DV Info Net - 7D Video stuttering?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford (Post 1470025)

Nigel, are you talking about playback off the OS or in the NLE? My laptop (PC based core2duo) was used for onset playback of 5D files and it did fine. BUT try to drop that into an NLE and playback and it was a NO GO.

If we are talking about the fact that Derek cannot playback the footage even from just the OS, then something is certainly wrong. I wonder if it's this way when the file is copied to the local HD if that's the case.

Yes, I did mean simple playback in QuickTime which was what I thought what was being described. After all if you just want to play the files then why would you drop them into Final Cut if you are not going to edit them. I don't have FCP on anything other than a octo-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro & on these systems the native 5DII files can be used directly in FCP for simple assembly edits & trimming without problems. For any more complex manipulation then transcoding to ProRes prior to editing is quick & simple.

Looking at CPU Utilisation when playing my sample native 5DII video file in QuickTime X it uses about 90% (of one core of the 2.8GHz octocore) & when laying the same file in FCP6 it uses 130% so I would guess that any modern Mac would have no problems with either playing the file in QuickTime Player or Final Cut.

Ah ok... I generally dropped my files into the NLE since we were looking at the waveforms and histograms. Playing it back off the OS should be no trouble whatsoever, PC or Mac.

And if Derek can't play back XDCamEX files, then there are computer related issues. That stuff is marginally more difficult than HDV. A modern Mac or PC should be able to play 3-4 streams of it easily.

Derek, what's your memory and CPU utilization when trying to play back the XDCam and 7D files? Is it off the charts?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford (Post 1470142)

Hi, Perrone
ironically, thanks to Nigel's post, I looked at CPU utilization in my activity monitor. (hadn't though to do that before) I'm running 130-150% while just attempting to view 7D files in Quicktime. I don't recall seeing what the memory requirement was, but nothing else was open except Firefox.

I have a 2.6GHz dual core MBP, with 4 GB ram. I did notice that my drive capacity is over 90%..... something which could certainly cause some hiccups. I need to offload some material and free up some drive space. However, this does not solve why my client was experiencing the exact same thing.... but I am waiting to hear back about exact processor speed, memory and app versions involved with their systems.
I'm traveling for the next couple of days...... but hope to have more soon. Maybe I'm zeroing in on something here?

are you shooting in 24fps or 30? I think 24 studders more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Simons (Post 1470325)

are you shooting in 24fps or 30? I think 24 studders more.

Shooting in 30p, but this has nothing to do with the typical frame rate 'stutter' seen in 24p and to a lesser extent in 30p. That is normal.
This is more of a 3 to 5 frame drop randomly where moving objects will suddenly skip forward an alarming amount. I'm really believing this is a computer playback issue now, but have to figure out why, and more importantly why it has occurred on several different platforms.

at least I'm relatively confident now it's not my camera, and it's not being recorded this way, which is a huge relief.

nothing like a good mystery!

Hi Derek,

I had the same problem for a good while. Here's what solved it for me:

1. Update your 7D firmware to the latest version (you can dwnload it from canon.com)
2. Transcode your footage using Cineform. I use Prospect, but I heard that Neo also does the trick. You can download a free trial to see if it works for you.

Before that I also tried the CF card thingy, updated my computer to a Quad Core 3.2ghz/8Gb and nothing solved it.

Here's a clip before the solution:

And one after it:

Hope this solves your problems.

Best!

Mauricio

[quote=Derek Reich;1469965]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford (Post 1469645)

Ditch the 7D now. Because it's going to be a while before CPUs are fast enough to handle 7D footage on their own without a boost from a GPU or offboard processor. People have been discussing this issue with the 5D and 7D since early last year. I'm sorry you somehow missed all that before you spent your money.

Ditch the 7D now?. Wow, that's unexpected. I was coming here for advice.... Sorry I'm behind the curve on this, but that's what I thought these forums were for. To get up to speed, and get some helpful advice from others who have some to share.

Others have posted that they have no problem without transcoding. This is what I'm trying to nail down, why some have to go through this extra step, and others don't seem to have to. I also was just trying to make sure my camera is not buggered. If it's something as simple as updating my FCP, or using a different flash card.

And for the record, most of my work IS for broadcast network news, so speed is often of the essence.

Im using FFMPEG by placing a .bat file in the root folder of FFMPEG with these settings and getting great results that can be played on most any PC without any sort of lag or glitchyness.

ffmpeg -i E:\original.mov -y -vcodec libx264 -b 9000k -minrate 90000k -maxrate 9000k -aspect 16:9 -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ar 48000 -ac 2 E:\output.mp4
pause

:: sizing -s 320x240
:: frame rate -r 30
:: Codec for h264 -vcodec libx264
:: Audio Codec -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ar 48000 -ac 2
:: Aspect Ratio -aspect 16:9

Give it a try, works really well

Derek,
Do your clips play back smoothly on the LCD screen of your camera directly from the card? They should. If they don't I suspect something is wrong with either your CF card or the camera itself. At least this simple test can help you determine if the problem is in the 7D or in your editing setup.