FCPX & MOV files

[Fatjac]

Hi I wonder if anyone can help with this query. I have searched for any other threads but I can't see any that are about the same problem.

Basically when I import video from the Mavic Pro to my laptop, a MacBook Pro, I can view it with quicklook or Quicktime absolutely fine. In fact it looks stunning! However when I try to import it into FCPX it imports ok but on playback it is juddery & distorted wherever there is any movement or fine detail such as trees or water.

It is driving me mad to say the least as I am unable to even begin to edit any footage.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers

 

[BD0G]

Do a quick import and then RENDER it to its final resolution. Perhaps use a short clip. Check the rendered file. Are the same anomalies present?

 

[Fatjac]

OK thanks, I just tried that & no, they aren't...I've been using FCP for years & I have never seen that before.

What's the explanation? Is there one?

TIA

 

[BD0G]

It was my thought that Final Cut Pro was taking the footage and using a compression algorithm upon it so as to make the smaller file size faster to edit as less CPU/ GPU cycles would be needed. Rendering it would have produced higher resolution files and that did not happen.

 

[Fatjac]

Thanks. It is almost impossible to edit in the original state with all of the flickering so what would your suggestion be with regards to workflow to produce a video please?

 

[Malakai_UK]

When you import, do you have it set to create an optimized version? The flickering sounds like a framerate problem somewhere. What are the details of your original files resolution/fps e.g. 1080p@30fps? What have you got the compound clip set at?

 

[Gubernator]

I had this problem with both Mavic and GoPro footage. I have a MacBook Pro with 8gb of ram and I mentioned this issue to a Apple employee who was demonstrating FCP in a Apple store. He said I should put more RAM in which I thought he would say but I did eventually upgrade to 16gb and this did indeed solve my issues, however, I am not stating this would fix your problem.

If you have the inclination why not try the free trial of Adobe Premier Pro and see if that has the same problem.

 

[Fatjac]

When you import, do you have it set to create an optimized version? The flickering sounds like a framerate problem somewhere. What are the details of your original files resolution/fps e.g. 1080p@30fps? What have you got the compound clip set at?

Yes I have it set to create an optimised version. It is 4K 24FPS.

Sorry what is the compound clip again?

Thanks

 

[Fatjac]

I had this problem with both Mavic and GoPro footage. I have a MacBook Pro with 8gb of ram and I mentioned this issue to a Apple employee who was demonstrating FCP in a Apple store. He said I should put more RAM in which I thought he would say but I did eventually upgrade to 16gb and this did indeed solve my issues, however, I am not stating this would fix your problem.

If you have the inclination why not try the free trial of Adobe Premier Pro and see if that has the same problem.

I have 16GB of RAM.

The free trial sounds like a good idea.

Thanks

 

[Malakai_UK]

ok, 4k@24fps what spec is your macbook pro? I5 I7?

Its possible that your macbook is struggling to play the 4k footage, you might want to tick Create a proxy during import, this will create a lower resolution file just for editing purposes, then when you output it will use the full resolution files.

If you asking what a compound clip is you might want to stick with final cut as opposed to adobe premiere and read up on final cut.

A compound clip is a timeline you compound all your individual clips into. Like a mini project. You can add video, audio, effects etc into a compound clip and that can be added into other compound clips. If you asking what a compound clip is you might want to stick with final cut as opposed to adobe premiere and read up on final cut because with premiere, you will need to transcode your footage manually for import into premiere.

The Mavic capture footage using interframe compression but its best to edit with intraframe footage.
Basically, to keep file size down, interframe compression for example, takes frame 1, makes it a key frame (snapshot), then frames 2-7 are compressed and frame 8 becomes a keyframe. Frames 2-7 only store the changes between frame 1 and 8. Saving space.
Intraframe compression makes every frame a keyframe. Greater quality capture but requires fast write speeds and large storage.

If you make an edit with interframe footage and make a cut between two keyframes, you will break the link between the keyframes. This is where you might get glitching or artifacts where the encoder/decoder only shows the few frames before or after the missing keyframes as garbage. This never happens with intraframe because each frame is a keyframe.

I say stick with final cut because at import you can create a proxy as well as a optimised (transcoded to intraframe) version of the file you are working with.

 

[Fatjac]

ok, 4k@24fps what spec is your macbook pro? I5 I7?

Its possible that your macbook is struggling to play the 4k footage, you might want to tick Create a proxy during import, this will create a lower resolution file just for editing purposes, then when you output it will use the full resolution files.

If you asking what a compound clip is you might want to stick with final cut as opposed to adobe premiere and read up on final cut.

A compound clip is a timeline you compound all your individual clips into. Like a mini project. You can add video, audio, effects etc into a compound clip and that can be added into other compound clips. If you asking what a compound clip is you might want to stick with final cut as opposed to adobe premiere and read up on final cut because with premiere, you will need to transcode your footage manually for import into premiere.

The Mavic capture footage using interframe compression but its best to edit with intraframe footage.
Basically, to keep file size down, interframe compression for example, takes frame 1, makes it a key frame (snapshot), then frames 2-7 are compressed and frame 8 becomes a keyframe. Frames 2-7 only store the changes between frame 1 and 8. Saving space.
Intraframe compression makes every frame a keyframe. Greater quality capture but requires fast write speeds and large storage.

