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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 :)

When formating drives, roll number skipping

Matthew Rogers

Matthew Rogers

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Hey gang, currently working on a feature and have come across something that I haven't seen on my RED before. When I go to format a drive, it's not going up in the correct number order. Like today, I was on roll 138, but when I went in to set things, it was at 128. Even after I swapped drives, it stayed in the 120's. If I use the straight format and not the change roll option, the roll number will skip a roll or two. I am using three RED drives between 2 cameras. Any clue why the roll numbers aren't going up correctly?

Matthew
 
I got this, but never had time to chase up. Just switched to using change roll every time.
 
Someone else is probably changing the settings while you're not around then, if you reset to the correct number, then use the normal format option, the camera won't skip. Literally, it won't. We're on close to our 4000Th reel on the feature I'm working on, and the camera has never miscounted, if the camera couldn't count reels, we'd have much larger concerns on our hands, like timecode.

People who use Change or Reset every time are asking for duplicate/skipped reels. Thankfully the random characters in the Mag and Clip names prevent that from being a big issue.
 
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Steve Freebairn said:
Someone else is probably changing the settings while you're not around then, if you reset to the correct number, then use the normal format option, the camera won't skip. Literally, it won't. We're on close to our 4000Th reel on the feature I'm working on, and the camera has never miscounted, if the camera couldn't count reels, we'd have much larger concerns on our hands, like timecode.

People who use Change or Reset every time are asking for duplicate/skipped reels. Thankfully the random characters in the Mag and Clip names prevent that from being a big issue.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that other people are NOT changing the roll. It just seems to be very random about it's formatting. I may try reinstalling the firmware to see if that's the issue.

Matthew
 
Steve Freebairn said:
People who use Change or Reset every time are asking for duplicate/skipped reels. Thankfully the random characters in the Mag and Clip names prevent that from being a big issue.
Click to expand...

Quoted for truth.

Just don't use that Change menu. Reset to the next correct value and use normal format from there. The Change menu is BAD BAD BAD.
 
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Cail Young said:
Quoted for truth.

Just don't use that Change menu. Reset to the next correct value and use normal format from there. The Change menu is BAD BAD BAD.
Click to expand...

Why is it bad? If there is a bug in there, then I want to figure it out so RED can fix it.

Matthew
 
Cail Young said:
The Change menu is BAD BAD BAD.
Click to expand...

RED has updated their firmware a ton of times. If the Change menu was bad, why wouldn't RED remove it? And what happens if you use it? Should we reset all factory settings and go from there?
 
The Change menu is fine as long as whoever is using it has their head screwed on correctly and doesn't do things in a rush. If it wasn't there I wouldn't have been able to work around the problem.

Besides, sometimes I DON'T want sequential numbering, and that's why the option is there!
 
MITCH! Hey small world! Our RED suddenly stopped advancing the REEL number on new cards also.

I remember it 'crashed' and refused to finish 'updating reel' or similar verbage. I had to manually power down. After reboot it refuses to auto assign the next number for the REEL....

I am waiting for a few last shots before we go up to the current BUILD 30.
 
This happens sporadically on many of my shoots. Luckily, it's never skipped backwards only forward a couple of numbers. I always ask the ACs/DIT to keep an eye out for it and manually change it to keep it sequential for editorial. Not a problem, more of an inconvenience. If it's a bug, I'd love to know how to fix it as well.
 
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Mitch Martinez said:
RED has updated their firmware a ton of times. If the Change menu was bad, why wouldn't RED remove it? And what happens if you use it? Should we reset all factory settings and go from there?
Click to expand...

The change menu has a purpose but it's far too close to the "format" option and people with less experience with the camera often form an opinion that because there is a "format" and a "change" in close proximity that obviously the "format" option doesn't change the reel number, but the "change" option does.

What isn't clear is that using "change" doesn't update the internal reel counter value, but using "format" does - it's all a bit opaque to the newbie and causes headaches for everyone.

The bug I have seen occasionally is if people enter the "change" menu, change the value, then back out and do a regular format - weird things happen. Have to test more to confirm.
 
CHANGE function

CHANGE function

If anyone has definitive evidence I'd love to hear it, but we've not seen an issue in our testing.
 
I remember this did happen to me once on a shoot, but I am sure it was "user error", I think it was something like Cail Young was describing, my AC using "Change" and then "Formating", and getting it all mixed up...
 
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