Should i be filming in 4K or not?

[maxb]

i have 2015 macbook pro however it doesn't support 4k. I've been filming in 4k and noticed the footage is a bit judery and not that smooth.. is this because my laptop can't play it back in the ultra HD resolution and should i therefore be filming in lower quality HD like 1080p?

 

[hookalakupua]

Do you know how much RAM you have in the system? What program are you using to try and watch the video?
Here are the specs to mine and it crushes 4K Video in Final Cut Pro. You're system is more than capable if you have enough RAM/Memory.

 

[Robbyg]

i have 2015 macbook pro however it doesn't support 4k. I've been filming in 4k and noticed the footage is a bit judery and not that smooth.. is this because my laptop can't play it back in the ultra HD resolution and should i therefore be filming in lower quality HD like 1080p?

Is the footage important? If so then film in 4K 30fps and keep it as an archive set for future proofing your video. You can easily use software to convert the 4K footage to 1080P so it plays back on your macbook smoothly.

Rob

 

[MavicNewb]

I film in 4K at 24fps with a shutter speed of around 1/50 or 1/60. Any higher shutter speed will result in some weird effects happening due to a fast shutter speed if outside in a bright environment. I edit the 4K video on my 2012 MacBook Air with a 1.8ghz core i5 with 8gb of ram with no issues. I don't think it's a computer problem, but more of a settings problem when filming

 

[dwallersv]

You all need to review some of the other threads about getting settings right to produce the most usable, sharp video. There are several.

The consensus seems to be to shoot in 2.7k, D-Cinelike, with style set to +1,0,0 (although there is a lot of argument about these settings).

I followed this advice, and am very, very happy with the result.

Also, highly recommend a set of ND filters. You should almost always have at least and ND4 on, in order to keep shutter speed down to about 2x framerate to combat the jello effect. So, for 30fps you want to be shooting at 1/60s shutter, which is nearly impossible to do without an ND filter. For a bright, sunny day you're looking at at least ND16.

 

[Ziggy01]

i have 2015 macbook pro however it doesn't support 4k. I've been filming in 4k and noticed the footage is a bit judery and not that smooth.. is this because my laptop can't play it back in the ultra HD resolution and should i therefore be filming in lower quality HD like 1080p?

2.7 will give you less compression artifacts. The 4K looks crunchy.

 

[DSGDSG]

I had to change mine to 2.7K because I couldn't get the files to play on my 8gb ram laptop. Couldn't even get them to play in any editor as every time I hit play I'd see the first frame, maybe one in the middle, then the file would end. Lowered to 2.7k and I can watch the videos and edit them.

 

[lazling]

You can shoot 4k videos and downsacle 4K to 1080p for playing on your Macbook.

Shooting 4K and scaling down to 1080 looks better because each final 1080p pixel is actually the average of 4 original 4K pixels. This "averaging" of pixels increases color accuracy, sharpness, and improves noise performance.

 

[black_magic100]

I've tried both and I feel like 4k looks a lot better tbh. There is no question that 4k has more detail than 2.7k, but that comes with the added noise

 

[tcope]

Are you the only one viewing this footage? Will you always be viewing it on a 1080 monitor? How important is 4K footage to you? Without knowing the answers to these questions, there is no way for anyone to give good input on your question.

 

[KiterTodd]

i have 2015 macbook pro however it doesn't support 4k. I've been filming in 4k and noticed the footage is a bit judery and not that smooth.. is this because my laptop can't play it back in the ultra HD resolution and should i therefore be filming in lower quality HD like 1080p?

That happens on my MacBooks with most 4K footage when importing them in to FCP for editing. However, once I am done editing and export my 4K project it plays beautifully.

I see two things. In the editor, it may be jittery as you describe.
Also, when I preview the movie it is not at full resolution (a little blurry) but any time I pause I see the full crisp image.

In some cases this is the interface speed of the external hard drive I am using. However, I have a brand new MacBook Pro (2017) and it does the same thing from the internal hard drive, but only when I'm looking at it in FCP. If I play the raw 4K file direct from the hard drive it plays fine.

In any case, hope this helps. I would still shoot in 4K as it gives you the most editing options in post.

 

[KiterTodd]

Also, when you play the files, where are you playing them from?

• The internal SSD hard drive?
• An external hard drive? (over what interface?)
• Direct from the memory card you popped out of the Mavic?
• USB connection from your laptop to the Mavic?

