I just started my first RED project and was looking forward to using Metafuze, however the project was shot at 1080/29.97p.  Metafuze can't transcode 1080/29.97 R3D to 1080/59.97i DNxHD 220 can it?  It didn't really look like REDCine or REDAlert can either.  So, right now I'm just importing the ProResHQ Quicktimes that were made on set so I can get started.  Does anyone have an idea for a good workflow when things are shot this way?

Thanks,

Sam

Why wouldn't you just work in a 1080 29.97P project?

I think that  is - currently -  Symphony-only, Terry...

oops.

As far as the frame rate and project settings are concerned, 29.97p and 59.94i are the same thing.

The numbers refer to frames in the case of "p" and fields in the case of "i" and there are twice as many fields. For example 29.97 x 2 = 59.94.

Any 59.94i clip is really playing back at 29.97fps. There may be a visual difference in the material though, a progresivelly acquired material as in RED will not have visible interlacing whereas a typical video camera material will be visually interlaced. As far as the equipment and software are concerned it's all the same.

So you could transcode to 29.97 MXF media. I am not in front of a Media Composer to see if it allows to setup a 1080 29.97 project. Theoretically, this should be the same thing as 1080 59.94i project in this particular case where field processing is not necessary due to progressive nature of original media.

Igor Ridanovic:

Theoretically, this should be the same thing as 1080 59.94i project in this particular case where field processing is not necessary due to progressive nature of original media.

This is exactly the only difference as far as Avid is concerned. Does it render field based or frame based. That is why i suggested doing it 29.97P. You can easily make a 59.94 out of that. Didn't know it was Symphony only. Why would Avid do that? How does one offline a 29.97P project?

I think this came up on the L2 some time ago, and IIRC the solution was simply to open the mediafiles in a 59.94 project and get on with it. For now.

And IIRC the newly announced MC4 makes 29.97p projects available to all.

Thanks guys, I think the larger problem is that Metafuze 2 doesn't seem to support 1080p/29.97.  Metafuze is even reading my R3D files as 1080 24p even though they are 29.97p.

When looking at page 11 of the Avid Metafuze 2.0 for RED ONE Workflows PDF http://www.avid.com/metafuze/MetaFuze_for_RED_guide.pdf under Compression it says, "Note that 1080p/29.97 (30) is not supported at this time."

If this is true, and I'm on a PC, what are my remaining workflow options?  Also, even if I can get the footage on a Mac, I have yet to find a program that will change R3D files into 1080p/29.97 DNxHD or 1080i/59.94 DNxHD.  Please let me know if I am missing something.

Thank you for your responses.

Redcine will output DNxHD encoded Quicktime files but there is something messed up with the codec bandwidth and those files will not fast import into Media Composer.

Not much more on the Windows side that I can think of.

I am having the same problem! On a PC, footage shot at 1080/29.97. Metafuse 2.0 reads it @ 1080/24. Does Met FUSE SUPPORT 29.97????

The best workflow I have for this right now is to find a Mac, install RedAlert, make sure you have updated RED and QT to handle the new RED camera firmware, convert everything to ProRes 1080p/29.97 and then import those files into the Avid (if you have up to date ProRes for Windows and Avid software you should get proper color representation and TC).

It sucks because you basically have to transcode twice, but the only way to I've found to go from R3D 1080p/29.97 to anything useful is on a Mac and converting to ProRes.