Digital artifacts

[benhaus]

Are these little blocks called artifacts? or macroblocking?

I shot this time-lapsed footage yesterday using my HVX200, Interval mode, dvcpro HD 1080i60. I took 1 frame every 30 seconds.

http://www.benhaus.com/images/jeff-park2.mov

For some reason, the artifacts are only showing up in Quicktime or FCP. When i previewed the footage straight off the p2 card to my hd monitor using the component cable from my camera, it looked fine. Then after i log and transfer using a 1394 firewire cable from the HVX and bring the clips into FCP, they are full of these little blocks.
When viewing them in quicktime, the blocks will appear, and disappear when you frame forward and backward.. they'll just randomly pop up in a different place each time while playing.
Could be problem be the fact that i'm using a firewire cable and the camera to transfer the footage?

I got the blocks when shooting 720 as well, but not as bad.
using a mac 10.4.11 FCP 6.0.3

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[dantewaters]

Woah looks terrible, looks like some type of compression issues, if not could very well be something with you exposure and settings.

1080p should be at it's cleanest.


Are these little blocks called artifacts? or macroblocking?

I shot this time-lapsed footage yesterday using my HVX200, Interval mode, dvcpro HD 1080i60. I took 1 frame every 30 seconds.

http://www.benhaus.com/images/jeff-park2.mov

For some reason, the artifacts are only showing up in Quicktime or FCP. When i previewed the footage straight off the p2 card to my hd monitor using the component cable from my camera, it looked fine. Then after i log and transfer using a 1394 firewire cable from the HVX and bring the clips into FCP, they are full of these little blocks.
When viewing them in quicktime, the blocks will appear, and disappear when you frame forward and backward.. they'll just randomly pop up in a different place each time while playing.
Could be problem be the fact that i'm using a firewire cable and the camera to transfer the footage?

I got the blocks when shooting 720 as well, but not as bad.
using a mac 10.4.11 FCP 6.0.3

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[VictorS]

This is clearly an issue with your computer, not the footage. I've had this happen when I daisy chained my camera through my hard drive. Try removing everything from your firewire and USB ports and restarting. Make sure Final Cut is the only thing open. If it's still a problem, you might have bad ram or you need to re-install FCP.

[AwakenedFilms]

Ben, I am guessing you are referring to the Black and White Flag looking blocks...not just the 'cleanness of the image'. If I'm not mistaken, that looks like the GLITCH!

Did you delete the footy from your card yet? If not, try re-offloading to your HDD again, this time making sure the protect tab is enabled on the card. (Has nothing to do with the firewire transfer)

That is probably the only known way to rectify the GLITCH. Search "THE GLITCH" and you will find more information about this strange issue.


J

[Rustyb99]

Definitely try offloading the footage again. And if possible offload it to a different drive. This just happened on a job I am on right now. That's what our guys tried and it fixed the glitch

[benhaus]

Thanks for the help guys. I did some reading about the "glitch" and tried a few things.

I re-imported to FCP from a disk image of the p2 card. That didn't work.
I also unplugged all fire wire devices and copied to my local HD. still didn't work.
Tried copying to another external lacie FW drive. Still no help.

I know it can't be the card because i can't see any glitches when i view my footage on a 42" 720p plasma display connected via component cable.

any one have any ideas?

[benhaus]

oh yeah, i tried putting the write-protect switch "On" before import -didn't seem to help.

[AwakenedFilms]

Did you view the footage from the card? Is it clean on the card?

[AwakenedFilms]

Just answered my own question...

[William_Robinette]

Sorry I don't have a solution for your problem, but I just came home from shooting today with an ex-1, and the similarity of our shots is quite funny.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/6259/1211505365.jpg

Good luck!

[VictorS]

Are the artifacts still there when u view it on a different computer?

[Al MacLeod]

I'd suspect the firewire cable...the analogy would be pushing 10 pounds of signal through a nine pound line. Your throughput may be right on the edge of the cables capacity.

[benhaus]

Sorry I don't have a solution for your problem, but I just came home from shooting today with an ex-1, and the similarity of our shots is quite funny.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/6259/1211505365.jpg

Good luck!
haha.. hilarious.
this internet thing really makes the world smaller.

your shot looks a lot better than mine.

[alexdias]

We have a very similar problem and through some help of the people here (Barry and others) we found the solution.
If you are ingesting on a Mac you have the same issue.
Just go back to your original MFX file and re-ingest.
It worked 100% with us.

Good luck.

[DGermony]

Are you using "Log and Capture" or "Log and Transfer?" If L&C check that you are pulling the footage down with the proper settings, that is, if you recorded with 720/24p you are encoding with the "DVCPRO HD—720p24" setting in FCP. Same thing under Final Cut Pro -> Audio/Visual Setting... Also check System Setting -> Playback Controls -> Pulldown Pattern -> 2:3:3:2 if you are using 720/24PA. My guess is that these are not the problems and that it is your 1394 cable.

[benhaus]

Thanks for everyone's help with the "glitch". i think i may have found a solution.

Just tried another test on a different Mac in an entirely different edit suite using the exact same 1394 cable, p2 card, camera, log and transfer, etc. And guess what? It worked flawlessly.

The Mac i captured to is an intel 8-core G5 with 8gb of ram, FCP 6.0.2 running OS 10.4.11
The 1080i60 footage plays perfectly.. not one single glitch! I thought, "awesome.. looks great, now i'll just copy the files to a external lacie drive and bring them back over to my machine and start cutting." WRONG. after i copied the files, and tried to play them on my computer, the EXACT SAME QUICKTIME FILES, they were full of glitches.

My computer = Dual 1.8 Ghz powerPC G5 with 2.25GB DDR SDRAM running OS 10.4.11 FCP 6.0.2

Glitch free computer = Intel 8-core G5 with 8GB RAM running OS 10.4.11 FCP 6.0.2

So, i guess my computer just isn't fast enough to handle the 1080 footage?

[AwakenedFilms]

Weirdness...

[benn]

For me it looks like a compression issue. Try to save it to another format than Quicktime, like Canopus HQ (if you have access on it).
But I also wouldn`t exclude a firewire problem. With one cable I had have strange artefacts however with SD PAL, Check your connectors, release any other firewire
accessory.
Good luck Benn