Problem with Color

Last night I attempted to send 2 sequences to color and some of the clips showed up black, others were seemingly repeated and wrong, at least based on the thumbnails on the time line. This is the first time I have encountered such an issue.

Quick workflow over view, cause I am wondering if perhaps some step is tripping up color.

Original footage provided to me were .MTS files, at 60 FPS, which I converted for FCP using iSkysoft iMedia converter, creating Pro Rez 422, 1920x1080, 59.94 FPS, when I look at the inspector in quick time.

When I imported the Pro Rez into FCP, it's indicating that they are actually 60FPS. So when starting a sequence, I let FCP alter the settings to match the clips.

So, I cut 2 sequences, one about 13 minutes, the other about 3 mins. Was encountering some playback hic-ups, but have seen this before on my system, so wasn't overly concerned. Most times playback is smooth.

Sent to color... single layer of video and when I look at the time line, many clips are black and/or appear that many are starting at some random frame, the same one. Also when I can get a few to play back, the speed is whacked and isn't playing back smoothly at all. I know that Color will match the settings to the sequence sent to it, in this case 60. But I also know that Color does not play well with mixed frame rates in a sequence and I am wondering if the master clips are actually 59.94, but FCP is reading them as 60 and causing the issue. I had one thought about transcoding the 60 frame pro rez from iSkysoft to pro rez 29.97 and rebuilding my sequences. While a lot of work, I don't have any time constraints on this project.

Any thoughts would be helpful, this is new to me and not the best at trouble shooting.

Thanks

> which I converted for FCP using iSkysoft iMedia converter

Sounds like low-quality Chinese spamware to me. When you use low-quality software to prep your media, all bets are off. Why are you working in 59.94fps? Do you have a lot of action footage that requires that high a frame rate? And playing back ProRes at that high a frame rate, I wouldn't use anything less than at least a RAID 0. What is your storage configuration?


www.derekmok.com

Hi,

The footage was supplied to me, so really had no choice regarding frame rate. The person who recommended using iSky is a professional editor and uses it often, and wasn't a free cracked down load. But that doesn't mean it may not be the issue.

Storage is 6 TB G-Raid, using it as a "single" drive source, it is not Raid 0. But I have never had this issue before and have cut 90 minute concerts and a documentary without a problem. The concert at times had some pretty rapid cutting.

Thanks

Most of the time AVCHD should ingest into FCP with Log and Transfer, no problem. It shouldn't have been necessary to use this iSkysoft converter.

[stream-recorder.com];

[www.macworld.com]

[www.lafcpug.org]

There is free software out there that is reliable and used professionally -- MPEG Streamclip is one example. But you have to do some research.

If you need an AVCHD converter, use Divergent Media's ClipWrap. $50.


www.derekmok.com

Quote
derekmok
Most of the time AVCHD should ingest into FCP with Log and Transfer, no problem.

First off, Tikicutter had only the .mts files and FCP7 needs the AVCHD tree for ingest. Second, FCP7 won't ingest 60p or 50p 1920x1080 AVCHD. They were outside the AVCHD spec in FCP7's day.

@Tikicutter: Both ClipWrap and VoltaicHD do a good job with 60p and 50p 1920x1080 .mts files. An earlier post described their differences. iSkysoft does vastly more than them for the same $50. Do-it-all is bad strategy for video conversion software, where details count and fudging is deadly. I share Derek's suspicions about your iSkysoft conversion.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany