Urgent - canon 1dx mark II. 4k files stutter

[Mantadude]

Hello
Need some help. Just got the 1dx II. And recorded some 4k clips at 60 fps. To 2 different cfast cards. The sandisk that was provided and a lexar. Play back on multiple pcs and a macbook pro. Even went to the apple store to play on the latest and greatest 5k mac. The video from both cards is terribley stuttery. This is my first time really getting into 4k and i am leaving to go out of the country on friday. Need to figure it out.

Btw also tried downloading vlc to try playback and that didnt help.

Need any help you can provide.
Dustin

 

[Dave Del Real]

Transcode your footage, mjpeg is tough on most machines.

 

[Mantadude]

Transcode your footage, mjpeg is tough on most machines.

How do I do that?

 

[dcm]

No stutter here. No special software either.

Have you worked with 4K content on your system before? If not you might want to stick with the HD. 4K/60 capture was around 100Mb/sec sustained. You'll need an output path that can match that. While the card might be able to handle it, your system and video cards may not, not to mention a processor fast enough to deal with the software required. It probably isn't a simple bit copy from CFast to screen. HD/120 might also give some systems a run for their money.

Page 319 of the manual has a nice table. I'd work my way up the chart to see what my systems can handle. I definitely wouldn't start with the most demanding situation as an existence proof. (pause) I just tested this out with 20 second clips in each different format and they played well with the QuickTime Player from the bundled SanDisk CFast card connected directly via USB 3.0 to my late 2012 Mac Mini / 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 (quad) running OS X 10.11.4 with 16Gb of 1600Mhz DDR3 RAm and and Intel HD Graphics 4000 card with 1536Mb of display memory. Played in on my HD monitor, don't have a 4K monitor yet. It also handled a 2.5 minute clip at 4K/60 just fine. YMMV.

If you don't have time to experiment I guess you could always shoot the travel video in 4K and hope to work out the kinks when you get home.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I'd doubt that you can play 4K directly out of your camera on ordinary computers. A lot of people who read the hype about 4K do not understand what it is used for. Consider it as a ultra high quality master that will be edited and then down converted to a lower resolution for actual viewing. You will need software capable of editing it down to something playable on a pc or dvd player.

It was the same story when 2K first came out, many could not play it on their computer or edit it.

It sounds like you have a steep learning curve lining up the right equipment and software to edit and handle it. 4K editors are around, and you do not have to pay big $$$, but get some reliable advice from a video forum, or you could end up with the wrong software.

 

[unfocused]

Jumping in waayyy over my head here, especially because I've seen your video stuff and it's fantastic. But, I am thinking that if it is just a playback problem with your system, it would probably be okay to go ahead and shoot 4K on your trip and figure out the editing/playback issues later. Maybe someone who knows video can give you better guidance.

 

[gjones5252]

Hey man is there a way you can send the video and i can test it out? I have a pretty good computer and have been able to play most 4k video i have seen.
If you want the computer spec i can send them to you.
Wetransfer.com is a great way to send larger files for free

 

[Mantadude]

Hey man is there a way you can send the video and i can test it out? I have a pretty good computer and have been able to play most 4k video i have seen.
If you want the computer spec i can send them to you.
Wetransfer.com is a great way to send larger files for free

That would be great. Can you send me your email?

 

[Mantadude]

Transcode your footage, mjpeg is tough on most machines.

Could you point me to instructions on how to do this? I use premier in a PC currently.

 

[Dave Del Real]

Well, since you have Premiere Pro, you probably have Adobe Media Encoder as well. Open Media Encoder and drop in 1 clip first. On the right panel select a format to transcode to like ProRes or DNxHD. Once the first clip is done, you should be able to play it back without glitches or stutters. Once smooth playback is verified you can then add the other clips to Media Encoder for batch processing.

 

[Mantadude]

Well, since you have Premiere Pro, you probably have Adobe Media Encoder as well. Open Media Encoder and drop in 1 clip first. On the right panel select a format to transcode to like ProRes or DNxHD. Once the first clip is done, you should be able to play it back without glitches or stutters. Once smooth playback is verified you can then add the other clips to Media Encoder for batch processing.

I put it in media encoder, but over in the presets, I can't find Prores. Even through the search....what am I missing?

 

[Besisika]

Hello
Need some help. Just got the 1dx II. And recorded some 4k clips at 60 fps. To 2 different cfast cards. The sandisk that was provided and a lexar. Play back on multiple pcs and a macbook pro. Even went to the apple store to play on the latest and greatest 5k mac. The video from both cards is terribley stuttery. This is my first time really getting into 4k and i am leaving to go out of the country on friday. Need to figure it out.

Btw also tried downloading vlc to try playback and that didnt help.

Need any help you can provide.
Dustin

Tested mine last night and having same issue too with VLC.
Premiere CC can read it though. I didn't test a bigger file, but Premiere can read a two minute file without issue, I applied some effects+LUTs and still works - I was just testing it, nothing serious. I don't publish in 4K, I output them all in 1080 as nobody in my circle wants big files yet, and I don't have enough cards for a full blown 4K event either.

 

[Mantadude]

Hello
Need some help. Just got the 1dx II. And recorded some 4k clips at 60 fps. To 2 different cfast cards. The sandisk that was provided and a lexar. Play back on multiple pcs and a macbook pro. Even went to the apple store to play on the latest and greatest 5k mac. The video from both cards is terribley stuttery. This is my first time really getting into 4k and i am leaving to go out of the country on friday. Need to figure it out.

Btw also tried downloading vlc to try playback and that didnt help.

Need any help you can provide.
Dustin

Tested mine last night and having same issue too with VLC.
Premiere CC can read it though. I didn't test a bigger file, but Premiere can read a two minute file without issue, I applied some effects+LUTs and still works - I was just testing it, nothing serious. I don't publish in 4K, I output them all in 1080 as nobody in my circle wants big files yet, and I don't have enough cards for a full blown 4K event either.

I am doing mine in Premiere CS6....wonder if that makes a difference.. Are you transcoding it to Prores? Also did you have to render it in premier for it to go without being choppy?

 

[Besisika]

Hello
Need some help. Just got the 1dx II. And recorded some 4k clips at 60 fps. To 2 different cfast cards. The sandisk that was provided and a lexar. Play back on multiple pcs and a macbook pro. Even went to the apple store to play on the latest and greatest 5k mac. The video from both cards is terribley stuttery. This is my first time really getting into 4k and i am leaving to go out of the country on friday. Need to figure it out.

Btw also tried downloading vlc to try playback and that didnt help.

Need any help you can provide.
Dustin

Tested mine last night and having same issue too with VLC.
Premiere CC can read it though. I didn't test a bigger file, but Premiere can read a two minute file without issue, I applied some effects+LUTs and still works - I was just testing it, nothing serious. I don't publish in 4K, I output them all in 1080 as nobody in my circle wants big files yet, and I don't have enough cards for a full blown 4K event either.

I am doing mine in Premiere CS6....wonder if that makes a difference.. Are you transcoding it to Prores? Also did you have to render it in premier for it to go without being choppy?

No, I am on CC 2015. I don't transcode yet as I was just testing it but I will have to for real footage. I rendered it in Premiere to a 1080p and not 4K.

 

[kaihp]

Tested mine last night and having same issue too with VLC.

VLC playback can sometimes be _very_ odd. I shot some test video using a GoPro Hero4 in 1080p120Hz , and at playback it seemed like the moving cars were jumping back and forth (think frame order 1-2-6-3-4-8-5-7-11).
Playing back the same clip using QuickTime was butter-smooth.

 

[Besisika]

Tested mine last night and having same issue too with VLC.

VLC playback can sometimes be _very_ odd. I shot some test video using a GoPro Hero4 in 1080p120Hz , and at playback it seemed like the moving cars were jumping back and forth (think frame order 1-2-6-3-4-8-5-7-11).
Playing back the same clip using QuickTime was butter-smooth.

QuickTime cannot read mine either, only Premier CC could.

 

[asmundma]

A High END Macbook Pro or IMac will easily play back clips from 1dc as I have tested. Fcpx is faster rendering then Premiere (premiere may recently be updated to use Metal which will make it faster). Its risky to think you can edit 4K on a older Mac.

 

[hne]

I could bet a sizeable sum on this having nothing to do with CPU, RAM or software. The MJPEG compression used is really easy on the CPU and you don't need more than a few MB of RAM to decode it. The technology behind the codec hasn't changed in decades. However, it is an absolute hog in terms of storage. The 1DXmkII uses 800Mbps IIRC.

Try putting the files on an SSD or RAID array. You'll need something that easily sustains 100MB/s per clip, so if previewing a dissolve, you'll be reading 200MB/s off disk...

 

[expatinasia]

So pro's who do 4k day in day out for video production studios use high end Mac Pro's with customized specs for large SSDs, higher end GPUs, and lots of ram. (Or 15" Macbook Pro Retina's with customized highest CPU and 1TB SSD's, or 5k iMac's with customized SSD, higher end GPU, higher end CPU and lots of RAM). You can use a PC, but Mac's have a good ecosystem for sharing files in addition to some apps being Apple only (final cut) plus they have good hardware specs compared to their PC counterparts, of course because of that and the "Apple Tax", Macs aren't cheap obviously.

Not disagreeing with you, but just wanted to highlight that there are plenty of quality (and many would argue better) options when it comes to power. For laptops the ThinkPad P70 looks good, Dell's Precision 7710 and a few others. Many of these high-end laptops are fully customisable and are designed for serious power users. Plus they are built like tanks - similar in quality to the 1DXs.