2GB Nework File Limitations

[Scott Mason]

Dear Red Team-

I am so honored to be able to work with your products for the productions we use it on. They are truly amazing products and I am so thankful. I love it when people ask if we shot it on film!!!!

I have one challenge that I would love solved and that is the 2GB file limit when rendering across a network. Hans made a great application that I am fortunate enough to get a non released version that gives me a render farm. When I finish a shoot day I can quickly do a one light and open clipfinder on 3 8core macs and set them to the same network render directory and I am able to render full quality at close to 12fps which is so great. But any file that is larger than 2GB returns an error and I must render it on the server. This has not been an issue, but this years television show contains many long interviews and when 2 hours of footage (each day) will only render on 1 machine I am stuck with waiting a day before we can get to the edit. I know the proxy workflow, and I am very versed in all the workflows available to red, and IMHO I like this one the best as my edit sessions are so much faster and I can easily send files to color, redalert, or simply finish in FCP depending on the deadline.

I have workarounds for all of these challenges, and I have made many workarounds throughout the year+ we have used our camera, but I would be eternally grateful if you folks could fix the 2GB file limit when rendering across a network with redline.

Mahalo for any information on this and any progress
scott

P.S. watching these rendered quicktimes on our HD projector in the office is a truly surreal experience and I thank you for the tools that have put the ball back in the court of content.

 

[Cail Young]

I've been rendering Quicktimes over AFS that are over 2GB with Redrushes, which uses Redline as well...

What's the error you get?

 

[Scott Mason]

That's good to hear. I don't know what the error is, but the file stops at 2GB and the quicktime is no good. We are using AFP though, if that matters. I am connected to my network using gigabet ethernet. It is consistant with files over 2GB so there must be a connection. And the files render locally to perfection. I am using OSX leopard server to file serve, but I had the same challenge when I used osx leopard (not server) to do the same thing. It only is a challenge with red products. All apple and adobe products avoid this challenge.

mahalo
scott

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

2GB file limitations are usually a product of the and file system on the target drive. Shouldn't matter if it's over a network or not. If the remote drive is formatted as FAT-32 or if your server software itself has issues presenting file sizes larger than 2GB, this could most likely be the issue. Sounds like an issue for your network admins and not really an issue for RED.

 

[Vinit Borrison]

Scott is right, there is a 2gb limitation, i've run into it in the past. It is a pain in the a$$. I believe its actually a QT issue and not anything to do with Red's software

 

[Deanan]

We tried fixing this problem a while back and the limitation was in the Quicktime libraries.

 

[Dan Hudgins]

pointer?

pointer?

We tried fixing this problem a while back and the limitation was in the Quicktime libraries.

Is the problem a 32bit signed file pointer (31 bits used)?

Could they change the pointer to 32bit un-signed file pointer to get 4.2GB limits (the OS should support 32bits?)?

2^31=2147483648 bytes

2^32=4294967296 bytes

 

[Vinit Borrison]

deanan, could dan be right?

 

[Scott Mason]

2GB file limitations are usually a product of the and file system on the target drive. Shouldn't matter if it's over a network or not. If the remote drive is formatted as FAT-32 or if your server software itself has issues presenting file sizes larger than 2GB, this could most likely be the issue. Sounds like an issue for your network admins and not really an issue for RED.

Thanks Jeff, unfortunately I am our network administrator and the drives are formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The reason I point to redline is because fcp, motion, and aftereffects do not have this issue when doing identical workflows (i.e. rendering across out network)

Mahalo for the FAT-32 note as that seems to be the case most of the time, just not this time. Thank you for your time.

scott

 

[Scott Mason]

We tried fixing this problem a while back and the limitation was in the Quicktime libraries.

Deanan-

I thought FCP fixed this challenge a while back by keeping the 2GB files in a buffer and combining them at the end. Not sure if this helps, but I remember the days when FCP had this same challenge

Mahalo for all your efforts they are appreciated.

-scott

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Thanks Jeff, unfortunately I am our network administrator and the drives are formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Ah, it seems it's a QT issue, as others are pointing out. I guess I didn't read your original post the same way others did.

 

[Scott Mason]

Ah, it seems it's a QT issue, as others are pointing out. I guess I didn't read your original post the same way others did.

No worries jeff, your points are ones we should check whenever we have a 2gb file limit issue, I thank you for your tireless efforts to keep our community informed.

scott

 

[Trevor Meier]

This has been a pain in the rear for a long time. Custom watch scripts copying local renders back to an IO host were one solution, but this could be much easier if RED were to find a bug fix.

 

[Scott Mason]

If we could resolve this it would greatly reduce the render times of my red footage with the ease of using redline, redrushes, redalert, redcine or clipfinder. Any information of the possibilities and or developments would be greatly appreciated.

mahalo
scott