Panasonic AG-HMC150 720p30 Footage in FCP

[Kevin Monahan]

720p60 is 59.94, not 29.97.

Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro

[Dave Moppert]

I also just got the Panasonic AG-HMC150. I took some test footage with it today, and played it back in the camera and it looked great. I plugged it into my HDTV to see the footage in all it’s glory and it played back just fine. The data on the SDHC card is obviously fine because I didn’t see anything unusual when I played it back using the camera.

When I try to open the footage in FInal Cut Pro, I start having problems with the footage. When I go to Log and Transfer, I can view the footage in the preview and notice that it looks a little unnatural… almost like the frame-rate is just a little faster then it should be… but the video and audio are in sync. The real problem starts when I Transfer the footage and open it in the timeline.

When I open it in the timeline, the video and audio are way out of sync, mainly because the audio plays back at the correct frame rate, and the video plays back in double time. Just like Chad, since the video track is basically half as long as it should be so I only get the first half of the audio track. I found a work around by Transferring the video and audio tracks in as separate clips and then changing the speed of each of the video tracks to match their corresponding audio tracks, but it is extremely time consuming to do that with every clip and it would be nice if it would just work correctly in the first place.

Anybody have any idea why this could be happening? I heard that it might be Perian, so I uninstalled it, but it didn’t help. I also shot additional test footage in 720 60p, 720 30p, and 1080 30p… all of which give me the same issue.

I’m currently editing on Final Cut Pro 6.0.5, which was released with Extended Metadata Support specifically for the Panasonic AG-HMC150 Camcorder (https://www.apple.com/support/releasenotes/en/Final_Cut_Pro_6.0_rn/) and have scoured the web looking for 3rd party plugins that may help with this issue I am having, but found nothing. I am using a 15″ MacBook Pro OS X Version 10.5.5, with a 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

I am all ears at this point… any ideas what the problem could be?

[Chad Wintzer]

I ended up just setting my camera to 720p60 and have been able to transfer it into FCP fine. I was just in a bind because I had shot my first video on the camera in 720p30 and need the footage. I ended up just capturing it though the analog composite output on the camera and lost all the quality.

[Dave Moppert]

UPDATE –

I shot some more test footage this morning in all of the PH mode formats. Turns out that all of the formats transfer with the frame-rate issue I wrote about earlier, but all of the formats transfer with different frame rate discrepancies. It’s weird. I can’t get any of my footage to transfer properly. Like I said in the last post, all of the footage looks to be fine when I preview it in Log and Transfer, but when I actually add the files to the que, and open the transfered video in the timeline, I start getting the problem.

[Joe Lukis]

Dave Moppert,

I am looking to upgrade all of my HDV gear to AVCHD using the Panasonic camera: AG-HMC150. I noticed two important things from your post. One, you have the camera that I am gearing up to buy four of. Two, you are having problems with your footage while using Final Cut Pro version 6.0.5. I read your post very carefully several times. I have come to the conclusion that I too may find myself in your exact situation if I proceed with my upgrade plans. That is why I would like to send you a high capacity SD card through FedEx. I’d like you to fill it up with as much test footage as you can get onto the the card. I ask that you capture multiple scenes at various HD settings. Please note, I am most interested in obtaining footage shot at: 1080P on the 24P setting. After you obtain the test footage and audio, I would need you to to ship the SD card back to me. Don’t worry about the shipping cost. I will include a prepaid shipping slip inside the original FedEx envelope. When I receive the card, I will commit myself to the task of cracking this problem. The way I see it, this is about to become my problem as well. I cannot perform these tests (on my own) without the camera. And I cannot get the camera until I flip my HDV equipment. Let’s help each other out. I promise, if there is a solution, I will find it. I have been producing video and working with Final Cut Pro since early 2000. I have extensive knowledge of the software and it’s capabilities. I also have access to FCP support and know FCP certified technicians and editors.

