Problems with XDCAM EX Footage

[digitalkiln]

Hello

I recently upgraded to Premiere CS6, and in CS6 opened a version of a project I'd started in CS5.5.2. I'm working with XDCAM EX footage, editing natively.  I'm working with Mac OS 10.7.4, 2010 Mac Pro, NVIDIA QUADRO 4000.

When I play my there are tearing artifacts across many of the clips, and there weren't any in the CS 5.5.2 version. I opened the project in CS 5.5.2 and the same sequence plays fine.

I've tried cleaning the media cache, trashing my preferences, repairing my disk permissions, and creating a new project in CS6 and importing my sequences into it.  Same problems.

I've also had some clips go offline mysteriously, when I try reconnecting (in 5.5.2) I get an error saying there are no video or audio streams and it can't re-connect. The clips play fine in VLC player. But, if I boot from the clone of my OS drive that I created before upgrading to CS6 I don't get any offline clips.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Gerry

Gerry Curtis

savasanafilm.com

http://digitalkilnstudios.com

Message was edited by: digitalkiln

[john_beaugrand]

New member, having same prob as everyone. Funny thing with me, is I copied the original footage and project files to my MacBook Pro. Loaded up the project, it found the files. All problems are solved. THere are no glitches anywhere.

Import to Encore and burn dvd, DL, BR with no glitches. This is not the solution, but it has solved my issue of needing to get this done.

Glitches are happening on the MacPro (2months old). MacBook Pro is new as well

Wierd thing tho, is I can burn a Bluray from the glitchy footage, and even though the footage is bad, the bluray is absolutely perfect. DL or DVD will have the glitches,

Probably just confuses things more.

[Averdahl]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It's pretty elusive and seemingly random, but we're still looking at it. keep the cooments coming as you find new info.

James,

It seems to work with files from Canon EOS C300 if one use the free Canon XF Utility and export each card to .MXF files. Importing a folder full of .MXF files works while the very same footage in it's un-touched folder gives the issue reported by other users. It seems like there is someting in the original folder/file structure that "offends" the importer in some way.

When exporting to .MXF with Canon XF Utility you end up with a folder full of the original .MXF files and no other files such as meta data files, etc.

Canon XF Utility: http://usa.canon.com/cusa/professional/products/professional_cameras/cinema_eos_cameras/eos_c300?sel...

/Roger

[UlfLaursen]

I will surely give this a try Roger - have a shoot tonight, will try it out tomorrow 🙂

Ulf

[Ove_Ellemark]

Roger and I worked with this issue on an end user basis today and this way works great for me in CS 6.0.0 (reinstalled the suite in hope of a solution and this made the bug appear in CS 6.0.0 also). The files are running without any visual errors, I've checked 138 C300 files to get to this conclusion.

Trying to import the same files from it's native folder including other files gives visual errors. Only tried .MXF-files.

[Trent Happel]

Thank you Roger and Ove for all your hard work on this.

[Hotrod2uk]

Any news yet from the adobe team? I ask as my trial 30 days is coming to an end with project still on the timeline with tears.

The main reason for myself trilaing the software released as working and on sale was to test the multicam beyond 4 cameras. I would have expected this to be all ok apart from this unusual tearing bug which has reared its ugly head.

If there isnt a solution within roughly 7 days I have to redit the whole thing back in CS5.5 without 3 cameras. Thats 6 x 2hr shows to completely start again from scratch. I would be very greatful for any updates and will happily contribute where possible. Can the trial period be extended at least to a solution as im sure I wont be Purchasing the production premium cs6 until this is fixed?

Roddy

[UlfLaursen]

Sorry, no expert, Roddy, but could you not use the utility (sony or canon) to create the MXF files (like other users have posted above) and then replace the footage with these "correct" files, without having to reedit everything? Just a thought - maybe someone ese can clear it up, if it's possible at all

Ulf

[Hotrod2uk]

I did, I used Canon XF utility to render out new MXF files and guess what still tears 8(.

