Footage conversion problems on Mac

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon -- a couple of clips I tried to transcode tonight have the terrible, blotchy color glitches. They're 30p/720. Everything else has been fine so far except these two clips.
 
Hello BobDiaz,

I too am using FCE4 and Toast 9... From your experience, are there any combinations of settings(FCE&Toast) that seem to deliver the best results? thanks....
 
fieldreportermf said:
Hello BobDiaz,

I too am using FCE4 and Toast 9... From your experience, are there any combinations of settings(FCE&Toast) that seem to deliver the best results? thanks....
Click to expand...

Right now I'm working with FCE 3.5; I don't have the camera yet, so I'm working from other user's files to see how well it looks... I'm still trying things and have yet to decide to go with FCE 4.0 OR pay a lot more and FCP (FCS).


I have not tested that many combinations, but I have found that in one menu, you can't select AIC, but it does appear in a different menu. (Sorry, but off the top of my head I don't remember.) Because FCE works in AIC, I select that...

It appears that 720/30p (or 24p) is the sweet point for the camera. FCE only seems to work in 720/30p; thus everything (720/60p, 30p, 24p) is converted to 720/30p.

The 720/60p converts by dropping every other frame. I guess this could work if you shoot the video with a 1/60th of a second shutter.

720/24p converts by making a second copy of a frame every 4 frames. For example, Source: "A B C D E F G H" becomes "A B C D D E F G H H". It can look a bit odd on playback.

720/30p does not convert correctly at this time; neither Toast 9 nor VoltaicHD converts it correctly. Oddly enough, you can shoot in 1080/30p and tell either converter to output the result as 720/30p and it works correctly.


I have NOT run the tests to see if shooting 720/60p into FCE (converted to 720/30p) is better than shooting 1080/30p and converting the file to 720/30p. There are a few things that work in the 60p mode, like DRS, this I believe don't work in 30p mode...

Bob Diaz
 
So has anyone gotten 720p30 footage to convert correctly to any format (DVCPRO HD/ProRes/ProRes HQ/AIC, or even HDV or DV) using Toast 9, and if so how?? I'm in a bit of a crunch here to cut a quick trailer and the format isn't important because YouTube is the delivery. Thanks!
 
Well, no matter what I convert my 720p30 footage to (AIC, ProRes, DVCPRO HD, DV, HDV, and even H.264 are all that I've tried), and no matter the framerate (29.97, 30, 59.94, and 60 (progressive, and some interlaced) are all that I've tried for the same 30p footage), everything plays as though 15 fps I suppose, is the best way I can describe it. The audio will be slightly out of sync or "in-sync" sometimes, but it's as though only half of the frames of the video are playing, so it looks "out-of-sync" even though the timing may be accurate. For instance, I have footage of a woman talking, and her mouth is moving during all the right times, but it appears like it's not the right audio because visually speaking every other frame seems to be elided. I've read on this thread that 30p footage won't convert correctly to anything, so I was hoping someone had a solution to get it into SOME editable format, as I'm still using a G5 right now (blast...). I did finally get one option to work mediocrely, and that was ProRes HQ at 30p, but the audio is out of sync by 14 frames, which seems to say something about the footage. But even that still wasn't perfect.

Thanks for your help, David.
 
What version of FCP are you running on what hardware?

What QT, and what media drive.

How much RAM.

What did you shoot in the HMC150?
 
-What version of FCP are you running on what hardware?
Transcoding with Toast 9. Using FCP 6.0.5 to import on the respective (correct) timelines. PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 4GB RAM.

-What QT, and what media drive.
QT Pro 7.5.5; no media drive as it's not a lot of footage so it's just on my comp's HD. (plenty of free space with 2 250GBs) The footage has the same problems in QT as it does in FCP.

-How much RAM.
4GB

-What did you shoot in the HMC150?
Not sure what you're asking here exactly, but it's 720p30 PH mode, default scene file 1. A bunch of clips of various lengths, 15 seconds to 5 minutes long. As for content, it's of a woman talking, interview style. HMC150, NTSC.

Thanks for your help - hope I answered all of your questions.
 
Open the clips in the QT Pro player that you have converted.

Hit command - I to reveal the movie inspector.

Start the movie playing.

Tell us what is showing the inspector for:

1. FPS

2. Playing FPS.

Also, I don't think playing off the boot drive is good idea, especially for anything AIC, prores, DVCProHD, etc

Not fast enough.

And why convert to HDV?
 
avchd is having some serious problems

avchd is having some serious problems

The only way I can sucessfully transfer avchd footage is recording in 1080 24p and 720 24p and capturing with I movie. Nothing else seems to work.

FCP 6.0.5 and those crazy plug ins.
Toast 9 doesnt work.
I movie cant seems to manage anything 30p.

Is there a solution?
 
Is there a solution to what?

Because I have no issues using Toast 9, FCP 6.0.4 or the AVCHD to p2 folder conversion in Windows.

Explain in detail what "FCP 6.0.5 and those crazy plug ins" means?

We shot almost an hour of 720/24p and converted without any issues.

I tested as above and also used VideoPierHD as well.
 
The plug ins from apple for the log and transfer section. Ive also tried the downloads from panasonic on their website. When I choose to mount the "private" folder fcp gives me an error. I just cant seem to correctly capture 1080/720 30p footage or capture anything within fcp.

Toast 9 just bumps the audio out of sync with the video and I cant seem to find the right setting to fix it. If you have done it correctly can you please tell me the settings?
 
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Less compression in the 720 compared to the 1080 so it's more or less considered the sweet spot of the 150.
 
TheGuitarzan said:
I am asking completely out of ignorance... why all the talk about shooting in 720/30p? Why not shoot in 1080/30p?
Click to expand...

Both 720/30p and 720/24p offer the lowest compression ratios possible; thus the lowest compression noise possible.

With FCE, 720/30p is the mode that FCE likes to work in. The problem is that right now both VoltaicHD and Toast 9 don't convert that mode properly. RATS!!!!

I believe that problem will be fixed in a future software update, but until then, the only work-arounds I see are:

Shoot 720/24p: Great but FCE drops it into a 30p time line, making a second copy of every 4th frame. I can output the file as 24p, but the dropped frame may not be the extra copy.

Shoot 720/60p: FCE drops every frame to generate a 720/30p sequence. The file has a higher compression ratio and more compression noise than the 720/30p file. Also, the shutter speed would need to be 1/60 of a second to avoid strobe like movement at 30p.

Shoot 1080/30p: The will convert to 720/30p using Toast 9 or VoltaicHD. I'm not sure how the compression noise would appear when the image size is reduced. I have not compared this to a 720/60p files yet...

USE FCP and SHOOT 720/24P: Possible, BUT that's a lot of money to upgrade and given that I lost a lot of money in 2008 (Stock market and several jobs canceled), I have to watch what I spend...



Bob Diaz
 
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