Red One with iMac

[Jaime Christley]

I am planning a small production company that will use Red One in conjunction with an iMac / Final Cut Pro station with the following specs:

* 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 (I know the Red site says eight-core is also recommended but I don't see how to order that on Apple)
* Memory: 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
* 1TB Serial ATA Drive

Now, having checked out the Red web site and also having spoken to a sales rep, it sounds like this (plus the free Red software that you can dowload from Red.com) is sufficient to serve my needs in getting the footage FROM the camera TO the computer, and to begin cutting. (Please tell me if this is not the case.)

Then I brought up the issue of compressing the footage in order for it to be exported to Blu-ray... the rep wasn't sure if the compression program that comes with the Final Cut suite (which I believe is presently Compressor 3.5) was sufficiently robust to handle Red footage. He recommended talking to......you all!

Any opinions and/or wisdom on the matter? Does it sound like the system, as related to the Red camera, is enough? I'm not terribly tech-savvy, so be gentle!

Also - does anyone recommend a specific Blu-ray burner?

 

[John Marchant]

For a simple output to bluray from final cut you'll be absolutely fine. Bear in mind its not intended to do much in the way of menus or interactivity.

For short form programmes you can burn bluray format to regular single and dual layer DVD-R media.

The only thing I'd say against using an iMac is the single screen issue - final cut, color, redcinex all work best on a twin monitor setup IMO.

 

[Jaime Christley]

>>>For a simple output to bluray from final cut you'll be absolutely fine. Bear in mind its not intended to do much in the way of menus or interactivity.

True. But given the space limitations even of the miraculous Blu-ray, there's not much loss of image quality using the stuff I named above?

>>>For short form programmes you can burn bluray format to regular single and dual layer DVD-R media.

I want to offer Blu-ray to my clients although I expect many will still be exporting to DVD-R and the like.

>>>The only thing I'd say against using an iMac is the single screen issue - final cut, color, redcinex all work best on a twin monitor setup IMO.

I agree. You can attach another monitor to most all computers these days, no? I'm a bit out of it.

Thanks for your answers. So, you think, with Final Cut including Compressor 3.5, I can burn a good Blu-ray of a 90-120 minute program and look as good as any indie production has a right to look? Not talking AVATAR here of course, but THE EXPLODING GIRL was shot on Red and I've heard tell that the Blu-ray will look fantastic.

 

[Kevin Marshall]

As far as I know, you can compress for Blu-Ray with Compressor, but there is still no option for burning to Blu-Ray within DVD Studio Pro. Just make sure you have a program for Blu-Ray authoring, if you're going about it on your own.

 

[Mark Phelan]

That 1TB drive is woefully inadequate. Were you planning on some sort of external storage ability?

 

[Jaime Christley]

As far as I know, you can compress for Blu-Ray with Compressor, but there is still no option for burning to Blu-Ray within DVD Studio Pro. Just make sure you have a program for Blu-Ray authoring, if you're going about it on your own.

Thanks Kevin - the Apple store folks I spoke with told me Apple hasn't yet put Blu-ray burning capability *into* their Macs, but endorsed an electronics site that had a good selection of external units. Damned if I can recall the name.

 

[Jaime Christley]

That 1TB drive is woefully inadequate. Were you planning on some sort of external storage ability?

Yes. I foresee clients needing to cart their own footage around, especially when the job's done and we part ways. I'd most likely include external storage with fees, and it'd be theirs permanently.

 

[John Marchant]

Not sure if I made myself clear - you can burn full 1080p HD, that is playable by a bluray player, onto a regular DVD-R. The only limitation is capacity; about 20 mins on single layer, 40 mins on dual. Other than that, to all intents and purposes its a bluray disk.

The quality from a Red One, through the free Redcine X for grading and transcoding to Prores, into FCP to edit and onto a Bluray disc using Compressor, will be excellent. No need to worry about that

Do check whether the iMac you're looking at will support a second monitor properly though - On a MacPro its recommended to have a top of the line graphics card, so I can imagine the iMac's internal graphics card not being man enough for the job.

 

[Mark Phelan]

Yes. I foresee clients needing to cart their own footage around, especially when the job's done and we part ways. I'd most likely include external storage with fees, and it'd be theirs permanently.

OK, but to work with the footage, you'll need more headroom than 1TB to work with any sort of efficiency.

 

[Andreas Reischl]

I would, on top of what you generally need for storage, also recommend, that you think about backup - at least add one more drive, so you can be a bit safer concerning your footage.

Also, keep in mind, that with an Imac, you most likely won't be able to process the material as fast as you would when using an 8 core Mac Pro.
If you plan ahead, the render times won't bite you in the ass, but if time is an issue, you may want to rethink your hardware choice and initially spend a little more on processing power and storage (a raid solution perhaps?).

I don't know where you are situated, but as far as I could read from users on this forum, Silverado Systems has been a great go-to place for computers fitted exactely to the costumers demands.

 

[Bob Gruen]

The iMac will be both a bottleneck and add risk to your production company.

The better way to go would be to buy a stripped down Mac Pro and upgrade it yourself. Buy the minimum memory and disk from Apple then go to New Egg or some other retailer and add memory and multiple disks (for internal RAID) yourself. You are responsible for the footage, and telling a client that they lost their project because their external drive crapped out is still unacceptable.

Bob

 

[Jaime Christley]

Sorry for the delay - thanks to everyone for their guidance, I appreciate the experience everyone brings. I have some things to think about!