[George Strother]

Already replaced the system drive, fresh install, tested with nothing installed but OSX and FCP, replaced the video card, replaced monitor cables, memory has pased 40 hours of MemTest, replaced memory anyway, system has passed all TechTool Pro 4 tests, Raid and Sata both well exceed bandwidth for HDV and both pass uncompressed D1 fine.

It’s been a bit unpleasant, actually. Thus the inquiry about an edit system that can edit HDV.

But then, others are making files that play smoothly, so it must be possible with FCP and Compressor, and why I’m looking for settings I might have missed. Or something.

George
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[George Strother]

System specs are in my profile and below, not state of the art, but well above minimums. Same symptoms with FCP only, or with other apps in background.

The sticky spots, playing FCP timeline or web compressions, move around within a few frames of the same spot on each playback, not the axact frame. Never any dropped frame warnings. Checking frame by frame with cursor keys shows all frames present and each looks OK when it gets a turn to play. No drop outs, no distortion.

My standard practice is FCP/export a QT movie/self contained, then take that to Compressor or other. Works fine on D1 or DV projects, not so great on HDV.

Here are my system specs –

OSX 10.4.8, Final Cut 5.1.4, QT 7.1.5
Compressor 2.3, Squeeze 4.5.5, VisualHub 1.22, Episode 4.2.2
PowerMac G5 DP 2.0, 4 GB ram, 4 matched 1GB sticks
ATI Radeon X800 XT, 256 MB ram
160 GB internal SATA system drive, OS and apps only
500 GB internal SATA data drive – tests 66 MB/s with Kona System Test
AJA Kona LS capture card
ATTO UL3D, latest drivers and firmware
Huge Media Vault DualMax 1.8 TB RAID – tests 185 MB/s with Kona System Test
Dell 30 and Gateway 2185W dual monitor setup or 2 Phillips 21 CRTs

I wish someone could help me find a cure for this. It’s made the HDV cam kind of useless.

George
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[George Strother]

I don’t generally have capture poblems, but I usually give 5+ sec preroll and postroll on all shots. Just habit from 20 years of BetaCam shooting and posting. I usually shoot 720p30 with JVC HDV.

The trouble I am having is jerky/skipping playback in QT or Compressor QT movies for computer desktop viewing. The footage from all of the HD100s and the HD250 I have tried skips and sticks when played in the viewer, canvas or digital cinema desktop preview while editing. Then these same sticky spots show up in compressed Quicktime movies.

QTs I download from several sites play fine on my system, but QTs I create from JVC HD-xxx cameras do not.

Here is a link to files I have made from test shots that show the skips/jerky playback –
https://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/twosundogs/lst?.dir=/Skippy&.order=&.view=l&.src=bc&.done=http%3a//briefcase.yahoo.com/

Here are links to a few samples that play smoothly –

MontionZoneHD from 720p30 masters.
https://www.motionzonehd.com/product.php?productid=16718&cat=0&page=3 Seafood salad, constant dolly, zoom, rotate.
https://www.motionzonehd.com/product.php?productid=18620&cat=0&page=3 Skateboarding, good foreground motion.
https://www.motionzonehd.com/product.php?productid=18783&cat=0&page=3 Motocross, watch smooth background motion.
https://www.motionzonehd.com/product.php?productid=17593&cat=0&page=1 Camera work is spotty in the first half, second half is good reference.

Apple QT HD Gallery, probably film masters, 30/29.97p QT files. I was playing the 480p versions. The 720p versions overwhelm my office grade PC, but work great on my G5.
https://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/nasaspaceshuttle.html NASA space shuttle launch.
https://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/wink.html Avalanche skiing Last 2/3 is all pan/zoom and Are These People Nuts?
https://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/bbcmotiongalleryreel.html Last 1/3 all pan, zoom, tilt, foreground motion.

Most FCP users say HDV footage plays smoothly on their viewer, canvas or digital cinema desktop preview when editing. They also say the QT movies from their projects play smoothly.

What am I doing that makes these clips stick and jerk? What should I look for in settings for FCP or Compressor?

George
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[George Strother]

Tom –

Do you know of an edit solution that suports JVC 720p correctly? I have been having trouble with JVC HDV and FCP or months.

George
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[George Strother]

The data rates are just roughly matched. Minor changes in data rate seem to have no effect on the skipping. The Nasa 540p30 clip shows 1974.67 kbps in Movie Info from QT Player, my 540p30 clip shows 1896.1 kbps.

I see the skipping from an internal hard drive or from a server. Most of the 15 computers I have tested have played from internal hard drive and all skipped in almost eaxctly the same pattern on a given test file, except the MBPs.

Are you using your MacBook Pro? As I mentioned, the MBP skipped the least of any computer I tested. They still skipped some, but much less. According to Matrox, the best computer LCD monitor to use with their MXO Mac DVI output converter is the Apple 20″ or 23″, the only computer monitors with a 59.94 refresh rate, so they are the only computer monitors that will play skip free after you plug into their $1,000 box to make the external display skip free. Apparently the issue is the refresh rate clock inside of the monitor. If Apple put this technology in the MBP screen, that might explain it’s better playback. I have also heard thay lose this advantage if viewed on an external DVI monitor.

Of course, the smoother screen display on an MBP doesn’t make compressions from an MBP playback any smoother on other computers. Tried that. No soap.

What format is the source video you generally compress from? Do you compress from any progressive formats? I didn’t notice objectionable skipping until I stared shooting progressive video.

George
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[George Strother]

Thanks for getting back to me. That is the pay version, it just doesn’t work as advertised. When I checked the link from my computer no log-on sceen came up. They must be auto logging so fast I don’t even see a screen. I’ll dump them.

I can post a mid size file to my ISP, but they don’t allow over 15MB in one file, so no 1:1 version. I’ll send you an email off the forum with the link (If a ton of people hit the link my web service will shut down) since you seem to still be interested inspite of yousendit.

Thanks

George
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[George Strother]

This is going well, don’t you think?

Posted again. I hope this link works better.

https://www.yousendit.com/download/T2djclVKTlFGOFEwTVE9PQ

George
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[George Strother]

Rats! I posted the wrong clip. Try this one. https://download.yousendit.com/F577AE4C25EB66A1

I was shooting the Bill Clinton appearance in San Diego last night. Rushing around to get setup for that project. Sorry.

George
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[George Strother]

I should have said “I’m shooting HDV 1280x720p30” Capturing in HDV or AIC codec in Final Cut Pro 5.1.2

Rich – Some of the files on HD Gallery are 24p. This file from NASA plays very smoothly and it is 30p. https://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/nasaspaceshuttle.html

Charles – Here is a link to a test file I have encoded as much like the NASA file as I know how to in Compressor. https://download.yousendit.com/778C8C7D6D2CA012

None of the traffic, pans, zooms or the Apple Engineering test animation should stick or hang. All play fine when laid back to tape. All of the frames are present when I scrub through the video in QT using the cursor keys, so they haven’t been dropped in encoding.

I’m hoping to find out what they are doing differently on the videos that play back so smoothly.

George
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[George Strother]

Simple explaination. Thanks. Tough to evaluate though.

Off to download Cineform trial. Hopfully that can give me a test.

Sorry for the double post. Message “Can’t post without logging on”, even though I was logged on. So I quit, came back, changed profile, retyped the post and Presto! two posts. Rats!

George
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