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  • 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 :)

Specific Workflow Question

J

Jim Brennan

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Sorry I am having to ask this, but I looked around for answers and only got more confused. I've worked with RED footage before, but only for my own projects (and that allowed me to live dangerously...or foolishly, depending on your POV)

But I was hired to wrangle files for a Red One field shoot next week and I want to make sure I get this right. I'll be bringing my Macbook Pro Dual 2.2, with 2Gigs RAM, running OSX 10.5 and FCP 6.0. I will update to the latest versions of QT, RedCine and RedAlert between now and then (unless someone tells me not to). The client is supplying redundant HDDs (although, probably not RAIDs)

We will be shooting to the 320 GB HDD on cam, so we will probably only have to download files at the end of each day (2 day shoot), and the client says they want to bring the R3D files back to their post people, so I don't have to worry about one-lights (except for rushes) or transcoding. I just have to move the files to drives they can take back and show them pretty pictures as we shoot.

So, my questions: Can I daisy chain 2 externals to send files to simultaneously, pulling them from the HDD on the RED? (I've always just pulled them on to my desktop, and dumped them on to my system when I get in from the field.) If this is possible, is it advisable, or should I do them separately?

My MacBook Pro has only one FW800 and one FW400 port. Is it better to pull from the Red with one and dump with the other, or is it a wash since the FW 400 port will be the bottleneck either way?

Or, can I daisy chain all 3 drives together via one FW 800 port and do a redundant drop that way?

It's been a few months since I have worked with Red footage. Are RedAlert and RedCine still the best way to show footage to the client? (Remember I am on FCP 6.0 and probably won't be able to upgrade before the shoot. Don't ask, I just can't)

So those are my most pressing questions, but any other thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Jim, I highly recommend you do not wait until the end of the day to offload. Get yourself a copy of R3D Data Manager, setup multiple backup destinations, and copy footage off during breaks. You really should have more than one Red Drive. This would make life much easier. They are very cheap to rent.

Ideally you would have a separate bus on your Express34 port, either FW800 or e-sata, but if you have to daisy chain or use FW 400 it won't be the end of the world. Just not as fast.

Best way to show client footage? Really depends what you're trying to do. There are many ways to do this -Redcine, Red Alert, Clipfinder, Quicktime, Final Cut Pro, Scratch. Some working with R3D, others with proxies.
 
I agree with Steve. Don't wait until the end of the day. Hire another drive, format the two drives as #1 and #2, and break down the wrangling into smaller sections - every hour, every couple of setups, etc. This is what r3dmanager is built for, and good at.

You will save yourself time at day's end, and wont be at the mercy of a single piece of hardware - at the very least you've halved the chance of compromising all of your footage.

Good luck!
 
stevesherrick said:
Ideally you would have a separate bus on your Express34 port, either FW800 or e-sata, but if you have to daisy chain or use FW 400 it won't be the end of the world. Just not as fast.
Click to expand...

How does one accomplish a separate bus? Is it just a piece of hardware?
 
I just got a Sonnet Firewire800 Express Card/34 for my MBPro. I was using it tonight to transfer some Red footage (I had the Red Drive attached to the original FW800 port, and 2 Externals through the PCI Card)

When I played back the Qt proxies from one of the externals (through the Sonnet Card) it was kind of jumpy. So I ejected the drives and re-attached the external to the original FW800 port on the MBPro and it played fine. So I am obviously not getting the same data rate through the card as I am through the original FW800 port. Is there a way to configure this to work more efficiently?

Thanks.
 
Jim, what version of the Sonnet firmware are you running?
 
I'm not sure. When I go to System profiler>Hardware>PCI Cards, three different thngs show up (although this is the only thing I have ever put in the PCI slot)

The first one reads " Express Card - PCI to PCI Bridge" in slot 3 And shows a device ID of 0x08231 and a Revision ID of 0x0003

The Second says Express Card - IEEE1394 Open HCL" (I'm assuming this is it) in slot 3@4,0,0 (don't know what that means) With a device ID of 0x8025 Revision ID 0x0001

THe third is pci168c,24 Other Network COntroller in slot 5 (Don't think this one matters, does it?)

Does any of that help at all? Thanks again for the assistance. I have to leave this evening for this shoot and I am a bit nervous about it.

When I plug the card in without drives, a window with a message about a new network interface has been detected comes up. I just cancel out of that. Other than that I haven't had to do anything except connect the drives.

How would I found out about the firmware
 
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