RED Drive issues - possible speed issue

[Matthew Rogers]

Hey guys, I have been talking with Sean at RED about the codec fault issue that I am having with build 16 at 4K 16:9 & 2:1. It's sounding like there might be an issue with my RED Drive. So I tried running the AJA Speed Disk test tonight on the drive and was only able to get a max of 30.7 MB/sec write and 74 MB/sec read. I was wondering if some other people could try testing their drives to see what write speeds they get. I am thinking that the Drive is failing to write fast enough and that's why I am getting the Codec Fault.

Settings I used for the test were, Latest version of AJA System Test, fresh formatted RED drive, and connected via Firewire 800.

Matthew

 

[Uli Plank]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but mine is doing 49.3 write and 77 read under AJA's test utility.

Hope you'll get it fixed soon,

Uli

 

[Paul Leeming]

I'm not sure that's a valid test though as the RedDrive records through its custom eSATA interface which is way faster than FW800. If you had a custom cable made with LEMO - eSATA interface and speed tested that, you'd have a valid test (or at least be closer to valid as it relates to recording).

I don't know the exact custom firmware on the RedDrive drives but perhaps you could try a PC/Mac low level format of the RedDrive first to really clear it, then reformat it in camera and see if that helps.

HTH

Paul

 

[Matthew Rogers]

I'm not sure that's a valid test though as the RedDrive records through its custom eSATA interface which is way faster than FW800. If you had a custom cable made with LEMO - eSATA interface and speed tested that, you'd have a valid test (or at least be closer to valid as it relates to recording).

I don't know the exact custom firmware on the RedDrive drives but perhaps you could try a PC/Mac low level format of the RedDrive first to really clear it, then reformat it in camera and see if that helps.

I am not sure why everyone thinks Firewire 800 is so stinkin slow. Yes, eSATA is faster, but it shouldn't be until you start getting into 3+ drive RAIDS. FW800 maxes out at 100 MB's a second. That's pretty fast and plenty of bandwidth for the two laptop drives in the RED Drive. I even tested my single drive firewire 400 drives and I was getting 40+ MB's a second on the write--so there is obviously something wrong with the RED Drive. I submitted a ticket to RED so hopefully the drive can go back to them Monday and they can figure out what's wrong.

Matthew