Video Quality Issues (Banding, Mud, Static, Etc)

Re: Issues

Re: Issues

Shawn Storm said:
Here are the issues I am experiencing:

1> Banding.

2> Mud.

3> Static.
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I spent some more time today doing tests with my GH1 and I am now fairly confident that I will be able to overcome all of the above issues.

Banding: Using fairly low ISO settings and properly exposing my scenes has eliminated any noticeable banding. Of course there will be low light situations where it will probably pop back up, but I am getting a handle on avoiding it.

Mud: I am not sure I was actually experiencing "mud"! Since I don't have any programs to edit AVCHD files yet (I am going to get FCP soon), my only way to view the files is with VLC. I watched a clip over and over and realized the "mud" was not happening in the same frames each time I watched the clip! The horrible "mud" and ghost images seem to actually be a result of viewing the files in VLC. I am now hopeful that once I get an established workflow for editing the AVCHD files that the "mud" issue will be minimal and possibly even disappear.

Static (Video Noise): I have also overcome this issue for the most part. It isn't much of an issue on AVCHD files, and is only an issue with the Motion JPEG files at higher ISO settings. I am also guessing I will be able to figure out how to reduce this by using different camera settings and possibly even reduce it a bit in the editing process.

Anyways - thanks again to everyone who has provided helpful responses. I am definitely a newbie and even a day of playing around with various settings and scenarios has helped me to learn more. I am sure I will look back on this thread in a year or two and laugh at myself. :)

-shawn-
 
Hey, onion, had never heard of PLEX...downloaded and installed (free) - it's great - plays both 720p and 1080 AVCHD. Looks very good. Certainly better than VLC, which makes a real mess out of 1080. Aside from being able to play almost any file format, it's a very cool app as a media center. Thanks for the tip!

Did run into a couple of things -- do not enable the mouse; use keyboard controls only. It gets funky with the mouse enabled. Also, 2nd time I tried to start the app, nothing happened. Console said it was attempting to start Crash Reporter (which I had declined to install originally). Found a thread on their forum that suggested a re-install, and that seemed to fix it.
 
No worries!

Plex is a great piece of software. It hasn't been updated for Snow Leopard yet though so is buggy on that platform. It's designed to be used with the keyboard or a remote (apple or Logitech harmony), not the mouse as its main purpose is as a media center to be used with TVs.
 
On OSX, if you have Toast 9 or 10 it includes a video player that has flawless playback of AVCHD - it's hidden within the Toast app bundle for some reason. Open it with "Show Package Contents" and make a alias of and stick that in the dock. Also I've bound .mts files to open with this player so I just double-click them straight in Finder.
 
Martti Ekstrand said:
On OSX, if you have Toast 9 or 10 it includes a video player that has flawless playback of AVCHD - it's hidden within the Toast app bundle for some reason. Open it with "Show Package Contents" and make a alias of and stick that in the dock. Also I've bound .mts files to open with this player so I just double-click them straight in Finder.
Click to expand...

Have just ordered Toast 10 thanks to your persistence in repeatedly pointing this out. Much appreciated!
 
Martti Ekstrand said:
On OSX, if you have Toast 9 or 10 it includes a video player that has flawless playback of AVCHD - it's hidden within the Toast app bundle for some reason. Open it with "Show Package Contents" and make a alias of and stick that in the dock. Also I've bound .mts files to open with this player so I just double-click them straight in Finder.
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Martti ,


Before I spend 100 bucks for a hidden player in some folder; as well since I have "zero" use for toast.

Your saying it plays back AVCHD 24fps cadence out of the 1080i/60 and 720/60 perfectly on the MAC. No codec playback errors. Cuz if it doesn't, I'll rip off your clown nose... :-)


.
 
Oh sorry, I haven't tested that specifically as I'm in a PAL land but it doesn't exhibit any de-coding errors at all on my files and looks very close colourwise to the transcoded files unlike VLC. The few 1080 NTSC clips I looked at before I got my GH1 didn't scream 60i at me and 720 60 fps showed no hiccups on my MacPro. I didn't recommend buying it just for playback - I did write:
"if you have Toast 9 or 10"
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as a lot of people already have it for other things, it's a swiss army knife kind of software and pretty useful. However spending 100 bux just for the player doesn't sound like it's worth it. That said it does do a very good job in transcoding to any Quicktime codec that's installed though and without needing the full 'PRIVATE' folder. This is pretty useful for me as I got a Blackmagic Design HD Extreme video card for video output so I can make both pre-edit files and final files that work through the card. Back in June when I tried it vs Voltaic, I found that Toast's output was noticeable sharper in fine details, had a tad better colour and gamma plus considerably faster in processing. Maybe Voltaic has improved with later versions but I have too much work currently to have time for new tests - perhaps later. What it doesn't do is pulldown removal as far as I know - but I've obviously had no reason to look for that either.

BTW Roxio also make Popcorn 4 which is just the video parts from Toast for 50 dollars or so I believe. And no, I take no responsibilities for the massive mess that's NTSC - you yanks are on your own there so my nose stays firmly glued to my face plus I got a awesome cotton candy gun to defend myself with so you'd be cocooned in an instant!
 

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Haha...yeah, Toast had been on my list of possible things to get - as Martti said, it's a swiss army knife. So the player was just one more reason to get it. That and I already have Jelly.
 
Barry_Green said:
I would only use 1/125 for the SH mode when intending to use it for slow-mo. If you're using it for 720/60p "reality", definitely stick with 1/60.
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Alright, I have the PAL version, so for me it´s 1/50 for the 720/50p "reality" and 1/100 for the slomo. Right?
 
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