Stuttery footage out of RED Cine X 16.24124 to Quicktime with XDcam compression.

[Mike Kushner]

Transcoded 4K from Epic shot at 30 fps on the camera build just before the latest non-Beta (right before 30 fps camera display changed to 29.97) to a Quicktime with XDcam compression at 1080p 30 fps - 422 at 50 mbps (client requested compression format).

Interview Batch with audio came out very stuttery - looked like a 12 degree shutter on steroids. (180 degree shutter in camera for recording)

Any similar experience or recommended solutions?

I've been doing this for years with all the due diligence i have time for and have transcode batches crash or have some other problem about 20 percent of the time. Transcoding sucks and i can't wait until its a thing of the past. Lost a big theme park account this year because the ad agency hated transcoding so much.

Thanks for any advice or help anyone can offer.

 

[Bob Gundu]

I don't get why anyone would lose a job over transcoding? If the job was important enough there are plenty of field recorders. Or offer transcoding on set, or next day delivery of converted files is not a big deal to many.

 

[Mike Kushner]

I don't get why anyone would lose a job over transcoding? If the job was important enough there are plenty of field recorders. Or offer transcoding on set, or next day delivery of converted files is not a big deal to many.

There is not a field recorder for easily capturing high speed footage unless you take the time to play back into it. A 30 second take at 120 fps requires two minutes of playback. If you have to roll for five minutes to capture an unpredictable Tiger behavior... that's 20 minutes of playback into the recorder. In this world where everyone wants everything faster...its a very cumbersome process as evidenced by the overwhelming popularity and market share of the comparable Arriflex product. You may disagree, but its hard to argue with that fact.

 

[Mike Kushner]

Transcoded 4K from Epic shot at 30 fps on the camera build just before the latest non-Beta (right before 30 fps camera display changed to 29.97) to a Quicktime with XDcam compression at 1080p 30 fps - 422 at 50 mbps (client requested compression format).

Interview Batch with audio came out very stuttery - looked like a 12 degree shutter on steroids. (180 degree shutter in camera for recording)

Any similar experience or recommended solutions?

I've been doing this for years with all the due diligence i have time for and have transcode batches crash or have some other problem about 20 percent of the time. Transcoding sucks and i can't wait until its a thing of the past. Lost a big theme park account this year because the ad agency hated transcoding so much.

Thanks for any advice or help anyone can offer.

Same footage after re-boot and re-transcode. Anyone ever seen this super jumpy footage. Could it be PSF XDcam frames duplicating on top of eachother?

 

[Bob Gundu]

Yes I agree for highspeed, it is definitely challenging. I would also look into a portable Red Rocket setup. I have the card in the thunderbolt sonnet enclosure hooked up to my laptop. Transcoding is very fast. Unless you're in the jungle and power is an issue.

There is not a field recorder for easily capturing high speed footage unless you take the time to play back into it. A 30 second take at 120 fps requires two minutes of playback. If you have to roll for five minutes to capture an unpredictable Tiger behavior... that's 20 minutes of playback into the recorder. In this world where everyone wants everything faster...its a very cumbersome process as evidenced by the overwhelming popularity and market share of the comparable Arriflex product. You may disagree, but its hard to argue with that fact.

 

[Mike Kushner]

Thank you for the help and good advice. I have many friends that do it that way and when its a shoot with a big crew, its no problem. On the shoots with smaller crews, I'm discouraged to do that on set, especially on theme park shoots when there are many company moves. It's not the $7000-$8,000 cost for the card, Sonnet box and additional laptop (since one laptop is tied up downloading to hard drives on set)...it's the added technician and case count and added cart that's discouraging if you are the production service company and your two trucks are already packed to the roof. With today's technology and the obvious inexpensive availability of HD digital recorder technology, I'm extremely disappointed that (by now) there's not one built into the Epic that can give me ready to edit files with footage at all frame rates. I know i'm not the only one who feels this way as i've heard it expressed by many others here. To solve my transcoding issue that i originally posted, i had to go back to an old version of Red Cine X - footage now looks great, but the audio is full of pops...oh well back to the drawing board. I wish the camera builds and Red Cine X release updates had a little better continuity. Seems like i have to figure out some kind of work-around or new nuance to the workflow every few weeks. Just don't have the time to re-learn the process every month. All i can do is vote with my wallet the next time i'm upgrading camera gear.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Transcoding to an uncompressed file and then use another program to compress to XDCam. Not ideal but might do the trick.

 

[Mike Kushner]

Thanks, Bob. I know it would all be simpler for me if i had a formal computer education. I've only met three billionaires in my life, but they could all write code...seems like one of the secrets to modern life.