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skydragon01
Participant
November 24, 2012
Question

.MTS files from Panasonic GH2 camera show noise artifacts

  • November 24, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 26160 views

If I load .MTS media files from my Panasonic GH2 camera onto the timeline of Premiere Pro CS6 (Win7 on PC) on some footage I get a wierd noise/artifact appearing in the footage on playback and also if i render the timeline out.

The artifacts look like a 'rain' of digital noise appearing in certain dark areas of the footage (issue doesn't happen on well lit scenes)

If I use Media Player Classic to play back the .MTS footage outside of PP CS6 the footage plays back 100% ok.

If I transcode the .MTS files into DNxHD format using Adobe Media Encoder the problem persists.

However ....if I transcode the .MTS files into DNxHD format using a 3rd party transcoder (5DtoRGB) the problem is resolved and the DNxHD files work 100% ok in PP CS6

It is as though both PP CS6 and also Adobe Encoder are not interpretting the .MTS file structure ok (?) and introducing artifacts.

It seems that some dev work is needed to resolve the handling of .MTS files by Adobe (?)

Can anyone please assist?

Thanks

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    2 replies

    Ann Bens
    Community Expert
    Ann BensCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 30, 2012

    Can you upload a file?

    S
    skydragon01Author
    Participant
    November 30, 2012

    Yes.

    I have uploaded a 23.976fps .MTS file straight from the camera, without any processing applied, to vimeo at http://vimeo.com/54606592

    It's not great footage, but I chose it as it shows the problem up quite well as a typical dark/underexposed shot where the problem typically rears it's ugly head.

    Please note that you cannot see these noise artifacts when playing back the video in Vimeo. The vimeo transcode and playback process does not exhibit the same issues as playback within Premiere pro CS6. You must download and playback the .MTS clip in PP CS6 to see the problem.

    If you download the original media .MTS media file from vimeo and load into a sequence within Premiere Pro CS6 you will see on playback some digital artifacts that look like snow/rain/banding that occur at approx 13 -14 secs onwards into the video. Look at the lower left part of the screen (the floor in the left hand footwell of the car) and you will see the 'snow/rain/banding' artifacts flickering on playback in PP CS6

    These snow/rain/banding noise artifacts only seem to happen on dark/underexposed areas of GH2 footage and only if played back within Premiere Pro CS6 or VLC player. If I play back using Windows media player classic then the problem appears to not exist.

    If I transcode the .MTS media files from the GH2 into DNxHD .MOV files then the media is played back in Premiere Pro 100% ok and the rain/snow/banding noise is not shown. Therefore the problem appears to be Premiere Pro CS6's handling of GH2 .MTS files.

    My GH2 is hacked, but I have read reports where this noise is appearing on standard unhacked footage (GH2 hacked with flowmotion v2.02) ie. I don't believe the hack is anything to do with this issue.

    R Neil Haugen
    R Neil Haugen
    Legend
    March 27, 2014

    This is where one needs to get good either in PrPro with color/contrast curves/levels controls or the tools of Sg

    Or just use FilmConvert and be done with it.  (They have all the GH3 profiles.)


    I've seen a lot of discussion & examples of film convert over at p-v forums. Nick Driftwood is "there" a lot, just posted a lot of stuff on using a GH4. He's made a couple little software mods for the GH2 as I recall ... anyway, F-C does a great job of "film" look conversions, but I've not seen good examples where it "fixes" the plasticene. And let's see ... $200 for what I can do in a few moments with saved looks ... naw, not thinking. Not worthwhile for the work I do. I'm not making GWTW here ... 

    Now, yak & one or two others have posted their own LUT's that work quite well as a first-step for GH3 footage. But I've created my own. Speedgrade and Ae can both do this quite well.

    Neil

    Everyone's mileage always varies ...
    E
    excited_Genie16B8
    Legend
    November 24, 2012

    I've seen this once before.  It turned out the artifacts were indeed in the original footage, as they also showed up when played by VLC.

    I've never seen anything like it with my own GH2 footage.

    S
    skydragon01Author
    Participant
    November 24, 2012

    I've just done another test.

    I shot 10 secs of indoor footage in a dimly lit room.

    If I play back the raw .MTS file in Premiere Pro CS6 I can see the digital rain/snow/lightening (pick your own description) on playback.

    If I take the same .MTS and use FFMBC to transcode to DNxHD 175M the resulting file now plays back on the PP CS6 timeline 100% ok.

    Conclusion;

    a) The GH2 is not producing a 'correct' .MTS file and as such PP CS6 can't be expected to work with it.

    or

    b) PP CS6 does not work fully ok with .MTS files

    what is puzzling is why this only happens on underexposed, dim parts of GH2 footage and not on well-lit footage??

    E
    excited_Genie16B8
    Legend
    November 25, 2012

    I'd say a) is your issue.  You may want to have the camera serviced.

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