If you make an edit with interframe footage and make a cut between two keyframes, you will break the link between the keyframes. This is where you might get glitching or artifacts where the encoder/decoder only shows the few frames before or after the missing keyframes as garbage. This never happens with intraframe because each frame is a keyframe.

I say stick with final cut because at import you can create a proxy as well as a optimised (transcoded to intraframe) version of the file you are working with.

Thanks for the comprehensive answer. I7, 16GB Ram.

My apologies, I understand the compound clip concept but I didn't see how it applied to my situation & thought that perhaps I was misunderstanding something about the import process. Initially I am just importing "raw" footage from an SD card into FCPX. Then trying to preview those clips before I start creating a rough edit.

Interesting info about compression thanks.

I have never had problems like this in all the years that I have used FCP.

Anyway I think I may have an idea what is causing the problem but not how to fix it! I don't think that FCP is transcoding the files on import. The box is ticked but it doesn't seem to be achieving anything. I have now tried to import some other clips from recent trips out with the Mavic & they are working fine. Perhaps it is these clips because they are 4K 24FPS which I don't think I have tried before.

So I need to find out why it is not transcoding or creating a proxy file...

(The reason that I think that is because there is no activity in the box where it shows the progress of the file being imported whereas there is on the more recent clips that I have tried)

 

[Malakai_UK]

Same spec macbook pro as mine and I have not noticed any issues. Are you working from the internal drive or an external drive?
I'll have a look into it later tonight when I get home, I've had no issues either with final cut.

Sorry if I sounded condescending with the compound clip. My thinking was the settings for the compound clip may have been different to the clip you dropped into it causing stuttering.
If you are opening the raw clip and its stuttering then yes, there may be a problem. If it hasn't transcoded the original and is using the original file then the decoder has to work harder with the footage which may cause stuttering.

 

[Fatjac]

Not condescending at all. I asked for help & you are trying to do that for me thanks. You have no way of knowing my level of expertise (or not!) with FCP.

ATM I am trying to remove clips from the project & reimport them but they will not transcode on import. Any clips that have not already been tried in this project will import & transcode. I also discovered that you can tell what you are working with from the clip info box (mines in the top right hand corner). It says either original, optimised or proxy. Some clips are optimised & others not. The non optimised ones are the problematic clips. (As you allude to).

I'll keep experimenting...

 

[KiterTodd]

Hi I wonder if anyone can help with this query. I have searched for any other threads but I can't see any that are about the same problem.

Basically when I import video from the Mavic Pro to my laptop, a MacBook Pro, I can view it with quicklook or Quicktime absolutely fine. In fact it looks stunning! However when I try to import it into FCPX it imports ok but on playback it is juddery & distorted wherever there is any movement or fine detail such as trees or water.

It is driving me mad to say the least as I am unable to even begin to edit any footage.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers

I get this also during some edits, but once I am done with the project and export or save the master file, it creates a smooth running crisp video.

In my case, I believe it is the write speed to the external hard drive I am using. The faster drive/interface I use, it seems to go away. I get this more when I edit the FCPX on the MacBook Air I travel with and less when editting at home on the MBP, but it does happen.

Do an export of your footage and you'll likely find it goes away. If so, you know it's something to do with read access, processor speed or some of the other compression tips mentioned above. I only get this with 4K footage. Maybe with 2.7K... don't recall.

 

[Malakai_UK]

Not condescending at all. I asked for help & you are trying to do that for me thanks. You have no way of knowing my level of expertise (or not!) with FCP.

ATM I am trying to remove clips from the project & reimport them but they will not transcode on import. Any clips that have not already been tried in this project will import & transcode. I also discovered that you can tell what you are working with from the clip info box (mines in the top right hand corner). It says either original, optimised or proxy. Some clips are optimised & others not. The non optimised ones are the problematic clips. (As you allude to).

I'll keep experimenting...

You might be best off creating a new project if you can. See if that makes any difference. I have had issues in the past with optical flow and analysis where it would say its analyzing the video but its not doing anything. On creating a new project it worked perfectly.

 

[Fatjac]

I get this also during some edits, but once I am done with the project and export or save the master file, it creates a smooth running crisp video.

In my case, I believe it is the write speed to the external hard drive I am using. The faster drive/interface I use, it seems to go away. I get this more when I edit the FCPX on the MacBook Air I travel with and less when editting at home on the MBP, but it does happen.

Do an export of your footage and you'll likely find it goes away. If so, you know it's something to do with read access, processor speed or some of the other compression tips mentioned above. I only get this with 4K footage. Maybe with 2.7K... don't recall.

Thanks. I have 100% found that the problem is FCPX not transcoding 4K files on import. Sometimes it does & sometimes it doesn't. I now know that I can tell from the inspector panel if it has done them or not. I will keep trying to get to the root of this problem.

 

[Fatjac]

You might be best off creating a new project if you can. See if that makes any difference. I have had issues in the past with optical flow and analysis where it would say its analyzing the video but its not doing anything. On creating a new project it worked perfectly.

Thanks. I have tried several new projects & it is still hit & miss whether FCP will create Proxy files or optimised. Quite random.

I think I will take my next footage in 2.7K & see hat happens with that.

 

[Malakai_UK]

Are you using the latest version of FCPX 10.4 I think it is? Hopefully I'll have time tonight to have a play.

 

[Fatjac]

Yes. The latest version.