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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 :)

Released: R3D Data Manager for Mac v5.2

Conrad Hunziker

Conrad Hunziker

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R3D Data Manager for Mac version 5.2 is released!

Please see the Upgrade Notes section at the bottom of this post for older, yet still relevant, upgrade notes.

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Updates in this release:
  • Extended Growl, SMS/Email Notifications: Growl and SMS/Email notifications now include the source path in the copy status. This will help users with more than one system running simultaneously to better determine which source the program is reporting the status of.
  • Red Media Identifiers: Now you have the ability to setup common identifiers for your Red Media, and select from them in the Project Information area. Now you dont need to type your Red Media names for each mag.
  • Project Information update reminder: We added a small popup box to remind you to edit the Project Information when an auto-copy starts. The copy still proceeds in the background of the popup box. This can be disabled in the preferences.
  • Email Logs: You can now automatically append the log file to the email notification of a successful copy. This is not recommended for SMS users, as the logs are verbose.
  • Mini-result icon: We added a mini-result icon next to each destination. Now you can see visually which destinations failed for each source. It updates as you click on a source in the queue. The result icon is displayed as the destination finishes, so faster destinations will post a result before the slower destinations finish.
  • Master logs: The program now saves master logs in the users library, and sweep old logs over 30 days old.
  • Source Check: The program now checks before a copy operation that the sources actually exist, and are mounted properly.
  • Auto-Clear queue: When auto-start is enabled and a new Red Media is detected, the program will clear the queue of all sources that have successfully copied. Only those sources who have had any failures will remain, and will automatically be recopied along with the new Red Media.
  • Update Project Info during copy: You can now update the Project Information area while a copy is in progress. As long as you finish editing before the copy finishes, the information will be passed to the ProjectInformation.txt file as the copy finishes.
  • Bug fixes: We fixed bugs in the recopy footage after an error and in the UI updating code.

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Upgrade Notes

If you are upgrading from version 5.0 or earlier: Due to an error in a 3rd party installer, you must install this upgrade manually. Please download the application from the link includede in the upgrade notice inside R3D Data Manager and run the included installer manually.

This version is for Mac OS 10.5 ONLY. Due to some needed changes in the structure, we can no longer support Mac OS 10.4

If upgrading from 4.x or earlier: You will need a new key before using this version. We have emailed all valid users a key, so check your email before upgrading. You can always obtain your key at https://www.r3ddata.com/order/resend/
 
Hi Conrad

Thanks for doing the identifier to the emails/sms's as requested when I met you.

Now I can enjoy my drink longer when I'm by the pool waiting for those multiple copies to finish....;)

Jeff Brown
 
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Yes - the all important drink by the pool.

This brings up a point I forgot to mention: nearly all of the updates are based on user suggestions. So if you have any, let us know. Perhaps the next suggestion will help others enjoy more drinks by the pool - or at least a decent nights sleep!
 
Funny how some of those changes seem a lot like the emails I've been sending you! Thanks a million! I'm excited (I know that's so nerdy) for my next R3D copy with the program!

How soon are you going to do the Line speed change, I'm convinced it's a great idea now.


In case you stumbled on this thread by accident and have no idea what R3D Data Manager does, go to R3Ddata.com and buy it and thank me later :)
 
I've just purchased R3D Data manager for Mac (v 5.2) and in my initial use, it seems very slow. I have no frame of reference except for finder copies. A 170 Gig copy to two sources via FW400 took better than 6 hours last night. Is that normal? (I'm hoping not.) Can you give me some idea what "normal" is for R3D copies? And what to look for that might be slowing the copies down?
 
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D Fuller said:
I've just purchased R3D Data manager for Mac (v 5.2) and in my initial use, it seems very slow. I have no frame of reference except for finder copies. A 170 Gig copy to two sources via FW400 took better than 6 hours last night. Is that normal? (I'm hoping not.) Can you give me some idea what "normal" is for R3D copies? And what to look for that might be slowing the copies down?
Click to expand...

I dont know your exact setup, so its hard to comment from a distance.

However, the biggest thing slowing you down is FW400. If you have all three items attached via FW400, then each one is basically getting 133Mbits/sec, minus overhead. Id recommend going to at least FW800. The best way is if you can put devices on different buses - such as the Red Media as the only device hooked up via firewire, and the others hooked up via eSATA or a second (external) firewire bus. Just by stepping up to FW800 in theory you should see the time cut in about 1/2. If you separate the drives on different buses, even better.

