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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 :)

DNxHD Export Problems

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arapro

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Hi everyone, this is my first post, although I am an "avid" reader.
I finally got my hands on some tests for a program a client is shooting on the red camera.
I am going to use an avid mc software only with mojo to offline/online.
Now, I am trying to export these .r3d files as DNxHD 36 or something better, on a beefy MacPro with a lot of ram and a raid fiber channel storage unit, so then I can import into my pc based avid mc. But every-time I export a file, it comes up black or with noise !@##$ what I am doing wrong ? any help and advice would be great !
Alex
 
Export a file how? From Red Alert? Try one file, export as QuictIme _H and see if you can get that to work properly. Also make sure you have the Red QuickTime component installed on the Mac which you can download from RED.com

Michael
 
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your quick response. I am using REDCINE, and yes the Mac has all the codecs installed, both the red component and the dnx LE for qt. This particular project is a small one, but we are quoting on a big one and this workflow if it works would be the template to rule them all !
On this one they are going to finish HD, so what DNxHD codec setting do you recommend for finishing ? Since after transcoding to DNxHD this will become the online !
I will try with RedAlert and see. But the weird thing is that I tried to export just any QT file to DNxHD with just the QT Pro Application and all I get is a black frame ! I am going RED ! what I am missing ?
Alex
 
My understanding is RedCine can't do DNxHD 36 yet. It only does DNxHD 115 (in other words, when you choose DNxHD export in RedCine, you only get 115 by default, without options to export anything else). You can then import as DNxHD 36 into Avid though (Avid does that conversion).

However, the black frame issue is a bug within RedCine that could be caused by your computer setup (video card, etc.). I found I got black frame export when I had my computer in Dual View--I had to switch the monitors to Horizontal Span to get RedCine to export properly. But hey, I'm on PC, so none of this may be relevant to your Mac situation.

As for finishing in Avid, I say go for the highest level DNxHD (175 X) that you can get at 1080p. But at this point in time you'll only be able to get that resolution from RedCine if you export TIFF sequences and let Avid do the conversion to 175X for you.
 
When on Mac, and you want a choice of DnxHD, import the references directly and choose in the import.

Michael
 
yes michael is right.
the proxies are pretty much very sufficient if you choose the 2k or 4k proxy and make a dnx 175x transcode either in avid directly or through compressor. be careful if you have audio, export that audio out before doing a direct batch import to avid as the audio is 32bit in the redfile and avid can only handle 24bit thats why compressor is a better option.
we've been finishing int he avid form teh proxies for HD and SD delivery and it looks incredible.
 
Fantastic Guys ! Thats is great advice !
Sorry I did not respond earlier, I am in Australia, so I was out !
I will test it out inmediatly and post back the results.
I think I will do the conversion trough compressor, and let the mac render dnx 175x !
See what that does,
Cheers guys !
 
One more thing,
Regarding the audio: do you export audio files ex FCP, and then Sync in Avid ?
 
And another thing,
I forgot to mention that the Avid MC that I am using is on a PC ... So i can not import the proxies ! Is that right ?
I had a meeting with the producer and the director of the proram today, and even tough we had a look at the camera tests, I could not export anything out of redcine, I tried using DNX but it got to a point were there was just a still frame ... bugger, and now I am converting on FCP to apple pro res hq, so then I can re export to DNX or something avid can read ... it does not make any sense ... what can I do ? export to another formt in red alert ? but if there anre x amount clips, how can I automate that process on a mac ? so then I can import into avid mc ?
Cheers,
Alex
 
If you have FCP then you must have a Mac - can you put your Media Composer on the Mac (just move he dongle over, let me know if you need an installer) and import the QT proxies there. Them move project, bins and mediafiles wherever you need them.

Michael
 
Thanks Michael ! I ll try this ! The good thing is that this is only a short project, so I can actually test it ! (Am going to bed now, so I ll let you know how it went in a few hours)
(the only prob is that in a couple of weeks the adrenaline is booked for 7 weeks! - so thats it, no more games for me on avid for a while, although for the new price I might get one just to do this)
If this works, I think we will get two mac based adrenalines for the feature, and most probably a scratch.
The way things are ... just today I had 3 enquires from people requiring red post ! it seems the cameras have arrive to Oz and people are using them a heaps.
Ps. Can I download the installer from the avid aus ftp right ?
 
You can always start with a sofware based Media Composer since this is all file based...

Sleep tight.

Michael
 
you'll need MC 3.0 for 175x but if you use the proxies then you wont get the still frame bug. and just keep the audio embedded in the file no need to strip out then resync just change the audio settings to 24bit liner PCM in the compressor setting you make. easy peasy
 
if you want to make any adjustments to your footage make em in REDAlert! and choose make new quicktimes and it will make new proxies immediately no wait! you should delete or copy out the old proxies before you do that to be safe.
 
jedi666 said:
yes michael is right.
the proxies are pretty much very sufficient if you choose the 2k or 4k proxy and make a dnx 175x transcode either in avid directly or through compressor. be careful if you have audio, export that audio out before doing a direct batch import to avid as the audio is 32bit in the redfile and avid can only handle 24bit thats why compressor is a better option.
we've been finishing int he avid form teh proxies for HD and SD delivery and it looks incredible.
Click to expand...


I found a "lattitude loss" when using the proxies to get DNxHD 175X out of Compressor. It's the fastest, most efficient way, and for a lot of shots it might not make a difference. But on PC Avid at least, I was getting noticeably better quality exporting TIFF sequences from RedCine and letting Avid convert to DNxHD 175X. If you're finishing in Avid, you might wanna keep this in mind for "problem" or "critical" shots.
 
Sean - what are your QT settings set to when importing the QT/DNxHD created? It should be set to 601/709 meaning it does't change anything color space wise as to what is in the original file - 0|0|0 RGB - 255|255|255 RGB.

Michael
 
So far it is working perfect,
the only issues so far have been:

-sometimes the avid crashes when starting to play the imported clip

-you have to import clips individually

and finally another question, can you create quicktime proxies in redalert, put them all into a new folder, metacheater for data and then batch import ?

I ll try this after lunch ...
 
Yes this works !

But I do not know if the actual raid drive that I have is handling the data, on FCP it can handle uncompressed 444 - but everytime I try to play in the avid it crashes and gives me a disk error -
But I am possitive it will work.
So far:
ALE checks
Batch import checks
Offline/Online edit - I ll wait until it finishes importing to put on the PC MC and see if it works !
Alex
 
MichaelP said:
Sean - what are your QT settings set to when importing the QT/DNxHD created? It should be set to 601/709 meaning it does't change anything color space wise as to what is in the original file - 0|0|0 RGB - 255|255|255 RGB.

Michael
Click to expand...

Correct, I'm using 601/709 when I import so it doesn't change the color space.

Perhaps it's something to do with the original Compressor transcode, but the friend who did it is a total FCP/Compressor master. He knows it all. I'll have to ask if there was something in the Compressor settings that would give me this loss. Because, using 601/709, there really is slightly better quality out of the TIFF imports that Avid turns into DNxHD than the Compressor-converted DNxHD175X.
 
I believe compressor assumes 0-255 source then lifts... I would check there as well.

Michael
 
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