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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 :)

codex shoot.. is this crazy?

Tom.Wong said:
the virtual file system built into the codex server. you can set it to generate dailies as well married and baked with cdl. you just punch in the what you want in the codex server UI, and it can generate it on the virtual drive. but I always found it too slow for what producers want out of a day for on set dailies. not to mention i don't think it can do sync sound.


Zak, I suggest telling production they need to rent another tower on top of yours, and make sure everything is specced out right. with a second tower and another hand on deck you'll be fine. just transfer to a fast raid and than do the backups, and expect a decent amount of overtime.

it's not unmanageable, you just can't go in ill prepared. you could even do it with a laptop with a thunderbolt raid and pci expander. all it requires is the h680 connection.

make sure you're on the right drivers and firmware as well. and get a really good run through on codex operation. there are a handful of quirks you need to keep in the back of your head.
Click to expand...
Right but this isn't the vault or the Digital Lab system. This is the Transfer Station for the Mac you are referring to correct?
 
Don't sweat it. There's not that much to it. A two camera shoot is totally manageable by one person. Downloading a full mag to a raided drive (while running it through rsync first) doesn't take that long. The Codex UI isn't complicated. Also...you can set your VFS to give you more than Arri raw deliverables too, so perhaps that could get you out of having to transcode depending upon the needs of the job. I actually like the VFS because even if you didn't originally set it up to give you more than Arri raw deliverables you can adjust it right before downloading/ transferring your mag and add MXF or whatever along those lines. I wish ARC provided playback but outside of that the whole Codex route is pretty hassle free, and there are other options besides ARC now anyway to review Arri raw files.

Zakaree Sandberg said:
for the record.. my sweating about this all day is making me really hate arriraw.. the codex and offloading it just sounds like such a nightmare between how much time it takes to offload a data pack, and all this nonsense about it being virtual files..
Click to expand...
 
Zak, the easier option here would probably be to have them record DNxHD or ProRes 4x4 via SxS and use that to transcode to your editorial deliverable. All the timecode info and clip names matches so post won't have any problem conforming back to ArriRaw later. It is a little more downloading but you can do that through esata. But as Tom mentioned, you should ask for a digital loader, have them do all the ArriRaw backups and you could just download the SxS and and transcode to your deliverable or vise versa, whatever you feel more comfortable with doing.
Just another option.
 
Def not a one man show. Recommend a DIT on set to wrangle and convert the data.
 
I use the Rsync command just for speed. It gives you a visual text at the end indicating that the bits are all there. Definitely not as thorough as an MD5, but the MD5 process just about doubles the process. (depending on the amount of Ram in your system) I would still always recommend MD5 of course. Dusty's Copyscript is what I always use as long as you have a large raid attached.
For Dailies, I like to record secondary to the SxS cards, and use the proRes files to create the dailies. This process is actually Faster than having the VFS create the .ari files at the same time as ProRes. There are also (or use to be) some quirks with the way codex handles h264, so might want to check if you will be dealing with that.
The trouble with it, is now you have twice as much physical media to keep track of. It also requires a little more attention when you are setting up the system.
The H680 is good, and recommended by Codex. I use the H6F0 which is 6G and 4 ports. so you can have 2 DTS's and still room for Esata Fan cables for your drives. It works perfectly for me.
I created a Legend for all of my speed testing with Codex at one point, I will see if I can find it and pass it along.
 
Jonathan Carbonaro said:
I use the Rsync command just for speed. It gives you a visual text at the end indicating that the bits are all there. Definitely not as thorough as an MD5, but the MD5 process just about doubles the process. (depending on the amount of Ram in your system)
Click to expand...

There is, literally, no benefit to using MD5 over rsync (rsync uses MD5 hashes internally). Rsync is just as thorough as MD5, since...that's what it uses (it's more thorough, actually, since it actually uses two different checksums...).

Seriously, just use rsync.
 
Currently I am offloading the SxS Prores 444 Log C files on set but the Codex ArriRaw is treated as film.
To give you an idea a 64GB SxS Card records 29min on Alexa but a 512GB Codex records 50minutes. Alot more data to manage....especially if you're creating any LUTS, running cables, framegrabbing etc.
Hope that helps,

Brian
 
Erich Ocean said:
There is, literally, no benefit to using MD5 over rsync (rsync uses MD5 hashes internally). Rsync is just as thorough as MD5, since...that's what it uses (it's more thorough, actually, since it actually uses two different checksums...).

Seriously, just use rsync.
Click to expand...

Obviously sound advice here - but it's always nice to have references - you can find this quote:

" Note that rsync always verifies that each transferred file was correctly reconstructed on the receiving side by checking its whole-file checksum, but that automatic after-the-transfer verification has nothing to do with this option's before-the-transfer "Does this file need to be updated?" check."

On this page:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/rsync.1.html

In case anyone has doubt or needs confirmation that rsync is the way to go.
 
i would recommend a stripped disks set to copy to : if using a H680 card on for the codex, use the second sas port with a sas to 4 esata port cable, connected to 4 disks, stripe them 2 by 2 in RAID0, backup 1 and backup 2

let the vfs filesystem just show the .ari files. transcoding to anything else will take forever.

copy the ari files on finder level to the backup disks. The best way to verify your copies, is use the copy
with Resolve to calculate your offline quicktime of mxf for editing. if it fails you know you have problem
with your copy. if you have a macpro with a nvidia4000, and fast disks, its faster than realtime - approx 30fps.
you can do that for you 2 copies. for example one copy calculates a prores LT with a look, and the other could
be a log-c version prores 444.

so you need fast copydisks with fast interface - SAS or multiple esata ports, Resolve and a Nvidia CUDA card to make it work

diskspace: Arri Studio sensor in 4:3, 2880x2160 pixels x 12bit/pixel x 25frames/s = 233.280.000bytes/sec or approx. 223MB/s or per hr. 801GB.

your probably beginning to appreciated the functionality of the RED RAW system, and how clever is it developped
and working smoothly, even with 5K RAW files...
 
I realize this topic may not be current anymore, but just wanted to share some notes.
We used the SAS system to offload via the VFS, and pro-res recorded to the SxS cards to generate dailies.
In order to maintain sync sound and time code, we batch exported pro-res from FCP.
Be advised that the Codex starts recording a frame or several frames later (up to five frames) and may finish later.
This may freak out the post pipeline at first, but rest assured the timecode is the same, just fewer frames recorded.
It will sync up.

The convergent design people have assured me that a lot of their R&D effort went into making the Gemini
start recording on exactly the same (first) frame as the SxS recording. I have yet to try it myself.

Very important is that the AC on set needs to be aware that if the Codex is blinking red, the cable is not connected properly
and won't record to the Codex, only to the SxS (if set up to record to SxS simultaneously).

I hope something like RCX-pro will be released for Alexa some time in the future, looking at options now.
Anyone have any suggestions?
 
I thought there was mention of something in the works for Arriraw but I could be mistaken. There's a lot of different software these days, it's a little hard to recommend. I assume quick stuff would come down to Da Vinci Resolve and Apple Color but I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would be like Redcine.
 
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