XDCAM -- H.264 Stutter

I have been using XDCAM HD422 through Final Cut. Everything looks and works great. I Export a sequence from FCP ( tried both self contained and reference). Then in Compressor I do a conversion to H.264, best settings... Current FPS, automatic Keyframe and Automatic Data Rate. No Resizing. Same size (1920x1080)
The original exported movie plays perfectly. The H.264 has all sorts of stuttering. Never seen any problems like this with other conversions to H.264.
Has anyone else noticed this problem. Have a a solution? Thanks!
TAK

also, is the stuttering baked into the file or dopes it occur in different spots every time you play it? If it's baked in, yes, try Brian's suggestion. If the stuttering changes, it's your playback system. Could be slow drives or you just cannot handle that data rate o that machine.
bogiesan

Similar Messages

Can't QuickLook FCP 7 Reference Movies, AVIs, WMVs

Greetings!
So. Before Mavericks, one could QuickLook at a FCP 7 reference movie. That functionality is now gone, as is the ability to QuickLook at an .AVI (sent to me by my client from time-to-time), and Windows Media (WMV) files (requested by my clients from time-to-time). Self-contained MOV files work OK.
Also: Quicktime used to open FCP 7 reference movies. This is no longer true.
Anyone there at Apple have any idea if you're working on a fix for this?
Thanks!
--Ant.

We typically use reference movies from FCP (so we don't have a ton of big self-contained files laying around), then compress them using other apps (MPEG Streamclip mainly, because it does such a great job). The source files of the FCP project (the source clips, that is) are varied: ProRes 422, XDCAM, H.264, etc. Those files play OK in QuickLook (and QuickTime), but the reference movies that refer to those files now do not play in QuickLook (or QT).
It's odd to me that all-of-a-sudden the FCP reference movie is not supported by QuickLook (or the current version of QuickTime). The WMV and AVI "legacy" codec thing I get, but the idea that a reference movie is a "codec" to be left behind is confusing to me.

720P 30 H.264 videos stutter when played back on Windows

720P 30 H.264 videos stutter when played back on Windows
I have an interesting problem that I am hoping someone can help me with.
I have several short videos (2-4 minutes) in 1080i HDV that I have edited in FCP. When output to 720P 30 H.264 in Compressor at either 10 or 6 MB they look just drop dead gorgeous when played back on either of my dual processor Macs.
However when played back on a Windows machine with QuickTime 7, they stutter to the point that playback locks up. This happens on 1.5 GHz to 3.2 GHz P4 class machines with 512 MB to 1 GB of RAM and 64 to 128 MB video cards. On the 3.2 GHz P4, the processor utilization peaks at 100%. The interesting thing is that all of these same Windows machines have no problem playing back 720p 24 trailers at 6 MB.
Thanks all.

First a correction. I am using the latest version of FCP – 5.
Regarding the encoding, I have tried going from native HDV MPEG-2 to H.264 at 720P from 10 to 4 MB at 24, 30 and 29.97. The Mac seems to play everything back very well, but most PCs (the latest IBM T 40 – 43 series laptops) a couple of Dell desk tops (2.6 GHZ with 64 and 128 MB graphic cards) and a 3.2 GHz Shuttle PC with a 128 MB graphic card (that we routinely use to decode four MPEG-4, 4CIF images simultaneously and display on a 42” ED Plasma) choke/stutter to varying degrees with processor utilization hitting 100%.
So, the real issue here is what is the difference between a 720p trailer that I can download from Apple and what I can output using Compressor 2 at a similar data rate – other than the frame rate?
And why does the Compressor output stutter on most PCs?

