GH5 Why OS Mojave & Catalina can't preview GH5S's ALL-I 400 Mbps files?

[lonewolf2koc@hotmail.com]

I'm still puzzled by why wouldn't OS Mojave and Catalina won't allow playback of GH5s footage. It plays perfectly fine in FCP 10.4.8 after importing, but not in the OS. All of my AVC Ultra 422 OP-1b footage from Varicam 35, HS, LT are able to play the .mxf files natively in OS Catlina. Doing this is so much quicker for on-site previews and dailies w/ out having to import in the NLE. Is the GH5s's ALL-Intra 400 is OP-1b or some non-standard wrapper? Do I need to install any utilities for the GH5s camera?

 

[Tom Roper]

In the early days of GH5/GH5S even DaVinci Resolve could not open the files, had to transcode to prores, but support came later in a newer version of Resolve Studio. Something proprietary Panasonic does.

 

[stoneinapond]

Do I need to install any utilities for the GH5s camera?

Do you have VLC player? I don't know specifically for those files, but the player does spit out a wide variety of formats, not in the highest quality, but certainly adequate for preview.

 

[BobKo]

I have the free version of DaVinci Resolve, and quickly discovered that it couldn't do anything with the 10-bit 4:2:2 files from the GH5. I brought that up on Blackmagic's Resolve forum and was told that the software decoder for 10-bit 4:2:2 files has a fairly expensive license, thus it is in the paid version of Resolve (called DaVinci Resolve Studio) but not the free version. Once that was explained, I actually thought it was reasonable. That's why I can't display the files in Windows, either.

That said, a few people jumped into the conversation on the Resolve forum and were downright snippy about why I even asked the question -- like I was somehow supposed to be born knowing that the free version of Resolve won't handle 10-bit 4:2:2 files. I have more-or-less shunned Blackmagic's Resolve forum since then.

 

[TheDingo]

a few people jumped into the conversation on the Resolve forum and were downright snippy about why I even asked the question -- like I was somehow supposed to be born knowing that the free version of Resolve won't handle 10-bit 4:2:2 files. I have more-or-less shunned Blackmagic's Resolve forum since then.

This issue has been around almost 3 years now and it affected almost all NLEs on the market. ( Vegas Pro did not support GH5 10-bit until version 15, Premiere Pro took it's sweet time to support GH5 10-bit, same for FCPX ) The only NLEs that had no problems with it were TMPGEnc and EDIUS.

 

[Thomas Smet]

This issue has been around almost 3 years now and it affected almost all NLEs on the market. ( Vegas Pro did not support GH5 10-bit until version 15, Premiere Pro took it's sweet time to support GH5 10-bit, same for FCPX ) The only NLEs that had no problems with it were TMPGEnc and EDIUS.

Pretty sure FCPX worked with it from day 1. It may not have played back as well but the files worked and could create proxies or deal with the sometimes sluggish playback unless one had a really beefy system.

 

[lonewolf2koc@hotmail.com]

It'll more reassuring to be able to play GH5S footage by simply pressing the space bar on OS Catalina. I typically do this for most footage during LTO-8 data archival. Now, it's quite uncertain to know whether that .mov file is all intact without a simple visual thumbnail of the file. VLC does work fine w/ GH5S footage. That's a temporary workaround to quickly verify the video files w/ out having to import into the NLE.

FCP X 10.4.8 does not support GH5S footage natively. I have to optimize or use proxy to be able to play it smoothly all the times.

 

[Thomas Smet]

It'll more reassuring to be able to play GH5S footage by simply pressing the space bar on OS Catalina. I typically do this for most footage during LTO-8 data archival. Now, it's quite uncertain to know whether that .mov file is all intact without a simple visual thumbnail of the file. VLC does work fine w/ GH5S footage. That's a temporary workaround to quickly verify the video files w/ out having to import into the NLE.

FCP X 10.4.8 does not support GH5S footage natively. I have to optimize or use proxy to be able to play it smoothly all the times.

The fact that it can create optimized or proxy means it is supported. Not supported means like MacOS it just doesn't show anything at all. The performance sucks because there is no optimized hardware acceleration on CPU or GPUs for this flavor of h.264. Most hardware instructions are designed to handle normal 8 bit video.

 

[TheDingo]

Pretty sure FCPX worked with it from day 1. It may not have played back as well but the files worked and could create proxies or deal with the sometimes sluggish playback unless one had a really beefy system.

I work with a FCPX editor for some of my work, and he could not handle my GH5 10-bit files for the first six months I owned my GH5. I had to supply him with Cineform transcodes so that he could work with my footage.

 

[bengiles]

Try playing with Sony’s free Catalyst Browse software. It quickly thumbnails your GH5S footage and gives you quick access to preview. You can also add LUTs and basic grades too. It might even play nicely with your LTO.

Ben.

It'll more reassuring to be able to play GH5S footage by simply pressing the space bar on OS Catalina. I typically do this for most footage during LTO-8 data archival. Now, it's quite uncertain to know whether that .mov file is all intact without a simple visual thumbnail of the file. VLC does work fine w/ GH5S footage. That's a temporary workaround to quickly verify the video files w/ out having to import into the NLE.

FCP X 10.4.8 does not support GH5S footage natively. I have to optimize or use proxy to be able to play it smoothly all the times.