Problems with Sony HLG footage into Final Cut Pro X

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Joe M21 Author

Level 1

79 points

Problems with Sony HLG footage into Final Cut Pro X

Mac Pro 5,1

Mojave 10.14.5

FCPx 10.4.6

Sony a6400

The Sony a6400 allows for "picture profiles" when shooting video. S-log2, S-log3, HLG, etc. There is a "known" issue with certain HLG footage brought into Final Cut Pro. Highlights are blown out. This problem only seems to affect FCP (other editors display the footage properly). The fix is to use FCPs "color space override" setting to change color space to "rec2020" (as opposed to rec2020 HLG).

Not sure why the above problem happens, but I ran across a seemingly related issue.

I was playing with my picture profile settings and accidentally changed my HLG profile to a rec709 color space in the camera. Shot several clips with this setting.

Bringing that footage into FCP was a big problem. Highlights were blown out. No LUT or color space override could fix things. Waveform show all highlights clipped horribly and nothing could be recovered. I thought the footage was ruined. (Footage was all exposed properly and looked fine when played back on camera monitor).

Then, I did a preview of the file in Finder. It looked great. Same thing in Quicktime Player. Same thing in After Effects. AE showed a very well exposed waveform for the file.

Original and Optimized footage in FCP would not display properly. I tried an export from Quicktime. QTPlayer X doesn't have many export options, so I simply selected "4k." The exported file looked washed out in QT/Finder/FCPx.

Then I found "Encode Selected Video Files" in the Finder "Services" menu. That allowed me to transcode the originals into ProRes. The resulting ProRes files looked perfect in FCPx - same as the ProRes file looked in other applications.

I thought that creating "optimized" files in FCP transcoded to ProRes, presumably using the same process that Finder would use. Apparently not.

There seems to be some level of incompatibility between Sony files and FCP. While I'm glad I found a workaround, it would make more sense if FCP read the file the way every other application does.

Any idea what happened here? Are these known issues when using Sony HLG profiles?

Mac Pro, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 5, 2019 4:41 PM

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Answer 1

Joe M21 Author

Level 1

79 points

Jun 9, 2019 10:30 AM in response to xtrubambinoxpr

My understanding that Shooting HLG with a rec2020 color space allows for a quick fix - just do a "color space override" to rec2020 (not rec2020 HLG), From what I have seen and read, this will correct footage in FCPx. It seems to be a bug in FCP since all other software (including Apple's own) displays the files properly. This method should still allow you to work in a rec709 timeline and output without an issue.

What do you mean by "rec709 it?"

Also, have you tried to transcode from the Finder? (Right-click on file in finder, under "Services" select "Encode Selected Video Files.") I was very surprised when this method yielded very different results from the Prores 422 file that FCP created.

It's also a little concerning you had a solution that no longer works. Was it a FCP update that caused things to stop working, or a camera software update? One would hope these problems get resolved with updates rather than made worse.

Edited to add: I also reported this issue to Apple via: https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html

I suggest anyone else with the same problem do the same.

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Answer 2

Jun 9, 2019 10:27 AM in response to Joe M21

Even if I do a color space override, the whites are still super blown out. That is what I meant by "rec.709 it", sorry. When I do it, it will fix the issue if it is NOT transcoded (optimized). As soon as I try and optimize it, it blows out the whites again for some reason.

After reading your post here I transcoded it in Finder and am now currently editing with this footage instead. So thank you for that information! Is there a difference between the ones finder created and what FCPX creates?

It was the same software version. It just wasn't a full fix. The process was the following:

import media (this was blown out highlights)
Color space override to Rec.709 (fixed the blown highlights)
Right click on media > transcode to optimized prores

This was 50/50, in other words, sometimes it fixed the footage, and other times the blown highlights wouldn't go away, or would come back when I relaunched FCP. It is very weird indeed and I do believe it to a software bug.

Any thoughts on your side?

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Answer 3

Jun 9, 2019 9:06 AM in response to Joe M21

I have been having the same issue with the HLG profile on Sony A7iii. There was a slight workaround where you had to import first, then rec.709 it, and then right click on the media in FCP and manually transcode the file that worked for a bit. After a while though, they would blow the highlights out again. Not sure why this is happening, but I am glad I found your workaround because it has been brutal for me on my projects.

I hope someone else has a solution here.

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Answer 4

Joe M21 Author

Level 1

79 points

Jun 9, 2019 10:42 AM in response to xtrubambinoxpr

If you would have asked me a week ago, I would have told you that Finder and FCP use the same process to transcode to Prores and the resulting file would be the same. From my recent experience, this is definitely NOT the case.

My guess is that the Sony picture profile puts some sort of "flag" in the file. For whatever reason, FCP is not reading this flag correctly. When transcoding, it uses that incorrect data to perform the transcode. Finder apparently reads the file properly and thus creates a correct Prores version.

I'm not a programmer. This is just a theory based on available facts.

I end up transcoding to optimized media anyway. Going forward, I will probably do my transcoding via Finder, then import those Prores files into FCP. Seems like the best way to avoid overrides and other workaround inside FCP that seem to be hit or miss.

Edited to add:

One other weird point. When the problem footage came into FCP, it didn't have a color space listed in the info pane. Usually that data is shown below the resolution and frame rate. I think this "missing" information had something to do with my problem. After transcoding in Finder, the same foot imported with a color space designation.

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Answer 5

Jun 9, 2019 10:45 AM in response to Joe M21

I haven't looked into FCP vs Finder transcode, but I guess I was foolish to think it was the same.

Thinking of software I think you may be right. This is something I suspect the future versions of FCP to hopefully fix. Especially since other programs like Premier and Resolve don't have this issue.

I hope someone from Apple can comment on this post or similar users with this experience. Let me know if you ever figure out an official solution!

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Answer 6

Joe M21 Author

Level 1

79 points

Jun 9, 2019 10:51 AM in response to xtrubambinoxpr

Keep in mind that this is a user to user forum. Apple doesn't post here. You should definitely report this to the feedback link noted above.

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Problems with Sony HLG footage into Final Cut Pro X

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