H.264 playback stutter in QuickTime Player 7.5.5

I've read one or two posts about stuttering H.264 playback, with hints about the latest QT version being the problem - is that the case?
I've been encoding to H.264 for over a year, and love it, but have recently noticed this problem. I most often use 720p25 format (1280x720 progressive, 25fps), at 6Mbps, encoding from a progressive source (Photo-JPEG or HDV 720p) in Compressor. My latest programme has a fairly fast-moving tracking shot, which is on the limit of what is acceptable in progressive video. Even so, watching the H.264 encode in QT Player (vsn 7.5.5) it stutters really badly. On investigation I note that when nudging through the video, frame by frame, the picture only advances every other frame, going forwards. Somewhat bizarrely it advances every frame going backwards! When I play the same file in the VLC player it plays smoothly, as does an MPEG-2 encode from the same source file (Apple Intermediate Codec 720p25).
Does anyone have any clues as to what the problem might be?
Kevan
Message was edited by: Kevan Pegley
Message was edited by: Kevan Pegley

Kevan Pegley wrote:
I'm puzzled by your note about reinstalling the revised version of Perian 1.1.1. You literally just put the file 'Perian-morelogging.component.zip' into /Library/QuickTime/ as is? Why would you not unzip it first?
{quote:title=Will : Hi ! wrote:}{quote}
When I install the newer Perian 1.1.1 provided there (manually, by placing the unzipped Perian.component in /Library/QuickTime/), the stuttering problems seems to go away.
Anyway, here's what I did in detail:
Re-install Perian 1.1.1 (stuttering came back).
Then, unzip the new Perian component, which gives me a new Perian.component file.
Finally, replace (overwrite) the existing Perian.component with the new one (in the Macintosh HD > Library > QuickTime folder).
I've done what you suggest, but I've no idea if it's doing anything at all, since QT Player plays an H.264 file without it anyway.
Kevan
My instructions above are only useful if you absolutely need Perian. Personally, I decided to stop using it. Since I do a lot of transcoding, I prefer to leave QuickTime as clean as possible, and usually use VLC for playback instead.

H.264 playback stutter in Premiere Pro CS4

Details:
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
3GB RAM
32 bit Windows Vista SP2
I'm having problems with the playback of H.264 video files in Premiere Pro CS4. The files are 1280x720 60FPS clips, ranging in size from 8MB to 40MB, and they were shot with a Kodak Zi8 handheld HD camera.
The clips play fine with the following players on my computer -- VLC, Windows Media Player, and Media Player Classic. However, when importing the clips into Premiere and viewing them either in the preview pane or the timeline, the video is stuttering heavily. This is impeding my editing work as the only way to smoothly view the clips in Premiere is to drop them in the timeline and render the project, but I obviously can't work like this because I cannot render the entire project every time I drop in a new clip, or add an effect, or rearrange a clip, etc.
I'm at a loss as to a solution here, any help would be appreciated.

O.K
Here is what I did.
I just dumped your clip into a timeline I was working on at that particular time - which just happened to be a P2 720p seq.. You dont need DVCPRO CODECS. Use what the demo says. HDV
I only did this to see exactly how compliant your clip was. It turned out to be compliant and editable in an un matched timeline ( Good start).
I throw all sorts of extra stuff at this timeline ( its my base setting for what I shoot and export from) but I usually have to render the extra stuff so as I can play them back smoothly. Thats the way it works. One day ( god forbid) there maybe a preset for a camera like you are using.
I have been doing it for years and rendering is a fact of life. I am dealing with Professional footage including Prores and H264 from D5's etc as well as
my own HD footage and footage from 35mm film cameras.
Your clips are kind of hybrid so you need to expect this. Forget about the demo. Deal with what you have ,convert them or use a different camera.

CS4 - All rendered H.264 videos stutter on playback

When creating MP4's with H.264 codec and the youtube hd widescreen preset, I find that the file created stutters really badly in both Windows media player and quicktime and power dvd. I have also found this with other presets I have found. When these files are uploaded on youtube, they play back fine but I want to be able to watch them on my pc as well. I am running Windows 7 with a Core I7 processor and plenty of ram. Please help!

Background processes/services or disk setup may be the cause of this. Hard to tell withour details.

