HD For Indies

Got a press release:

R3D-to-DPX Conversion:

R3D2DPX.exe is a Windows (only) shell-based tool that converts R3D files into the following formats:

DPX
CineForm RAW
CineForm 444
CineForm Intermediate (4:2:2)
Think of R3D2DPX as a format converter for RAW data, where in this case RAW means the Bayer sensor data.

R3D2DPX does not extract color profile or white balance information from the R3D file.

It assumes that all color processing will be performed later.

If color processing as performed in RedCine is necessary for your workflow, then continue to use RedCine!


It is a good and healthy sign that a third party is offering a conversion tool, and especially for the Windows side of the world.

I emailed David Taylor of Cineform some questions and here's what I got back:

Question 1.) My understanding was that Redcine could convert to any standard installed codec - is it not possible to write to the formats R3DDPX supports directly from Redcine?

Not completely, no. RedCine will only support Quicktime based codecs, there are still limitations to that interface. Also PC users of CineForm primarily seek AVI files. When we do use QuickTime under RedCine, we are one of the few codecs to support 16-bit per channel RGBA, yet the memory footprint for 4K frame seems make the conversion unreliable for many users. It could be running out of memory due to issues inherent to all 32-bit applications, or issues with the graphics card or drivers, it has been hard to debug for the users that experience this. On RedUser.net it is the repeated frame or failure to write problem. There is also been issue that RedCine can't export 16-bit per channel Quicktime to any codec at 4096 in my testing, yet 4095 works in many cases (I've also tested using Sheer to confirm this.) I'm sure these glitches will be addressed, but there are presently in RedCine Build 74, as tested on Mac and PC.

2.) If not, what is the barrier to making that happen?

Just like us, I'm sure their software team is extremely busy. So time is the barrier.

3.) Under what circumstances does this offer capabilities that are unique or better than Redcine?

It has a significantly lower system requirement. It will prefer conversions without needing the GPU, therefore there is no minimum system requirement for the graphics card. This helps those with existing blade servers/render farms that may have underpowered GPUs. I think it threads better for higher performance, although each system will perform differently, so I would suggest users try for themselves. Direct AVI encoding, the preference for most CineForm users. And finally, and likely the most controversial, it can directly transcode to CineForm RAW for significantly smaller files than CineForm 444, at the same quality. We have always had the issue that RAW cameras should not develop to RGB, as that increases the datarate 3 times, without any quality benefit. Both Redcode and CineForm RAW exploit this efficiency, yet the Redcode workflow still in its early days, CineForm RAW has been running real-time under Premiere Pro (PC) for a long time, and is recently supported under FCP.

In the end it is about workflow choice. RedCine does so much more than R3D2DPX, but the CineForm tools simplifies the bridge into workflow and NLEs not yet supported by Red.
David Newman
CTO, CineForm


Thanks to David for taking the time to respond.
-mike

Labels: Cineform, NLE, post, software