DOES ANYONE Own an HMC-150 & Live on Long Island? (NY)

V

Vince27

Member
Hi -

I'm looking to find someone who can possibly help me out -

I live in Nassau County (Hicksville) on Long Island, NY -

I own an HMC-150, and I'm having ALOT of problems with the footage playing on my editing system (fcpx)

the problem is jerky footage - the footage doesn't play smooth, & seems to stagger/skip from time to time - (my iMac FAR EXCEEDS the minimal requirements to run FCPX - i7/16g RAM)

after endlessly trying to trouble shoot this with fcpx techs, I'm starting to think that possibly, there is a problem with the camera...

So...

here's where I can really use some help (if someone lives close to me & owns this camera) - if you live close by, would you be willing to swing by with your camera, shoot some very quick footage, & then import the footage into my editing system?

this would definitely tell me whether it's my camera, or my editing system -

this would be a HUGE help, because if YOUR camera footage plays fine, then I know MY camera is the problem - which would suck, but at least the problem would finally be isolated -

at this point, i still can't isolate the problem, & like i said, i've been trouble shooting this with fcpx techs for days! - (and I'm in pre-production for a film no less)

so the only thing i can think of at this point, is to use another HMC-150's footage...


Anyone out there with this camera who lives close by?? - I would totally appreciate the help!

thanks!
 
It's not your camera.

I have a 2600K overclocked to 4.4Ghz with 16GB RAM and a RAID5 array of 10K SAS drives and scrubbing AVCHD footage is not smooth. That's just how H.264 is. Transcode it to Prores.
 
Playback is fine on my system - i7 3.4ghz iMac and 16gb RAM. The only time I get jerkiness is after applying multiple levels of effects or color correction, and even then it's not dealbreaking jerkiness. Even scrubbing works fine.

I'd help you out but I live in San Diego.

Maybe post more details about how you're setup? Where is your media located, what kind of drives, etc.
 
Yeah it's acceptable for small projects for sure....bot not so much for larger ones.

Regardless, it doesn't compare to the performance of scrubbing Prores or DNxHD.
 
hey phil - thanks for responding -

the jerky footage problem isn't coming from when i scrub, its happening when I simply playback the footage on FCPX (either from when i play a clip in the event browser, or when i am playing it in the timeline) - it's not out of control, but its enough to be unacceptable (and from what the FCPX techs have told me, it shouldn't be happening at all) - they told me that i am basically the first (hard to believe) but the first to be calling them with this "avchd problem" in fcpx -

- as far as transcoding to prores, i did that, and still experience the problem...
- so the problem happens when when I import natively, & when i transcode...

some other things i have done to test:

- export (master render) the clip - this seems to take away alot of the jerkyness/skipping and greatly improves the play, BUT, there are still small sections where the footage will skip - & i feel this is unacceptable (especially if i am being paid to produce a video project) - but even for my own standards, it's unacceptable to me

- tried importing straight into the iMac's Hard drive (7200 speed) - and running the footage internally (as opposed to the externals) - still have the problem...

- opened up the footage in it's raw form (original media) - definitley plays alot better this way, but still shows some staggering in slight spots...

- i unistalled/re-installed fcpx - still same results

- i installed fcpx on my macbook pro, then imported the same footage - even worse results (probably because the machine wasn't powerful enough) - which made me think - is my iMac "struggling to playback the footage as well?? - could that just simply be the problem? - but that is hard to believe because my iMac is a brand new 27" MAXED OUT machine - (i7 3.4, 16g of RAM, 2g Vram)

- i also hooked up a full HD monitor to my camera, & watched the footage play from the camera - when i did this, the footage basically plays like butter - BUT - very slightly I noticed some "stagger" - but VERY slight, & maybe possibly just due to fast movement of the camera (maybe strobing?) - but the footage was 720/60p - 60 shutter (which isn't supposed to strobe out) - so the camera playback is basically flawless - BUT - the fcpx tech said that the camera playback wouldn't necessarily tell that there is a problem with the camera (if there was one) -

- and i also tried two different SDHC cards (different brands, speeds) & had the same problem using both cards...

- so I am down to thinking (at this point) that it's either:
a. there is a problem with the way the camera is "wrapping the footage" therefore making it very hard for the machine to play (which would be a camera problem) or,
b. Incredibly, my machine isn't powerful enough to playback/final render, etc. - this type of footage


Here's another interesting "test"

- if I am playing some footage, & watching it in the preview window, & i see the footage stagger (if i stop the footage, rewind, & then play again) alot of the times it won't stagger where it just did... and it will play through the spot (where it just staggered) fine...
- so that makes me think: its some type of a playback issue with the machine - but then why would both machines have the same issue?
- is it a fcpx issue? (according to the fcpx techs - its not, as they say ALOT of people are using AVCHD on fcpx, and having no problems, or at least a problem like this...

