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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy ProRes Codec Bug between AFX CS3 and FCP 6

  • ProRes Codec Bug between AFX CS3 and FCP 6

    Posted by Miklos Philips on April 8, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    After many tests and frustrating research on boards (and may users reporting the same issue) it can be concluded that if you render anything to ProRes 422 (HQ) 23.98 FPS with After Effects and then import that footage into FCP 6, and try to render that Prores sequence to that very same codec (i.e., Prores 422 (HQ) sequence rendering to Prores 422 (HQ)) the resulting video will be “stuttering” with duplicate frames. A horrible result that looks like 12 FPS.

    Apple needs to SERIOUSLY address this. This is a repeatable bug. This has been tested from Quicktime 7.3.1 through to the current 7.4.5 with the same result.

    Funny enough the footage will play back right in Quicktime player and in the FCP timeline UNLESS you render to anything, even uncompressed.

    This has only been tested on 23.98 fps clips so far and with ProRes 422 (HQ).

    Yes, all of the usual troubleshooting and testing has been done. The sequence is an Apple Prores sequence template for 23.98. Framerate and codec settings have been triple confirmed in FCP. Including removing all unnecessary Quicktime extensions, other than what’s required by FCS 2. I have a Matrox MXO, that’s the only thing I didn’t uninstall at this point. But I recall it was happenning even before I had the Matrox…

    Try it yourself.

    Render anything with After Effects to ProRes 23.98. Import into FCP, apply a filter or change the opacity or size, anything to make FCP render it again, you will get video as described above.

    If you go through the clip frame-by-frame (using the right arrow key for example) you will see the video has a sequence of frames in such order:
    2/2/1/1/2/2/1/2/2/2/1/2/2/2/1/2/2/2/1/1/2/2/2/1/1/2/2
    etc. where the “2” stands for the same frame twice.

    Anybody else seeing this?

    ………………………….
    Point Zero Pictures
    <https://www.pointzeropictures.com>

    Arnie Schlissel replied 18 years, 1 month ago 5 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • David Heidelberger

    April 8, 2008 at 5:24 pm

    After your AE render, open the clip in Cinema Tools and conform it to 23.98 FPS. Should work fine. I think this resets some of the metadata in the clip that, for whatever reason, throws Final Cut off.

    – David

  • Jacob Benjamin

    April 8, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    The studder won’t happen if you render 23.976 in after effects instead of 23.98. You can recreate the stutter it you take one of your 23.98 rendered clips that play fine in quicktime and render it out of quicktime at 23.976 recreating what fcp does when you render.

    Jake

  • Miklos Philips

    April 8, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    Hi David,

    Thanks! That worked. cheers

    ………………………….
    Point Zero Pictures
    <https://www.pointzeropictures.com>

  • David Dinisco

    April 8, 2008 at 7:15 pm

    Yes we have seen this. Everything must be render out at 23.976 before coming into FCP.

  • Miklos Philips

    April 8, 2008 at 7:40 pm

    Jacob and David, you’re in fact both right, and both methods work. I tested them. Thank you for your response. You have no idea how long I’ve been trying to figure out what’s wrong. It’s amazing how much diff a 23.98 vs. 23.976 makes. It shouldn’t be like that…

    ………………………….
    Point Zero Pictures
    <https://www.pointzeropictures.com>

  • Arnie Schlissel

    April 8, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    [Miklos Philips] “It’s amazing how much diff a 23.98 vs. 23.976 makes. It shouldn’t be like that…”

    FCP rounds off 23.976 to 23.98, so they are really the same. In AE, 23.98 & 23.976 are actually different frame rates.

    Arnie
    Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
    https://www.arniepix.com/blog

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