I am new to shooting video with my Canon 5D Mk II

I use Adobe Premier Pro CS4 to edit video.

When I playback the video from the 5D Mk II, it looks jittery on my PC playing back in Quicktime Movie Player.
Why is this?

I also need to know the correct settings in Adobe CS4 Premiere Pro to edit.

Any and all help is appreciated.

Here is my set up:

Canon 5D MkII - Camera

PC: Intel i-7core running Vista Ultimate 64bit
RAM 12gigs of 1333 DDR3
GPU: ATI 4870
HD: 7200RPM WD 1terabite

you should consider purchasing the Cineform Neoscene to convert the footage before you
edit it in CS4... much easier...

Hi Eddie!

Needless to say your PC is powerful enough, so that's not the problem.

I think first we need to understand the problem exactly. You say you want help with Premiere, but then you say the problem is when you play your files in Quicktime...

Is it the edited and rendered files that play choppy in quicktime? Or even the original raw files?

In your case we can rule out hardware as such, so it's more likely a codec problem, or at least your software setup.

Are you familiar with long GOP and the problems the raw files from your camera can create in editing?

The tip from Ray is generally a good one, but Cineform is a commercial product and is not free. Of course... as a 5D mkII owner, $99 might be a chunk small enough to swallow... up to you...

Anyway... for editing you normally want a file format, or codec, that gives you actual FRAMES of footage. That is, if you shoot at 30 fps you want 30 FRAMES, or "snapshot photographs" for every second of video/film.

The files from your camera shoots Group Of Pictures (GOP). This way you get a real FRAME and then way later comes a new real FRAME. In between lies several frames that don't contain all the information of a real FRAME or "photo". The in-between frames only account for the difference over time between the real FRAMES.

Of course, when you look at the footage on your PC they all look like real FRAMES, but that is the power of your CPU and the magic of the codec at work! The in-between frames are calculated mathematically- and for this we need a fast CPU for HD footage.

Also... if your editing and happen to CUT in-between FRAMES you put strain on your system because it needs to calculate exactly where the CUT took place.

This is the main reason for intermediate codecs such as Cineform. Plus with Cineform you get 10 bit 4-2-2 files instead of 8 bit 4-2-0. A big difference if you do grading and such.

I use Premiere Pro CS4 on a Vista 64 bit PC and can confirm that QT playback with the original 5D2 files isn't any good. As has been stated you need to get Cineform NeoScene and transcode all the files. They then play superbly in PP CS4 and editing isn't a problem, but you will still need to wait for rendering after applying any effects. Although I live in 'PAL Land' I'm editing in the 29.97 rate that NeoScene produces currently, keeping the pixel size to 'square' ie 1920x1080.Sorry I forget the preset ...I look it up when I'm back at the machine.
I record my audio separately at 48k and do my 'audio post' in a audio workstation at 29.97, finally dropping the mix back into Premiere Pro.
Export is usually for Vimeo at 1280 size at 29.97 but have exported in Cineform AVI converting to 25 PAL and that's looked great.
DT

Prior to editing, I convert all my raw video files into Qt photojpeg 100% using MPEGStreamclip - a free application. This way I have no problem in Premiere.

Export is usually for Vimeo at 1280 size at 29.97 but have exported in Cineform AVI converting to 25 PAL and that's looked great.
DT

Could you give a sample? I´m curious how well Neoscene handles the conversion.

I agree Neoscene does a nice job of transcoding the video. I have been having a problem with the audio from the 5DMKII but the staff at Neoscene has taken a hard look at the issue and is working a fix. Two big thumbs up for their support - they have worked closely with me to evaluate the issue and have kept in touch as they have worked on a solution.

Fred

I was also going to add that if the raw video looks choppy when viewed natively in Premiere Pro once you have rendered it, it usually looks fine.