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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 :)

Compression

Heh. You all beat me to it :)

But TL; DR version.

REDCODE RAW is RED's variable compression ratio raw codec and you have the ability to set your compression ratio. It's lowest compression level/higher data rate are tied to the media used in camera as well as the internal bandwidth. Lower compression ratios = higher data rates = less recording time on media. Higher compression ratios = lower data rates = more recording time on media. Additionally when you film higher frame rates you'll notice your compression ratio is still tied to your data rate, so higher frame rate will typically result in a higher compression ratio (more frames per second recording).

Most productions still to this day employ 5:1 through 8:1 compression ratios to receive a nice high quality lower compression ratio image. I would say 10:1 through 12:1 is also great if you are oversampling in particular. I know people who go further still, but to each their own. There have been notable improvements over the years with REDCODE RAW over the years that have been directly tied to the relationship between advancements in sensor technology, processing power in the camera brain, changes to the internal camera image pipeline, and even improvements in the optical path. At the moment DSMC2 cameras produce the highest quality REDCODE RAW encoded stream with various sensor technology.

2:1 is the lowest compression ratio available in camera. Between 2:1 and 3:1 you are at visual losslessness compared to an uncompressed stream and still reaping the benefits of a smaller data footprint.
 
Red doesn't do uncompressed at 24FPS. 2:1 is technically lossless (meaning you don't lose any visual data). 3:1 and beyond you will lose image data, resulting in more artifacts as you increase compression.

Red's broadcast module might output uncompressed, but i'm not sure.
 
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