Level 1

10 points

Choppy imported AVCHD footage - FCPx 10.4

Help! I don't know if anyone's replicated this but it's a showstopper bug if there's not some simple workaround.

I am seeing slight but noticeable choppy playback on AVCHD footage imported through 10.4. The choppiness is NOT baked into the file - if I test the imported footage into Premiere or play through Finder, it plays back very smoothly. The choppiness appears in the browser, the timeline, and exports.

I've set the view to best performance, trashed renders and prefs, removed effects, even reinstalled FCPx altogether, and nothing seems to be correcting the playback issue. If I drop the footage into Motion, the problem is there as well. Any footage I imported before 10.4 is fine. Footage that's not AVCHD plays back fine, including some imported Mavic Pro 4k footage. This has been my workflow for 6 plus years with the exact same footage and I don't know what I'm missing. Any thoughts?

On a late 2014 Retina 5k iMac (32 GB) and M295X video card (4 Gb). Camera is a Panasonic AF-100.

Posted on Dec 22, 2017 6:50 AM

98 replies

ivann1

Level 1

4 points

Mar 21, 2018 1:01 PM in response to inte_moto

I am experiencing the problem with Sierra 10.12.6 on the Mac Pro Six-Core, so a number of different issues are probably combining.

Fab Mad

Level 1

4 points

Mar 31, 2018 1:07 AM in response to cigame

Unfortunately no difference installing HS 10.13.4, at least importing AVCHD from Canon XA10. That's a real nightmare...hope Apple will fix it soon...😐

Apr 1, 2018 10:00 AM in response to cigame

Did not work - still problems.

DimitriL1 Author

Level 1

10 points

Apr 12, 2018 5:55 PM in response to Strohl_Digital

It did not. See the reply right before yours.

Apr 12, 2018 5:57 PM in response to Strohl_Digital

issue is still there

Dec 22, 2017 8:59 AM in response to DimitriL1

There have been several issues with AVCHD recently that have been caused by people having Perian installed.

Perian is an old Quicktime plugin that has been discontinued years ago but many people still have installed even without realizing it. Look in your System Preferences in the bottom row.

cigame

Level 1

141 points

Dec 23, 2017 9:37 AM in response to DimitriL1

This is a bug in 10.4. at least on some machines. Like on my MacPro 6.1.

It's as simple as that.

You are not alone suffering from that.

But you could work with optimized (ProRes) media.

Or switch back to 10.3.4.

That's what I did.

Hopefully Apple will fix this but at the moment it is not confirmed.

DimitriL1 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 23, 2017 9:52 AM in response to cigame

Optimizing isn’t working. my current workaround is transcoding the footage to a different format entirely in Compressor and working with that. It’s not ideal, but it’s acceptable until the rotten bug is squashed.

DimitriL1 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 23, 2017 10:55 AM in response to cigame

BTW, I did an experiment where I opened a clip on the timeline and dragged in the QT-encoded version of that clip. I played it and the jitteriness was gone - and it was true of every instance of that clip, even when I undid the action. Interesting.

Feb 26, 2018 10:09 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Is this an issue with all Gopro Hero 5 Blacks in 1080 120fps or just mine? I guess I’m wondering if it’s an issue with my camera and getting a replacement *could* resolve my problem. I haven’t seen any other gopro users reporting this so can this happen to random cameras?

DimitriL1 Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 26, 2018 10:21 AM in response to DanniSuzanni

I think there's just a general problem with 10.4 and AVCHD footage, and flavors from different cameras are showing different symptoms. The footage from my AF-100 will at least import, it just won't play back in FCPx without choppiness. A lot of other people dealing with AVCHD footage from other cameras are reporting weirder and more serious issues like yours, and as far as I can tell, none of it was a problem before 10.4.

File a bug report with Apple as soon as possible. That's what I did for sure.

Mar 19, 2018 7:50 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Agreed Tom...but the specific issue of choppy video playback in FCPX 10.4 using AVCHD transcoded, regardless of OS or machine, seems to have an answer that 10.4 is the culprit since many people are experiencing the same thing...which is, everything was working fine with 10.3.4....everything not working fine in 10.4. The only variable change being an update to 10.4.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,780 points

Mar 19, 2018 8:26 AM in response to rjpimprov

Some say it's only in High Sierra and doesn't occur in 10.4 in Sierra. Others say the opposite. There are thousand and thousands of lines of code in FCP. Saying in there is great but doesn't help. We all knows it's in there. The point is to find out where and why.

Apr 1, 2018 8:20 AM in response to cigame

If you mean on FCP X I have done that and it makes no difference. So far Edit Ready is the only thing that works but I don't like what it does to metadata.
I might try Kyno and see if it works any better.

Apr 12, 2018 8:30 AM in response to DimitriL1

MESSAGE TO ALL:

I have had extensive discussions and conducted supervised controlled testing with Apple and the FCPX engineering team regarding this FCPX 10.4 issue. It is a KNOWN PROBLEM and seems to be an issue specifically within FCPX 10.4 and later. The new update did not address this issue.

PLEASE SUBMIT REPORTS AND CONTACT APPLE to help provide more data and and encourage them to get this fixed. If we all take a moment to report this, surely the AVCHD users for FCPX can get this resolved ASAP.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Choppy imported AVCHD footage - FCPx 10.4