Is a 12 core Mac Pro strong enough for 1/2 res good 5K realtime CPU debayering?

[David Kudell]

This is the first time I've read that the Red Rocket doesn't output at the same quality as a software output. Is it that big a difference? I am preparing Epic footage to play on the Sony 84" 4K display in a hotel lobby and I want it to look as sharp as possible. We shot on Optimo DP and Ultra Prime lenses, so the footage looks great.

I am having a difficult time color grading in Premiere using Colorista II....Colorista doesn't seem to handle the 5K footage well, even with a Rocket and a Quadro 4000...thinking about using Resolve - would I get better performance?

 

[Paul Provost]

Q4000 is not much of a card anymore. You need 2 red rocket "classic" to get 5k rt playback in resolve.
But you can certainly playback 5k at 1/4 res rt in resolve on a Mac Pro, no rr and grade away...
Render at full premium at about 5frm sec. No big deal. Also maybe sharpen a tad

 

[Will Keir]

I didn't know that, thanks for the information.

red Rocket debayer is less clean and sharp - it seems to line-skip or something. Side by side on a 1080p master, you can see the difference. i

 

[Robert Ruffo New]

This is the first time I've read that the Red Rocket doesn't output at the same quality as a software output. Is it that big a difference? I am preparing Epic footage to play on the Sony 84" 4K display in a hotel lobby and I want it to look as sharp as possible. We shot on Optimo DP and Ultra Prime lenses, so the footage looks great.

I am having a difficult time color grading in Premiere using Colorista II....Colorista doesn't seem to handle the 5K footage well, even with a Rocket and a Quadro 4000...thinking about using Resolve - would I get better performance?

You can for sure see the difference - skin rendering is less buttery (wrinkles more pronounced, color less smooth) and when you pull secondaries, noise rears its head faster. If you compare a half-res debayer (software) to Rocket, they look identical. Hollywood films always use software debayer for final output. Is it night and day? No. But considering that you only need to final render at the end, unless your project is 10 hours long, I fail to see to big deal of rendering the very best way possible.