MPEG 4 acting weird in FCP7

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Level 1

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MPEG 4 acting weird in FCP7

I am doing a small project I shot with my Sony Vivaz Pro. it shoots HD and the files show as MPEG 4 ACC 1280x720 24fps. They look great when I check them out in the viewer but they all have a large section of black at the end. This was a mystery untill I realized that the black had audio that was repeat of what was on the clip just prior to the black. Also, when the play head stopped in the black, lo and behold, there was an image from the clip but a little previous where the playhead actually stopped. It's almost like there are two versions of the same file; one that plays when the playhead is moving and another, a copy that is slighty behind the first, that is only visible when the playhead is stopped.

I have tried using Compressor to convert the files to HDVDCPRO, Apple prores, uncompressed 10 bit (plus a couple more) and all have various problems plus nothing looks as good as the original.

If this isn't confusing enough, I eventually just learned to edit the originals by working around the different images I was getting only to find that when I added fades, the shadow clip showed benath the fade, not the original.

Sorry for the long question but this is very hard to explain.

MacBook Pro 2.4 GHZ, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 29, 2011 4:49 PM

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Answer 1

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Oct 29, 2011 5:10 PM in response to Harri P

You can't use MPEG 4 video in FCP 7.

Why are you not using Log & Transfer to transcode to ProRes LT?

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Answer 2

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Oct 29, 2011 5:43 PM in response to Harri P

This is video that has originated on a cellphone?

In FCP, click on one of the clips from this phone that is in your FCP Browser and, once selected, type Command + 9 to see the item properties for the clip. Either report what those properties are, or take a screen shot and post that screen shot here.

MtD

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Answer 3

Harri P Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2011 7:02 PM in response to Meg The Dog

User uploaded file Here you go.

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Answer 4

Harri P Author

Level 1

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Oct 29, 2011 7:22 PM in response to Nick Holmes

How does one "Log & Transfer to transcode to ProRes LT" and why should I to do this?

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Answer 5

Harri P Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2011 7:19 PM in response to Nick Holmes

I just tried Log and Transfer and no, I don't have a control deck.

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Answer 6

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Oct 29, 2011 9:18 PM in response to Harri P

OK, your Item Properties say the video is 29.97 progressive, are you confident about the 24fps?

At any rate, download MPEG Streamclip (free) from

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

after you have downloaded it, launch it and drag one of your camera files into the square with the 5 dots.

Once it has loaded in, go to the menu File > Export to Quicktime.

A settings window will open, set the following:

Then click Make Movie.

Once the movie has been transcoded via MPEG Streamclip, import it into FCP and make a new sequence.

Edit/place the movie you just imported into the sequence you just made and you should be asked if you want the sequence settings to match your source footage. Say yes.

You should be good to go. Repeat the MPEG Conversion for your remaing clips. If you have a lot, there is a batch processing function. Check out the MPEG Streamclip help file.

MtD

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Answer 7

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Oct 29, 2011 10:05 PM in response to Harri P

Harri P wrote:

How does one "Log & Transfer to transcode to ProRes LT" and why should I to do this?

Because MPEG, Mpeg-4, H.264 etc. are extremely compressed codecs. They are designed for recording in a minimum amount of media space ( so camera manufacturers can boast of long record times ) and delivery of lengthy program material in a minimum amount of media space.

This, however, makes the format incredibly processor intensive, and makes editing extremely difficult.

There is editing software the will edit Mpeg-4 without conversion, such as FCP-X or Adobe Premiere Pro, but these actually transcode the video on the fly for editing purposes into an editable format. They can do that as they are 64 bit based, FCP-7 is 32 bit.

MtD

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