Red Frames in export to h.264 original files XDCAM MXF

We still find red frames in exports to H264
original files in this codec:
Format XDCAM HD 422
Codec MPEG2
4:2:2 Profile (422P) @ High Level (HL)
Bitrate 50 Mbps
Constant Bit Rate (CBR)
Display aspect ratio 16:9
1080i/25 1920 x 1080 25, 50 fields Interlaced
adobe premiere pro cc 2014.2 release 8.20.0 (65) build
Mac Pro Mid 2012 Yosemite
24 GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro K5000
No problem until last update...
Any solution or update in future?
Hope to hear from Adobe.
Bart

We are having the same issue at our shop. We have 8 suites, all are experiencing red flashes ever since we upgraded to 7.2.1.
All the systems are Win7, and we've encountered red flashes with XDCam 35, XDCam 422 and Mpeg4 clips. We haven't been to develop a workaround as the flashes occur in very inconsistent patterns.
For example, just a moment ago an editor called me in because he was getting red flashes on his exports. We went to his timeline, and the timeline was showing red flashes as well. We deleted the clip (an XDCam 422 clip) from the bin, and re-imported it. It played in the viewer fine with no flashes. We put it on the timeline and again it played fine. We exported the sequence directly out of Premiere as an XDCam 422 clip (delivery format needed for the client) and the exported file contained red flashes. We went back to the timeline and it had red flashes, and the clip in question had red flashes when viewed directly! WTF?!
So we deleted the clip again, and re-imported it. Played fine with no red flashes. Put it on the timeline - no red flashes. This time we exported the timeline as an AVC-I 100, and the exported file had no flashes. As a test we went back and exported the timeline again as XDCam 422...and red flashes on the exported file, AND the timeline and original clip had red-flashes as well.
Could it be something with XDCam and/or MPEG compressed clips in general? We've only done one more test with AVC-I (which was successful) but I'm not confident enough yet to say that exporting as AVC-I is a consistent workaround.

How to fix frame stutter when encoding H.264 ?

I encoded a 6 minute sequence of 1080p 29.97 fps video to a 640x360 mp4 file and I get frame stutter as if I had encoded it to 5 fps. I've been able to determine that the music track is the culprit, but I can't figure out why. I am able to encode the video and its audio track without problems but as soon as I add the music track, it outputs the stutter file.
I have a stereo wave 48 Khz - 16 bit stereo music file that runs for the full 6 minutes. I also tried using the same music as an AIFF file with the same results. I've never had problems using wave files before of even greater length.
What am I missing?

Hi Todd,
Thanks for the suggestion. I had version 5.0.2 and I've just updated to 5.0.3. I re-encoded the segment and got the same results; I'm getting a stutter in the video that looks like 5 fps. The audio is fine.
The computer is a Mac Pro Tower - 2 x 3 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 8 Gb 667 Mhz DDR2 FB-DIMM ram and Snow Leopard
I've just re-encoded again using a different wave audio file and this time it worked fine; no stutter! Obviously, there is something wrong with the original audio file in both wave and AIFF formats. Interestingly enough, I generated the file with Sonicfire Pro 5 and exported it as a 48K 16 bit wave file. I have used this program before without any problems and therefore can't imagine what is happening now that is causing the problem. Both the wave and AIFF files play just fine so there must be something in their file structure that PPr CS5 doesn't like.
I guess I'll have to enquire with the folks at Sonicfire Pro as to what might be happening with their software.
Alan McInnes
Web and AV Services

