Reassurance Sought...

[Arnold F.]

Sorry to take up more forum space with this question. I know it's been addressed before because I have researched it previously. Yet, doubts remain.

I own a 2008 Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo with, currently, 2GB of RAM (that I would increase to 4 or 6GB). Others here have said that they can effectively deal with R3D files with macs even older and slower than this one. However, while taking an in-person tour of the Scarlet at Off Hollywood, a rental house in NYC, the tech there stated that this was not enough computer. Comments from folks with similar computers would be most welcome.

 

[Brad Allen]

I think it's going to depend on your workflow and the software you are using. What's your current workflow?

 

[Steve Sherrick]

What are you looking to do with those R3Ds? Transcode, edit natively, work in Redcine-X? Need a bit more information. I deal with R3D files all the time on my MB Pro from 2007. But only certain tasks.

 

[Jeffrey Loewe]

It depends on how fast you need to turnaround footage. For me my system will work. For others on quicker deadlines, and if I had a tighter deadline I'd want something much faster and I have a decent system I think.

 

[Roshdi Alkadri]

maybe for an offline edit in 2k or a low res 4k but any beefy transcoding, compositing etc. will require more than that

 

[Arnold F.]

At this time I have no workflow and am not familiar with any RED workflow. For all I know it's not necessary for me to deal with R3D files at all. Or, it could be the only file I'll have to work with. When I get my Scarlet (probably some time next summer based on my order number), I'll confront it in person.

My impression from the responses is neither a definite yes, nor a definite no, and this answer is good enough for me for the time being. Whatever computer I have, I'll let the editor of the project I'm on worry about the post as much as I can. I don't take projects where they require me to edit as well. (or makeup, craft services, boom, etc)

 

[Shane Kelly]

I use a 2008 MacBook to dump footage ( with an esata card) and view it at 1/4 res in redcinex. I have, in the past, transcoded files on it but it takes a long time. Probably about 9:1.

 

[Malvin Ng]

Sorry to take up more forum space with this question. I know it's been addressed before because I have researched it previously. Yet, doubts remain.

I own a 2008 Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo with, currently, 2GB of RAM (that I would increase to 4 or 6GB). Others here have said that they can effectively deal with R3D files with macs even older and slower than this one. However, while taking an in-person tour of the Scarlet at Off Hollywood, a rental house in NYC, the tech there stated that this was not enough computer. Comments from folks with similar computers would be most welcome.

I'm also using a Core 2 Duo laptop (2.53 Ghz though) with 4 GB of 1033mhz DDR3 RAM and 500GB 7200rpm HDD and a mid range AMD/ATI graphics card back then (Mobility Radeon HD3670 with 512 MB video RAM) and it manages to encode 4K REDCODE files to 2K Quicktime ... but it does take awhile... and I can only preview r3ds only up to 1/2 resolution, but smoothly at 1/4 res or below that

If you can ... upgrade to a newer laptop next year when Intel Ivy Bridge comes and 28nm GPUs get into laptops

But just here telling you that you can still work on r3ds but it will be very very slow from my experience

 

[Andrew clemson]

I wouldnt have thought you would want to do anything heavy on a macbook, new or old.

My ancient 2008 model still crunches out dailies overnight just fine, which is why I still take it along with my 2011 on jobs. Just in case.

For Previewing and basic grades it will handle the work, but wont do anything particularly fast and wont playback well.

 

[Carlos Reyes]

That's strange, I edit DSLR footage on my 2010 15 inch macbook pro on premiere cs5 and its extremely slow at half resolution after 10-15 minutes of footage and some grading, I can't imagine it handling R3D files...