GH4 Just Got My GH4, Some Help in Final Cut Pro X Needed...

L

larrys

Well-known member
With Final Cut Pro 10.1.2 on my Retina Macbook Pro. (2.7, Core i7, 16GB Ram) I did some tests in 4K UHD to discover that I have to edit with Proxy media if I want smooth playback. Is anyone getting different results? Using the original footage, Playback stutters if I have it set to either "Better Quality" or "Better Performance", although when I exported it, it looked fine. But when I created Proxy Media, it played back fine in the browser and in the timeline.

Is the only Mac that will edit 4K smoothly in playback the MacPro?

Is exporting 4K UHD as 1080 as simple as dragging the UHD footage into a 1080 timeline and exporting?

Thanks for any feedback!
 
larrys said:
With Final Cut Pro 10.1.2 on my Retina Macbook Pro. (2.7, Core i7, 16GB Ram) I did some tests in 4K UHD to discover that I have to edit with Proxy media if I want smooth playback. Is anyone getting different results? Using the original footage, Playback stutters if I have it set to either "Better Quality" or "Better Performance", although when I exported it, it looked fine. But when I created Proxy Media, it played back fine in the browser and in the timeline.

Is the only Mac that will edit 4K smoothly in playback the MacPro?

Is exporting 4K UHD as 1080 as simple as dragging the UHD footage into a 1080 timeline and exporting?

Thanks for any feedback!
Click to expand...

I have no problems when trying to edit 4K video on my rMBP, which is slower than yours. I edit in Premiere Pro, but I think it doesn't make a difference between the two. If I remember correctly, Final Cut Pro X actually has built in optimization for 4K timelines.

Have you tried restarting the machine? Clearing cache?
 
I have a quad core i5 with 8gb of ram and an Nvidia 650ti and my original 4k files play back smooth as silk in FCP X. What kind of hard drive are you playing them back from? Mine is coming off a USB 3.0 raid array. Also, are you recording your clips in .mov format? Avoid AVCHD or MP4.
 
I'm also editing no problem on an iMac 27", so no, the new MacPro is not the only one that can do this.

As for your second question, yes, drop your footage to a 1080p timeline then adjust the Fit/Fill etc in the inspector if you want to change the zoom level (i.e. zoom in in post). You could also have a 4K timeline and export to 1080p from there using the compressor presets.

This works exactly the same in Premiere Pro too for anyone wondering.
 
Batutta said:
I have a quad core i5 with 8gb of ram and an Nvidia 650ti and my original 4k files play back smooth as silk in FCP X. What kind of hard drive are you playing them back from? Mine is coming off a USB 3.0 raid array. Also, are you recording your clips in .mov format? Avoid AVCHD or MP4.
Click to expand...

I had problems with an iMac i5 until I bought a Thunderbolt drive. I still have to allow for periodic rendering but otherwise the editing is smooth.

Exact said:
I'm also editing no problem on an iMac 27", so no, the new MacPro is not the only one that can do this.

As for your second question, yes, drop your footage to a 1080p timeline then adjust the Fit/Fill etc in the inspector if you want to change the zoom level (i.e. zoom in in post). You could also have a 4K timeline and export to 1080p from there using the compressor presets.
Click to expand...

You don't need compressor. Highlight the project just before exporting and in the inspector window you can specify what resolution you want the project to be in. I usually make a copy before doing that so as to keep a 4k timeline available for later if I need to change anything.
 
You're going to get stuttery playback when slamming 4k into a 1080p timeline. It's normal and will only get worse if you grade it so save that step for last :)
 
stoneinapond said:
You don't need compressor. Highlight the project just before exporting and in the inspector window you can specify what resolution you want the project to be in. I usually make a copy before doing that so as to keep a 4k timeline available for later if I need to change anything.
Click to expand...

You don't need compressor - but all exports from FCPX use compressor presets ;)

Also, if you change the project settings (resolution) you need to be very careful if you have done any zooming in post (even just a few percent on a 4K timeline) or changed any of the fit/fill options because it's possible those won't carry across to the new resolution correctly. If it's working for you then keep doing it :)
 
Exact said:
...but all exports from FCPX use compressor presets ;)

Also, if you change the project settings (resolution) you need to be very careful if you have done any zooming in post (even just a few percent on a 4K timeline) or changed any of the fit/fill options because it's possible those won't carry across to the new resolution correctly.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that's true.

