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Bulk transcoding- Mac Minis???

Carlos Prio

Carlos Prio

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Hello Guys,

Need to do allot of transcoding from r3d to Prores... I need to have several batches going at the same time and have concluded that a small farm (4-6) of Mac Minis is the way to go for the money???

I really don't (can)want to spend $10k on a MacPro with a Red Rocket .

Is this crazy?? Is anybody else using these???

Thanks,
Prio
 
Do the math. I don't know how fast the minis do the transcode, but test one and find out. As I understand it, RR does it in real time. (1 hour of footage = 1 hour of transcode time.) How fast are the minis? and how much is the time worth to you?

If you have the time and the minis are cheaper, that's the right choice. If they're not fast enough for what you need, it's a false economy.

But in any case, test the minis before you buy a crate of them. Be sure they'll run all night without running out of memory or whatever. If the render crashes overnight, you'll be nowhere.
 
Two 2.26ghz 8-core MacPro's ($3000 each, stock config), each with an external drive with your raw camera files on them, will transcode 2k ProRes HQ's at 4 to 6 frames per second (2 to 3 frames per second per machine) at Half Res (Standard) in RedRushes, which at 24fps means 4 to 6 hours of transcoding per hour of footage shot in RC36 4k 2:1. Of course those times drop as you decrease quality settings in RedRushes (quarter res instead of half res, 720 instead of 2k, ProRes SQ instead of HQ, etc.).

RED Rocket™™s are nice and I'd love to have one, but right now I just set up batch transcodes in RedRushes on the MacPro's and let them run overnight, and usually by morning the previous day's dailies are either done or close to being done. If you really need your transcodes done faster than overnight, then you either need a RED Rocket™™ card, or you probably shouldn't be transcoding at all, but editing the proxies with hardware that allows for that (RAID 5 and a Kona 3).
 
I'd count this as a pretty bad idea. One cheap 8 core machine (find a last gen Xeon running at 3.0ghz) will probably transcode as fast as 6 minis, but with the following benefits:

No need to distribute renders (with what? Shared storage? Manually?)
faster performance on smaller batches
ability to run pro apps (color especially)
ability to connect faster storage (esata is cheap
and very fast)
ability to upgrade to redrocket later
etc etc.

It's a bad idea - whatever the maths suggest.
 
Bulk transcoding- Mac Minis???

Hello Guys,

I really appreciate all the suggestions!!! They get me thinking and exploring all my options. Let me give you some more info and my arguments...

Note- No one spec'ed out a Red Rocket systems quicker than me!!! and have no doubt that they will be added. However, I am trying to cheat for the time being at $600 each.

FYI- We are processing 700- CR2, 6 hours of 5d footage a day and 1-3 hours of r3d footage a day. I have multiple MP stations running FCP as well as Imacs running editorial. I find that running Comp & Rushes on editorial machines where projects & edits are going on becomes cumbersome and counter productive. So, I have designated to build a small room for downloading, raw still rendering, initial grading, transcoding & data management.

I know what I really need but the reality is that at this time it is difficult to fund a proper workflow in my business and it's applications. So, I have been trolling for last generation Mac Pros & Imacs on craigslist with little success!!! So, as a quick fix/band-aid I can invest $2500 and have 4 independent stations churning out footage 24hrs a day. I know it is slow as snails but its buzzing along for change.

One again, all comments and suggestions are appreciated.
 
You'll suffer from massive overhead in file transfer…

Maybe networking via FireWire helps a bit.
 
Uli Plank said:
You'll suffer from massive overhead in file transfer…

Maybe networking via FireWire helps a bit.
Click to expand...

Yep, the file transfer overhead would kinda suck. Storage speed is going to be a bottleneck if you go with the Mac minis. Firewire networking isn't going to help -- gigabit ethernet is faster than FW800 and dirt cheap to implement anyway.

The plan to use the minis doesn't make a whole lot of sense, IMO. I suggest adding another Mac Pro into the Fray. You can definitely pick up a 2008 model 8-core for under the $2500 budget.

Or better yet, plan to add a RED Rocket into one of the existing Mac Pro systems. I know it's out of the budget now, but perhaps resources can be better allocated in the mean time and you can save up some more funds to do that rather than buying a new system right now.

Speaking of resource allocations, what are all those systems doing during off hours and down-time. If they're not all rendering / transcoding overnight, then why not leverage that rather than buying more hardware? The minis are nothing more than a Macbook without a screen and keyboard. They're rather under-powered for the money. $2500 can buy you a lot more CPU cycles elsewhere.
 
Okay... gave up on that idea and will break into my kids savings for MacPros!!!
 
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