XAVCS grading in Resolve - what a pain!!!

L

ljgmdad

Member
Ok, noob here, so please let me know if there's a better way.

But, as confirmed in this and other forums, Resolve 11 drops the audio track from imported XAVCS clips. So I either need to use PAVTube or similar to transcode first. Transcoding to ProRes 422 HQ is taking 4 hours on my MacPro in PAVTube for a one hour collection of recorded XAVCS clips, when I maintain the 60 fps (shot for sports). For sports clips, I don't think I want to let it downsample to 30, do I??

Right now I've got FCP X running a transcode to its "optimal" format which is also ProRes 422. I'm not sure if it's the HQ version or not, if it'll maintain the fps from the orignal input file, etc? I'll take a look at the specs shortly. It might be running a tad faster than PAVTube, but not by much.

Grrr. 4-5 hours of transcoding just to get in to Resolve to start color grading?!?!
 
i have the same issue too. I finally do all the work in FCPX now, with the help of LUT utility and Filmconvert pro.
 
A real easy way to work with FCPX and Resolve is to use Resolve to make a LUT and then apply it using LUT utility in FCPX.

Just shoot some footage the way you normally do and include a Macbeth chart then make a LUT using resolve to make it look the way you want or close. Then use that LUT in FCPX on all your footage from that scene or all scene if you expose the same (and you should).

This gets you very close and just a light CC in FCPX will make footage very usable. If you have problem footage just do that in resolve or make a different LUT there and apply to the footage,

This speeds things up greatly and works very well for me. I have made about 10 different LUTs and apply them in FCPX using LUT utility, and that is normally all I have to do. It is faster than trying to grade in FCPX. And the great thing is at least on my systems even the LUTs and further CC in FCPX plays back in real time on my Mac screens and on my SDI monitors. Very fast and convenient workflow no transcoding needed.

You do need a fast SSD or RAID (preferable L5 TB) and a powerful Mac to do this but it is very slick. Slower computers use Proxy.
 
Uncompressed PCM audio in an MP4 container is the issue. You can use ffmpeg to quickly copy/convert (no transcode- super fast) your A7S MP4 files into MOV containers with no loss in quality. Runs slightly slower than a file copy. For example:

ffmpeg -i <infile>.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy <infile>.mov

A script can be written to quickly process an entire directory, etc.
 
this is nice, but many times you have to do secondary color corrections, track masks, denoise etc.


olof said:
A real easy way to work with FCPX and Resolve is to use Resolve to make a LUT and then apply it using LUT utility in FCPX.

Just shoot some footage the way you normally do and include a Macbeth chart then make a LUT using resolve to make it look the way you want or close. Then use that LUT in FCPX on all your footage from that scene or all scene if you expose the same (and you should).

This gets you very close and just a light CC in FCPX will make footage very usable. If you have problem footage just do that in resolve or make a different LUT there and apply to the footage,

This speeds things up greatly and works very well for me. I have made about 10 different LUTs and apply them in FCPX using LUT utility, and that is normally all I have to do. It is faster than trying to grade in FCPX. And the great thing is at least on my systems even the LUTs and further CC in FCPX plays back in real time on my Mac screens and on my SDI monitors. Very fast and convenient workflow no transcoding needed.

You do need a fast SSD or RAID (preferable L5 TB) and a powerful Mac to do this but it is very slick. Slower computers use Proxy.
Click to expand...
 
jcs said:
Uncompressed PCM audio in an MP4 container is the issue. You can use ffmpeg to quickly copy/convert (no transcode- super fast) your A7S MP4 files into MOV containers with no loss in quality. Runs slightly slower than a file copy. For example:

ffmpeg -i <infile>.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy <infile>.mov

A script can be written to quickly process an entire directory, etc.
Click to expand...



Is there any program for mac with GUI for this ?
 
toxotis70 said:
this is nice, but many times you have to do secondary color corrections, track masks, denoise etc.
Click to expand...

Most 98% of my footage does not need stabilization, secondary CC, tracking mattes etc. When you I need those I either use AE, Motion or Resolve even PSD at times. You can do some secondaries in FCPX I do that sometimes when in a hurry.

