Can't get Resolve 9 to work smoothly with RED files

Since I upgraded to Resolve 9 - which I think is great btw - I just can't get my setup to work smoothly with RED files anymore. It just keeps stuttering on playback. Not a lot but every second one or a few frames and just too much to work with.

By now I think I have tried and ruled out every possible thing.
- The disk isn't the problem because when I copy files to my SSD with 250 MB/s readout the problem stays the same.
- I have updated to all the latests software versions but also tried 10.7.4 and Resolve 9 beta 1,2 and 3
- I swapped the cards around in the PCI slots but things just get worse or stay the same

CPU usage is low since I have a Rocket installed, I have 40 GB RAM installed so that shouldn't be a problem.

My setup:
MacPro 8 core 2009 2.26 GHz
slot 1: GTX 285
slot 2: RED Rocket
slot 3 Decklink Extreme 3D+
slot 4 GTX 120

I also tried:
slot 1: GTX 285
slot 2: GTX 120
slot 3: RED Rocket
slot 4: Decklink Extreme 3D+

That seemed to work a little better but still not good.

Resolve 8 used to work really smoothly with RED files on my system, what is going on? Anybody any clue or tip? Help greatly appreciated!

Hi,

What version of Resolve are running? Do you have audio playing back (from the R3D files or chase track)? I know there was a bug with RED playback. If you had audio playing, the playback was not smooth.

Try muting the audio in the color page and see if that helps.

Also what size are your R3D files? I know if they are 5K, you might need 2 RED Rockets to play them back in realtime (no matter what debayer setting you use). I'm having similar problems as well.

-Peter

Resolve 9, no audio, no grades, just import and playback, 5k Epic files.

I did some more testing, went back to version 8 which was a bit better but still not good. Then shuffled the cards around in the PCI slots and found out that if I remove the Rocket card altogether Resolve 9 runs very happy and smooth. On my system I can only playback 5k at 1/4 res but I get green GPU bars, no hiccups and everything is good.

Install Red Rocket again: GPU bars turn greed/red, stuttering, not smooth at all, even at the same debayer resolution - in fact at every debayer resolution.

Frustrating as the Rocket is very expensive and is supposed to make things easier. And you can't turn the damn thing off!

Any idea what's the cause anybody? The Rocket seems to run fine otherwise, not problems in RedCine-X.

[Peter Chamberlain]

The Red Rocket was designed to handle r3d files from the REDone Camera.. up to 4K. Epics 5K files are 20% bigger and thus a Rocket by itself will not decode and debayer in real time. Our v9 config guide specifies two Rockets for real time Epic operation. If the Epic files are 4K the single Rocket should be fine.
If you are using two GPUs, one for GUI and one for image processing, in a MacPro, they need to be in the fast PCIe slots.. That's 1&2.
Peter

[Rohit Gupta]

Hi,

One Red rocket card is not sufficient for playing full-res Epic 5K files, even when decoding at half-res, or quarter-res. You need two Red Rocket cards. One Red Rocket card can get to 24fps for some clips, it depends on the contents of the clip and resolution. 22-23 fps is a safe number we've seen.

Redcine and some other apps use memory/disk based caching techniques to speed up the decode speeds, but this will not work across a long timeline where your cache runs out.

Regards,
Rohit

Hi,

One Red rocket card is not sufficient for playing full-res Epic 5K files, even when decoding at half-res, or quarter-res. You need two Red Rocket cards. One Red Rocket card can get to 24fps for some clips, it depends on the contents of the clip and resolution. 22-23 fps is a safe number we've seen.

Redcine and some other apps use memory/disk based caching techniques to speed up the decode speeds, but this will not work across a long timeline where your cache runs out.

Regards,
Rohit

Appreciate the feedback! I am afraid I still don't quite get it though..

Did some more testing:
- RedCine with one Rocket plays back 5k files at 1/2 resolution just fine and doesn't run out of cache.
- Premiere CS 6 with one Rocket plays back 5k files at 1/2 resolution ok and at 1/4 just fine.
- Resolve with one Rocket can't play back 5k files smoothly at any resolution...?

4k files won't work at full res either on my system but at 1/2 res they are fine. Why can't 5k files do the same?

