Playback of iPhoto movies not smooth

Sorry camera model is "DMC-TZ25" European model but similar to the US one. Same "Travel Zoom" category as the TZ35, TZ40 etc.

Thanks for the fast reply, TD!

I should have given more info: Yes it likely was at first shooting some form of AVCHD but I then set it to take movies in mp4-- SAME JERKY RESULT. I did a restart of my Mac (I have an SSD and 8 gb of RAM) - same story.

OK so now I'm going back to retry this, jerky in iPhoto - I put a copy on my desktop and open it in QuickTime (latest version) -- just as jerky.

OK BUT NOW I open that same 165 mb mp4 file with VLC Media Player 2.0.6 and it is SMOOTH!!!!!!!!!! So what is going-on here? Not an SD card or other issue, but something related to QuickTime? And why do all my hundreds of avi files from my CoolPix S210 play back just perfectly within iPhoto-- but not these Lumix AVCHD or mp4 creations?

Thanks for any comments.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Monday 15 April 2013

Even outside of iPhoto using QuickTime to play video still results in jerkiness.

I will run further tests as you have suggested and report back tomorrow.

Thanks very much.

Best regards,

Steve

Thank you very much I shall do that.

The Panasonic Lumix camera takes such wonderful pictures that I'd like to be able to purchase one also get good videos.

But 10 to 20% of what I take is videos so I'm not purchasing a camera for $500 (or even $200) where I cannot see the videos smoothly.

Thanks and more tomorrow when I run additional tests.

Best regards,

Steve

I tried this and it did NOT work.

I had the Cache.db in both places (as this Mac was upgraded from 10.6 to 10.7 to 10.8 without ever doing a "clean" install)

Removed both places:

User/Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder

User/Library/Containers/com.apple.iPhoto/
Data/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder

But the jerkiness / choppiness is not gone in the "New" library I created nor the original one. It is not perfect-perfect (but almost) when just played via QT7 or QT10 - it is perfect-perfect when played via VLC Media Player 2.0.6

But within iPhoto, even after doing what yu said, still choppy, jerky and really unpleasant to watch.

I have written to Panasonic support.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Can you describe the settings on your LUMIX as well as you settings in iPhoto so that I can possibly try to reproduce this?

THANKS!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Old Toad and TD: This is the reply from PANASONIC. NOTE: They thought I was having problems in iMovie. I was talking about the latest version of iPhoto. So I tried iMovie, and all the videos that were choppy in iPhoto played perfectly and smoothly in iMovie. GREAT-- but I hardly ever use iMovie-- I find it an awkward program to use just to view a few nice short videos… So fine that it works in iMovie, but I need videos to play in iPhoto.

My questions after the reply below (to you and I already eMailed these to Panasonic) are:

1. Have I possibly set the videos (AVCHD and mp4) to record in 50 fps mode which apparently won't play correctly in iPhoto? Actually I was trying to record in 50 fps, but when I did INFO in iPhoto it always said 25 fps (but with my old Nikon Coolpix S210 it said 30 fps)
2. How can I find the fps info when I import the videos into iMovie?
3. They said 50 fps is not supported by iMovie-- but is it? Perhaps it is supported by iMovie and not iPhoto??
4. Panasonic mentions some software/drivers. Is that something I perhaps need to do? Attach the camera and install drivers? How will that work with iPhoto?????

What else???

Here's that reply from Panasonic:

Thank you for your e-mail.

Regarding your enquiry, thank you for displaying the full problem. As I understand the videos playback perfectly in VLC media player, which means that the video itself is recorded perfectly, and the problem needs to be with the iMovie software that does not fully support the video format. We kindly recommend you contact Mac as this is an issue that they need to solve in order for you to playback properly the movie.

I hope you can understand my point of view, because if the problem where to be with the DMC-TZ25, the video should have played back choppy using any media player, but given this situation, the problem is only with the iMovie.

The following information is the only one we have regarding using the DMC-TZ25's software on a Mac computer:

Please note that 50p footage available on some cameras is not supported by Imovie.

The supplied software is not Mac compatible.

Connect the camera to the Mac, selecting ‘PC’ on the cameras connection options. The camera will install using drivers built into the Mac and appear on the desktop.

Iphoto should start up automatically when the camera is connected to the Mac, and give you the option to import your Photos and Motion JPEG Video. We recommend using OSX 10.4 onwards and Iphoto 08 onwards.

To download your AVCHD video you will need to use the Imovie 09 package from Apple. Imovie will not automatically open. You will need to open Imovie and then click on the Import button on the left hand side of the software.

Please note that Imovie 08 will detect the AVCHD videos on the camera but may crash when importing. There is advice on the Apple website regarding this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3481

For further help using the Mac applications please refer to the Apple website, contact Mac by phone or visit your nearest Mac store.

I trust that the above information will be of assistance to you. However, of course, if you should have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Thursday 18 April 2013

OK thanks--- I see 25 FPS -- exactly the figure reported by iPhoto. So it seems I never got the DMC-TZ25 to record in the 50 fps mode… Very perplexing as to why iPhoto can't play this without shudder, shake, tremble, chop and jerk…

Of course there's a lot more to it than fps - basically it seems the QT cannot really play the Lumix videos-- but VLC and iMovie can---

I am on the search for a camera that takes videos that I can play smoothly in iPhoto. Was hoping the Lumix would be it--- doesn't seem to be, and have to wait for a reply from Panasonic… How old is the Panasonic Lumix DCM-F515? Does it take mov or mp4 or AVCHD videos?

Thanks!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte

Thursday 18 April 2013

Panasonic's reply was weak. Seems they have no real interest is solving this potential iPhoto issue. See Panasonic's latest reply and my reply to that:

Panasonic wrote: Thank you for your e-mail.

Regarding your enquiry, please know that the information provided about iPhoto and iMovie is the only one we own as the Mac software is totally different from Windows. Please contact Mac in order to get all information regarding their applications.

As for the video formats our cameras use, pleae know that you can only record in AVCHD and MP4. If you want them in AVI, you could use a video convertor.

Regarding your enquiry about the frames per second issue, yes 50p means 50 frames per second. Please check page 92 in the user's manual in order to find out how to set the Rec quality to 50p or 25p.

Please know that your feed-back about Mac compatibility will be sent to our technical department in order to be taken into consideration. We thank you for this information.

I trust that the above information will be of assistance to you. However, of course, if you should have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

I wrote: Thank you for your reply. It does seem that Panasonic is pretty much totally disregarding the Mac customer and the key software used by millions of people using Macintosh computers. I would think that Panasonic would want to take my inquiry very seriously and inquire as to the performance of the videos made with the Lumix cameras when using the iPhoto application. Indeed I cannot imagine this has not been extensively tested already. Please recheck with Japan HQ if needed. Thank you.

When I rechecked the recording that was choppy using the inspector with iMovie it said that all the videos that I had made with the Lumix TZ 25 were 25 frames per second not 50.

I am thinking of starting a new post to see if I am the only human being on the planet having this problem, which is: Recording a video with a Lumix camera in the mp4 mode and then playing it back inside of iPhoto but having a jerky, choppy playback. Also when playing-back in QuickTime 10 or 7.

I imagine it is possible that others just don't notice this-- and likely 95% of what people do with iPhoto is look at / organize photos, not videos. Would be nice to see if Apple has any publications or information on this.

Thanks for any comments.

Steve

Sunday 21 April 2013