[Carl_S_]

Transcode your files to a format that works, then relink the media. I had only a small number of XDCAM EX clips, majority of the project was XDCAM HD422, so I transcoded the EX clips to HD422 and relinked the media. Worked for me. (I used Media Encoder 5.5 for the transcode)

Unfortunately the only workaround at the moment seems to be to transcode to another codec.

Carl.

[Hotrod2uk]

The XFutility I have only allows transcoding to MXF format unless im missing something?

[nickdbomb]

Adobe PLEASE!!!! fix this major bug!

I'm having the exact same problem with video shot on a Sony PMW EX1.  Windows 7 CS6

There were NO problems with CS5.5.2

The clips play with NO problem in the latest QuickTime and FLV player, The ONLY problem is in Premiere Pro.

I encode most of my video to h.264 and the tears are in seen in the Premiere timeline and the encoded files.

I have hundreds of clips, some work, but intermitently for no ryme or reason, some tear for a just few frames just where you need the video. HELP!!!!

I've played with most of the settings, Mostly using 1080 29.97 30P some 720P

I've tried storing the video on a interal and external 2 drive RAID 0 and 5 drive RAID 10 with the same problem.

I'm already crazy but this is diving me insane!

[UlfLaursen]

Hotrod2uk wrote:

The XFutility I have only allows transcoding to MXF format unless im missing something?

Barry, you did not miss anything, the XF-util only allows export to MXF. You should use f.ex. the mediaencoder of CS5.5 (if you have had that), I do and it works, like Cars says above.

I think we all hope for a fix soon, because it only gives us all extra work

/Ulf

[Hotrod2uk]

Please explain? do you mean load up cs5.5, drag clip to timeline and render out in another format like h.264? then use that footage in cs6?

Roddy

[UlfLaursen]

Well not exactly, but still a bid bothersome

I have set up i watch-foldet in media Encoder on my CS 5.5. machine. On the same machine I have the XF utility. I export from the CF-Card with the XF utility (without auto subfolders) into the watchfolder as MXF. Then I fire up AME and it will automatic start encoding the MXF files to the format you have choosen into the output folder.

I have shared the output folder so that I can copy the footage to my CS6 machine and use it.

I know it would somehow be easier to edit it in 5.5, but I beleive in a soon fix, so I get to know CS6 more this way too, and when you first have set it up initially, it's close to ok besides the extra time of course...

/Ulf

[Ove_Ellemark]

You can try to clear all the media cache, I think I did this when I got the MXF-files to work again in CS 6.0.0. (Maybe there is need for a backup first).

[UlfLaursen]

Ove Ellemark wrote:

You can try to clear all the media cache, I think I did this when I got the MXF-files to work again in CS 6.0.0. (Maybe there is need for a backup first).

I will have a got at this workflow tomorrow morning, have some great footage to test with, and will report back as soon as I have done testing, will sure clear media cache first.

/Ulf

[UlfLaursen]

I just had a go with some files merged inside the Canon utility, and imported into CS6. I had no tearing of footage after a few hours of play. I had a few minor clips not playing audio, but after deletion of the XMP file for the clip, and after restart of PR all is ok.

It seems like audio will not play if the XMP files are corrupted or simmilar, can anybody confirm that?

The tearring problem exists in other projects with footage merged in prelude or premiere for me, and I cannot guarantie there are no tears in the canon merged files, but it seems ok.

Ulf

[Stephen_Spider]

I'm having the same issues with cannon .mxf:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4488457#4488457

[Carl_S_]

Hi James,

Did some further tests with your suggestions. My observations are:

I tried switching the playback res to 1/2, and on one occasion the problem disappeard TEMPORARILY, but came back. This happened once, I could not reproduce it. Also sometimes when switching back to full playback res, the problem disappeared briefly but returned on other frames of the same clip.

