Transcoding for the G5 users...omg a pain

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whitecrow1

Member
So here it is, another BIG thing that Apple has put in the dust...the PPC G5 users.

I have tried a few different things for transcoding...the best one being VoltaicHD. I can drag my files off the camera and drop them onto the desktop or somewhere important. I just open it up in VoltaicHD, change my quicktime settings, and hit start...works like a charm with only some minor defects (audio about 15 frames out of sync but easy fix). but here is where the real problem begins...

I got called to shoot a church service at a local church (not an important job) and all they wanted really was a wide shot. now this was an hour and a half long wide shot, so i popped in a 16gb class 6 SDHC card and put the record settings to 720 24p just to be on the safe side for when it came down to transcoding.

Went home, hooked it up to the G5, and to my surprise, the camera had broken it up into 4 MTS files, never going over 3.99GB each. Now in the Camera it shows up as 1 clip in playbackmode, so I am guessing there is something in all those million other folders that tells the camera they are 1. This is probably what is causing this next big problem.

When I go to transcode this footage, it tells me it is preparing each clip for like ever...and about half an hour later after it does its preparing, it ends in a nice "Fail" notice and moves on to the next clip. There are 4 clips that it broke the shot into, and on the 4th one, the one that I stopped the record on at the end of the shoot, it transcodes just fine. Takes a long time however, but in the long run, it transcoded just as i had wanted it to. WTF??? lol ...now I get to go record 26 minutes (the length of each of the failed clips) and make sure its not the file size that causes the failures.

All in all, what I want to know is, does anybody know of any type of Log and Transfer software that will work on an Apple PPC G5? Why panasonic didn't include some kind of software for transcoding...it's beyond me, but all I know is, I have a much MUCH bigger job coming up in about a week...I need to figure something out so will please someone help me? lol im so stumped at this point and I am wondering if i should have just gone with HDV since Apple didnt think G5s were worthy enough to get the ability to read MTS files in Final Cut.
 
Even if a transcoding software did work, I wouldn't recommend it as even a current day Mac Mini would be much faster at transcoding than your G5. Yes, the pre-intel Macs were indeed that slow...
 
booggerg2 said:
even a current day Mac Mini would be much faster at transcoding than your G5. Yes, the pre-intel Macs were indeed that slow...
Click to expand...

That is in fact an incorrect statement that needs to be corrected right away lol...i have a nice intel based macbook pro and so does a buddy of mine who actually has an even newer one, and though fast, they do not out perform my G5. Reason being is new apple machines are being mass produced and not built for top notch performance without breaking down a few times before getting it up to speed (spoken from experience on my last job using an 8-core mac pro lol). Pre-intel, when you order the machine...it was not built until after you order and on top of that hand inspected for performance. and then not to mention I have the latest dual 2.7ghz G5 they came out with right before the switch to intel...but anyways back on topic haha:

I just tried out the MTSMerger and it merges quite well. the reason i had to add that little bit above this was because i also did a transcode attempt on the macbook pro...which did not make it even to "fail" but rather crashed in the attempt about 15 minutes after starting.

I cannot encode this 90 minute long clip. it was worth the try though...but omg I am not giving up my hopes yet, because i spent money i dont even have on this camera and i'll be damned if i see it sold on ebay just yet.
 
About the 4 gig files.... The SDHC cards are FAT 32 - (so they work with mac and pc). There is a 4GB limit on each individual file. I found this out by trying to transfer a 6GB video file from the PC to MAC with a 500GB removable HD... What a headache.
 
well even though it is a long process...i found it easier to just log and transfer to the macbook pro. transfers and transcodes much MUCH faster and also makes it much easier to log the footage. I am still using VoltaicHD for short clips and such because most the time they do not exceed 3.99gb. and i realized that i was getting out of sync audio even on that because i accidently encoded Apple ProRes 422 HQ instead of just 422. works fine now and thats about all that will work until panasonic gives in to all the complaints and makes some software that with transcode specifically for this camera lol (which probably wont happen)
 
whitecrow: any CPU intensive task, the Intel macs is faster than PowerPC G5.. performance has nothing to do with how much attention Apple puts into "assembling" the workstations as you have alluded to. It's an inherient technological fact that the PowerPC macs are slower than Intel macs. Glad the MacBook Pro is working out for ya.. a Mac Mini will perform just the same given similar CPUs and RAM in both..
 
