Blackmagic Forum

Maybe someone else who works in AVCHD has come across this before? I haven't been able to find anything in previous searches...

I'm using Resolve 9 now, but this problem has been happening since I first started using Resolve (8). Here's the scenario:

Camera: Panasonic AF100 AVCHD
Recorder: Atomos Samurai
Backup: Camera's SD card (AVCHD)
Machine: Mac Pro 3,1 8-core w/12GB RAM; stock ATI card for GUI, Quadro 4000 in #2 slot, no monitors on it.

I'm currently grading a feature film that I recorded on the Samurai, but there's an issue. Most of the clips were recorded ProRes onto SSD, but in some cases, the editor had to use clips that were recorded only to the SD card in AVCHD. The film was edited in Final Cut Pro X (this also happens with material edited in FCP7 though). These AVCHD clips were imported and optimized (ProRes) versions were created in FCPX.

Now that I have the project in Resolve, the clips that were recorded to the Samurai are fine, but the ProRes clips that were made from the AVCHD files freak out the app every time I touch them. If I work around them, it's cool, but as soon as I click on one of them, I get an error that says:

Error occurred while trying to decode frame from clip '/Volumes/Champion Color Grade/Final Cut Events/Champion Edit/Original Media/2012-07-28_02_58_24 (id).mov' using QTDecoder.

...and then I have to restart Resolve because all of my thumbnails go black. If the original AVCHD file was converted to ProRes when it was ingested into FCPX, why am I having a QTDecoder problem? Anyone know what's up with this? Many thanks in advance for your help.

Best,

Darren

No idea, not had this issue myself - though I have worked extensively with the AF100 as a previous owner.

As a work around you could convert your problem shots to image sequences such as 10bit DPXs/TIFFs and reimport them. Although not ideal you should have no problem that way. Forgive me for stating the obvious but It sounds like the Prores conversion didn't quite work for those AVCHD files - perhaps something to do with the file headers.

AVCHD files are not supported by Resolve. You say they have been converted to ProRes, but are they really? Or are they just .mov wrapped AVCHD files? If you select one in the Media Pool, what Codec type is reported in the Metadata area?

Dwaine Maggart wrote:AVCHD files are not supported by Resolve. You say they have been converted to ProRes, but are they really? Or are they just .mov wrapped AVCHD files? If you select one in the Media Pool, what Codec type is reported in the Metadata area?

Ok that may be the problem. Even though FCPX is making "optimized media," which is supposed to be ProRes422, it's still showing up as an H.264 codec. I wonder if the app is grabbing the wrong file path when it makes the XML? Any idea how to work around this? Will we see native AVCHD support in Resolve? Thanks in advance for your help...

Hi Darren,

One of our beta software testers reported a similar H.264 file related issue in 9.0.1 that he said was fixed with the 9.0.2 beta. 9.0.2 will probably be released shortly. When that becomes available, give that a try with these same files, and see if it solves the issue.

Dwaine Maggart wrote:Hi Darren,

One of our beta software testers reported a similar H.264 file related issue in 9.0.1 that he said was fixed with the 9.0.2 beta. 9.0.2 will probably be released shortly. When that becomes available, give that a try with these same files, and see if it solves the issue.

Thanks Dwaine, I'll do that!

D

I have the same problem, I have updated to 9.1.4. my footage was shot on the AF100, MTS files were converted using clip wrap to .mov files. and my files load but go black after I try to apply a color change. Any chance this will be corrected with version 10??

Did you actually transcode in ClipWrap or simply rewrap? Open a clip in QuickTime Player and get info to see what codec it really is.

KiddoInc wrote:I have the same problem, I have updated to 9.1.4. my footage was shot on the AF100, MTS files were converted using clip wrap to .mov files. and my files load but go black after I try to apply a color change. Any chance this will be corrected with version 10??

Could you Dropbox one of the short clips straight from the camera? I haven't had any problems with Panasonic arched footage so far.