720/50P problems in FCP/QT

[Ben Giles]

Hi All.

Just a quick query. I've been running test shots with my new HM100 over the past couple of weeks.

I'm finding 25P simply awful - very uncomfortable to watch. Difficult one to describe - sort of stuttery with what looks like visible lag between frames, regardless of the shutter speed and OIS. Detail is set to -7. As a broadcast film editor, I've worked with pretty much every major progressive format - film and digital - over the past 23 years and this has got me stumped.

Anyway, I decided to try 50P as I have a shoot in a couple of weeks and I need to find a setting that's going to work. Played back on HDMI directly from the card in the camera, the results are smooth. But when I copy the clips onto my Mac, playback stutters in FCP and QT whenever the camera pans (ie, when the codec is working hardest.) Smooth HDMI playback would rule out card issues (I think) and I've tried Transcend, Sandisk Extreme and Verbatim Class 6 cards.

Mac is a brand new i7 Quad Core iMac/8GB RAM and I'm running clips on the internal SATA (Apple Support adamant that this is blazingly fast and won't be an issue.)

I've sent raw clips to JVC UK who are investigating with Apple - I just wondered if any of you have had similar issues.

Thanks in advance.

Ben
www.bengiles.co.uk

[Ben Giles]

It's looking like an issue with FCP. Quicktime seems to have mysteriously sorted itself out - playback is now smooth on both monitors. Desktop Preview in FCP now looks fine if it plays on the iMac monitor, but still drops frames on the external monitor.

My workaround is to put the FCP browser on the external monitor and Desktop Preview on the iMac - as a bonus, the 25P stuff also now looks acceptable - so that's a relief.

Not the most elegant solution, and I'll have to come back to it some time in the future but I can get on with my business - and, heck, I can get used to the super-sized browser screen, even if I did buy it to use as my viewing monitor.

Ben.
www.bengiles.co.uk