My Reasons:

I can no longer afford to pay my editor for capture time. Sometimes we end up with 10 hours of footage to capture (on a single day). And there we sit, capturing (not editing), for an entire work day. I must go tapeless and this is the camera that I would like to do it with. All I require is a full SD card straight from the camera with all of the clips intact and an address that you would like the card sent to.

To communicate directly with me through email use: phillypictures@gmail.com

[Dave Moppert]

I figured out what was wrong. It was a Quicktime Codec I had downloaded a couple of months ago. I deleted a few different codecs that I thought it might be, so I can’t be 100% sure which one it was, but I have my suspicions that it was the DV1 codec. after I deleted it, Final Cut was able to transfer the footage without any problem.

[Joe Lukis]

What are your thoughts on shooting footage to the SD card (even though your problem has been solved), I would be able to conduct HDV vs. AVCHD quality comparisons. Having some footage shot with the camera would tell me a lot about it’s codec, compression characteristics, color reproduction, etc. You’d really be helping me out. I could make a more informed decision about my upgrade. I have not been able to play with AVCHD on the FCP timeline yet. I have not been able to use the Log and Transfer window yet. I’d like to see AVCHD in action in post production. As an incentive, when I’m done with the card I’ll send it back to you. You can keep it. Sell it or use it to shoot with.

[Peter Ward]

I haven’t used the HMC150 but have edited AVCHD video originated in a Canon HF11. The Canon produces better video than most prosumer HD camera’s I’ve seen and the compression artifacting is discrete compared to HDV artifacting (it looks more like noise than pixleation)*-whether this results in more detailed image is questionable, but it produces an image that is subjectively superior (although HDV material can be treated using a method analogs to chroma smoothing). And it is clearly a much more efficient codec-17Mbps AVCHD compares favorably with 25Mbps HDV, on the other hand increasing the bitrate seems to have little benefit-subjectively HF11 footage looks almost the same whether shot at 7Mbps or 24Mbps.

When you edit AVCHD in FCP you are really editing AIC or ProRes-the relevant question is how well FCP (or iMovie 08) transcodes the video. In the case of 1080i60 it works seamlessly. 1080p24, however, is full of artifacts and I have not found a way to remove the pull down that doesn’t end up making it even worse–ditto the 24p setting on the Canon HV30. I suspect the pull down scene used destroys, irreparably, some of the progressive frames therefore there is no solution making the feature a gimmick, as seems to be true of the HV30 (PAL users will be fortunate in this respect).

One issue to note re: AVCHD editing on Apple is that the file size increases substantially-in the case of 1080i60 to AIC I’ve observed a approximate 10x increase–i.e., you’re 8GB SDHC now needs 80GB of hard drive space. Another issue is that as far as I can tell you need a camera generated disk image in order to import the video. The MTS or M2T TS files alone are insufficient. You can make a disk image with Disk Utility but this takes about as long as just importing the video. (There is a method for recreating a disk image with nothing but MTS files using tsMuxeR and ImgBurn but these require the ability to run Windows apps–in my case, I used Darwine.)

Personally, if buying a professional camera I’d either get XDCAM or HDV but I don’t think there is an overwhelming reason to avoid AVCHD apropos image quality.

*A friend of mine observed a ghost-image artifact shooting on a Canon HG20 and traded the camera in for an HDV model as a result. Personally, I haven’t had anything as salient as this appear but I noticed that AVCHD (at least in Canon and especially Panasonic consumer models) produces a slow shutter-like trailing image effect (BD-DVDs produce this artifact as well).

-Peter

JVC HD110U
MacBook Pro Intel Core Duo 2GHz
Final Cut Pro 5.1.4

[Enrique Cardenas]

I read that to handle the files you need at most 2 quad procesor so I have a mac book pro duo 2.53 and I’m worry

[Felix j. Torres]

HI!, Santa bought me the AG-HMC150, editing in Final Cut Pro 7.0.1 with a Mac Book Pro 2.8ghz and 4gigs of RAM, shooting musical videos and photo shooting sections in all recording modes with out any problems!!, great camera!

P.D. Using a panasonic 32GB Class 10 SDHC