As to zooming etc., I haven't run into any issues yet, but it's always good to keep an eye out for any issue.

Thanks for the heads up.
 
I have the same MacBook as you and I can edit 4k in its native form just fine. In fact, I've edited multi-cam sequences with 1 UHD 4K stream and 2 1080 streams (T4i and GoPro) and still played and edited natively in real-time. Are you editing off the internal hard drive, or are you using an external drive? I edit off of 1 TB USB 3.0 hard drives with no bottlenecking issues. Also, I believe dropping 4k into a 1080 timeline automatically resizes it.
 
Thanks to All for the feedback. Odd that some of you are editing just fine with iMacs and slower MacBooks and you (areed95) have the same exact Macbook and you can edit 4K mulitcam native with no bottlenecks. Is this even in adding effects, transitions, etc? I have all media on a great Raid drive array, the pegausus thunderbolt 2, 18TB version, so it's a really fast machine and I got it for the GH4 and this documentary project we are working on. I think I may have to transcode all my media into Proxy media to work effectively.

Anyone editing C4K with the Mac Pro machine?

Thanks!!
 
AHA!! Got it resolved! I was just taking with a filmmaker using the GH4 and the same FCP setup and he asked if I was "Optimizing" the footage into pro-res when I was importing. I WAS NOT TRANSCODING! I thought that the MOV files from the GH4 were all ready in the pro-res format that FCP needed because I never transcoded the MOV files coming out of my GH3. But today I learned that with the GH4 files, the 4K MOV footage is not in Pro-Res best suited for FCP and that I need to optimize. I just tried it and it edits perfectly, effects, transitions and all! Great to have this handled!
 
larrys said:
AHA!! Got it resolved! I was just taking with a filmmaker using the GH4 and the same FCP setup and he asked if I was "Optimizing" the footage into pro-res when I was importing. I WAS NOT TRANSCODING! I thought that the MOV files from the GH4 were all ready in the pro-res format that FCP needed because I never transcoded the MOV files coming out of my GH3. But today I learned that with the GH4 files, the 4K MOV footage is not in Pro-Res best suited for FCP and that I need to optimize. I just tried it and it edits perfectly, effects, transitions and all! Great to have this handled!
Click to expand...

But you shouldn't have to do that. I do not transcode. The MOV files work perfectly in native H.264 format. I still think something's wrong with your setup. Does your machine have a graphics card, or is it just the integrated Intel chip?
 
One other thing to look at are your sequence settings. When you first start a project, the sequence will set resolution to the first clip you drag in, so if that clip or element is 1080p, the rest of your sequence will be and any 4k clips you drag in will be resized and have to be processed on the fly until rendered. This can cause stuttering. One way to know if your sequence settings are wrong is to see if there's an orange bar above a 4k clip you put on the timeline. If the settings are in the correct 4k resolution matching the footage, there will be no orange bar over that clip.
 
Batutta said:
One other thing to look at are your sequence settings. When you first start a project, the sequence will set resolution to the first clip you drag in, so if that clip or element is 1080p, the rest of your sequence will be and any 4k clips you drag in will be resized and have to be processed on the fly until rendered. This can cause stuttering. One way to know if your sequence settings are wrong is to see if there's an orange bar above a 4k clip you put on the timeline. If the settings are in the correct 4k resolution matching the footage, there will be no orange bar over that clip.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much! I will check into the sequence settings. The graphics card in my Retina Macbook Pro is: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB. How does this one sound?

Thanks for the advice! I will test it out.
 
I don't know if this had anything to do with the problems, but my new pegasus2 raid was spinning down quite often, turns out that the setting was too short in minutes, so I had tech support show me how to disable or adjust the spinning down/sleep mode on the drives.
 
larrys said:
Did you have the same issues without transcoding?
Click to expand...

I have always selected the optimize media choice in the import window since FCP X first came out, and I still do it out of habit so I can't answer that. What did do it for me was getting a Thunderbolt drive as before I was using a USB 3 drive on a USB 2 bus. There I had a similar issues to yours when I went to 4k.
 
larrys said:
Thanks so much! I will check into the sequence settings. The graphics card in my Retina Macbook Pro is: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB. How does this one sound?

Thanks for the advice! I will test it out.
Click to expand...

Actually, the GT650M might be slightly underpowered for 4k, so that might be your issue in the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top