Those choices will all have various performance issues. To do a true test, copy the file to your internal hard drive and play the file by clicking on it. If that plays as you expect it, then you know any jittery playback you were seeing was due to the interface between the data and the laptop. Work backwards from there. All card readers, cables and connections are not created equal.

 

[KiterTodd]

Oh man... I just typed two replies to a thread that started in May, 2017! Ooops.
Sorry about that. Hopefully some future web searcher finds these interesting.

Clearly, @maxb has moved on. Doesn't appear to even have an account here any more. I blame @lazling for starting this back up.

 

[tcope]

Oh man... I just typed two replies to a thread that started in May, 2017! Ooops.
Sorry about that. Hopefully some future web searcher finds these interesting.

Clearly, @maxb has moved on. Doesn't appear to even have an account here any more. I blame @lazling for starting this back up.

Thanks for pointing that out. I did the same. Drives me crazy when the initial person does not see that its a very old post and then bumps the thread to make it look current.

 

[dewster]

My phone handles 4K better than my 2010 Mac.

 

[FUTURE_PRODUCTIONS]

Use proxies... Basically shoot 4k convert it to 1080p or 720p using something like iSkysoft media converter deluxe and then edit the 720p as normal. When done, relink the 720p to the origional 4k files and then fit them to frame. Then export as normal...

 

[swoermck]

You should almost always have at least and ND4 on, in order to keep shutter speed down to about 2x framerate to combat the jello effect.

Last year I changed from Parrot Bebop2 to Mavic Pro - and guess what: because of this ugly Jello Effect the Bebop2 is producing, especially when pointing the camera down!! O.K. the Jello Effect might be minimal, and I guess only few people will spot this in my Bebop2 videos, but as soon as you recognise something is wrong, you will discover the smallest issue in your footage: your brain wouldn't let you simply enjoy the video without looking for the failures you are aware of..

Now with the Mavic Pro, I started to film only in 4K, and never ever have seen any Jello Effect, even without ND filters (never tried filters so far, still on my list as soon as the weather gets better here in Europe). And as you can imagine: from my Bebop2 experience, my eyes will detect the slightest Jello in Videos, but so far - keep fingers crossed - it never appeared again. So I am wondering why you have Jello Effect when filming without filters?

Back to the topic of the thread: as stated before, I only film in 4K (maybe in the near future every monitor will be 4K??), and on my MacBook Retina (2016, M7, 512 SSD) 4K movies run smooth without any hickups. Recently I also tried color grading on it with Davinci Resolve, no issue. Maybe the final rendering takes longer, as the MacBook has less power than a MacBook Pro, but after start the rendering process, I normally leave my room - time to grab a coffee

Only "issue" I have: watching the video on my old 1080p Full HD monitor, the footage doesn't look as bright as on the Retina Display of the MacBook, and the moire and aliasing effects the Mavic is bothering us with from time to time will be more visible. Update: I recently bought a 4K Monitor (Samsung), the footage seems as good as on my MacBook Retina display, and I'd guess on a "Retina 4K Monitor" like the iMac or LG 4K Ultrafine, the footage will be even better! (I already regret buying the Samsung).

Stefan

 

[maverickau]

i have 2015 macbook pro however it doesn't support 4k. I've been filming in 4k and noticed the footage is a bit judery and not that smooth.. is this because my laptop can't play it back in the ultra HD resolution and should i therefore be filming in lower quality HD like 1080p?

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with Retina display (8GB RAM, Core i5) and it handles 4K like a champ. I even edit 4K in Final Cut Pro with no dramas at all.

I think you might be confusing your MacBook model with another? But regardless of model you’ll get best performance from your Mac if your main drive isn’t completely full and as many apps are closed at the time.

 

[lazling]

Shooting 4K and scaling down to 1080p looks better because each final 1080p pixel is actually the average of 4 original 4K pixels. This "averaging" of pixels increases color accuracy, sharpness, and improves noise performance.

 

[black_magic100]

Shooting 4K and scaling down to 1080p looks better because each final 1080p pixel is actually the average of 4 original 4K pixels. This "averaging" of pixels increases color accuracy, sharpness, and improves noise performance.

Except 4k on the mavic isn't actually 4k, it's more or less 2.8k. 4000 x 0.7 =2.8