GH13 Hack, FCP, 24p, Upper Field?

R

rjk2000

Active member
So, I took the dive and installed the firmware yesterday. Seems to be fine, no brick, and I'm breathing a sigh. Pretty easy. I had a quick question though, cuz I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong in the FCP workflow. Let's see if I can explain...

I shot my footage using the 24P with ACVHD D settings (or the recommended C settings on the 3.36 firmware patch). Then, I copied the Private folder to my harddrive. Then I used FCP's Log and Transfer to bring the footage into a ProRes 422, 1920x1080 sequence, 24p sequence. However, when I then dragged my clip over, it asks me if I want to change the sequence settings to match my clip. Which is weird, since the footage seems to be 24P with the default audio on the GH1 of 48 mHz, which should match the FCP preferred audio. (I didn't change the audio settings on the firmware.)

When I then right-click on the clip and looked at the settings, I saw that each clip was still listed as "Upper" for the field dominance. So I changed them to None. (And I checked out the clips in Quicktime, using the inspector, and it shows a 23.98 frame rate.) My question is, should I need to do this? Am I just some bonehead, idiot FCP newbie, and I'm somehow missing an important step before the log and transfer, or during the firmware?

And on a completely unrelated note, I noticed this. When I viewed the clips separately in the quicktime player, with the inspector on in quicktime, the variable bitrate was high. I think the number sometimes shot up to 50, which is neat, since I was only using a Class 4 PNY 8 GB card to test. However, when I right-click the clips in FCP and checked the settings, I noticed that the bitrate was listed at around 9. Which was weird... BUT... When I then tested out the footage (low-light, ISO 400, 50mm lens at 1.4, shutter 60) in Magic Bullet, the footage help up RIDICULOUSLY WELL. I mean, it was retarded how well it held up. The old GH1 could only hold up to color correction for up to a point -- too much and it stared breaking up -- but I really pushed it last night, and it held well. Perhaps, it's a placebo effect, but it seems to be working just dandy. I hope to do some "out in the real world" tests today -- mostly the Class 4 card will not work -- but I gotta try!

Anyway, back to the log and transfer? Upper? Should I change? Am I missing something? Or has this already been answered in another post, cuz I did a search, but couldn't find it. Thanks.
 
In regards to your second question about the bitrate readings in fcp; they are not listing the bitrate that your footage was captured at, but the rate it was brought into fcp with whatever codec you used.
 
I would like to know how to even get to that point. When I try to log and transfer, FCP won't even recognize the mts files. Before the hack there was no problems. Any ideas?
 
Tracey Lee said:
I would like to know how to even get to that point. When I try to log and transfer, FCP won't even recognize the mts files. Before the hack there was no problems. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

FCP has always needed the full PRIVATE folder directory structure...
 
Tracey Lee said:
I am reading right off the card...so it's got it...but it is still giving me that message of the messed up structure etc etc.
Click to expand...

Copy the Private folder -- and only the Private folder and it's contents -- off the card. In log and transfer, either drag the full Private folder into the Log and Transfer window or search it out. That should do it.
 
I'm currently testing "B" settings (only have a class 6 atm) with 24pN and am successfully able to log and transfer from the PRIVATE folder into FCP (CS4). The properties show 23.98 FPS / 111 Mbit/s

When you log and transfer you must only select the PRIVATE folder. Don't go into the private folder and hunt for the mts. After you select ok the list of mts files will show up in your log and transfer screen. That is with CS4 anyway. Not sure about any other versions below.
 
I tried an experiment to see what happens. The file shows an upper field in FCP so I put it through JES with upper field checked and progressive for output. The file no longer shows there is an upper field in FCP and it looks really close to the original but I do see some very slight changes on the edges of objects. But I have to look with squinting eyes. Not sure what is going on with that or how to explain it.
 
I posted this in another thread, this seems to have worked for me:

I'm not sure if it's been discussed before, but I think I may have found a solution for the field dominance situation with native 24p footage in FCP. Instead of Logging and Transferring straight from the card and it's .MTS files, I used ClipWrap to convert the .MTS to ProResLT, and this gave me 23.98 flies with no field dominance. They play nice with FCP. I also tested rewrapping the clips to .MOV in ClipWrap, and then using MPEG Streamclip to export to ProRes LT, with similar results. The resulting data rates are slightly off between the two methods (ClipWrap -> ProresLT vs. ClipWrap -> .MOV -> ProRes LT via MPEG Streamclip), but that may have more to do with the audio settings in MPEG Streamclip, which seems to give you more options.

On a side note, once I let FCP change the sequence's settings to match the non field dominant footage, I was able to drop the original FCP field dominant (Upper - Odd) footage into the same timeline with no render bars, and it played straight through.
 
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