Miklos Philips
Forum Replies Created
-
After some testing I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a problem with Apple’s ProRes rendering.
I have a huge problem as I have a 30 min film I edited that I can’t export into any kind of a format even if I try uncompressed, a non-ProRes codec.
I have 2K (2048×1152) 23.98 FPS source material coming from Cineform codec (shot with the SI-2K camera) that I transcoded into ProRes 422 (HQ) 23.98 FPS using After Effects at the same frame size – I didn’t scale it at all – just a straight transcode into ProRes. At the time there was no support for the Cineform codec on the Mac and there was no other way I could edit the film with FCP.
I then bring this into FCP and edit on a 1280×720 / 23.98FPS ProRes (HQ) timeline, that’s my output format. One of the reasons I chose this is to be able to pan and scan within a frame for reframing action (vertical editing.)
My tests confirmed that rendering out from this timeline produces a frame stutter problem, uneven playback, even though the Quicktime player tells me it’s playing back at 23.98 FPS. Apparently it’s a bug in the codec. Seems that if editing ProRes encoded source at a different frame size produces this problem.
My 1280×720 Prores clips have a data rate of less than 100 mBits/ sec and my system is able to handle that playing back full frame rates. It plays back clips double that date rate without a hitch.
What I tested is starting a fresh project with ProRes 422 (HQ) settings, bringing in a fresh clip that is (2048×1152) 23.98 FPS source material. Created a new sequence from a Prores easy set-up. I dragged this source clip into the sequence, at which point I get a warning that the sequence settings don’t match, so I make them match. If I export this clip it renders out fine and plays back fine at 23.98 FPS. Not so with a different sequence set to 1080×720 using the same source clip (2048×1125) I get the frame stutter problem.
So it seems that unless I use the SAME ProRes frame size as the source clips FCP / ProRes doesn’t like it. Again, everything else matches, especially the frame rate, except the frame size between the sequence and the clip.
BTW: I have no problem playing back (2048×1152) 23.98 FPS source material clips in Quicktime at 200 mBits / sec so it’s not a system or drive speed issue. It plays clean at full frame rate. A smaller frame: 1280×720 at 90mBits is not a problem.
Apple should test it like I did and find a solution to the problem. I haven’t been able to find a workaround and it’s a serious issue.
Can anybody chime in with a different experience?
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
-
Easy in FCP as well. If you want to apply the SAME color correction settings from one clip to the rest of the sequence just open the first clip in the viewer and go to the filters tab where you have your final color correction settings.
2.) go back to you timeline and select all the other clips (make them highlighted)
3.) drag the filter to the selected clips – any one of them – and the filter will be applied to ALL the selected clips. When you drag the filter on all the clips they will change highlight letting you know that this filter will be applied to all the clips.
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
1st question: FCP does that because it’s the logical thing to do. Usually with speed changes on a single clip one has to “lift” the clip above into another track, lock the track in the timeline where most of your edits are – do your speed change on your clip on that new video track (so it doesn’t affect any other clip), adjust your in-n-outs on this speed-changed clip and drop it back in where you want it.
2nd question, not really sure what you’re getting at here, but sound like a lot of this can be accomplished by locking your tracks and unlinking your audio files, so I would experiment with that.
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
1.- Stay away from Cleaner. Compressor is better, though not the greatest.
2.- The reason commercial retail (Studio) DVD’s look better is because A.: They are usually shot on 35mm film not HDV, B.: they use very expensive hardware encoders, meaning “not software” encoders. Don’t expect the same result. I found that experimentation is best with black and white levels, brightness and contrast and Gamma that make my DVDs look the closest to the original. Also, are you converting to SD at any point from before sending to Compressor?………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
Numbers 1 and 2 can be achieved in FCP with the “3-way Color Correction” tool that comes with FCP.
NO. 3 is tricky and being a director myself, i would probably shoot the crowd at norm speed around the character as a background plate then speed it up and blur it in FCP later, and shoot the central character on a green screen, matching the angle of view of my background plate – composit it later in post. FCP may not be the best tool for green screen compositing, some people swear by After Effects and Shake and various plug-ins but that’s another discussion.
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
There may be a choke on your system somewhere. Do not compare what plays back on your camcorder (off tape) to trying to capture in FCP, because it doesn’t even make sense. Capturing in FCP depends on your system’s speed, RAM size, hard drive speed, did I mention speed? It’s most likely your system is not fast enough to capture the digital video stream coming off your tape that you’re trying to capture. What’s more, whenever asking such a question, you will get more responses if you describe your issue with more detail including your system and FCP and Quicktime versions (at least.) Your question is too broad.
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
Let us know when you achieved success with this, because I’m trying to do the same thing with a 20 min. short (SD NTSC 23.98 FPS to SD PAL 25 FPS to burn a PAL DVD). I was going to purchase the Nattress PAL conversion tool, but was advised by Nattress himself that I don’t need it, just use Cinema Tools instead if your project is 23.98 FPS (doesn’t work as well with 30 FPS). Then use Compressor to compress for PAL DVD as usual. My problem is that Cinema Tools inserts an approx. 4 frame black at exactly the same point every time, at around 4:05? Why? I tried this repeatedly. The NTSC is clean.
My process is exporting the DVCPRO 50 timeline to an uncompressed 8bit SD NTSC (this is for archiving purposes) and then I’m using that 8bit uncompressed file in Cinema Tools to do the conform to 25 FPS. Then I would take that file and compress to MPEG2 with Compressor.
Any advice?
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
No problems. Running 10.4.5, FCP 5.0.4 and QT 7.0.4 — all the latest.
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com> -
When I had to do this – from a 16×9 / 23.98 FPS DVCPRO 50 timeline to a DV/ QT export at 29.97 I would just create another sequence with “DV at 29.97 FPS” settings and nest my final edit into that sequence. It would render out fine and would nicely letterbox the 16×9 into the 4:3 DV output. This would allow me to make a DV copy at 29.97 FPS.
………………………….
Point Zero Pictures
<https://www.pointzeropictures.com>