Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

REDROCKET-X + Thunderbolt Enclosure + "Bottlenecks": Can someone chime in?

Anthony Berenato Jr

Anthony Berenato Jr

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
472
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Hey guys,

I've decided to settle on purchasing a REDROCKET-X with my Scarlet Dragon upgrade instead of moving to a new Mac Pro (I'll wait for another loaded iMac w/ Thunderbolt 2), as the majority of the work I'm doing has moved from audio post to camera and video.

One thing I'm having trouble with wrapping my head around is the "bottleneck" some users are talking about with REDROCKET-X and the original Thunderbolt. My current computer setup will be running the RR-X on Thunderbolt 1 (despite purchasing a TB2 enclosure), and while I understand that the original Thunderbolt does not have the same speed pipeline that TB2 has... What sort of real-world issues may I come across with this setup?

Mainly, I don't mind if I lack the extra speed that TB2 offers.... But I want to be sure that I'm not going to be left with a system full of crashes and corrupt exports because of said "bottleneck."

Can someone who has used / uses a TB1 + RR-X setup chime in? All answers from the simple to complex will be well received. (And if you have any enclosure recommendations - I'm all ears!)

Thanks !
 
I have a TB2 system but to give some perspective...I had 2 hours of 4k HD Epic MX derived content. I had one drive almost full with the r3ds and another single drive to offload proxies to. I made DNXHD145 and moved it all in roughly 5 hours or so. Surely the fact the drives were USB3 and single drive solutions were larger bottlenecks then a TB1 issue would of been. I think you will be fine with TB1, and if your not, just buy a TB2 enclosure so your next system that has TB2 will work even better. I thought it was more then fine for the sheer amount of data I ran through at reduced rates to slow drives... But again its not an apples to apples comparison, and I have no idea what codecs you will be transcoding to or what bit rates... The latter part of this will also play a role...
 
Anthony Berenato Jr said:
Hey guys,

I've decided to settle on purchasing a REDROCKET-X with my Scarlet Dragon upgrade instead of moving to a new Mac Pro (I'll wait for another loaded iMac w/ Thunderbolt 2), as the majority of the work I'm doing has moved from audio post to camera and video.

One thing I'm having trouble with wrapping my head around is the "bottleneck" some users are talking about with REDROCKET-X and the original Thunderbolt. My current computer setup will be running the RR-X on Thunderbolt 1 (despite purchasing a TB2 enclosure), and while I understand that the original Thunderbolt does not have the same speed pipeline that TB2 has... What sort of real-world issues may I come across with this setup?

Mainly, I don't mind if I lack the extra speed that TB2 offers.... But I want to be sure that I'm not going to be left with a system full of crashes and corrupt exports because of said "bottleneck."

Can someone who has used / uses a TB1 + RR-X setup chime in? All answers from the simple to complex will be well received. (And if you have any enclosure recommendations - I'm all ears!)

Thanks !
Click to expand...

Hi Anthony,

I was just on an essentially no-budget feature, and was also responsible for transcoding all the data. I had production rent an RR-X that was in a Sonnet TB1 enclosure. After approx 8 hours of troubleshooting, installing/updating drivers and firmware, I was finally able to get everything working smoothly via my Macbook Air. That's right, an Air.

The production shot 6K FF and fairly long takes (often not stopping rolls efficiently despite admonishments), yet the transcodes were insanely speedy -- averaging approx 3-7min per clip. I was able to transcode 10, 12-hour days of shooting between Saturday evening and noon on Monday. Without the RR-X, each clip ranged anywhere between 30 to 90 min. I daisy chained two USB3 drive docks (one drive with master R3Ds, and the other for ProRes 422 HQ transcodes) via an Elgato TB dock. In such a workflow, ensure that the TB1 from the Sonnet is directly connected to the computer. Then you would attach the peripheral drives to the dock, and the dock to the Sonnet enclosure via its secondary TB1.

All in all, the Sonnet worked great, and I would purchase it for myself. I have used their products, and enclosures through the years with great results.

The awesome thing about the RED system is its versatility. Being able to pull off such a feat should be impossible at that level. Was it a perfect workflow? No. There are little niggling bugs in REDcine-X (or maybe it was user error on my part). In either case, the issues weren't a deal breaker. And honestly, as an indie, I feel it is a small price to pay for operating at the bleeding edge of technology. We're essentially using these tools right alongside the development team's creation of them. It can be a little frustrating when there are few answers for problems, but such is life as a trailblazer.
 
Eryc and Brian, thank you guys so much. I was the slightest bit worried that there would be a compatibility issue - but that seems to be far far far from the case.

Really excited to have the power for these realtime / faster than realtime speeds for my next project. =]
 
just make sure you go for fast drives (if possible). getting a tb2 enclosure now is also the way to go it if ur not married to a tb1 enclosure, that way your next system will be able to use it. for the record TB1 or 2 cannot come close to a 16x pci slots power anyway, so both are bottlenecks compared to running it internally in a PC. but i am happy with my platform and not switching. i keep the rocket x at TCS so its great having it in the enclosure, it can be rented to various productions and used for my needs when necessary... your more then welcome to rent mine for a day if you would like to test it prior to buying by the way...but of course you probably have many sources available in PA to rent them from already... might put your mind at ease though to see how well it works on your particular mac..


ps when you buy it there is both firmware and drivers that need to be installed... both need to be done, drivers on the mac, firmware on the rocket...and you need a full shut down when it says so during installation...not a restart...full shutdown. that will save you some potential IT headaches..
 
Last edited:
Will do!

I've been rolling with a LaCie 5Big Thunderbolt (Original) Drive for the last year and a half, and will hopefully be moving to a newer TB2 enclosure once some additional work comes through. One of these days solid state drives will be just a tad bit more affordable...
 
empty promise r4 is 400 bucks at apple...
 
Brian - do you have a link for the 'empty R4'?

Amazon.com : $630 with 4 x 1TB.
Amazon.co.uk : £964 with 4 x 1TB (what a deal?)
B&H : Discontinued.
Adorama : Discontinued.

Thanks,
AJ
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top