2K proxy playback performance in FCP

[Erik Greensmith]

I'm looking to set up a trailer for data management and "dailies" screening for Red shows. I've been working as a Red data technician for several months now and find that a highly desired service would be screening of the day's footage at wrap for the director, DP etc. They love being able to review the day while it is still fresh in their minds.
I've ruled out getting a Scratch because audio playback is critical. I'm HOPING I'll be able to set up a 3.2 Mac Pro with 8-16 gig's RAM and a Kona 3 and screen using a higher end Panasonic 1080p projector. The only caveat is the playback performance of the 2K proxies. It just wouldn't be feasible to render or "log and transfer" to ProRes as I need to have everything ready to go the second they call wrap, and be able to dump in the last mags and pull them up immediately.
I've been playing around with different RT settings on my 2.5 Ghz, 4GB MBPro using the 1K proxies and have found that Dynamic makes the image too pixellated and High stutters the playback framerate.
I would condsider setting up a 4-5 node renderfarm in the trailer and run everything through Redline to get smooth playing ProRes, but I am unaware if audio pass-through is enabled yet.
Anyone have experience with playback of the 2K proxies on a top-end Mac tower? Does a Kona even make a difference (I'd want SDI out and covert to HDMI via HDLink at the projector)?

Thanks.

 

[Igor Ridanovic]

My 2k playback on a top notch Mac is similar to yours although I don't find the "Dynamic" quality drop when you push play as detrimental to the experience as you do. On a Sony HD CRT most people don't even see it until I point it out.

Look into Scratch Cine. it's pretty much designed for this kind of work.

 

[Erik Greensmith]

Does Scratch Cine support audio playback from R3D? If not it is useless.

 

[Scott Simmons]

I think this is indicative of the performance of proxies. Technically you can pop them in and playback in real time but the image quality and performance can take a hit depending on system specs, drives, video card, a number of things.

 

[Erik Greensmith]

I'm interested to know if it's possible with the best of everything. I'd have 600MB/s mini-SAS storage, a fully kitted Mac Pro, HD4870 or maybe even a 4600/5600, Kona, everything. Investing in all this kind of hinges on being able to play them out in realtime, or even a frame per second or two under.

 

[Thomas Koch]

I get real time playback out to a 30" Cinema Display with the low quality settings on a 2.8ghz mac pro. My storage is Mini-SAS with a throughput of 250MB/s.

No problems with an Nvidia 8800gt with the 2K proxies. Build 16.