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Slow Transcodes with Red Rocket + Sonnet Echo Express on Retina MBP 15"

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Desmond Ford

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Red Rocket + Sonnet Echo Express + Retina MBP 15" with 16GB RAM and 512 GB SSD

The above is my set up and I'm still getting really slow transcode speeds from R3D to ProRes444. Also, it won't monitor out to anything above 1/4 Res on my 21" Flanders Scientific .

Am I doing something wrong? I was expecting much more...
 
Sure sounds like something is wrong to me. but I work from a mac pro so I will leave it to the echo express users to help you. maybe head over to the hardware forum and try again.
 
Johnny Friday said:
Desmond, have you seen the latest talk about OS 10.8.2 and many rolling back to .1 ? Might have a look if this has anything to do with your issue.
Johnny
Click to expand...


Yes, I know about it, but that has to do with the Echo Pro Adapter, which is used to read SxS cards (I found out the hard way on set last week when I was on an Alexa gig). However, I am using the Echo Express Pro Expansion Chasis with a Red Rocket installed. It mounts to my system without issue and does not require a driver at all. Of course, my Red Rocket driver is the latest build....


dezzy
 
Umm,
i have almost same setup but with Magma on MBP 15" retina....no issues, BUT, i've not monitored out of it...I HAVE done prores 4444 transcodes and the speeds are not quite as fast as my Mac Tower with RR attached, but they are much faster than no rocket attached. I was a bit taken back when doing a prores transcode myself since compared to my tower with rocket it's lighting fast...but i think this is because we are not getting full use of the card...What i did to convince myself it was working was just to disconnect the expansion chasis and try one clip like that and give it a few mins to transcode and then note what ETA was and then restart the machine with Chasis connected and transcode the same clip---in my case i saw a significant difference in those speeds. I also took note that the speeds were about half as fast as with my tower. so something possibly to be said for a real 16x x slot vs. 4x slot.
 
Desmond Ford said:
Yes, I know about it, but that has to do with the Echo Pro Adapter, which is used to read SxS cards (I found out the hard way on set last week when I was on an Alexa gig). However, I am using the Echo Express Pro Expansion Chasis with a Red Rocket installed. It mounts to my system without issue and does not require a driver at all. Of course, my Red Rocket driver is the latest build....


dezzy
Click to expand...


It's nothing to do with the adapter. It has to do with something that Apple changed in the 10.8.2 broke the drivers for the Rocket (as well as some ATTO RAID controllers). So if you're running 10.8.2 you will have issues with your Rocket in RCXP, Resolve, and Premiere Pro, and you should roll back to 10.8.1. With 10.8.2 installed I was getting decode errors on exports. The first span of an export would have picture, but if the R3D was multiple spans then 2 through whatever would be black.

If you're already not on 10.8.2, then it sounds like an issue with the Rocket not being recognized and utilized. This could be the drivers and/or firmware you're using. Make sure you have the latest of both. You can confirm the Rocket being recognized a few ways:

1. In System Preferences go to RedCode. There should be a tab for which Rocket to use if one is recognized.
2. When you start RCXP you should get a warning message that your Rocket is in a 4x slot, which you would just click on OK and ignore.
3. When RCXP is running in the lower right corner of the viewer there's a Rocket icon. It should be yellow if the Rocket is being used. If not, click on it and a dialog pops up and lets you turn it on for decoding and/or video out. In this case you want to make sure decoding has a checkmark.

If none of that works, try calling Red tech support. I basically have the same setup as you and not having any issues. You should also try some other PCIe cards and make sure those are working to assure that it's not an issue with the Sonnet expansion chassis.

I get realtime exporting of 5K 1.9:1 to ProRes LT with the Rocket. Might even be just slightly faster than realtime. I get 1/4 playback in realtime with the Rocket of 5K 1.9:1. This is on a rMBP 2.7GHz, 16GB RAM, 768GB SSD with hard drives running through the other Thunderbolt via LaCie eSATA hubs.
 
