Noisy footage question.

tony240sx

tony240sx

Well-known member
I got my 7d a few days ago and have only had time to use it for a few little tests around the house. I love it so far but when I import the footage onto my mac, I'm not too happy with the results. On the lcd the footage looks great. I import the footage using eos utility cause I didn't get a CF card reader yet. Once on the mac when I view it, the footage looks very noisy and there seems to be a harsh reddish grain in the dark areas. The footage is at several iso levels and is very visible even at iso's of under 400 which makes me believe it has to be something on the computer end hopefully. I find it hard to believe there would be such horrible visible noise at that level. The footage is also with different lenses so it shouldn't be an issue with that.
I am running a macbook pro 2.4 gig with Snow Leopard. I know there are some issues with Quicktime X, but does it cause the type of things I am talking about? I tried playing the footage in Quicktime 7 with the same results but since there is no way to clear out Quicktime X, could it still have an effect? Does anyone have any idea. I am at work so I can't post footage right now but I would love to hear any suggestions. Last night I did one quick test in compressor of exporting as prores that seemed to clean it up and reduce the red grain but the sharpness was definitely reduced.
 
I'll get some stills up when I get home, I was just wondering if anyone else has heard about or experienced anything like this.
 
Well, it looks like it was just the quicktime x problem. I wasn't actually playing the videos in quicktime 7 because you can't really delete the x version. I switched all .mov files to open in quicktime 7 but when I quick preview with spacebar it still must use x so the footage looks terrible. It looks like I will be downgrading from snow leopard because I don't need anymore surprises like this anymore with footage or workflow.
 
its the monitor.

Look at it on a Plasma or CRT or some other good monitor. it will look perfect.

Same deal with any Video footage....
 
The only issue I'm aware of with quicktime X is that it crushes blacks. If you preview in quicktime 7 the quicktime X API is not being used. The same goes for prores files they still rely on the QT 7 API.
 
squig said:
The only issue I'm aware of with quicktime X is that it crushes blacks. If you preview in quicktime 7 the quicktime X API is not being used. The same goes for prores files they still rely on the QT 7 API.
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Yeah that is correct but I deleted quicktime x out of the applications folder and downloaded quicktime 7, thinking it would now take over. I usually quickly play my videos by previewing with the spacebar. Since you can't really delete quicktime x it would still open with it with x by clicking the spacebar or opening the item. Once I manually changed my system to play all .mov files with quicktime 7 it looks fine. It still uses quicktime x however when I hit the spacebar to preview the video.
 
I am having the same problem. My footage is super noisy in any kind of low light. I am going crazy trying to figure out the issue. From the above post, I still am not sure if I understand. I am using Quicktime X as well.

Also, what is the best way to import files onto computer to be then opened in FCP 6. I didn't know I had to convert. Please help.
 
You don't have to convert to open and edit the native footage but it will make your life a hell of a lot easier. To edit the native footage is pretty intensive on the system and you will probably have some issues with things slowing down and stuttering in FCP and forget about adding any effects. To have very nice real time editing of the footage you can transcode the native files to something more manageable like prores or xdcam. You can convert in Compressor just fine, but there is a free program called Mpeg Streamclip that converts just as good but faster than compressor. You can download it at www.squared5.com
 
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Did anyone tried to compare the native QT H264 codec and the same footage played after installing
the canon H264 codec ? I don't see any difference except that the canon codec requester shows an "options" button that does not work ...
Because I prefer to work in fcp with the ProresHQ codec, I tried to make a rought cut in H264 then send from FCP to Motion, export the rought cut as Prores and do the grading and cuts fine tuning back in fcp ... but it seems that AE do the trick better as it allow to add some antialisaing on the crappy shots (buildings, t-shirts, fences etc ...), it work far better than the FCP anti-flicker that act like a bazzoka ;-)
Laurent
 
tony240sx said:
You don't have to convert to open and edit the native footage but it will make your life a hell of a lot easier. To edit the native footage is pretty intensive on the system and you will probably have some issues with things slowing down and stuttering in FCP and forget about adding any effects. To have very nice real time editing of the footage you can transcode the native files to something more manageable like prores or xdcam. You can convert in Compressor just fine, but there is a free program called Mpeg Streamclip that converts just as good but faster than compressor. You can download it at www.squared5.com
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thanks, but I have another quesiton if you don't mind. So I have the program you mentioned. I will be adding 7D footage to a timeline with additional footage from an HMC150. The HMC is HDV...I think. Does that matter? If so, what should convert to.

Also do I need to adjust any other setting in Streamclip, or just change what I want file to be compressed as?
 
The hmc footage is AVCHD, which should be transcoded to prores to work with in FCP since AVCHD cannot be edited natively. There is a description of how to do this on Panasonics AVCHD website or just look in the hmc forum on here and there is plenty of transcoding info and workflow advice. If you are mixing those cams than it would be best to convert your 7d footage to prores as well. The quality is basically identical to the original format but the codec runs perfectly in FCP so you will not have any issues. The file sizes are huge though, so keep that in mind when transcoding and free up enough space.
 
commanderspike said:
Is it just me or is Quicktime X a complete disaster for Apple?
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I would have to agree at this point. When I first installed snow leopard, I loved the video screen capture built into quicktime x and thought it would be a great update. It didn't take long for the problems to start and kill my enthusiasm.
 
I re-installed QT7 pretty quickly after installing Snow Leopard. Luckily FCP still relies on the QT7 engine.
 
tony240sx said:
Yeah that is correct but I deleted quicktime x out of the applications folder and downloaded quicktime 7, thinking it would now take over. I usually quickly play my videos by previewing with the spacebar. Since you can't really delete quicktime x it would still open with it with x by clicking the spacebar or opening the item. Once I manually changed my system to play all .mov files with quicktime 7 it looks fine. It still uses quicktime x however when I hit the spacebar to preview the video.
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Right click (ctrl-click) on a clip and choose "open With" and navigate to the old QuickTime 7. You can always specify which app opens anything that way.

You don't want to delete QuickTime X, it's a crucial part of 10.6. BTW, have you noticed how nice video in QT X looks? I can't wait until it's usable in FCP... a 64bit QT will make FCP scream.

In the meantime, everything seems faster under SL (10.6). Hell, the improved display drivers alone make me feel like I just bought a new computer...
 
commanderspike said:
Is it just me or is Quicktime X a complete disaster for Apple?
Click to expand...

No... in fact it's like looking at a space ship while standing next to my WWII fighter. The quality difference and speed is awe inspiring.


tony240sx said:
I would have to agree at this point. When I first installed snow leopard, I loved the video screen capture built into quicktime x and thought it would be a great update. It didn't take long for the problems to start and kill my enthusiasm.
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It's the first release as a real 64bit app, so it cannot edit video, like QT7. That will change, and pretty soon I suspect. There may already be a QTX on steroids that isn't being released until the FCP team gets FCP ready for it.


squig said:
I re-installed QT7 pretty quickly after installing Snow Leopard. Luckily FCP still relies on the QT7 engine.
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You can select that as an option during install of 10.6. In fact it was the default when I installed 10.6. Now, what you just did will now cause you problems. You should reinstall QuickTime X now, as manually installing QT7 overwrote some crucial QTX files. This is why you want QT7 on your machine before you install 10.6 and why you want to read each screen and have the checkbox selected for leaving QT7...
 
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