Footage Note: this seems to happen with ALL modes (24p, 30p, 60p - 720, 1080p/i) with various shutter speed adjustments, as I tested All modes, with different shutter speeds (thinking that maybe it was a strobing problem) - but like i said, 60fps isn't supposed to strobe -

Another Note of Interest: the "skipping/staggering/jerky movement only seems to happen when the camera pans, or zooms (while panning (in or out) either during fast movement, or slow movement/panning - again, this happens with 60fps (720p/1080i) - but like i said, if i rewind & play through again, it usually won't stagger (where it just did) -

- another test i did - i imported same footage into iMovie (full size i believe) - and it looked like it played it alot better, but i believe i saw some skipping as well, but not as bad - at this point, its all becoming a blur to me...

so my next trouble shooting steps are:

- like I am requesting in this post, to possibly find someone else with an HMC-150, & run their footage through my machine (at least that will definitely tell me if it's my camera, or my machine) -

- I also plan to call panasonic (maybe my camera has some type of an older avchd codec or something? I believe my camera is one of the older HMC-150's - i bought it off of a wedding videographer who switched to DSLR, & i believe he told me he bought it in like 2010 i think, or 09') - so maybe the camera needs an update or something? - or maybe he sold it for a reason... which would really piss me off if he sold it knowing it had a problem (when i asked him 1,000 times if it had ANY problems) -

- and i also plan to import some footage from my consumer Sony DCR-SR 80 HDD cam - which i believe has similar files (.mts i think) - but that's Standard Def - so it might play smooth just for that sake alone...


- so who knows at this point... ??
 
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Hi Hendosan - thanks for replying... I just wrote a bunch of stuff replying to Phil's post (above) which addresses what you have asked as well - about my set up etc...

so if you get a chance please read & see what you make of it all...

ALSO thanks for offering to help with your camera (just sux that you live 3,000 miles away lol) -

it appears we have the same iMac system (now that i upgraded to the 16g of RAM) - and you say that you own an HMC-150, & are editing on FCPX, and you are NOT seeing any jerky playback, or skipping/staggering with the footage when you preview it on FCPX? - the footage is playing back for you smooth, no stutter problems at all (even when the camera pans in the shot?) -

your export (master render) video comes out smooth like butter??

thanks again guys....
 
Playback is smooth unless I am overlaying graphics. I can even use the stabilization plugin and make basic color adjustments (minimal power windows) and it'll play smoothly. In my FCPX preferences I have playback set to high quality (as opposed to better performance). Export is always smooth.

Here's my system and workflow, in case there were any differences:
iMac 12,2
i7 2600
16gb RAM (Patriot brand, 4x4gb 1333mhz)
256gb SSD (applications are stored here)
2gb Radeon 6970m
1tb 7200 RPM/32mb internal drive (this is my primary scratch disk)
2x2tb 7200 RPM/64mb external drives connected via FW800 (footage archives)

Before I even ingest my clips, I create a disk image using Disk Utility and store them on one of the archive drives.

For new FCPX projects, I create a sparse disk image in Disk Utility on my scratch disk. Then I mount the sparse image as well as any SD card copies I've made through Disk Utility.

I create events and projects inside the sparse image, then ingest the video. I don't let FCPX do any of the analysis while ingesting.

You should note that unless you have a ludicrously high frame rate and shutter speed, you're probably going to see some stutter on a really fast pan or zoom.

Are your sequences in the same resolution/frame rate as your footage? FCPX having to scale/add frames on the fly might cause dropped frames on playback.
Do your .mts clips play back smoothly in VLC?
Do your H264 clips (the FCPX rewrapped ones) play smoothly in Quicktime?
Do the ProRes transcodes play smoothly in Quicktime?
Do you have FCP7? If so, do ProRes transcodes play back smoothly in FCP7?
What speed/size/cache size is your external drive? Is it connected via FW800 or some other method?
Have you experienced any similar glitches while playing back H264 content (whether your own or a movie download) in Quicktime?

I dug through my archives and I do have a 600mb SD card disk image that I'm uploading now - most of the footage involves zooms and/or pans, and some of it is handheld.
 
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hey guys, thanks for getting back - totally appreciate it -

hendosan - I read your post twice, & am still trying to absorb how you go about importing, I'm not familiar with some of the stuff you are talking about (for example: "For new FCPX projects, I create a sparse disk image in Disk Utility on my scratch disk. Then I mount the sparse image as well as any SD card copies I've made through Disk Utility.") - not sure what a sparse disk is, & what you mean by creating images etc. (scratch disk means? I've heard the term before, but never really knew what it meant) - I will read your post again later when i have more time... but because you import this way, it might be the reason your footage plays%2
 
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hey guys - just wanted to update the situation:

i downloaded adobe CS5.5 trial & although it seems to play the footage better, i still saw some of the same glitching - I'm not familiar with CS5.5, so I'm not really sure if I was doing things correctly, but it seemed that CS5.5 was playing right off of the .MTS files - which FCPX does not (it converts it to H.264 upon import) -

but again, the situation/issue still seems to be present - which got me back to thinking (again) is there an issue with my camera...

so I talked to B&H pro video/editing tech today, & he feels it might just be a matter of finding the right transcode for the codec (he doesn't believe the camera has an issue) - so I played around with different export settings (but still saw the glitches) -

my last resort at this is I'm going to go into the city this weekend & personally walk into B&H with my camera (the tech gave me a name of someone who he said is an amazing trouble shooter) & I'm going to see what this guy thinks (and also) I am going to use an HMC150 at the store to shoot some footage... which I think may really tell the tale here - because if B&H's HMC150's footage plays fine on my system, then I'm thinking there has to be an issue with my camera... but if B&H's footage plays the same way as my footage, then this has to be an AVCHD/codec issue...

One last thing I am also going to do, is try a third party converter & see if that does anything...

So that's where it's at as of now... I'm also going to throw up a post in the FCPX forum to see if I can find all of the people who are specifically using an HMC150 with FCPX - (because i just find it really hard to believe that I am the only one with this issue) -

thanks again guys for your help & input...
 
Vince27 said:
One last thing I am also going to do, is try a third party converter & see if that does anything...
Click to expand...

Right on, though I would have tried this 1st. AVCHD is a very compressed codec and I have yet to see it function perfectly natively.
 
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