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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 :)

DUAL Rocket w/ REDCINE-X PRO

Jordan Livingston

Jordan Livingston

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Today I began field testing my newly-added 2nd REDRocket. This is also the first time I've tested with REDCINE-X Pro.

It seems that both Rockets are recognized by my system. They both show up in the System Profiler, as well as in REDCINE-X Pro. However, whenever I enable the "second" Rocket (either by itself, OR alongside the first one), the Rocket ceases to function.

In other words, Rocket # 1 functions as expected. Rocket #2 doesn't function at all. And Rockets #1 and #2 together don't function at all either.

What do I mean? Well, no image in the viewer, and transcodes report errors on every frame.

Again, both the System Profile AND REDCINE-X PRO are correctly detecting the presence of the two Rockets. What could be preventing Rocket # 2 from functioning?

UPDATE: I just tested this with REDCINE-X Build 501 (64-bit) and found the same behavior to be true as with REDCINE-X PRO. So it does not appear to the software. Also, I'm using the very latest versions of the REDRocket drivers and firmware.

- Jordan
 
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Did you try the 2nd RR card by itself? Maybe you have a hardware problem? You know the first one is working, but the 2nd one is still suspect to me. If they are both working... well then you got me. Good luck sorting it out.
 
I did not try the 2nd card solo, but as I mentioned, both cards are being recognized normally by the System Profiler as well as by both versions of REDCINE-X.

- Jordan
 
DUAL ROCKET

DUAL ROCKET

I did not try the 2nd card solo, but as I mentioned, both cards are being recognized normally by the System Profiler as well as by both versions of REDCINE-X.
Click to expand...

You never know...Our RR was also detecting perfectly but we had an hardware issue and we had to send back to card to RED for repairs.

So you can try the card individually.

Harcharan
 
Hi All,

Problem solved. I had to downgrade to the "old" drivers v. 1.4.15.0 (as opposed to 1.4.16.0). After doing so, the dual Rockets worked perfectly. I was able to achieve ratios of ~ 0.6 : 1 realtime (conservatively) with 4K MX footage writing to 1920x1080 ProRes4444 using normal eSATA drives.

Hopefully RED can get multi-Rocket support fixed in subsequent driver releases ASAP.

Best,

- Jordan
 
Dustin,

In my initial round of informal testing, I found that 4K HD footage transcoded from one eSATA drive to another eSATA drive in appox ~ 0.6x realtime (in other words, just slightly slower than double-speed). I found that 5K Epic footage transcoded in just slightly slower than 1:1 realtime (let's round it conservatively to 1.25:1). I have not had a chance to test yet with SAS RAID-5s, but my suspicion is that they produce even faster results.

Unfortunately, I'm still experiencing intermittent results with my dual Rockets in my Cyclone 2707 expansion chassis. It seems that REDCine-X Pro arbitrarily recognizes or doesn't recognize the two Rockets in the system. When it does, it works great. When it doesn't, I have to re-install the Rocket drivers and re-boot the machine in order to get the transcoding process back online.

Best,

- Jordan
 
Hi Jordan,

Can you please email us (redcinex at red dot com) so we can figure out what's going on here? We've been unable to reproduce this problem and it doesn't make sense that .15 would work but .16 would not.

Thanks,
 
Dear Rob,

Apologies for the long delay, I actually responded to this thread yesterday, but I just noticed that for some reason it didn't 'take'...

In any case, I've been in touch with RED tech support extensively, and we've since determined that the problem does not in fact have anything to do with .15 or vs. 16 drivers. It seems the problem most likely has something to do with my Cyclone 2707 expansion chassis.

When the drivers are re-installed and the system re-booted, the first time REDCine-X or REDCine-X Pro both work correctly with the Dual Rockets. However, on subsequent startups / re-boots, although the Dual Rockets continue to show up as available, playing back or transcoding results in decoding errors on every frame. Re-installing the drivers and re-booting again solves the problem until the next startup cycle.

RED tech support suggests that I troubleshoot putting both Rockets directly in my tower. My rack-mounted cart is always working, and I have not yet had time to take it apart to test this. Also, since this configuration is not particularly useful to me (I need to be able to use my expansion chassis) so I prefer to solve the problems with my existing configuration, if at all possible.

Best,

- Jordan
 
Hi Dustin,

I have not yet sent my Cyclone in for the 6G update. I've been putting it off as I don't yet own any 6G devices. So my 2707 is still the "original" version.

Best,

- Jordan
 
Hi Dusty,

I've written to Cyclone asking if their newer (updated) PCIe card would be useful. I didn't ask them specifically about the 6G update. I don't think they could know for sure without testing it. The weird thing is that the Dual Rockets DO work temporarily after a drivers re-install / re-boot; they just stop working after subsequent startups. I'm pushing the limits of the 16x PCIe bus pretty far - I think unfortunately it may just be a case of taking up too much bandwidth, but again, I have not yet had a chance to troubleshoot without the Cyclone chassis in the mix. All I know for sure is that both REDRockets work fine by themselves, and sometimes together.

- Jordan
 
Jordan Livingston said:
Hi Dusty,

I've written to Cyclone asking if their newer (updated) PCIe card would be useful. I didn't ask them specifically about the 6G update. I don't think they could know for sure without testing it. The weird thing is that the Dual Rockets DO work temporarily after a drivers re-install / re-boot; they just stop working after subsequent startups. I'm pushing the limits of the 16x PCIe bus pretty far - I think unfortunately it may just be a case of taking up too much bandwidth, but again, I have not yet had a chance to troubleshoot without the Cyclone chassis in the mix. All I know for sure is that both REDRockets work fine by themselves, and sometimes together.

- Jordan
Click to expand...

Are you shutting down the Cyclone as well as the host? or just restarting the host?
 
Hi Deanan,

When the MacPro tower shuts down, the Cyclone 2707 automatically shuts down as well. When wrapping for the night, I do physically turn off the "off" switch on the Cyclone as well. Typically, the sequence is this:

- startup everything
- re-install REDRocket drivers
- shut down the system (Cyclone shuts down too, but I don't have to flip to switch)
- start up system
- everything works...

- shut down, re-start, etc.
- start up
- nothing works...

So it seems to me that the long-term reliability of the Dual Rockets doesn't have anything to do with wether or not the Cyclone's physical off switch is flipped or not. In any case, both scenarios have incidentally happened during normal practices of shutting down / transporting the system.

- Jordan
 
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