Frustrated Rocket Owner - RCX Problems

[Anson Fogel]

First post of this type for longtime red shooter and post person who's got a tendency to work it out myself. Second, I know RedCine X is not release. But I just invested in a RedRocket for all the reasons we all did - on set and off - and it IS amazing - to use it, RocketCine and RedCine are it. RocketCine crashes and has similar problems and has critical limitations, and RCX has been somewhat more stable the last 2 weeks. I'm editing 4 projects, all under deadlines where I have to Rocket-render. Rendering non-rocket through rushes is a hard to swallow solution after spending 4 grand on rocket.

So, I just lost 6 hours of work for the 2nd time. I am selecting, grading, setting I/O points, etc in RCX, then batch rendering. I save the project itself like every 30 seconds using the keyshort. Save save save project paranoid. Then batch render - after rendering between 5 and 30 clips, RCX crashes during the render (using Rocket). So I open my project, note what rendered, and start over. But now, open the project, and this last 2 times about 30 of the 100 clips I graded and set IO on have "lost" their grade, and their IO points, and the other 70 clips I selected, graded, set IO on are simply not there. Gone. 6 hours of work...poof. Again.

Its maddening. I don't have RSX files to re-grab and start the render over - in RA or the old RC, I often had crashes on overnight renders (thus rocket) but could re-open, and start over from where it crashed at least. But not now.

I'm also getting "garbage" frames in the renders often in 100FPS 2K footage.

I did not have verbose logging on, but I can turn it on. I would love to know how to get my graded bin back (is the metadata there somewhere?), or to know why saving the project is not really saving the project. I'm welcome to advice - use RocketCine instead? Similar problems, and I lose some grading options. Go back to using RedAlert and Rushes? It simply does not work on set under the gun, and that's why i spent a fortune on a rocket...but if that's the best option....do I need Scratch?

Details - MacPro late 08/early 09 intel quad, leopard current (not snow), 32GB ram, CalDigital ESATA w/16GB main online store, BlackMagic Decklink, ATA 4870 w Dual DVI Apple 23's, System drive 10K barracuda, RedRocket in slot 4 outputting HDMI/DVI. RedCineX build 104. Camera current release build 21 (not beta) for files in question. about 3/4 of the clips I'm working with are 100FPS 2K or 50FPS 3K. Monitoring through RRocket off during batch render (seemed to help). Crashes during batch render almost always if batch larger than 5 clips. That is tolerable if deeply annoying - its non release - but the complete loss of the actual file select and metadata is beyond painful.

HELP.

 

[Jannard]

Deanan will contact you to get to the bottom of this...

Or you can email him: deanan@red.com

Jim

 

[Deanan]

Hi Anson,

Please email me all the log files you have, the project files, and any of the crash reports (they should still be in userfolder/Library/application support/crashreporter.
We'll get to the bottom of it.

 

[oliver imfeld]

same happend to me; just finished grading friday late at nite, this morning when i open the project no more nothing in my timeline, just gone....

ps: i found the crash reports, but where are the log files ?

 

[Deanan]

same happend to me; just finished grading friday late at nite, this morning when i open the project no more nothing in my timeline, just gone....

ps: i found the crash reports, but where are the log files ?

Did the files move to a different location for any reason?
Can you send me the project file that you saved?

Log files are in userfolder/Library/Application Support/Red/Redcinex

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Have you tried to do thos with clipfinder?

G
(who'll try exactly that on friday...)

 

[oliver imfeld]

wat da you meen ?

 

[Elijah Kelley]

Same...

Same...

Didn't want to start a post out of apprehension I was doing something wrong...but contacted tech support Friday and sent log crash over...still doing the same over the weekend...crash, crash, crash...shutting my whole system down...just erased all Red programs and reinstalled this morning with drivers...will update if thats the fix

Mac Snow Leopard
2 x Quadcore Xeon
6GB Ram

 

[Anson Fogel]

Files sent

Files sent

Files sent to Deanan...

 

[Anson Fogel]

Oh, and thanks....

Oh, and thanks....

For the fast response from Red as usual. Don't want my frustration to overwhelm the tone. Not many businesses have the founder and CEO responding to little-guy customers' posts about problems that fast much less at all...thanks guys. Now, let's figure this crap out so I can figure out how to work..

 

[Anson Fogel]

Gunleik - Clipfinder?

Gunleik - Clipfinder?

Gunleik -

Clipfinder will not read the metadata from RCX grades as I understand it, although I've seen tell here of "Flight Director" and a new metadata aware clipfinder - do you know any more about this?

Anson

 

[Nick Shaw]

Flight Director is not on general release yet. It does in any case not work currently with REDcineX grades, only RocketCineX. This allows setting in/out points, and all meta-data settings (including FLUT) but not lift/gamma/gain, and saves these in the RocketCineX version on RSX, which is currently not readable by REDcineX. It has been suggested that in future REDcineX will be read compatible with RSX files.

 

[Anson Fogel]

Thanks Nick.

Thanks Nick.

IN your opinion (free consulting!) - is RocketCineX the best tool for a rocket workflow currently? I suppose its the only tool as far as release versions go...what is your take?

 

[Nick Shaw]

In my opinion, RocketCineX is definitely the best tool provided free by Red. REDcineX has great future potential, but it's not there yet. I would not use REDcineX on a paying job, as I do not find it reliable enough. I find RocketCineX pretty stable if you don't load too many files at a time (which Flight Director handles automatically).

 

[Rich Schaefer]

also crashing

also crashing

I am also crashing a lot! I have had several emails to Deanan with logs...

I crash RCX104 every 30 minutes or so when color correcting. (It sucks because I loose all of my color corrections!!!!!!!!! over and over) The save project feature is not saving color-corrections through crashes.

What happens is I am toggling the the Rockets output on and off about every minute. I do this as I load new shots, apply a look and then output to my reference monitor to perfect it. I think it's the turning on and off the output so much then it stalls out, and I get the apple pinwheel of "death" = not responding. Then I reboot the computer and %50 of the time RCX warns me the Rocket card is in a 2 lane slot. I reboot again until It thinks its in an 8 lane. BUT, the card will process gigs of footage for hours flawlessly if I can get through the grading. So for me, it is an issue with toggling on and off the Rockets monitor outputs.

The Rocket card is in slot 2. Its a brand new MacPro with nothing else on it. I have installed the driver and firmware twice.

Deanan thinks it is software related. He has asked me to test more for him. I need to stop shooting for a moment to do so. It should be Friday.

 

[Lonny Danler]

Just finished a feature, was tempted to go redcine-x but used rocketcine-x instead because of the .rsx files so it could talk to clipfinder and I could do my logs. Flight director was working but clipfinder beta 17 didn't have the new color science (flut most importantly for me) so stayed in rocketC-x and tried to keep open files and batches to a minimum (otherwise would crash and lag).

RedC-x is moving fast but still not quite there in my book. RR rocked dailies each day. Once I got a working system with rocketC-x, it was bliss. Just missed some of the lift, gamma, gain controls of RedC-x.