Final Cut 10.7 Prores raw files gives black preview

Yep

Camera Lumix S1H, Atomos Ninja V. I filmed it 2 years ago.

I just checked properties (I havent used these funny tools) and found that only 6k footage has this bug with turning black. @magtes may be you will confirm. Any 4k Prores raw works fine though.

Every Prores Raw that turns black in fcpx is played correctly in QT and Quick Look. No issues at all. It happensnly when I use FCPX 10.7. Older versions of FCPX worked totally fine

Prores Raw originals are on external APFS 16Tb HDD . Library file is on external 4tb APFS SSD.

Apple Pro Video is the latest 2.3

Definitely enough free space. Each drive has at least around 200 gb free space.

My Mac is 13' 2020 M1 with 16gb ram. I use Sonoma 14.2.1

I think the most practical way at the moment is to use Dropbox or WeTransfer or other accessible site. Post the link here. The link will be removed, but it will appear in all notification emails for the thread or the forum.

I don't think there were any Z6 files posted from that thread unfortunately. I have loads of Z6-Z6II/Ninja files recorded on Ninja V over the last three years and none show this behaviour. It is going to be very difficult to pin down.

I was about to post the following when you posted:

I think a very important key in understanding this behaviour is that clips that exhibit this behaviour appear to do so consistently across the specific computers that show this behaviour (not necessarily every spec of those computers). The clips from my Z8, from Felix’s Sony/Ninja combo and from Magtes’s SonyNinja combo (which are all that I have seen so far) exhibit this behaviour on specific machines and they all or would all exhibit this behaviour on the same machines and any other machine that is affected by this. This is about the only thing that appears to be consistent. I suggest that certain Macs are affected and those that are affected are always affected but only by the files that show this behaviour. It only needs one exception to break this hypothesis. 

AlexanderTramp’s 6K clips appear to be anomalous in a couple of ways. Firstly, his machine is an M1 Mac (so far the only one that is problematic). Secondly, it only affects his 6K ProRes Raw files and not 4K. Thirdly, Joema has not seen the issue on any of his machine’s that show the problem with other files (magtes and mine). It would be really interesting to have a look at AlexanderTramp’s 6K clips if he would like to post them to a dropbox link (as Joema’s dropbox is private) to see if they exhibit the behaviour on the 2019 iMac I have access to. I suspect they wouldn't but it would be interesting to check.

Affected Macs without detailed specifications include

MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019

iMac 27", 2019

iMacPro 2017

MacBook Air 2018

Hey Joema if you are still with us - I just made a really interesting discovery. After seeing a post in a different thread where a new poster had this issue with HD ProRes Raw footage from a Nikon Z6, i did a quick shoot with my Z6II/Ninja V (very similar to Z6) and all HD footage is affected by this issue regardless of frame rate on the 2019 iMac that shows this behaviour. However, none of the 4k footage from the same camera/ Ninja combo is affected. So that seems odd as one might expect the opposite if the issue was related to the bitrate etc.

I also re-checked the Nikon Z8 which records ProRes Raw internally but does not do HD. All the 4K ProRes Raw footage I tested from the Z8 is affected by the issue regardless of frame rate or frame size (there are two 4K options).

I am happy to post affected footage if your Dropbox is still active if you would like to repost the link which has disappeared and I have deleted the email.

joema wrote:

Clint, thanks for those files and the excellent documentation. Attached is Invisor output of the Z6II & Z8 ProRes RAW files that show the black frame problem on Intel FCP 10.7.0 and 10.7.1. Also attached is a separate list of Z6II & Z8 files which do not show the problem. Does this match your results?

I see the same as you Joema except for one outlier - the Z84K29.97 clip shows black for me. I've double checked this in case I missed something and I don't think there is any mistake in file labelling between us as the Invisor report shows this at the correct frame size (4140x2330). It is 496.97MB on disk. Could you maybe recheck that this file doesn't show the black screen as it would be a complete outlier - all the other Nikon Z8 4K and UHD files show the black screen for me, including several that I didn't send you.

The only Z8 files that play normally are the DX crop sensor files (5404x3040) which in itself was a surprise when I discovered it.

I just noticed a mistake I made in labelling one of the files although it is not significant in terms of any conclusions. The file labelled Z8DX59.94 should be Z8DX29.97. The Invisor table gives the correct frame rate which is how I noticed the error. In fact the camera can't record DX format ProRes Raw at anything higher than 29.97. Apologies for the error - it was getting late when I was finishing this off before sending to you. In any case frame rate is not a factor in the bug it seems but frame size definitely does appear to be significant.