Secondly, a secure copy requires 3 reads of the media. Once to generate checksums, once to copy the files and a third to check each destination. Theres a great field report here of how R3D Data Manager was the first to show that the CF reader (in this case) was faulty:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showpost.php?p=463067&postcount=1

After getting errors, he investigated further and deducted that the CF reader was at fault. Its not the first time that Ive heard of this, but thats exactly what R3D Data Manager was designed to catch. Finder copies dont catch those, as they only do a single read from the source, and assume that the bits it got were valid.

That said, you should see a much bigger improvement in time if you move your destinations to SATA/eSATA. Right now on firewire each destination during the destination check must fight for space on the same bus. If you moved them to SATA/eSATA you'll have much more room on the bus for each disk to read at the fastest speed possible.
 
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Steve Freebairn said:
How soon are you going to do the Line speed change, I'm convinced it's a great idea now.
Click to expand...

It will come - we need to perfect it in the windows version first, then port it to the Mac. Its one of a few things that will comprise v6.0.
 
UPS delivered nice and quick :)

I took advantage of the Snow Leopard release to swap out my MBP's hard drive and do a completely clean install of everything. 90 mins to swap the drive, install Snow Leopard and copy all my files back to the new drive - result!

Like I say, R3D Data Manager v5.0 installs no problem (and seems to be working OK, though I haven't tested it extensively yet). It just won't let me install the updates. Not sure what the situation would be if you already had v5.2 installed though.
 
Stephen Webb said:
Like I say, R3D Data Manager v5.0 installs no problem (and seems to be working OK, though I haven't tested it extensively yet). It just won't let me install the updates. Not sure what the situation would be if you already had v5.2 installed though.
Click to expand...

I have had no issues installing 5.2, or 5.1. Both seem to install fine. Make sure you are installing/upgrading as per the instructions.

In addition, the copy procedures seem to work better in 10.6 than 10.5. The checksums are really flying now, on the same hardware and disks. I dont know if thats because of less bloat on the newly installed 10.6 systems as opposed to our older 10.5 systems, but the difference was noticeable and in some cases remarkable.

There is a slight issue with the R3D File Recovery which will be fixed in the upcoming 5.3 release, and a couple of other improvements. 5.3 will be 10.5 and 10.6 compatiable.

I would say for those shooting over the weekend, 5.2 on 10.6 is the way to go.
 
Conrad,

Just as a suggestion, what I would really like to see would be the ability to check one folder of R3Ds against another, using as the reference the checksum files that were created before.

So that if a copy crashes during the later stages (when it is doing the verification part) I can just select the source file and compare the files without deleting and recopying them all.

If that makes any sense...? :)

Thanks for the great software.
 
This feature isnt needed, actually.

With all versions of R3D Data Manager, even back to the first public release of v2.0, you can select the destination as the source and click on "Check Checksums". This will go through each item and make sure the files match to the original checksums.

You can do this at any time- and dont need the original footage around to run a check process. Even years down the line you can do this and know if your footage exactly matches the camera original. Thats how I know today that the first footage I shot with build 8 is exactly as I the camera recorded it over 2 years ago.

Also, if your program is crashing, please do send us a crash report. The crash report provided by the OS goes to apple, but R3D Data Manager should detect it crashed next time you start it, and thats the one that is very helpful to us.
 
Ah! - That's great. But what if the apparently copied folders do not have any checksum files in them (as seems to happen when the copy fails at about 60-99%)? Would it be possible to use the checksums with files in one folder to check the r3ds in another?

My laptop has developed a nasty habit of just suddenly switching off when it gets too hot, so it's nothing to do with your software and I don't get any reports!
 
A copied folder without a checksum in it usually means the copy process for that particular folder didnt finish. Copying the checksum file to the RDC folder is the last part of the process for a single RDC folder. In other words, the program copies the contents of a RDC folder, copies the checksum file, then moves to the next RDC folder.

So in this case, I would delete those RDC folders (as we dont know when it stopped copying), set the "if rdc folder exists" option to "ignore" and start the copy again. It will only copy the RDC folders that dont already exist on the destinations.

The checksum files are stored on the original media or in your alternate checksum directory, depending on that preference. So you can copy the checksums from that location to the specific RDC folder manually and then follow the process above to verify the copy.

As for your laptop ..... I realize that there isnt much money floating around these days, and people are doing more with less. But I would strongly urge you to take a look at the underlying issues in your laptops heat issue. It has been my experience with nearly 20 years of being around computers that small issues like this are really just warning signs that larger issues are to follow. The last thing you want is for that bigger issue to manifest itself later, Murphys law and all.....
 
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