REDCODE vs ProRes 422

[Brandon Fraley]

So I've been having trouble getting proper playback of 4kHD footage in FCP. Today, however, I tried changing my compressor setting in "Sequence settings" from ProRes 422 to REDCODE and pretty much everything runs as I would expect.

Is there any reason not to edit using REDCODE as my compressor setting?

 

[Noah Kadner]

This is proxies or transcodes? FCP 6 or 7?

Noah

 

[Brandon Fraley]

proxies, FCP6

 

[Noah Kadner]

Which proxies? Medium proxies? Small proxies? You need major throughput for those to work out- i.e. fast machine, RAM and fast hard drives.

Noah

 

[Brandon Fraley]

it's an 8 core MacPro, 2.26ghz, 8gb ram, internal sata3 hard drives.

When monitoring the processor usage, they rarely go over 13-14%.

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Is there any reason not to edit using REDCODE as my compressor setting?

REDCODE is read-only, so you'll run into problems if/when you try and render out.

 

[Brandon Kraemer]

REDCODE is read-only, so you'll run into problems if/when you try and render out.

But you can always Export or Send To Compressor and specify another codec for the target file. If you have to render on the timeline, your going to have problems.

Working with M proxies, Prores 422 is my sequence compressor. I work with RT unlimited on, and only render when I have the cut close to locked.

 

[Kwan Khan]

But you can always Export or Send To Compressor and specify another codec for the target file. If you have to render on the timeline, your going to have problems.
QUOTE]

Agreed...

 

[Brandon Fraley]

But you can always Export or Send To Compressor and specify another codec for the target file. If you have to render on the timeline, your going to have problems.

Working with M proxies, Prores 422 is my sequence compressor. I work with RT unlimited on, and only render when I have the cut close to locked.

except that you can't edit with unlimited RT when working with 4kHD M proxies

 

[Noah Kadner]

Yup- personally I'm less an advocate for proxies than I used to be. They're great for a quick edit but the performance and media management in FCP is much more solid with transcodes.

Noah

 

[Steve Sherrick]

except that you can't edit with unlimited RT when working with 4kHD M proxies

Did you have MAXX turned on in your camera settings? If so, this could affect your playback. Turn Maxx off in camera if you want to use proxies and unlimited RT.

Also, use H proxies which will be 1920x1080

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Another thing to check for is that your sequence may default to ProRes444 if you are in FCP7. If you don't need that drop it down to ProRes HQ.

You should be getting smooth playback now.

 

[Brandon Fraley]

thanks steve, I'm unsure if max was on or off. I didn't touch it either way, so whatever is default is what's it was left as.

Also, while indeed the H proxies allow for unlimited RT playback, they only play back at about 4fps.

This is actually the 3rd thread I've started about this and I've yet to get any useful feedback from the community or RED staff.

First: Why is it that on my laptop, 4k standard _H proxies play back at 20-22fps, but 4kHD _H proxies play back at 4fps? I thought the whole point was that the math was easier for the computer?

SECOND: Why is it that when I took the footage to an 8 core MacPro, that I get the EXACT same performance that I get from my 3 years old macbook pro? No better no worse. 20-22fps on 4k _H proxies, 4 fps on 4kHD _H proxies. Shouldn't the new MacPro handle the 2k proxies no problem?

 

[Steve Sherrick]

thanks steve, I'm unsure if max was on or off. I didn't touch it either way, so whatever is default is what's it was left as.

Also, while indeed the H proxies allow for unlimited RT playback, they only play back at about 4fps.

This is actually the 3rd thread I've started about this and I've yet to get any useful feedback from the community or RED staff.

First: Why is it that on my laptop, 4k standard _H proxies play back at 20-22fps, but 4kHD _H proxies play back at 4fps? I thought the whole point was that the math was easier for the computer?

SECOND: Why is it that when I took the footage to an 8 core MacPro, that I get the EXACT same performance that I get from my 3 years old macbook pro? No better no worse. 20-22fps on 4k _H proxies, 4 fps on 4kHD _H proxies. Shouldn't the new MacPro handle the 2k proxies no problem?

You most likely had Max selected in your camera settings because it is on by default. That will affect the realtime performance in Final Cut Pro. Simply turn it off, capture some footage then try playing the H proxies in FCP and see if this changes things for you. My guess, it will.

Another consideration. If you are feeding video through a Kona card out to a monitor, that can impact performance as well when working with 4KHD. Try turning off external video. See if that does anything for you.

This should all work. But just to give you a comparison, here are my machine specs.

Mac Pro 2.8ghz Quad core
16GB RAM
ATTO R380
RAID 5 storage with sustained 500-600MB/s

 

[Brandon Fraley]

thanks steve, I'm going to try the "uncheck MAX" business. Also, I'm not monitoring out from a card or anything.

That said the 4kHD thing at this point isn't terribly relavent to me. What's shot is shot, so the unchecking MAX thing isn't useful for this project, and basically I've learned to just shoot 4k standard like I would have preferred to anyway. The only reason I shot 4kHD was for better playback which it doesn't provide.

However, the bigger issue for me is why isn't the 8 core MacPro performing any better my laptop. I understand about unchecking MAX and the video card thing, but none of that should be relevant when I'm getting identical playback from my laptop.

Can anyone figure that one out?