H video quality

Mr J · Jul 4, 2016

Hey guys, I just took my first video with the H. I got home and downloaded from SD and the video isn't smooth at all. Almost as if it starts and stops. I don't know if its my settings or? Any advice?

Jeremy Bernatchez · Jul 4, 2016

Depends.. did you shoot in 4K? Could just be a simple matter of your computer having a tough time playing the 4K footage.. if you didn't.. well, I'm not totally sure :-\ What did you use to play back? I had better luck in VLC than I did in a few other programs when I noticed some similar choppiness with my footage.

Tuna · Jul 4, 2016

Jeremy Bernatchez said:
Depends.. did you shoot in 4K? Could just be a simple matter of your computer having a tough time playing the 4K footage.. if you didn't.. well, I'm not totally sure :-\ What did you use to play back? I had better luck in VLC than I did in a few other programs when I noticed some similar choppiness with my footage.

Good point. 4K is hard on a lot of systems. I can watch 4K footage on a 3 year old MacBook Pro, but not on a similar age PC.

Jeremy Bernatchez · Jul 4, 2016

Tuna said:
Good point. 4K is hard on a lot of systems. I can watch 4K footage on a 3 year old MacBook Pro, but not on a similar age PC.

Yeah, if I recall correctly, it comes down more to the processor. Some are just better at decoding the footage than others! And though I've gone back to PC fully, I do admit Macs sometimes tend to handle some stuff a bit better

My new-ish laptop handled it pretty well though, and nice with a 4K screen!

Steve Carr · Jul 4, 2016

I use this player and it plays everything, audio and video. Home · MPC-HC

Sparkorc · Jul 4, 2016

I have known MPC - HC x64 to play back some peoples footage played back a lot smoother than the VLC player, although I use VLC myself I've helped friends out trying different players on their PC's and this is what I found, so it may be worthwhile experimenting with different players to get better results that suit your computer.

tinchob · Jul 4, 2016

H records in h264 MPEG that its a quite computing prossesor demanding format wrapper.

I use to export the original h264 file as ProRes 422 HQ with MPEG StreamClip (free). By the way, when MPEG SC make this operation produces a peak of 940Mbps in a cuasi non moving and very simple scene recorded full 4k 25fps; in my MacBookPro 2007 4GB of RAM and 2,4 DualCore, reading-writing the files into one LaCie 2Tb 7200rpm external HDD via e-Sata/XpressCard

CAPTAINDRONE · Jul 4, 2016

Mr J said:
Hey guys, I just took my first video with the H. I got home and downloaded from SD and the video isn't smooth at all. Almost as if it starts and stops. I don't know if its my settings or? Any advice?

Advice.... my first thought is, get a new computer. I don't think it is your camera. I think you're trying to watch 4k vid on a slow computer.

sabrewalt · Jul 4, 2016

Could he just turn down the resolution of the recording and try that?? As a troubleshooting method I mean.

CAPTAINDRONE · Jul 4, 2016

sabrewalt said:
Could he just turn down the resolution of the recording and try that?? As a troubleshooting method I mean.

Sure or play the video in his ST16.

Jeremy Bernatchez · Jul 4, 2016

sabrewalt said:
Could he just turn down the resolution of the recording and try that?? As a troubleshooting method I mean.

Definitely a good option to troubleshoot! Also passing it through MpegStreamclip is a good option as that'll encode it into a much more playback friendly codec.. the heavily compressed h264 can be a ***** sometimes :-\

tinchob · Jul 4, 2016

Jeremy Bernatchez said:
Definitely a good option to troubleshoot! Also passing it through MpegStreamclip is a good option as that'll encode it into a much more playback friendly codec.. the heavily compressed h264 can be a ***** sometimes :-\

yes....+friendly -*****

A.I. Thinker · Jul 4, 2016

my curve cable cam vid
i used a polar pro ND16 filter recorded at 4K 24fps
came out pretty good. i also e mailed polar pro about more filters for the CGO3+
and they messaged me back saying they will make batches similar to the Phantoms if the demand is there so take a minute and e mail them to make more for the typhoon. they only have one set compared to dozens or more for the phantoms

Jared · Jul 5, 2016

Mr J said:
Hey guys, I just took my first video with the H. I got home and downloaded from SD and the video isn't smooth at all. Almost as if it starts and stops. I don't know if its my settings or? Any advice?

A couple of things to consider:

1.) Slow PC. If you're getting the stop/start at different times when you play the video repeatedly then it's most likely a PC issue. That could be either hardware or software causing it. A good media player application will make a big difference and should stretch some more life out of your PC if you're only looking to do playback. Try the MPC-HC player that someone previously posted the download link.

2.) Micro SD card. If you're using a different card than the included one then check not just the class rating but run an actual benchmark. There are several applications around to do that. UsbFlashSpeed is a quick and easy program to check your micro SD card I/O. Basically, if the card is not fast enough (regardless of rating) to write the video as you're recording then you're going to get choppy video due to dropped frames. Also worth mentioning when measuring micro SD card performance is the reader and USB speed you're using. A USB 3.0 reader plugged into a USB 2.0 control will only perform at USB 2.0 speeds.