exporting 4k r3d to Pro Res in FCPX

[Tom Sefton]

Hi. I seem to be getting really poor performance exporting to prores when using r3d files in fcpx. Im on new Mac Pro's - all have D700s, minimum of 32GB RAM and either 6 or 8core.

From RedCIne X I get almost realtime encodes with an external G Tech Studio XL raid. As in, if the file is 45 mins, it will take 1hr to encode to ProRes with RedCine X.

In FCPX its wayyyyy slower. One I'm trying to do now is a 1h15m cut and it has been stuck on 0% for over 25 mins. RedCineX would be past 15% after this much time!

Any ideas?

 

[Serge Polevitzky]

Tom -- Hello. I'll assume you are running RED CineX 37.0 on a fairly recent version of Yosemite (I'm on 10.5.5 )

Do you ever get "Paused" under EDIT Tab of RCX ? And see the orange roulette wheel spinning in the frame being viewed ? When "Paused," I select the item, click Resume (the roulette wheel continues), but eventually I get
some very slow progress. With 6K .R3Ds input & 4K DCI output @ 4444QX with ADD enabled, it takes 24+ hours to render out a 1+ minute clip from an 8 core D700 64GB 2013 MacPro to an 8-drive Pegasus2 RAID 5 RAID. Activity Monitor says RCX is getting 200%+.

So, yes, I'm finding it extremely slow in Exporting, too.

This help ?

Serge

Hi. I seem to be getting really poor performance exporting to prores when using r3d files in fcpx. Im on new Mac Pro's - all have D700s, minimum of 32GB RAM and either 6 or 8core.

From RedCIne X I get almost realtime encodes with an external G Tech Studio XL raid. As in, if the file is 45 mins, it will take 1hr to encode to ProRes with RedCine X.

In FCPX its wayyyyy slower. One I'm trying to do now is a 1h15m cut and it has been stuck on 0% for over 25 mins. RedCineX would be past 15% after this much time!

Any ideas?

 

[Tom Sefton]

Sorry Serge - I think my post might have been misunderstood. RCX is rock solid and stable for exporting to ProRes from our new mac pros. When exporting r3d from FCPX however, it takes ages. we are on version 37 and Yosemite 10.10.3

Just one speed test for comparison too.

Mac Pro 6 Core, D700s, 32GB RAM - footage on G Tech Studio XL, exporting to same file. Footage is 4k, 25fps, 9:1 redcode. RedCine X takes 2hrs 10mins to encode the full 1hr 15min file to ProRes HQ

Mac Pro 8 core, D700s, 64GB RAM - footage on an external USB 3 hard drive (cheap and nasty), writing to a G Tech Studio XL raid. Footage is 4k, 25fps, 9:1 redcode. RedCine X takes 1hr 38mins to encode the full 1hr 15min file to ProRes HQ.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I am confused by your post. Both your examples in the last post only mention RCX. But you are concerned with FCPX output in the first post. Have I missed something?

Also - do I understand you are trying to output the timeline in FCPX (which is R3D original material) to ProRes?

I assume, just to be sure, that you meant Yosemite 10.10.5?

 

[Tom Sefton]

Yes, I am comparing the relative speeds at which RedCine X and FCPX can export r3d files to ProRes. It would make a huge project we have so much more simple if FCPX could output directly from the raw r3d files as quickly as redcine x does. At the moment we have to overnight rushes in redcine x and I would love to be able to work direct from the r3d's in fcpx, without really slow encode times.

 

[Brian Merlen]

have you considered making your prores in redcine and just cutting prores in FCPX? it will cut fast AND export fast, but you lose the benefits of raw...if you grade all the raw though then it doesn't really matter before making the proxies to cut with. what is the real incentive to make you want to cut with the raw if the output is this bad? are you sure you didn't shoot on the LLO and have ADD turned on in the export settings? that would account for a significant increase in encode time as was pointed out above...

i find it odd that a third party like red would have a apple proprietary codec like prores encoding faster than FCPX would with redcine, are you sure its not got a lot of effects or something in the mix too that could account for the difference in speed? personally i haven't done it yet but I'm going to try to cut some stuff in resolve and skip avid/adobe/apple and see how that goes in that you get the best coloring app and hopefully a usable NLE now for free... as for how encode speed with that works not sure...

PS i keep my rocket x at Offhollywood and its available for rent, and almost always not booked it seems and sitting on a shelf much to my dismay. So if your ever under the gun its there and available, I pity a red shooter without one. I encoded my buddies files for four days straight the other week on a project without Rocket X that would of taken me half a day tops with a rocket x...its insanely faster... probably less than half a day, but some of the files weren't all r3d...

also check your debayer settings on redcine vs apple...i suspect you may be doing a half debayer in say redcine and a full in FCPX...that too would change your rendering times significantly... so it might be a question of settings too not just optimization is my first guess, so double check it all... i bet that probably will account for it is my guess, cuz exporting half vs full vs quarter changes the times drastically and would very well make sense for what your seeing real world testing wise... i wish red would just hire me for tech support, i regularly boggle their minds in LA and NYC with my tech problems cuz i do all kinds of over the top workflows it seems... the post house i work(ed) at just went under too, so what is a workflow guy to do with this much time on his hands and all this nerdy information???

 

[Eric Santiago]

Just curious your not using a ROCKET correct?

 

[Matthew B]

Hi Tom -

Here are a couple ideas.

1. Do you have version 6 or the latest version of the APPLE RED WORKLFOW plugin? This is the one that enabled GPU support in FCPX. It was easy to miss since v5 was out for a while.
2. If you Do have v6, does your timeline render any faster when you "render" it instead of "export it"? (Highlight your clips you want to render and hit CTRL-R).

if #2 is no different:
3. Do you have the denoise amount maxed in the RMDs?
4. What FCPX version are you on with your tower?
5. Side note - El capitan is really really great, Since you have dual GPUs I would go to it as soon as you verify you don't have any 3rd party plugin or other app issues.

Regarding making prores first - I don't think it's worth it in my opinion. Here's why:

You can just "opt-in" to prores clip by clip by just rendering it in the timeline (ctrl-r). FCPX seems to be very good about keeping render files around while your editing without needing to re-render on every change. ALSO - if you prerender you can gain the boost of cutting export times drastically if your timeline codec and export codec are the same - it will use the rendered files... And save you a bunch of time when you want to make one tweak in the middle of the project and re-export a master clip.

In my opinion this is way better than the "all or nothing approach" to proxy or optimized media. Just dump the clips in the timeline and render them, and you are trimming with the prores version.

 

[Tom Sefton]

Thanks Matthew - I'm away on a shoot this week but Ill have a look at your suggestions asap. I think we do have the most recent apple red workflow installed. We don't have maximum noise or any effects loaded onto the clips, other than a horizontal flip on half of them.

The project we are working on involves the editing of 40hrs of rushes and the delivery of over 3000 finished video clips, each week, for 10 weeks. FCPX has handled it really well with ProRes, but ideally I want to work from the r3d files as it will save enormous amounts of space and time with rendering.

Thanks!

PS - Eric, no we don't have the Rocket cards. The new Mac Pro's we have are fast enough with RedCine X without them, but as I say above, the amount of footage we are working with, it doesn't allow us the time and space to constantly encode proxies.