AMA without Rocket (Mac)

[Shane Betts]

Find myself setting up an Avid edit/assist setup away from the post house without a rocket with me. What sort of transcode times should I expect to 36 until I can get a rocket up this 8 core Mac? Will AMA even work without a rocket? Thanks for your help.

 

[ericyoung]

AMA will work with latest Avid versions. Transcode will be slow - but can't say how slow as don't have a MacPro myself.

 

[Alex MacLean]

Transcode will be super slow, and I've heard it has lots of problems. I recommend using RedCineX to transcode to DNXHD.

 

[joe hedge]

Find myself setting up an Avid edit/assist setup away from the post house without a rocket with me. What sort of transcode times should I expect to 36 until I can get a rocket up this 8 core Mac? Will AMA even work without a rocket? Thanks for your help.

If you transcode in RC-X to .mxf files, not QuickTimes, you bypass AMA and use the Avid Media Tool to import the clips straight into the bin.

7:1 transcode ratio times is about what I usually get on a 3 ghz 8-core, from a G-Drive with the R3D's on it, to a FW800 G-Raid, in DNxHD 36

 

[Shane Betts]

Thanks guys. About what I thought. Very helpful.

 

[Oliver Peters]

Actually if you are transcoding to DNxHD36, you should probably just set the debayer to 1/4 or 1/8 in the Avid Media Creation settings. On an 8-core, 1/8 res is close to or sometimes even faster than real-time.

- Oliver

 

[Shane Betts]

Thanks Oliver. Editorial has decided to run with MXF's from Redcine X via the wrangler on set. Now we just have to get it to import them...

 

[Jason Diamond]

I have found the AMA - no rocket - with transcode to .mxf in the bin to be very reliable and not insanely slow if you drop the debayer appropriately.
Not obviously an everyday workflow for speed reasons but certainly doable and solid.

Jason

 

[Tom.Wong]

RCX will still give you faster dnxhd transcode speeds hands down. the fast import into avid is lightning quick, so that's your best move for the moment for sure. avid/ama/rocket will only take advantage of rocket at full debayer mind you. remember to have that checked in the rocket settings inside of avid or you won't see it using your rocket card when you get it in there!

 

[Job ter Burg]

No need to fast import if you have RCX set up to create Avid MXF media. Then it's just a copy.

 

[MichaelP]

If transcoding all dailies for a project, I find it faster and easier to transcode in RCX beforehand. Also, if using the new color settings RedColor2 and RedGamma2, you will want to use RCX as that is not supported in AMA with the current version of the R3D plug-in.

Michael