Compressing 4K RAW from the Odyssey 7Q - Suggestions?

jshbckr

Veteran
So I dropped a minute of 4K into After Effects, applied some Camera RAW tweaks, and hit "Render" with ProRes HQ 4K settings. It's taking about 35 minutes to render the one minute of footage on my quad-core 2.7Ghz i7 MacBook Pro. I forgot to check before rendering whether or not I had multiframe processing turned on (if it even makes a difference for this), I'll double check after the render finishes.

Does anyone have tips for compressing the 4K RAW files? I've got a shoot this next week that I'd like to shoot a little 4K on, but file sizes will be an issue. We will shoot mostly ProRes 4K2HD and we have 10TB for footage+backup (so 5TBx2, basically). 7 days of shooting. So we are hoping that if we grab a few minutes of 4K each day for some specialty shots, that we can compress them at night to free up space on the footage+backup drives.

EDIT: Well, I guess regardless of multiframe settings, I'm maxing out the CPU, so unless a different application renders more efficiently (or uses GPU or something), this might be as good as it gets.
qKYM
 
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I'm on PC, so obviously very different but I thought I'd try a similar test to see how it compares to you.

Now, Windows doesn't support ProRes encoding so I thought I'd buy and try the Miraizon ProRes / DNxHD CODECS. These do allow ProRes HQ at 4K encoding :)

So in After Effects CC, I setup a 1 min long comp with a 4K raw piece of footage from the O7Q. No other effects apart from setting the initial RAW import settings. I then used Adobe Media Encoder (CUDA acceleration enabled) to output to the Miraizon ProRes HQ at 4K, no audio and quality set at 100%

The 1 minute RAW file took 20 minutes to encode to ProRes HQ 4K - so probably not far off what you're seeing with the specs of my edit PC taken into account? These are:

Intel Core i7 X980 3.33GHz (6 physical cores with HT on) - 12 cores total reported to Windows 8.1
(I think I also have some overclocking set currently but would need to check - probably just under 4GHz if so)
24 GB ram

CPU utilization was around 50% of ALL processors.

I also just did another quick test to Miraizon Prores 422 (non HQ) profile and it was very slightly quicker at around 18 mins

Does that help at all - I know it's not apples for apples but it does show that 4K ProRes encoding is VERY CPU intensive!

Paul.
 
Thanks for the response. Aside from your processors only topping out at 50%, you've got faster processors as well.

I might run a test with Resolve, as well. I'd be interested in seeing how fast a new Mac Pro 8-core (maybe with Dual D700s? if GPU matters) would crunch through the frames, 8 cores + 3.9Ghz turbo boost would be awfully nice.
 
yes would be interesting - My CPU's are getting a bit long in the tooth now too - can't affort to replace just yet after the recent FS700, O7Q and lenses purchase - I must have spent nearly £20k over the last 3-4 months!!!
 
Haha, I hear ya. Aside from a potential computer upgrade (working off a 2012 MacBook Pro for everything--RAW and animation), I need to put myself on a spending freeze!
 
It is expensive but the FS700 / O7Q combo has already taken my productions to the next level. Will be keeping my PMW-350 and selling off my EX3 I think!
 
Adobe Media Encoder renders out the 4K file almost 3x faster than After Effects... except it doesn't properly read the DNGs so everything is magenta. Wah-wah. Looks like I'll have to stick to rendering out of After Effects.

I tried Final Cut Pro X, as well. That program is a disaster for image sequences. Still took a long time and setting up the sequence was a headache and waste of time.
 
I guess AME shares the same code as Premiere Pro hence the magenta image that you also get importing RAW files into Premiere.
 
I guess AME shares the same code as Premiere Pro hence the magenta image that you also get importing RAW files into Premiere.
Yep. Bummer that AE does it correctly but takes so much longer to render...

I'm surprised more people aren't posting in here. My laptop won't even playback the 4K RAW in real time, haha. How is everyone else dealing with it?
 
Can you share a short 5 second clip to test it out, not many people have their hands on the O7Q yet. :)
 
Has anyone tried rendering in Vegas (the application, not the city)?

In the past we have used Vegas to render out odd formats and were doing HD and 3D formats long before other applications (like FCP / MC / PP) could even ingest them.
If there is a link to a small RAW 4K file (5-10 seconds would be enough), I would be happy to test it.

I am currently on site with a horrible internet connection, but could test it later this evening.

Andrew
 
If you are not getting 100% CPU utilization, AE Multiframe render is not enabled.
While I prefer the look of ACR+AE, Resolve is much, much faster (GPU accelerated).
 
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