Slow Motion, FCE 4

[longi 0]

Hey
I'm using a Mac with FCE for years now to cut my videos. I upgraded recently:
Sony CX7
Macbook Pro
FCE

I noticed that the Slow Motion feature does not work as I'm used to. When I reduce the speed with 50% the sequence is not a clean slowmotion as it used to be with my old setup (PC1000 and an older version of FCE).

I think the description of the result would be even hard to describe if english was my main language...but I give it a try:
It seems that it moves forward some frames in slowmotion...then goes back for some to just continue with moving forward. It happens with a rhythm. Does anyone know that effect?

Thanks, Marcel

[mccordia 74]

Try reversing field order/dominance, or otherwise try and see if frame-blending on/off makes a difference..

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[DSE 5]

Don't use AIC, use ProRez, you'll be happier for it. This gets rid of the GOP that FC doesn't like.
Additionally, you can duplicate a track, one to upper and the other to lower, offset them by half a frame, and reduce opacity of the upper track to 50%...I've actually never done this in FC, but done it in Premiere, Vegas, and Edius. It makes a substantial diff in quality.

[PharmerPhil 0]

I'm curious about this. Although I haven't really used AVCHD files much (or FCE at all), I just finished my first major project (2 hour concert with 3 cameras) on FCS edited exclusively using AIC and it was seamless. My understanding was that both AIC and ProRes transcoded files so that they didn't use temporal compression, and that was one of their main benefits. If you take AVCHD files and transcode them to AIC, shouldn't this do away with any GOP issues?

[longi 0]

That might sound a bit stupid now but I have no idea how to use the ProRez Codec....good old miniDV times....

[DSE 5]

AIC is pretty wanting in the quality sector. It's so damn soft...it's why Apple had to create ProRez.
Both eliminate GOP issues which aren't problems for any NLE except for FC series software.
GOP=temporal compression.
You don't really have temporal options in FC, they don't guarantee frame-accurate cutting with temporal content.
This is one of the major reasons I've slowly begun to completely eliminate FCP from our standard workflows. We're down to just a couple FCP systems now. On Mac, Premiere CS4 simply kicks FCP's ass from one end of the planet to the other, it's faster, doesn't need an intermediary codec, and handles mxf, avchd, HDV, RED, etc just fine, no conversions. And it exports AAF files that FCP can read, although no one can really read FCP-generated AAF files.

Back to the original question from Longi, your import/capture options allow you to specify which compatible codecs to use.