It all depends on how your footage is lit exposed and shot, as well as what the final result needs to be. If you really need to grade to a look, then I edit the whole piece first and then bring it in to Resolve for grading, or have a colorist do it for you in a dedicated suite.

So for me it is all project driven and most of my projects don't need much grading/special effects. I shoot mostly doc, commercials and midrange industrials and a lot of fund raising videos.
 
jcs said:
Uncompressed PCM audio in an MP4 container is the issue. You can use ffmpeg to quickly copy/convert (no transcode- super fast) your A7S MP4 files into MOV containers with no loss in quality. Runs slightly slower than a file copy. For example:

ffmpeg -i <infile>.mp4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy <infile>.mov

A script can be written to quickly process an entire directory, etc.
Click to expand...


WHOA!! I'm going to try that ASAP ! ! !

Thank you!
 
is it working ?
I am not that good with terminal.

YG... i tried it but i cant get it work .
Can anyone help me ?


This is what it outputs...


Output #0, mp4, to '/Users/john/Desktop/C0008c.MP4':
Metadata:
major_brand : XAVC
minor_version : 16785407
compatible_brands: XAVCmp42iso2
encoder : Lavf56.4.101
Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 48642 kb/s, 25 fps, 25k tbn, 25k tbc (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2015-01-19 20:56:29
handler_name : Video Media Handler
encoder : AVC Coding
Stream #0:1(und): Audio: pcm_s16be (twos / 0x736F7774), 48000 Hz, stereo, 1536 kb/s (default)
Metadata:
creation_time : 2015-01-19 20:56:29
handler_name : Sound Media Handler
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
 
Last edited:
olof said:
A real easy way to work with FCPX and Resolve is to use Resolve to make a LUT and then apply it using LUT utility in FCPX.

Just shoot some footage the way you normally do and include a Macbeth chart then make a LUT using resolve to make it look the way you want or close. Then use that LUT in FCPX on all your footage from that scene or all scene if you expose the same (and you should).

This gets you very close and just a light CC in FCPX will make footage very usable. If you have problem footage just do that in resolve or make a different LUT there and apply to the footage,

This speeds things up greatly and works very well for me. I have made about 10 different LUTs and apply them in FCPX using LUT utility, and that is normally all I have to do. It is faster than trying to grade in FCPX. And the great thing is at least on my systems even the LUTs and further CC in FCPX plays back in real time on my Mac screens and on my SDI monitors. Very fast and convenient workflow no transcoding needed.

You do need a fast SSD or RAID (preferable L5 TB) and a powerful Mac to do this but it is very slick. Slower computers use Proxy.
Click to expand...

Ya, I shoot in various high school and middle school gyms around the area. The lighting is different in each, but in any given gym it'll be consistent week to week and month to month. So I figure I should have a set of pre-determined custom WB and exposure settings for each gym and a custom LUT as well. This will greatly speed things up, even in Resolve if the ffmpeg copy trick works.

I've also resolved myself to the notion that a $4k Mac Pro purchase is likely in the near future. My Macbook Pro is a nice little work horse, but utterly insufficient. I'm not convinced that the D500/D700 graphics of the Mac Pro is what I'd choose given more options for graphics, but I suspect they'll do the job quite well.
 
I drop all my Xavc mp4 clips to adobe encoder and convert them into 422 prores its the most practical
 
mcgeedigital said:
The point is they work.

If the file sizes are too big get bigger hard drives or use ProRes LT
Click to expand...

Umm, in light of the ffmpeg codec copy trick which runs in a matter of seconds and also works... what is the advantage to doing a ProRes transcoding instead??
 
In case anyone would like to batch process an entire directory MP4 -> MOV using the ffmpeg copy trick, here's how I've been doing it:

(cd to the directory containing your XAVCS MP4 files first)

ls *MP4 | cut -d . -f1 | xargs -I % sh -c "~/bin/ffmpeg -i %.MP4 -vcodec copy -acodec copy %.mov"

You can cut an paste this to your terminal window command prompt, but will have to provide the correct path to where ever your ffmpeg lives. I've bold italicized that part you'll have to change. This is saving me countless hours of unnecessary transcoding time!

Thanks again to jcs!!!
 
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If you are interested in GUI or a frontend for FFMPEG try google...

best mac frontend for ffmpeg

or

best frontend for ffmpeg

A few choices.
 
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