Video Cards and Red
by Nick Esposito
on
Jun 13, 2009 at 1:02:00 am
So I've got a job transcoding red footage for a feature.
They want me to turnaround the days footage by the end of the next day.
My plan is to get the drive around 8p, start the transcode ASAP, let it render at night and then do the other steps they require in the AM.
HOWEVER, I'm doing a test with a pretty fast PC system and the transcode is very slow, the mac system I'll be working on (I don't have it now for the test) isn't going to be a powerhouse system, so I'm wondering.
Will a video card upgrade speed the transcoding process?
Obviously I'll also get a raid going and as much ram as possible, BUT any other hardware suggestions are much appreciated.
Re: Video Cards and Red by Uli Plank on Jun 13, 2009 at 7:17:07 am
Will this mean transcoding to final quality or offline? The de-bayering process is very demanding, and you may need a big, fat 8 core to do it in time.
But Red has a announced a transcoding board to speed things up, the Red rocket.
Director of the Institute of Media Research (IMF) at Braunschweig University of Arts
Re: Video Cards and Red by Russell Lasson on Jun 15, 2009 at 4:33:33 pm
Yes, an 8-core mac is a must for that type of time frame. It also really depends on what you're transcoding to. Are you going to be creating offline editing files or files that they plan to finish with. Programs like REDRushes and ClipFinder are great because they can max out the cores.
-Russ
Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Universal Post
Salt Lake City, UT
Re: Video Cards and Red by Chris Borjis on Jun 15, 2009 at 8:25:59 pm
I concur with Russell.
I just tested our 2 new 8-core nehalem machines with Red Rushes.
I wouldn't do any transcoding jobs without that kind of setup.....minimum.
Your asking for a stressful possible failure otherwise.
I remember my first transcode job I did on a mac book pro. I lined
up all the clips in redcine and did a batch export.
the next day (and it took overnight to do) I had 50 clips of the first
frame from the first clip on ALL the footage. You can imagine the weekend I had.
Re: Video Cards and Red by Nick Esposito on Jun 15, 2009 at 8:46:01 pm
you're all right,
I found an 8core tower, and did the tests, it works good.
Since you're all here let me ask you two more questions:
1. If give the machine a esata raid0 array will it speed the transcode?
2. If the destination folder is a network folder will it slow the transcode?
3. Have you guys used Redrushes for the transcode? It seems like a better solution for my workflow than the FCP plug-in. Are there any problems with Redrushes.
Re: Video Cards and Red by Russell Lasson on Jun 15, 2009 at 10:31:36 pm
[Nick Esposito]"1. If give the machine a esata raid0 array will it speed the transcode? "
Not likely. It is more processor intensive than anything. At half res/high, you'll still be compressing only 10-15 frames per second. Having a faster connection to the media isn't the bottle neck here. It is the debayer processing.
[Nick Esposito]"2. If the destination folder is a network folder will it slow the transcode? "
Probably not, but I wouldn't recommend it because if something goes wrong on the network, then you've got to start over on your all night render! Seems like one more thing that could cause problems.
[Nick Esposito]"3. Have you guys used Redrushes for the transcode?"
I like REDRushes a lot. Partly because it allows for a variety of frame sizes. So all of your footage can be scaled to whatever frame size you're going to edit at. FCP has a fixed way of dealing with frame sizes.
REDRushes also integrates better with REDAlert than FCP does. This gives you a lot more control over the look of the image as you're creating dailies.
-Russ
Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Universal Post
Salt Lake City, UT
Re: Video Cards and Red by Nick Esposito on Jun 23, 2009 at 3:09:24 am
"Not likely. It is more processor intensive than anything. At half res/high, you'll still be compressing only 10-15 frames per second. Having a faster connection to the media isn't the bottle neck here. It is the debayer processing. "
OK
Thanks everybody for your help!
So the machine still only has 2gb ram. Will I get some speed improvement if I bump up to 6gb?
