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Choppy video after transferred to computer, fine on camera
Hello all,
I just got a gh4 an have been shooting mp4 files in 1080p and 4k at 100 mbps. Playback is fine on the camera, but when I transfer to my laptop I’m getting really choppy playback. Audio plays straight through, but it seems to give me about 1 frame per second.
It seems not to be strictly a computer problem, as files I’ve shot previously at the same/similar format play fine on the computer. It is just a laptop, and I have yet to try playback on a real editing machine, but it doesn’t seem like that should have such a dramatic effect.
One thought I had is that it might have to do with the GH4’s “system frequency” control. I was switching between 60 and 24, and didn’t seem to be having any trouble, but the panasonic website suggests that video recorded in two different system frequencies cannot be stored on the same card…that didn’t seem true to me, but perhaps it’s having an effect. But as I said, it all plays back correctly on the camera.
Any ideas? Is there some setting I’m overlooking?
Thanks.
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3 Replies
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Sounds like to me that your computer is having trouble with the AVCHD codec used by the GH4. If you can, try transcoding the files to ProRes and while the file sizes will increase it should playback much smoother for you.
ProRes is a very common format on Apple Macintosh computers but I believe you have to install some additional software to be able to use ProRes on a Windows PC, but I haven’t used a PC in several years so my info could be outdated.
Oh here may be a better idea for you: try converting the video clips to H.264 compression – I know Premiere Pro can edit that format natively.
Steve Crow
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I was recording mp4 files in h.264 directly from the camera, not AVCHD, unless of course I am missing something. The video files show h.264 compression.
I tried transcoding to ProRes, and I believe there was some improvement, but the files are still very choppy.
I also tried encoding the files in 720p, just to see, and they seemed to play fine. This makes me think that this is a hardware issue, but it’s very strange seeing as I never had trouble with 1080p mp4s from a GH3…anyone know if the system frequency control could have had an effect?
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[Cyrus Duff] “I just got a gh4 an have been shooting mp4 files in 1080p and 4k at 100 mbps. Playback is fine on the camera, but when I transfer to my laptop I’m getting really choppy playback. Audio plays straight through, but it seems to give me about 1 frame per second. “
I’ve found that I cannot smoothly play back files from my GH4 either. I’m referring to 100mb 4k .MOV files. I have a maxed out 2011 Macbook Pro. In order to edit them fluidly in FCPX, I need to create proxy files. I’m sure they would be fine if transcoded to ProRes as well. I was hoping for better performance of native camera files, but hey, that’s what I get with 4k and a three year old laptop!
Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!Check out my Mormon.org profile.
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