Jitter, stutter, or jerky playback on output

Hi friends,
I've edited a video in Premiere Pro CS4 and it plays smoothly in the timeline. However, when I export it for DVD output, and then preview it in Encore, every minute or so, it will play one frame out of order. I don't know whether to describe this as a jitter, a stutter, or jerky playback. The preview is accurate: if I burn a DVD from Encore, the DVD will have the same glitches in playback. Again, Premiere plays everything fine.
The frame can be pulled from before or after the current point in the timeline. The first glitch occurs at 08s 15f and plays frames in the clip in this order: 1,2,3,4,17,6,7,8,9... Then it goes to 01:24:15 and partway into another clip does this:
24s:14f
24:15
24:00
24:01
24:16
25:02
24:17 (back to normal)
Both of these clips with these symptoms have a lot of movement (people moving independently in the frame, plus camera movement), but there are other clips with nearly as much movement, and they do not have a problem.
The source footage is AVCHD 720 30p in a matching timeline. I do have some SD footage later in this timeline. This SD footage was captured to the computer via Firewire from a Canon Optura. It is "Scaled to Frame Size" and rendered in the timeline, and is causing zero problems. I exported using the Media Encoder. I am outputting to DVD using the MPEG2-DVD and NTSC Widescreen preset, with the aspect ratio changed from 16:9 to 4:3 and the quality set to 4.5.
I'm running Premiere Pro version 4.2.1 and Encore 4.0 on an Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 2.66 GHz with Windows 7 (64 bit), 4 GB RAM, a 5400 RPM 320 GB hard drive running the OS and the video files located on a USB 2.0 7200 RPM hard drive.
If any of you have ideas, I would be grateful.
Thanks,
Russ

I've been having this problem since installing Snow Leopard with QuickTime 10 way back when and it's caused me real problems with video rendering. I think it's a codec issue as my raw video files play back ok (H.264 codec), but when I export them and save as Photo jpeg or motion jpeg etc the playback has about 4 or 5 seconds of jerky playback near the beginning of the file.
I've just tried opening all my test files with QuickTime v7 and was staggered to see them all run perfectly. It is indeed very annoying.

Long HDV and XDCAM clips through Final Cut Server

Hi,
I know that I could post this in Compressor and/or Quicktime and/or Leopard/Tiger Forums, but as this problem it`s causing my Final Cut Server to not working well, I think it makes sense to post here.
To resume: HDV and XDCAM clips (all on original codec, only xdcam transferred to mov in xdcam transfer) with file size bigger than exactly 4GB always FAILS in "Final Cut Server"/"Compressor alone in ANY machine installed from scratch"/"Anything that uses Quicktime". Source and Destination being localy or networked. DV or DV50 can get bigger than that, I`ve never seen this error with DV`s codecs.
I had seen this problem before I bought final cut server. When I was transcoding our interviews for transcription. We always worked with BETA SP and captured in DV or DV50. We were starting to go to HDV and now to XDCAM and this error has started to appear.
I have a "proxy" made a year ago from a HDV and it`s original has 8GB. I tried this file again and as I expected didn`t work. In ANY computer with any installations with only the latest updates. I`ve remembered that I was using Tiger at this time, and Quicktime/Tiger/ProApps had a old version.
My two cents are that some update from Tiger/Leopard/QuickTime/ProApps made this happen.
So ANY HDV/XDCAM file bigger than 4GB it`s FAILING in ANY system. (Tiger or Leopard, With or without FCP and QT PRO, Installed from scratch and updated every thing).
Some tests I`ve made:
-Compressor works with this two codecs to lower res in TIGER and with QuickTime Version 7.4.0 and LOWER. (had to be tested, but I think that was my version of QT when I managed to make the proxy of this two codecs).
-Compressor doesn`t work on any system with QT above 7.4.0.
-CATDV (http://www.squarebox.co.uk/) version 6 can make proxy versions of this two codecs in TIGER ONLY! They already know of this problem and CATDV 7 works on both.
-Compressing in compressor with H.264 (same codec as the FCSvr proxy) BUT without changing the resolution, size and etc. Works OK in both Tiger and Leopard.
-Exporting through QT works in ANY system BUT I loose TC, so it`s not an option (and I can`t input this workflow in FCSvr without using compressor).
-Exporting from FCP as QuickTime Movie with H.264 doesn`t work on Both (Tiger and Leopard).
-Exporting fro FCP as QuickTime Conversion with H.264 works but as exporting from QT I loose TC and can`t input this into FCSvr workflow.
Error message are always: "QuickTime error = -50" or "QuickTime error: corrupted data" (and of course it`s not corrupted because it`s used - even in FCP to edit - and opened viewed, catdv can do proxy and everything).
I`m surprised not to see anyone freaking out about this issue... I don`t think that It`s only me.
This is some problems that I came across while trying to find a solution:
http://www.paulescandon.com/blog/?p=39
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4912265&#4912265
http://www.squarebox.co.uk/faq155.html
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5513003&#5513003
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1903644&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1780228
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1853507
As you can see this is not the first time I`ve posted about this issue.
I`m sending a bug report as well.
Thank You all in advance.
Regards