I still edit on my G5 and it's been a workhorse.. handles just about anything.. except transcoding HMC stuff. For that, I go to my trusted buddy who has a mac pro. I don't know about shoddy stuf as that think kicks arse. It's a quad and it's lightyears faster than my system. I will be buying one soon and regardless of what is made where and that, my G5 has maybe a few more months of it then it becomes the family computer. Either way, you get your money's worth out of a Mac over the long haul.
 
i really wouldnt mind getting a new mac pro to take the place of my current G5 work station, but i just dont have the money, as is the same issue with most other people still working on the older machines.

but to clear up what i was talking about before with how the machines were built, i did not mean that it affects performance...no they perform great...until they start having problems. my neighbor, my brother in law and even myself on my last workstation at my last job...all mac pros...all have gone through more problems (mostly hardware related) than my current G5. Though slightly slower in processor speed, these things sure can take quite the workload without ducking down and giving up on you lol.

I still personally feel that apple needs to support earlier version and panasonic needs to wake up and realize that there SHOULD be some sort of back up transcoder software that comes and works directly with the camera.
 
Justyn,
I was just given a G5 dual 2.something. The person has wiped the drive so I will be installing OSX10.5 /FCS tomorrow. My intention is to use it as a main edit machine for the next year on one project I am shooting. It will allow me to leave aa system set up at my clients place. I have been editing on my MacBook Pro 2.16 Intel Core Duo and intend to use it to transcode my HMC footage for the G5 like you do, not as fast as a quad but I can do it at home and bring the drive with me. What are you transcoding to? ProRes?
I am hanging in and waiting for the MacBook Pro with a Nehalem processor to come out.
Brian
 
Brian,

What's the deal with that processor? Haven't heard about that at all. Sounds kind of interesting though...


To answer the other posts on here, There isn't any good parity on any Panny products. They neglect the Mac people much to the chagrin of the people who use macs and at last count on this and the HVX, Mac people are the majority. David S has started a thread to bring some light to this. There's all kinds of transcoding and viewing options for Panny stuff for the PC and not a real deal on the Mac side. I believe it has to do with the fact tha Panasonic makes computers. Sony has kind of done this stuff in the past too with some of their cams... It would be nice for Panasonic to get with it in terms of providing equal software for both side.s...



Back to the transcoding option. Yes I've been transcoding to Prores. Really looks good, but it can be some pretty big files for sure.. especially when it's 1080 stuff. It would be cool if there was some native AVCHD options to come out. The one thing you might notice on your G5 is a lack of really smooth scrubbing over clips, and sometimes displaying full frame 1080 is taxing on the processor. It's not nearly as easy on the system as DVCPRO HD is. But you'll be able to handle it... Just realize that there might be some compromises and performance low points on the G5.

I have a dual 2.0 G5 and it has handled most things that have been thrown at it. Doing any kind of transcoding and compressor work, not to mention motion and after effects.. is really slow and not so great. It's good to have a buddy with a faster system to bring my stuff off and whore off his cpu for a while.

Man wouldn't it be badass to have 10x8 core render farm.. ?
 
Justyn said:
Brian,

What's the deal with that processor? Haven't heard about that at all. Sounds kind of interesting though...


Well since there was not OS on the computer and won't be until tomorrow when I buy one (Easter Monday here) I was not sure. So, just to settle it, I opened it up and looked around and found from the small sticker on the bottom,inside the cover it is a dual 2.7 G5. I pulled the cover and found it has 1gig of ram and the hd is a 250 WD Sata drive with an open bay for another drive. I will replace both with 1.5 TB sata drives and bump the ram up to the 8gig max.

I gather you noticed a significant difference between prores and dvcpro hd?
Click to expand...
 
I think that the Pro res stuff looks a lot cleaner and better and its full raster when it comes out and all of that. It's a great format and not much different from uncompressed, from what I've seen. It just is quite a data hog.. so when we can get AVCHD natively then we'll be using like 1/5th of the data size and accomplishing the same thing.


I did check out the processor. Looks like it will be a real winner. I was holding off in January in gettting a Mac Pro to see if there was signifigant gains.. but there really wasn't. I also would like them to put in a blueray burner but I don't think Apple is going to do that at all.


It will be interesting to see FCP studio 3 and what that brings. Shoot, they might not even allow it to run on PowerPC systems... wouldn't surprise me. Apple wants everyone on the latest and greatest.
 
Yeh,the new processor Xenon-Nahalem will certainly find its way to a MacBook Pro which is what I need for the majority of my edit work which takes place on the road. Last week I was moving my stuff from avchd to prores on the road and quickly filled every portable drive I had with me and had to buy another 320 gig just for back up. Never got a chance to put it on a timeline.
I just hope that FCP studio 3 is backwards compatible with existing hardware and not going to leave a bunch of us out in the cold. As for blueray it seems from everything I have read that Apple has said a big "NO!" to it but one can hope or go 3rd party.
Cheers and thanks for the info
Brian
 
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