Optical Flow - Native MXF

Question

Level 1

30 points

Optical Flow - Native MXF

I'm trying to slow some footage down within FCP X but it seems that Optical Flow only works if I've already transcoded my Canon MXF footage to ProRes, and not if it's left in it's original media state (which is all FCP X seems to allow). I've checked this on several different computers and they are all the same. It's simply repeating frames!

Unfortunately, FCP X refused to transcode to optimised media (C'mon Apple, at least give us the choice!!!!), so I end up having to export the clip to ProRes and re-ingest it as an additional clip. This is both time consuming and a waste of HDD space.

Are there any other work arounds?

All machines are 10.8.2 and FCP X 10.0.6.

Posted on Nov 13, 2012 2:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 13, 2012 8:00 AM in response to Dave_E_P

You can't transcode to optimized.

I did a little experiment on a small clip and it does not look to me like FCP X is repeating frames. Maybe you didn't give it time to render? (Optical flow can be a heavy burden on the cpu and it needs to be rendered)

Reply

Answer 2

Dave_E_P Author

Level 1

30 points

Nov 13, 2012 8:05 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Not only did I give it chance to fully analyse and render, I also did a full export as well.

I can step through the frames one at a time, and at 50% every other frame is repeated. At 25% there are 4 identical frames before it steps to the next one, then another 4 the same. I'd call that repeated frames.

Basically, it doesn't matter if I chose normal, frame blending or optical flow (I tried them all), they all come out the same.

So, what did you do differently? Are you using MXF media? How did you ingest it?

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 13, 2012 8:15 AM in response to Dave_E_P

I just downloaded a sample from the internet (I don't have a camera recording in mxf format) - specifically the first sample here: http://www.opencubetech.com/page47/

I got a zip file, expanded it and made the resulting folder into a disk image (using Disk Utility's File->New image->from folder), so that to FCP X it looked just as if I had inserted a camera card (I was able to make multiple selections, etc using 10.0.6 new import window).

I then tried retiming a short selection to 50% or 25% and it does not *seem* to be repeating frames.

Reply

Answer 4

Dave_E_P Author

Level 1

30 points

Nov 13, 2012 8:21 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Are you using Canon's MXF plugin tool?

Reply

Answer 5

Nov 13, 2012 8:38 AM in response to Dave_E_P

No, I did just as I described above, using a small sample file off the internet. I do not own any MXF Canon camera.

You could try to place the SD card from the camera in a card reader (or straight into the sd slot if your mac has one). It has been recommended in these forums to avoid using the camera software and import this way. The reason FCP X is unable to import directly from these cameras seems to be that the PIP protocol required is deactivated in Canon cameras. Connecting the card directly avoids this difficulty and does not require third party software.

Reply

Answer 6

Dave_E_P Author

Level 1

30 points

Nov 13, 2012 8:42 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

I'm not importing from the camera. I'm importing using the Canon FCPX MXF plugin (required to read the MXF files) from a folder on the HDD - it's the ful card image copied from the card to the HDD using finder (have also tried other methods).

Everything else is working perfectly, just not optical flow.

Canon re-wraps the MXF files. Are your files being re-wrapped ?

Just FYI - this is MPEG2 50mbit 4:2:2 from a compact flash card, not a consumer camera on to SD cards.

Reply

Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,974 points

Nov 13, 2012 8:49 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

The first seven of those downloads are SD DV-based formats Luis, not the HD MPEG-2-based formats. That might be the problem.

Reply

Answer 8

Nov 13, 2012 9:58 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom Wolsky wrote:

The first seven of those downloads are SD DV-based formats Luis, not the HD MPEG-2-based formats. That might be the problem.

Quite possibly.

Reply

Answer 9

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 13, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Dave_E_P

I just tested some XF 100 footage, native format, and optical flow did work on that.

Russ

Reply

Answer 10

Dave_E_P Author

Level 1

30 points

Nov 13, 2012 2:57 PM in response to Russ H

OK. Can you tell me how you ingested the footage and what steps you took to get Optical Flow working? It seems that other people on the web have the same problem as me and no one has a solution, so perhaps you can enlighten me 🙂

When I select a clip in the project, choose 50% and then choose Optical Flow, it goes through the motions (show it's analysing) but when it's done, and rendered, and I step through the frames one-by-one there are duplicate frames instead of new intermedia frames (just as if I hadn't selected Optical Flow).

If I export to a Prores file, import that back in and do the same thing it all works fine and there are new frames generated and no duplicate frames. So it's definately an XF100 / MXF problem.

So, please tell me how you got from a native XF100 file (same as I am using) to an Optical Flow version with NEW frames..... PLEASE!

Reply

Answer 11

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 13, 2012 3:22 PM in response to Dave_E_P

Dave_E_P wrote:

OK. Can you tell me how you ingested the footage and what steps you took to get Optical Flow working?

I have the Canon EOS for OS 10.7 plug-in. Use a card reader, and import files. As for optical flow, I didn't do anything special. Retime>SLow>Quality>Optical Flow. Clearly there is an issue, but I'm afraid I can't shed any light on it.

Funnily enough and a bit OT: for my last project with MXF material, I had to bag the MXF workflow and use Pro Res… because after updating to 10.0.6 I couldn't get multicam to sync properly unless I used optimized clips. Never had that issue with 10.0.5 and prior versions.

Russ

Reply

Answer 12

Dave_E_P Author

Level 1

30 points

Nov 14, 2012 1:07 AM in response to Russ H

Russ H wrote:

I have the Canon EOS for OS 10.7 plug-in. Use a card reader, and import files. As for optical flow, I didn't do anything special. Retime>SLow>Quality>Optical Flow. Clearly there is an issue, but I'm afraid I can't shed any light on it.

Russ

I have the same plugin (though I'm running on 10.8.2), and imported the same way.

Optical flow is definately not working for me on native footage 😟

Reply