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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 :)

Just how fast Redcine X transcode?

D

Douglas Underdahl

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Looking for experienced responses here, if you got 'em.

Just how fast would, say, a new 8 core Mac Pro transcode R3D 4k files to ProRes 4:2:2 ? That is, without a Rocket card?

I'm transcoding now with an old Macbook Pro and wondering just how much faster the 8 core would be.

Thanks in advance.
 
Douglas Underdahl said:
Looking for experienced responses here, if you got 'em.

Just how fast would, say, a new 8 core Mac Pro transcode R3D 4k files to ProRes 4:2:2 ? That is, without a Rocket card?

I'm transcoding now with an old Macbook Pro and wondering just how much faster the 8 core would be.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Depends on the resolution, debayer quality, and speed of the hard drives. It's not a question of Rocket card or no Rocket card. It's a question of what you need and the compromises you are willing to make.

The short answer is that it will be quite a bit faster. The longer answer is that you need to supply more information.
 
Stephen Strangways said:
Personally, I'd take a slow computer with a RED ROCKET card over a fast computer without one. Not only will the ROCKET card be a lot faster, you'll be doing full-res debayers all the time.
Click to expand...

Since the Rocket card alone costs more than an 8 core Mac Pro and considerably more than a low end computer (Mac or PC, although if the original poster wants to make ProRes files, a PC is not an option), that's not really an either/or scenario. Although in principle, I agree with you, but only if one is going to be doing large amounts of work on a continuous basis, and has paying clients to justify it. For individuals doing personal projects, it's probably a bit of a stretch to justify that kind of additional cost just to save time.
 
M Most said:
Since the Rocket card alone costs more than an 8 core Mac Pro and considerably more than a low end computer (Mac or PC, although if the original poster wants to make ProRes files, a PC is not an option), that's not really an either/or scenario. Although in principle, I agree with you, but only if one is going to be doing large amounts of work on a continuous basis, and has paying clients to justify it. For individuals doing personal projects, it's probably a bit of a stretch to justify that kind of additional cost just to save time.
Click to expand...

depends if that time IS money for you, and if that time will make you money. it's all relative.
 
The fastest I can achieve with Red Cine X 64bit on a 12 core 2.66 (64bit) from fast raid 0 to another fast raid 0 of a 4k r3d to 1920x1080 Prores 422, closest fit debayer, is 7x slower than real time.

Marcel
 
Marcel_Brassard said:
The fastest I can achieve with Red Cine X 64bit on a 12 core 2.66 (64bit) from fast raid 0 to another fast raid 0 of a 4k r3d to 1920x1080 Prores 422, closest fit debayer, is 7x slower than real time.
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you're doing a full debayer, since you're describing a transcode of about 3-4 fps. With a half debayer, what was described would likely be considerably faster than that (approx. 12-15 fps, in my experience).
 
Great discussion, guys.

Yep, Marcel, 1920 x 1080 4:2:2 ProRes is what I'm after. I like the half debayer also, so if I could get 12 fps Mike, that would be fantastic. Right now it seems that it takes ten or 12 times realtime with my old MacBook Pro.

I think I could get a 12 core Mac set up for about 5 grand (?), but the Redrocket card is another 5k on top of that, so 12 fps for $4k (that other k) would be nice.

Then again, Premiere . . . lordy.
 
Just wanted to add my experience on this subject. Extensive testing demonstrates that:

1. Transcode speeds scale in a linear fashion with a) the number of available cores and b) the CPU speed
2. We can define a merit factor = no. of cores x CPU speed. For instance, a 12core 2.66GHz Westmere MacPro(test rig1) has a factor of ~32. An 8core 2.26GHz Nehalem(test rig2) has a merit factor of ~18. My home build Hackintosh, 4core@3.3GHz(test rig3)has only ~13 for the merit factor
3. For maximum speed, we would like to have all cores working close to capacity. This is achieved by:
a)installing red-line
b)enabling RED-line use in Export>options
c)enabling a number of simultaneous export jobs that matches half the number of cores(8cores = 4 jobs)
d)ensuring an amount of RAM=2GB/job is present in the system
4. Disk throughput and transcoded format (I should specify here that I'm talking about ProRES or Avid DNxHD) have less influence on the performance. You still need to make sure you use fast 7,200RPM SATA drives, even single spindle, and they are ideally separate for source and destination
5. Debayer settings have the highest impact on transcoding times. In the examples below, we'll use HalfGood and HalfPremium. While full debayer is definitely possible, the penalty in transcoding times is too big to make this SW only process a viable solution. For these scenarios, a Rocket card becomes necessary.
6. Example benchmark: group of 4 REDone clips, 4K 16:9, with a total duration of 4:32(272sec.) transcoded to ProRes 422 HQ at Half Good, Lanczos filter takes 12:20(740sec.) on test rig3. This equals ~ 9fps. Same job on test rig2 took only 540sec., which translates into a ~ 12fps transcoding speed. I had the chance to test it on a 12 core Westmere and the results were around 21-22fps
7. If debayer level is set to Half premium, the process slows down to 5.5fps on test rig3(1276sec.), to 7.5fps. on test rig2 and to 13fps on test rig1

On a side note, one of the few advantages of the software transcoding is that allows the user to choose the scaling algorithm. This is unfortunately not possible when using the Rocket card.

Hope this helps,

Bogdan Grigoresco
Finale EditWorks, Vancouver
 
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