Working with R3D Files

The RED camera has been gaining ground as a digital replacement for film, rather than broadcast TV. RED cameras create a R3D file containing the media plus QuickTime MOV reference movies that play back the video at different resolutions.

CatDV 11 Pegasus

Provides native playback of RED clips within CatDV.

No need to generate Proxies to view your footage back – simply import the red clips into CatDV 11 Pegasus and your clips are instantly available for review.

Pegasus can also read and analyse the RED metadata recorded with the files and store that information with the clip.

You can still use REDCINE -X to transcode your red footage to Proxies from CatDV. Take a look at this tutorial ‘Using the Worker to transcode R3D footage‘.

CatDV 10 Pegasus

Playback

To play back R3D media from within CatDV, you will need to install the free REDCODE QuickTime codec and also enable the “resolve data references” option in CatDV’s preferences to ensure the reference movies will work.

If you have a RED EPIC camera, the QuickTime reference movies aren’t created automatically and so you will have to create these using REDCINE-X. REDCINE-X is a free application that allows you to view R3D files natively on your Mac or Windows system. It also can adjust and manipulate the RAW Metadata of the R3Ds.

Metadata

The CatDV Pegasus Client also has the ability to read and analyse RED EPIC metadata.

Transcode

REDCINE-X has the ability to transcode R3D files to the most common self-contained formats (e.g. Quicktime, Avid MXF, and DPX).

It also possible to use the CatDV worker to use Red’s tools for transcoding. REDline is the command line tool that transcodes and comes as part of Red Cine X (produced by Red themselves). Take a look at this tutorial ‘Using the Worker to transcode R3D footage‘.