Hi Chará!
We should, but I think the others will be disappointed eheheheh.
It doesn`t matter what version of Leopard I`m using (right know I`m using Leopard Server 10.5.6, but this issue has happened even with 10.4 if QT is updated and all updates of 10.5 up, as I`
ve mentioned above).
What file size are those clips that are longer than 10min?
I really don`t get, how it`s possible that just the two of us has HDV and XDCAM files with file size longer than usual? Maybe people that do interviews don`t like to record the entire interview and when capturing those clips would be under this file size limit? Or maybe we are the only ones in the whole world that transcode longer HDV and XDCAM clips (it`s funny that it doesn`t even need to be FCSrv, with only ONE machine and compressor this issue happens all the time).
I`m convinced that I have to install a Tiger version in a virtual machine with compressor and doesn`t update anything to test this further on. But I`m certain that with TIGER and CATDV this works ok! And I think that CATDV uses QT engine to do this transcodes.
This is too much of a mystery to me. Maybe it`s time to spend 24+ hours with apple in a international call and probably not getting anywhere.
I`m only posting this here in FCSrv forum because this issue it`s must worse when you have hundreds of clips with this issue and if you bought the package it doen`t matter if it`s a problem with QT+OSX or whatever, apple has to solve it for FCSrv use.
Do you reckon?
Let`s get in touch through email: lucas at rwcine.com.br
(at = @ and delete spaces).
Regards

Comparing options for editing XDCAM in FCP?

Hello, I'm setting up an edit with 200+ hours of footage for a 90 minute project. It's shot mostly in XDCAM HD 60i. My goal is to get 2 or 3 editors through a multi-month edit while minimizing crashes as the assembly gets longer and the FCP projects get bigger... We expect to have a few other sources that come in as Apple Pro Res 422 or HDV. As far as delivery, we don't know of any reason why we'd have to deliver in XDCAM. We think it'll be graded in Pro Res 422.
Here's what I think I understand from poring over the forum... 3 project setups to choose from, The question is, if you can afford to do it, is C the preferred setup in terms of project stability for a long-haul edit?
(Setup A) The most basic route, editing natively in an XDCAM sequence, with render setting switched to Pro Res 422, has worked for some editors... but not if they start mixing codecs in their sequence...
(Setup B) Shane has suggested a few times to just edit in a Pro Res 422 Sequence. Shane, or others--could you clarify please, do you mean keep the XDCAM media but edit it in a sequence with Apple Pro Res 422 Preset? Also, what does it do better than the above? (Is it less crashy or does it let you mix formats?)
(Setup C) Several editors here have suggested transcoding all the XDCAM camera footage to Apple Pro Res 422 and editing in that... If you can afford the storage space and the transcode time. Is that the clear winner?
If so, what's the best way to transcode in terms of video quality & workflow -- Media Manager, Compressor or any other software? Within compressor, is it better to choose "Apple Pro Res 422 for interlaced media" or just plain "Apple Pro Res 422"? (Again, shot in 60i) Would anyone recommend modifiying a Compressor setting for better results?
Also, this last one is just for curiousity... why is a clip in .MXF so close in size to the .mov that is produced when you import to FCP with XDCAM browser? My colleagues and I were thinking of .mxf files as "compressed" versions of the clips you'll edit with, but do they have the same amount of compression, just one is in an .mov wrapper?
Many Thanks to all!
Jen