The only constant things I can find is that:

1. The tearing almost always occurs in the same clips, often in different places, but always in certain clips.

2. When the application is just started, playback is clean. There is something that triggers the problem, can't figure out quite what, sometimes it seems scrubbing or playing other clips or some combination.

3. As soon as a "tear" happens in a frame, it stays there, always in the same frame, on the same place in the frame, at every playback, until the application is restarted.

Testing with CUDA GPU accelleration enabled and external monitoring (Blackmagic) enabled.

[nickdbomb]

Trent,

Thanks for pursuing this Major big bug.  Is there an Adobe team developing a fix? 

I'm chomping at the bit to move to CS6 and a transcoding workaround would be to much work, double drive-space and usually slightly degrades quality. I must stay with CS5.5.2 until a fix is released.  I was selected as a ACE PP CS6 certification exam Beta tester.  With very little experience even though I purchased the CS6 upgrade 2 months ago, it will be interesting to see if I come close to passing.  Let me know if you want some files shot on a Sony PMW-EX1 that are tearing in CS6 but not CS5.5.2 or FLV player.

Nick

Intel 9450 PC, Asus P5E Deluxe, 8GB RAM, Geforce 560 Ti 2GB  RAM, External 2 drive RAID 0 USB 3.0

[Hotrod2uk]

Can Adobe give us an update to any progress, the software is technically broken and unuseable for many professionals and has been now for quite some time. Whist its expected there are bugs in newly released software, such a major floor should have been fixed by now or at least a statement made to the community of current findings and progress. I feel confident sales will increase once the problem is fixed but am struggling to understand why this is taking sooo long especially concerning statements like made by professiobals for professionals when its fundamentally floored compared to previous versions?

[UlfLaursen]

Yes, it sure would be great to have the fix in short time, so there would be no need to transcode, and we could use PL again to offload cards

Thanks for all the work you put in on this, Trent & Co.

/Ulf

[nickdbomb]

Having a few hours to tinker today with my EX1 CS6 XDCAM workflow, I uninstalled Avast anti-virus and Spybot Search and destroy. Rebooted and installed Windows Security Essentials. This made NO difference, tearing is as bad as ever.

I changed my page file to another SATA dive connected to my Asus P5E Deluxe motherboard and increased it's minimum size to double the 8GB physical RAM.  This made NO difference, random inconsistent tearing just as bad but, Premiere opens faster.

On the NVIDIA on Geforce 560 Ti, 480 Cuda cores at 880 MHz, I changed the Deinterlacing, Use reverse telecine to off.setting   NO difference

There are no tearing issues on a HP 8540 Elitebook laptop with a Quadro NVS 5100 M GPU. It has 48 Cuda core running at 550 MHz and 8GB RAM.  I've converted my post production suite to a 15 inch screen laptop and external 22" HDMI monitor.  I might go blind but it gets the job done. 

Conclusion: using the same video files,

On a slower CPU Intel Quad 9540 and fast GPU 560 Ti there's tearing problems

On a faster i7 laptop processor and slower NVS 5100M GPU, NO PROBLEMS

All files play OK in the VLC player.  All files worked in 5.5.2

[nickdbomb]

By adjusting the 560 Ti settings with the Palit Overclocker tool while staying on the same frame in Premiere CS6.01 I can shift thre horizontal position of the tear.

[Guest]

Dear All,

Did you tried to install Direct X 10 or 11, This is very important tool. I tried it my self on XDCAM EX files and gave good results.

picture is stable.

The only problem that i am not happy with it is that when i import Sony XDCAMex Files on my timeline a yellow line is always visable, even when mercury engine is deactivated, in CS5 this will not happen. It might be a bug too, did you ever notice it?

I imported full hd M2t files on the same timeline and no yellow lines, playback is perfect.

it must be a problem from CS6 & XDCAMEX files.

pls try it and give feedback,

thks