Clint, you are correct -- I confirm the Z84K29.97 clips also show black on Intel FCP 10.7.0 and 10.7.1. I made a mistake.

I currently have your clips, which are all Nikon, but they cover various resolutions and frame rates and are both internal and Ninja V, which is great.

The only non-Nikon clip I have is magtes' Sony A1 4328x2446 59.94 clip recorded on a Ninja V.

Clint, you mentioned a "Felix’s Sony/Ninja combo", but I can't find that in this thread. Could you point me to that?

If there is any Sony camera besides the A1 showing this, I'd like to know. I'd really like to have an S1H clip showing this. Unfortunately, the one from Alexander's M1 machine would not show that on any machine I have (M1 Ultra, M1 Max, M2 Pro, 2019 i9 MBP 16, 2017 i7 iMac 27.) However, I now have enough to file a formal bug report.

I'm just worried that without the broadest possible examples, some cameras might not get fixed. We had that happen with the DJI Mavic 3 10-bit HEVC black frame problem on Apple Silicon, where it was initially reported 1-June 2023 on Sony 10-bit 4:2:2 100/120 fps HEVC, then the Mavic 3 variant (all frame rates) was added to the scenario a day later, the Sony version got fixed but the DJI version still isn't fixed today.

The clip from Felix was also A1 - link to thread below.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255348340?sortBy=oldest_first&page=4

There is a link in the thread to an example file but the link has expired. The only major difference that I can see between that and the file posted by magtes is that Felix was using a Ninja V+ but he since bought a Ninja as well and that gives the same results according his more recent posts.

Somebody else (crying kid - page 2 of the same thread) also posted about that they had the same problem with a Sigma fp. Perhaps if you post in the thread, they might respond and provide sample files.

Use feedback to report the problem.

Clint, thanks for that info. That was 1080p/30 ProRes RAW from a Nikon Z6 recorded on a Ninja V. Unfortunately I don't have that file.

It is vital that anyone working on the problem have the camera files which demonstrate it on each known camera/recorder combination. The first thing that FCP development will want is those files. It is difficult and time-consuming to attempt a fix without the materials and procedure to reproduce the problem. In some past cases, an incomplete replication scenario resulted in an incomplete fix.

If anyone could send me the Z6 files, I will include them in the problem replication package I send to Apple. Without those files, there is a risk that specific format might not get fixed.

Joema - your response to my last post is not showing yet but I got the link in the email so will post some files to your Dropbox later.

I noticed that one of the clips you mentioned as 30fps HD from a Nikon Z6 but was assuming that the issue might be related to Ninja or Z6 firmware and not specifically HD. All my 4K Z6/Z6II footage works fine regardless of the firmware at the time it was shot.

It is also interesting to note that, in the case of the Panasonic footage earlier in the thread, it is the 6K that shows the issue and not the 4K. So frame size is significant here in more than one case but the direction is not consistent (Nikon Z6 HD - bad, 4K good, Panasonic S1H, 4K good, 6K bad).

Clint, thanks for those files and the excellent documentation. Attached is Invisor output of the Z6II & Z8 ProRes RAW files that show the black frame problem on Intel FCP 10.7.0 and 10.7.1. Also attached is a separate list of Z6II & Z8 files which do not show the problem. Does this match your results?

I wanted to jump in here in 2024 and let everyone know I'm having a similar issue.

Camera: Canon R5C (latest firmware 1.0.6.1)

Recorder: Ninja V+ (latest firmware 11.05.00)

Computer: (iMac Pro (base version - Intel Xeon / latest MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1)

FCPX (latest 10.7.1 with latest Pro video files)

The issue for me revolves around the 6K version of ProRes RAW (super 35 crop on the R5C). I have NO issues with 8K 29.97. It works perfectly as it should in 8K and surprisingly well on my old iMac Pro.

I CAN view the 6K version just fine in QuickTime, but as soon as I bring it into FCPX .. black nothingness. I suspect it's probably an issue with FCPX. It seems others with other cameras are having issues with the 6K flavor of ProRes RAW. Thought I'd contribute my info.

I know, I wrote about transcoding compressor to 4444. And I am not scared about the footage. It's just Full length documentary with like 1-2 hour interviews as well and very heavy footage. And these are 6k files. I wont have enough free space to transcode it. I refer to 5 to 10 Tb of it. I will also loose flexibility of Prores Raw. I was just testing colour correction with Dehancer plugin of Raw (Like I still have my 4k files that work fine). And colours from just Raw on timeline original Log against Prores 4444 in rec 2020 are veeery different. It is just bad and happened right during pre-release. It made me super mad and I keep this thread live, because I need that fix really hard.