do a 2K online and export to HDCAM SR tape for delivery, while still keeping the original 4K footage intact for future-proofing.

4K projection is a ways off. HDCAM SR is fine for delivery, and will look plenty good on a big screen.

[Michael Schrengohst]

That sounds like a good flow. My interest in RED is just the flexibility, not to mention the best image that can be achieved with a video camera.
I shoot stills with a Nikon D200 at the highest resolution - so it is hard to imagine shooting video at that quality. At last - no excuses.

[Jim Arthurs]

IOnce in REDCINE, I'll export in 480p for a super-fast offline. Once everything is done, I can make a great looking 480p DVD to show distributors.

Jaime, last time we talked on the best off-line format, I was speaking second-hand about the ease of using DVCPRO 100 720P as a substitute for 480. Since then I purchased the first generation (Core Duo, not Core2 Duo) Macbook Pro to learn FCP and to do your general notebook-type things.

First hand, I can tell you that you can edit with amazing ease and no dropped frames with 720 24p even on this laptop. You can do dissolves, CC on each stream, and layer a third stream with semi-transparency with the same speed and fluidity as SD. More impressively, I was doing this with the media coming from a FW800 2.5" external 160 gig drive. I also have a SATA ExpressCard feeding a two drive bay set up, with one drive for source files and one for scratch. Performance is even better here. I'll be testing DVCPRO 100 1080, which I'm sure is just as clean an edit.

All I'm saying, is before you lock yourself into the limitations of an old school SD off-line, at least experiment with the advantages of your RED off-line with HD on the new system you intend to build. I think you'll be very surprised.

4K projection is a ways off. HDCAM SR is fine for delivery, and will look plenty good on a big screen.

100% agreement.

Regards,

[tj williams]

Rob. I don't want an educated guess, I just want some vague idea...
So I make a 2K image on an ENG shoot where I would otherwise use a tape camera. I want to deliver 1080P 24 I have a vanilla duo with a gig and 5400 drive.
A. Will I be able to render this out in near real time?
B. Will my 1 hour of footage take 8 hours to render?
C. Will I be done in 10 minutes.
D. What will be the difference between this and other possible codec such as DPX etc.

[sanction23]

I realize this would be at least a long product cycle away, but I'm curious to know if the Redcine software's functions (de-mosaic, gain, reframe, etc.) could off-loaded to an expansion board of some kind, theoretically (Kona 4, perhaps?).

Thanks for any information about feasibilty (or pointlessness) of such a device.

[Stuart English]

For the best blend of encoding speed, storage space and editing speed the DVCPRO HD codec is pretty hard to beat for HD offline. Apple FCP and many Avid systems now support the codec. There are also a lot of Firewire 400 based DVCPRO HD tape recorders installed which allow you to send HD source footage to other locations.

H.264 files are more compact, and are also a reasonable choice, but they will take significantly longer to encode.