Guys i am getting rock solid 24fps playback using only 1 Red Rocket on 5K footage @ 1/2 res 16 bit ...

i get this result both at my office ( 3GPU GTX 470) and at my home ( GT120 + GTX 580 (having RR on a x4 lane PCIe slot)

so it possible (make sure that all your driver software are up to date)

hope this help

g

Hi Sander,

I've had the exact same results as you. It's disappointing but it's the truth. With only 1 Red Rocket, I can't get realtime playback with 5K RED files. It's just too much for 1 Rocket to handle (even if they are expensive). You really need 2 Rockets to grade 5K material in Resolve (at high quality in realtime).

Like Rohit said, REDCINE-X uses a different method for playing back footage. I can't explain it technically, but that isn't' a good test to see if Resolve will work (5K stuff plays back fine in my REDCINE-X too). I'm not sure how Premiere works.. but maybe it's using the Rocket, the CPU and GPU all at the same time?

When you take out the Rocket, your CPU is doing all the work, and if it's a really fast CPU, it won't get bogged down like the Rocket will (maybe it's able to spread the decoding work among all the cores, unlike the Rocket). It would be great if Resolve could use the CPU and the Rocket at the same time, but I don't think it works that way.

So basically you need a pretty beefy system to playback 5K material (at high quality in realtime). 5K files are really big and it might be time for a system upgrade if you want to keep working with that type of material in Resolve? Are you working on feature films? I work on TV projects and we now have production shooting a more reasonable resolution and it's all working great now.

-Peter

again ,

i have only 1 RR and i get realtime playback (24fps) of 5K footage @ 1/2 res 16 bit .

this was not true 2 months ago , but is now using the latest build of V9 and all drivers up to date as the config guide propose

g

[Rohit Gupta]

again ,

i have only 1 RR and i get realtime playback (24fps) of 5K footage @ 1/2 res 16 bit .

this was not true 2 months ago , but is now using the latest build of V9 and all drivers up to date as the config guide propose

g

As I said earlier, it depends on the 5K resolution of the file, and the contents of the footage. We have 5K Epic files which work fine on a single RR, and then other files which don't. The recommendation from Red as of today is to use 2 RR cards for 5K Epic.

hi rohit ,

i am talking full frame 5K redcode 3:1

g

Regarding the Audiobug with Red footage:
According to my testing you have to disable Audio in the preferences,
not only muting in the color page (regardless if the footage has audio or not).

Guys i am getting rock solid 24fps playback using only 1 Red Rocket on 5K footage @ 1/2 res 16 bit ...

i get this result both at my office ( 3GPU GTX 470) and at my home ( GT120 + GTX 580 (having RR on a x4 lane PCIe slot)

so it possible (make sure that all your driver software are up to date)

hope this help

g

See that's what I remember I had before! Then my rocket broke down, I had to get a replacement, software got updated and things don't work anymore the way they do and suddenly I am told I need TWO rockets...

Buying another rocket is a major investment for people like me who run just a small shop as you suddenly need an expansion chassis and all.

Could there at least be an option in Resolve to disable the rocket? Now I find it works better without one than with it but I need the rocket for transcoding and stuff and it is nice to have when you want to render out at full res.

Gabriele, could you enlighten us a bit on what kind of system you are running? Thanks a lot!

again ,

i have only 1 RR and i get realtime playback (24fps) of 5K footage @ 1/2 res 16 bit .

this was not true 2 months ago , but is now using the latest build of V9 and all drivers up to date as the config guide propose

g

Gabriele,

I'd love to hear more about your system as well. I just tried it again on my system. I have the latest V9 and all the approved drivers. With 5K footage the playback is jumpy. It will usually say 24fps in the playback window, but the bar is red and on my monitor it will be smooth for awhile and then I see it get jumpy for a second or two. Doesn't matter what Debayer setting I choose. I can playback DPX files without a problem, so I know my RAID is fast enough.

If I remove the rocket and drop down to 1/4 res then I can get smooth playback. Seems that the 1 Rocket just can't keep up. Luckily we don't shoot 5K anymore, so that allows me to keep working without the jumpy playback.

-Peter