Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy canon 5d markII and h.264 problems

  • canon 5d markII and h.264 problems

    Posted by Edwin Gendron on September 26, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    anyone used the new 5d mark II for video?
    I had a friend help me shoot last weekend and he brought his shiny new canon 5d and shot (unfortunately) 1080p with it, native Codec is h.264,

    now then…
    Im editing in **standard def (720x480i)** with FCP HD v4.5on a G5 Mac running OS 10.4.11

    have tried to export h.264’s as “None compression” .mov’s then re-import to mix with 480X720.mov files.
    when i do that, I get a *lot* of moire pattern especially in contrasty patterns like grass or a straw hat. Also image is somewhat degraded throughout.

    having said that, if i export as h.264 then all seems well … but I have trouble with *any* other codec.

    a friend suggested Mpeg encoder (freeware) and some settings dont change a thing but a few seem helpful.
    Moton jpeg seems better … although in editing mode (FCP) it still looks ***horrible***.

    Only upon output does it seem to improve the quality.
    I am tremendously confused.
    what is the weak link here?
    anyone have ideas for me? I desperately need to edit this stuff and burn a DVD.
    thank you
    -edg

    edwin gendron

    Katie Covell replied 16 years, 4 months ago 5 Members · 10 Replies
  • 10 Replies
  • Brad Dececco

    September 26, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    You have to use compressor and convert it to codec: Apple Pro Res, High Quality, for Progressive Footage.
    Not sure if FCP 4.5 will work with this though. That’s how I do it in FCP 7 and it’s perfect.
    Good Luck.

  • Edwin Gendron

    September 26, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    thank you
    One more Q: how would that intercut w the Standard def interlaced footage?
    edwin gendron

    gendron, ed

  • Edwin Gendron

    September 26, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    Pro Res is nowhere to be found Im afraid…
    any other ideas?
    thank you.
    -edg

    gendron, ed

  • Brad Dececco

    September 26, 2009 at 10:39 pm

    that I don’t know but I know that FCP 7 is the only one that (easily) lets you combine formats in the same timeline. Have you checked out dvxuser.com? They have a pretty good knowledge base and forums as well. Lots of posts about people trying to mix footage. Good luck.

  • Michael Gissing

    September 26, 2009 at 10:45 pm

    FCP Version 4.5 doesn’t have ProRes. That turned up in V6. You will need to convert using compressor to whatever SD codec you are able to work with. Match it to your other footage. Otherwise work down from uncompressed to DV50 (or DV if desperate.)

    Don’t forget to convert the audio to 48khz at the same time. This camera has generated tons of posts here as it is a great image wrapped in a non editing codec with the wrong frame rate and audio sample rate.

    Canon really should fix the obvious mistakes, but it will always need transcoding into an edit codec that FCP understands.

  • Edwin Gendron

    September 26, 2009 at 11:19 pm

    So, in a nutshell, this is difficult at best.
    and Im further hindered by the absence of the ProRes option.
    (Version 6 eh? good to know)
    Is v6 still powerPC version or intel?

    PS I have been trying this. (most of the afternoon, Ug!) good to know at least Im on the right path.
    “Mpeg encoder” improves the quality a great deal (especially the free price-tag) and it can batch files so I don’t have to babysit the machine.

    Successes (& degrees of):
    10 bit uncompressed looks good … as does 8-bit uncompressed
    Motion Jpeg looks good
    apple intermediate codec looks good.
    animation looks well, *pretty* good

    outputting to h.264 again looks almost as good as the above.

    on the downside:
    dv50pro looks like hell no matter what.
    none compression ditto

    thank you to Brad and Michael for clearing some of this up.

    I realize this last call is a longshot but if anyone else has an idea for me, please chime in!!
    thank you
    -edwin gendron

    gendron, ed

  • Edwin Gendron

    September 27, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    well, im afraid compressor works well but takes longer than i have to give it.

    for now Im sticking with chewing gum, rubber bands, FCP 4.5HD and an equally old version of after effects.
    incidentally, Im extremely hesitant to say this but …I think i finally have it worked out.
    I tried Mpeg exporter and that was indeed a handy program. however it lacked control over the *pixels*. Also tried FCP, compressor, quicktime, and I finally went back to After effects and discovered a plethora of options for pixels.
    … and believe me it makes a difference…

    Pixel choice changed the actual *shape* of the frame (longer vs shorter), thereby compressing the image (horizontally) and causing angular things to compress and not match up properly.

    In after effects, I clicked the box for D1 instead of the native *square pixels* and voila.
    some angular things still have occasional blocky edges *within* FCP … but sharpen up nicely to their *intended* look upon output.
    (this may simply be FCP 4.5HD showing its age.)
    fingers crossed.

    gendron, ed

  • Martin Nowak

    September 28, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    While we are talking about the 5D, I’m having issues editing a few clips shot on the Canon 5D. I’ve edited all kinds of footage on my system before including Red footage without a problem. But I cannot successfully play anything on the time line without it stuttering or stopping due to dropped frames. I lowered the RT to Safe, to Unlimited all sorts of things but nothing is working. Any advice?

    Marty

    Marty N

  • Edwin Gendron

    September 28, 2009 at 5:58 pm

    what codec were you using?
    just h.264?
    or Prores?
    or apple intermediate codec?
    if H.264, perhaps it was due to the high compresssion?
    edwin gendron

    edwin gendron

  • Katie Covell

    January 12, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    You should use either compressor or mpeg streamclip (which is faster) to convert your footage to Apple Pro Res 422 and then import into FCP.

    This will change your frame rate and file size to be much more manageable.

    Here are two helpful tutorials:

    Converting the footage:
    https://www.vimeo.com/1829823

    Your FCP project settings:
    https://brucesharpe.blogspot.com/2009/06/dslr-dual-system-audio-999-solution.html

    Hope this helps!

    Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

    This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Vimeo framework” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy