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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RED, Linux, and IFX Piranha

Kyle Mallory

Kyle Mallory

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I just wanted to drop a line for all you Linux folks out there. With hints of Linux R3D tools on the horizon, I've been working closely with the guys over at Interactive Effects, Inc (IFX) for the last few months, working on getting a mid-level Linux post workflow going with Piranha. They have been very supportive of offering a 2k and 4k solution that is RED compatible, and appropriately priced.

For anyone interested in exploring this, I would encourage an email to info@ifx.com (They are a small, tight machine, so you'll get a personal response) and let them know of your interest.

I took a chance, and they surprised me. Perhaps they'll surprise you too.

For anyone unfamiliar with IFX and Piranha Cinema, you can check them/it out here.
 
If & when Red releases a SDK for their R3D format, I believe that a capability for operations on Linux (or any other OS) will develop very soon after.
 
jbeale,

My post wasn't about simply processing R3D footage on Linux, but actually having a robust, high-performance, 2k/4k, floating-point, GPU accelerated conforming, editing, and coloring suite that runs on Linux, and hopefully at a price that most of us can realistically consider an option. Something many people here have expressed an interest in.

I'm simply suggesting that anyone interested in a Linux post-video solution, might want to drop them an email.
 
Hi,

ive had a look at pirahna before, but the one thing that always confounds me with these proffessional products is where's the price? they're always so secretive about pricing.

DO you have ny idea about how much thier software costs?

Cheers

Mark
 
I do. And it will scare the shit out of you. It scared the shit out of me... But they are seriously interested in migrating their market from the high-end professional, severely restricted user space, into a more reasonably priced and potentially larger one.

They are trying to gauge a level of interest, and determine whether it's viable (whether there is a large enough Linux film/video user base) to repackage/reprice their product and still make a profit. They recognize RED/4k/2k as a great step towards that goal, because honestly, IMO, Piranha is overkill for SD work (it can do it, and do it well, but it's really designed for a 2k/4k, 24p, DPX/EAX workflow). RED is bringing 2k/4k to the masses, and there is a giant void in the Linux post workflow at the RED price-point.

In the end, I simply wrote an email and said, "I'm interested in your product (or even a subset of it), and I'm willing to spend about $X dollars." They sent me over a 30-day trial license, and said "Once you're absolutely certain it is what you want, and will work for you, call us back and we'll figure out the details-- we don't want to sell you something that isn't what you want, even at that ridiculously low price..." How could I argue with that? So we did.

I equate it something akin to a local rental company working a deal based on the budget of your independent film(s). They want a good relationship as much as they want to make money, and sometimes building good long-term relationships means sacrificing on the costs/profits in the short term.

Honestly, the software has some short-comings, but it also has a lot of very, very advanced features, and the performance is nothing short of amazing.

Once I get my camera in hand, and the rumored REDCODE SDK surfaces, I'll be keeping everyone posted on my progress with Piranha and RED. Unfortunately both of those are based on time-tables outside of my control.

So, like I said, send off an email, and let them know you're interested in the product, and see what they say. At the worst, you're out 10-minutes in writing an email.
 
Could be... I was told $50k-$90k, for software only. I am running it on a Dell M90 Laptop, with Quadro FX-1500, and it runs fine. Nothing a *real* NV card, and a nice high-performance RAID wouldn't fix, but its nice to know its not hardware dependent. They also recommend Fedora Core 6, and I'm running it on Ubuntu 7.10, again without problem.
 
I sent them an email as well,

They said they start at $25K but like kyle said they seemed to be ready to adjust.

They also said that they do FCP XML import and conform ( a godsend). Also at the moment its a bit sketchy with DVCPRO-HD and a few of the video formats. But they said that you might as well just use uncompressed 2k image sequences, or some such thing.

the trial would be a really good thing to have to check it out and its nice that they're open to that.

What things do you think it is missing Kyle?

Cheers

Mark
 
File formats, primarily, which I know they are working on. Quicktime support is steadily improving. Other formats, including AVI and MPEG are a bit further behind, but also making progress. I know that this is in part due to the lack of support for these formats in Linux. Most of the Linux frameworks for handling various media files are designed for streaming, rather than NLE/random frame access.

Cuts only editing is pretty smooth going, but disolves and cross-fades could be made a little easier.

In talking with them, it is clear they are a small company without a ton of resources to devote toward changes that the current customer base (major studios) has little or no interest in. Hence my suggestion for people interested to contact them, so they can get some idea for the market demand and reprioritize accordingly.
 
being small they're probably a perfect position to open source their stuff. Go to a service market. Just think about how many post houses would love to have an opensource linux editor etc. but that they could buy a service licence for.

Its a big step for any company and i dont blame them for not taking it. But hey we can always hope.

Mark
 
I have no doubt that he wont....Its just an interesting thought.....

A lot of IT companies are moving to a Service Economy instead of Selling software. Your product gets better (due to more developers), more people use your product, which means that you get more service contracts.

For some markets it makes sense....I dont know if it would make sense in this case, i was just throwing it out there.
 
Piranha have a strong reputation in the high-end market. In a lot of aspect, piranha deal better than AVID DS and Smoke. And yes it is a high-end tools, very very fast, debugged, ready to serve very large and ambitious projet. In fact this is the tools I actually see to deals as finishing tools with. Avid DS et Smoke are too expensive. In fact we all gonna need a finishing tools for RED worklow, and this thread is a very good idea. I thing for 15 K hardware and 25 K software, you have an blasting system.
 
Tom Benoist should come here to present there next collaborative tools to deal with R3D. If he can...
 
Mat@imageWork said:
Tom Benoist should come here to present there next collaborative tools to deal with R3D. If he can...
Click to expand...

will they integrate a redcode support once allowed?
 
I think they should sell Piranha cheaper and with different module (like Assimilate). I was interseted by the editing module, but I don't want to pay for a compositing module, while I have already shake and Toxic, and think they are better compositing tool anyway.

However I wish my whole workflow only use linux...

ciao,
antoine
 
So with Piranha being available for under $1000 now, can someone who is familiar with it report how good it works with RED, epecially concerning speed and a workflow including grading/compositing? I think it's possible to download a trial but I'm on Windows.
 
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