Mike Halper said:
It's nothing to do with the adapter. It has to do with something that Apple changed in the 10.8.2 broke the drivers for the Rocket (as well as some ATTO RAID controllers). So if you're running 10.8.2 you will have issues with your Rocket in RCXP, Resolve, and Premiere Pro, and you should roll back to 10.8.1. With 10.8.2 installed I was getting decode errors on exports. The first span of an export would have picture, but if the R3D was multiple spans then 2 through whatever would be black.
Click to expand...

This must be it!

Now I have to figure out a way to downgrade to 10.8.1. Anyone know how? I don't think Apple supports such measures.


dezzy
 
Just learned that Apple released an update to 10.8.2 today, but it's not 10.8.3... I'm going to try this before I take the downgrade route.

I'll report back...
 
Desmond Ford said:
This must be it!

Now I have to figure out a way to downgrade to 10.8.1. Anyone know how? I don't think Apple supports such measures.


dezzy
Click to expand...

Easiest way is to create a boot drive with 10.8 and reinstall (holding down option key with boot drove connected at startup). This won't wipe your computer.
 
I created a bootable partition on an external hard drive with an OS X installer from the InstallESD.dmg file found when you download Mountain Lion from the App Store. I did this when 10.8.1 was still current. Not sure how you can get it now unless you find someone who might still have that dmg file or find it on the net somewhere.
 
Mike Halper said:
I created a bootable partition on an external hard drive with an OS X installer from the InstallESD.dmg file found when you download Mountain Lion from the App Store. I did this when 10.8.1 was still current. Not sure how you can get it now unless you find someone who might still have that dmg file or find it on the net somewhere.
Click to expand...

Torrent file is what I had to do. Anything from apple now will always be the latest version so you unfortunately have to resort to illegal downloads. After you install 10.8 just do the upgrade to 10.8.1.
 
Unfortunately, I do not have an older version saved on an external drive. I really don't want to have to do a full disk wipe and reinstall because of the time it would take to reinstall all my apps.

I guess I'll just have to wait this one out...
 
Desmond Ford said:
Unfortunately, I do not have an older version saved on an external drive. I really don't want to have to do a full disk wipe and reinstall because of the time it would take to reinstall all my apps.

I guess I'll just have to wait this one out...
Click to expand...


To roll back to 10.8.1, you don't need to do a clean install. Everything stays the same on your system except for the OS.
 
Bob Gundu said:
To roll back to 10.8.1, you don't need to do a clean install. Everything stays the same on your system except for the OS.
Click to expand...

Really... how?

I do not have 10.8.1 installed on another drive. So if I do it from the recovery drive, it forces me into 10.8.2. I even went to the mac store to try adn they couldn't help. Apple care can only do it if I erase all data.

I saw a link about torrents but I have no experience with torrents so I'm worried about downloading potentially harmful malware. Any recommendations?
 
Desmond Ford said:
Really... how?

I do not have 10.8.1 installed on another drive. So if I do it from the recovery drive, it forces me into 10.8.2. I even went to the mac store to try adn they couldn't help. Apple care can only do it if I erase all data.

I saw a link about torrents but I have no experience with torrents so I'm worried about downloading potentially harmful malware. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

You should ask a friend who is more savvy in torrents to get the torrent file for you. Then proceed to this article on how to create a bootable drive.

http://www.marcomc.com/2012/09/how-to-downgrade-os-x-10-8-2-to-the-previous-minor-release-10-8-1/

Bob
 
Just want to chime in here- same issue with two separate Red Rocket cards in two separate Magma boxes on the latest OSX 10.8.2. The cards can decode for playback, but don't seem to have any effect on transcoding time. ETA for an hour long 4K 16x9 clip to 1080x1920 prores 422 is still 12hrs.

Rolling back to 10.8.1....

UPDATE: That didn't do a thing. I'm now on 10.8.1 and transcodes ETA's are just as long.

UPDATE 2: Scratch that, 10.8.1 fixed it. Redline got flipped on, but now things are back to normal and the red rockets are cranking.
 
Last edited:
It works fine at 10.8.0. I rolled back and haven't had any issues since.

I can't believe how long it's taking to get this bug fixed!!!!
 
I am glad I am still on 10.7.5. The Rocket works fine except for x4 warning. Will keep an eye out for any stability updates concerning 10.8.2 before upgrading.
 
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