>(Setup B) Shane has suggested a few times to just edit in a Pro Res 422 Sequence. Shane, or others--could you clarify please, do you mean keep the XDCAM media but edit it in a sequence with Apple Pro Res 422 Preset? Also, what does it do better than the above? (Is it less crashy or does it let you mix formats?)
Yes, that is what I mean. Make a 1920x1080 ProRes 422 sequence, and edit the XDCAM in that sequence. If you have other formats, convert them to ProRes 422 if you can, or if they are other native formats like DVCPRO HD or HDV, they will mix fine. AVCHD, H.264...those get converted to ProRes.
This is better than Option A when mixing footage types. So if you have ProRes, XDCAM, HDV, DVCPRO HD, DV...this is the way to do it.
Setup C...if you have the time and space....is a fine option too. But Setup B has always worked fine for me and I see no benefit to transcoding, other than not having a render bar.
>Also, this last one is just for curiousity... why is a clip in .MXF so close in size to the .mov that is produced when you import to FCP with XDCAM browser?
MXF and Quicktime are just "wrappers" that house the footage CODEC. Like AVI is the Windows wrapper of choice. MXF can be DVCPRO HD, XDCAM...a host of other formats. What FCP does is take the MXF media, the codec, and just wraps it into Quicktime so FCP can read it better. Just changing how it is housed, not the codec. So the sizes are exactly the same.

Which is better: XDCAM or ProRes for editing and upload?

I am trying to determine if I'm better of staying with my native XDCAM files or instead converting them to one of the Pro Res codecs? One of my main issues is that the files that I upload to YouTube never look as good as I feel they ought to, nor as good as other HD files that I've seen online.

Well, neither would be good to upload. YouTube wants H.264.
Both look good. ProRes is easier on the system, smoother to edit, but has larger file sizes. XDCAM native isn't bad to work with, it just can take longer to do final rendering...depending on the system you are using to edit.
Both will convert to H.264 and look good.
Shane

Final Cut Pro 7.0.3 XDCAM Issues

Having problems with Final Cut Pro 7.0.3 on a feature with XDCAM EX 1080p 24p
Using Sony cinemon plug-in to work natively with .mp4 files and Matrox mini MX02 on 2.2ghz quad i7 17inch macbook pro with 8gb ram and 2nd external monitor via mini-display port.
Media is located on external drive connected by firewire 800.
Timeline is playing at high quality with various repositions, 3-way color correction and 2.35 .png matte on top layer.
Crash analyser presents multiple reasons for crashes. 5 today ranged from:
QuickTime
This crash was caused by QuickTime.
Possible causes include corrupt media, corrupt render files, an unsupported or unstable codec, an image resolution that is too large (this is particularly a problem with Motion as image sizes are limited by the maximum texture size of your graphics card), or a version of QuickTime that is incompatible with your version of Final Cut Studio.
Corrupt / Unsupported Media
This crash was caused by corrupt media or media that is unsupported by Final Cut Pro. A common cause of this crash is using media on your timeline that is unsuitable for editing such as AVI, WMV or MPEG-derived codecs (XDCAM, HDV, MPEG-2, H.264).
MPEG Media
This crash appears to have been caused by MPEG media (or MPEG-derived media such as XDCAM, HDV or H.264) in the timeline. MPEG-based media is not recommended for editing in Final Cut Pro.
Effects Rendering
This crash appears to have occurred while trying to render effects on a clip. Possible causes for this include corrupt or unsupported media, a bad filter, a graphics card issue or too many filters applied to a single clip.
All of these crashes also listed -
This crash log suggests that Final Cut Pro was overloaded at the time of the crash. This can occur if your project is overly complex, has multiple Motion project layers or is using MPEG-based media (HDV, H.264, MPEG-2, XDCAM, AVCHD), particularly if you are using filters with such media. Note that overloading is more likely to be the cause of the crash than the reason below.
I feel like this is coming from the XDCAM media and want to know if there is anyone who has dealt with a similar problem and found a cause or workaround.
If any additional information is needed, please let me know and I'll provide any information I can.
-Fraunpetri

