RED 2K vs. 4K in Adobe Premiere CS4.1

[Vince Becquiot]

The setting only affect the project / program frame size, so you are indeed always accessing the 4k files.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Daniel Beahm]

Thanks for your response, Vince.

So, to verify, the only thing affected by the way you set up your time line (2k, 4k, etc…) is the Program and Source project frames, i.e., the size of the frame you are monitoring while editing.

Also, for anyone using this post for help with their own project, if you have set up your time line with a resolution smaller than your original files, don’t forget to right-click on the clips in your time line, and then select “Scale to Frame Size” so that your clip is cropped correctly in your Program window.

[Vince Becquiot]

I don’t have any Red stuff here to confirm, but I believe you also loose native playback, so you would possibly have to render depending on the system.

Also, feel free to share your system specs with us.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Daniel Beahm]

Not sure exactly what you mean by this one (rendering for native playback).

I’ve set up a time line with both 2k and 4k and used the same files in both sequences, and both seem to play the same (without a need to render before viewing). Perhaps that’s not what you mean though.

As for my system specs, currently I’m just utilizing a DELL Core2 Duo M4400 Precision laptop while deciding on my final system build. I’m torn between just purchasing an HP z800 and being done with it, or building my own system from scratch utilizing either a high-end i7 (to get to 8 cores via HyperThreading) or perhaps one of the new MOBO’s that accommodates dual Nehalem Xeon x5500 processors.

Also still trying to decide which RAID unit to get. A friend swears by Maxx Digital, but most other people recommend G-Technology, so I’m having a hard time pulling the trigger on either. Also… I’m still worried that G-Tech advertises “2K Workflow” (not 4K) while all the files I’m referencing are 4K.

[David Kirlew]

From my understanding I think G-Tech’s reasoning for advertising 2K workflow is for uncompressed 2K. Red is not an uncompressed 4K camera. It shouldn’t prevent you from using G-Tech.

David Kirlew

Reflection Concepts

[Tim Kolb]

Agreed.

G-Tech is referring to uncompressed…keep in mind that you’re editing RED footage on a laptop.

There are any number of dependable storage companies…sometimes if you are a studio that is working a lot and downtime would be a sufficient financial disaster, you’re better off searching for a value-added reseller that provides some support and make the brand secondary. It’s usually more expensive than buying through mail order…until something bad happens anyway.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Daniel Beahm]

[Tim Kolb] “G-Tech is referring to uncompressed…keep in mind that you’re editing RED footage on a laptop.”

But only for the time being. By next week I’ll be on a dual Nehalem Quadcore machine with an Nvidia Quadro CX.

[Tim Kolb] “you’re better off searching for a value-added reseller that provides some support and make the brand secondary.”

I was under the impression that Maxx Digital and G-Tech both offered decent tech support. Am I wrong?

[Jeff Brown]

I think Tim’s referring to the difference between decent, or even good tech support, and a broadcast reseller that will show up with replacement gear within 4 hours to your facility where downtime is costing you many hundreds of dollars per hour.
Not that I know of any such resellers, but I’m in a “small” market…

-jeff

[Tim Kolb]

Exactly…

I have no issue with any manufacturer. It’s just that often a reseller who has the potential to be located close to you and handle a variety of products can be very helpful in integrating storage into your system…no matter what manufacturer’s product you decide on.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Daniel Beahm]

Alright… after a couple weeks of research and work, I’m a little more knowledgeable than what I was when I posted this, so I’m revisiting some of my posts to update them for anyone who may come across them in the future. Basically, this is going to be some information for noobs, so you can get to work quicker instead of having to spend days searching for answers as you’re getting started with RED and Premiere.

My initial worry and the reason for the post was that I was scared I would set up my project incorrectly in Premiere and then have to change everything later (after hours of editing).

The beauty of how Premiere (CS4.1 and later) works with RED is that it really minimizes the possibility of this happening.

Within a project, you can set up many sequences. Those sequences can all be different (1k, 2k, 4k, etc.). The difference between those settings is simply how large (at what resolution) your project will display in your program monitor at 100% (the full resolution of what you can view). Depending upon your aspect ratio (the following are 2:1) 1k is 1024×512, 2k is 2048×1024, 4k is 4096×2048.

My 24″ monitor is currently set to 1920×1200. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t view a 2k sequence at full size. However, since there’s a pretty big jump between the 2k and 1k size (2k is bigger than my screen, 1k is pretty tiny at full size, about a quarter of the screen), I generally work in a 2k sequence so I can view it larger than 1024×512. I just select “fit” in my Program Monitor and then hit the tilde key to make the panel full screen. Not ideal, but the best with what I’ve currently got (my new video card arrives soon, so I’ll be able to view 2k full screen, full resolution).

As I mentioned in a previous post, don’t forget to right click on a clip and select “scale to frame size” when placing is on the time line, so it’s not cropped in your Program Monitor. You can also set this to automatically happen in your preferences (tick “default scale to frame sizes” in the “general” tab of preferences).

If you’ve created a sequence at 1k, and you’d rather be in 2k, simply create your new 2k sequence, select everything on your 1k time line, and then cut and paste to your new 2k sequence.