GH4 Concerns Regarding Recording and Playback

R

Redoak

Member
Sorry for all these newbie questions everyone but I'm not finding answers elsewhere so here I am..

During recording in 4K 100mbs on a Transcend Ultiimate SDXC High Speed Class 10 UHS-1 U3 card I am noticing that recording starts with all the display items showing, a solid red dot in the upper right corner and a solid red outline of an SD card with an arrow pointing into it. On long takes during interviews etc after a minute or two most of the display data except along the bottom of the frame disappears, and the red dot and the red SD card outline blinks on and off for the duration of the shot. Is this normal and okay?

Another question: I transferred some of my 4K 24p footage using a MacBook Pro 2.9 GHz to a Western Digital My Book hard drive and noticed that when I Clicked on a MOV file and played it the motion was not smooth. Is this a function of the computer or hard drive I am using or - heaven forbid - is there a problem with my footage?
 
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Redoak said:
Sorry for all these newbie questions everyone but I'm not finding answers elsewhere so here I am..

During recording in 4K 100mbs on a Transcend Ultiimate SDXC High Speed Class 10 UHS-1 U3 card I am noticing that recording starts with all the display items showing, a solid red dot in the upper right corner and a solid red outline of an SD card with an arrow pointing into it. On long takes during interviews etc after a minute or two most of the display data except along the bottom of the frame disappears, and the red dot and the red SD card outline blinks on and off for the duration of the shot. Is this normal and okay?
Click to expand...

Normal. The disappearing menus on the LCD is a, "screen saver". Protects the flip out viewfinder LCD from image burns. Scared me at initially but got used to it. Did your footage playback normally on the Powerbook? Is the WD My Book hard drive connected via USB 3.0 or 2?
 
The PowerBook is a friends and she thinks it has USB 3 but neither are here in front of me so I'm not certain. The footage when played back on the PowerBook via whatever program that plays video files - when you just click on the file from the external hard drive - does not play smoothly but is a little stuttery on people talking shots and more stuttery on panning shots.
 
Redoak said:
The PowerBook is a friends and she thinks it has USB 3 but neither are here in front of me so I'm not certain. The footage when played back on the PowerBook via whatever program that plays video files - when you just click on the file from the external hard drive - does not play smoothly but is a little stuttery on people talking shots and more stuttery on panning shots.
Click to expand...

Most probably underpowered processor.
 
Most definitely an underpowered computer for the stuttering footage issue.

PowerBooks were discontinued in 2006, and 720p was just barely becoming used and widely available to consumers. Most people were still using 640x480 camcorders. Consumer 4K camcorders were not released until 8 years later, at the 2014 CES show.
 
It's likely hard drive speed, in my estimation. The fact that it's worse on panning shots makes sense because panning and high detail shots have a higher data rate (more information in the file) than a relatively stationary talking head. If it's a Macbook Pro from anywhere pre 2013, it likely has USB 2.0 which is 30 MB/s which in theory should be enough to play 4K files, but in practice I've had problems with USB 2.0 hard drives.
 
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