Shane,
Thanks for your response. When I was setting up this project, I asked around to multiple forums and professionals and many seemed to think that using native XDCAM EX footage was possible and that the newer systems would not have many issues working with it.
Is there anyway I can tweak my setup to help alleviate pressure on the laptop? If I didn't use the Matrox bob or was able to remove the 2.35 .png matte from the timeline, or possibly changed to medium quality for video in the timeline.
Transcoding to pro res does seem like it would help the situation but at this stage unfortunately that's not an option.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-Fraunpetri

Optimize media not available for XDCAM?

Hi all, I'm really liking the new X update, and am surprised to see all the posts with possible issues on this forum on 10.0.6 - so far I'm not experiencing any issues, except that I normally have the option to optimize (create Apple ProRes files) of my XDCAM media when I'm importing it from the camera, but that option is grayed out. Is anyone else seeing this? Regardless, FCPX 10.0.6 accepts the XDCAM files native and I can edit without any issues whatsoever.
I opened preferences and saw that I can click "optimize media" as an overall preference, but it didn't make a difference. Is this due to being able to accept XDCAM native or am I doing something wrong? Thanks for any help. Did you guys see that "Share" is now under FILE like it used to be in 7? I'm personally really liking all the new features! I practically begged for this release 7 days ago before heading to Kona Hawai'i to edit the Ironman World Champion Race Recap because the NBC trailer was on AVID MC and an ISIS SAN but we ended up doing a workaround to create ProRes files from their MXF files, but funny it ends up released just a week later! (kind of funy... kinda not....)

Tom, thanks for your reply. You're a huge resource to all of us.
Would you say that it is smarter (goal being best practices that result in as much image quality as possible) to edit unconverted media, where possible, and then send to Compressor for final deliver conversion - so in the case of XDCAM, (my flavor is 4:2:0 when I haven't tapped the HD-SDI spigot to a hard disc recorder) and edit the piece together - which may involve some amount of light color grading/correction, or do you recommend "optimizing", converting to a 4:2:2 ProRes format first prior to editing?
A long time ago when FCPX was first released, I wanted to test its ability to edit H.264 Canon 5D MVI files natively, becuase up until that point, inside FCP7, that was not possible. I know it converting a file can't improve it even if it is to create a less compressed file that is easier for editing. The result was pretty amazing, I was able to edit the MVI files natively, they looked amazing, and I decided since the project was H.264, I basically exported it as it was - again, no conversion; so I "Shared" it without changing it's properties. I uploaded it to my Vimeo account and it really was amazing how much of the original quality I was able to retain since no conversions had happened. Is that the idea behind the XDCAM workflo with the plug-in?
Thanks for your advice. -Stephen

My "older" songs stutter when played back

my pc is only 6 months old, but the first songs i downloaded from the itunes store
"stutter" when played back. they don't stutter on my ipod, and the more recenlty
downloaded songs are also ok. i have deleted them, reloaded from the ipod, updated
itunes, all to no avail. any ideas?

First a correction. I am using the latest version of FCP – 5.
Regarding the encoding, I have tried going from native HDV MPEG-2 to H.264 at 720P from 10 to 4 MB at 24, 30 and 29.97. The Mac seems to play everything back very well, but most PCs (the latest IBM T 40 – 43 series laptops) a couple of Dell desk tops (2.6 GHZ with 64 and 128 MB graphic cards) and a 3.2 GHz Shuttle PC with a 128 MB graphic card (that we routinely use to decode four MPEG-4, 4CIF images simultaneously and display on a 42” ED Plasma) choke/stutter to varying degrees with processor utilization hitting 100%.
So, the real issue here is what is the difference between a 720p trailer that I can download from Apple and what I can output using Compressor 2 at a similar data rate – other than the frame rate?
And why does the Compressor output stutter on most PCs?

XDCAM -- H.264 Stutter

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