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.MTS files from Panasonic GH2 camera show noise artifacts

New Here ,
Nov 24, 2012 Nov 24, 2012

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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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replies 102 Replies 102
LEGEND ,
Nov 24, 2012 Nov 24, 2012

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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.

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New Here ,
Nov 24, 2012 Nov 24, 2012

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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??

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LEGEND ,
Nov 25, 2012 Nov 25, 2012

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

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012

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I have the same problem.  But can't get ffmbc to run.  I am so glad someone else posted this.  I thought I was nuts.  Any other traction on a resolution?

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Community Beginner ,
Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012

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I double checked my files in vlc and those files do not have artifacts but they are prominent in premiere.  Please help.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012

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Can you upload a file?

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New Here ,
Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012

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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.

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Community Expert ,
Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012

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I do not see much of the 'rain' in the VLC player.

But the 'rain' is visable in Pro and AE. Also very visible in QT. Its not just visible in the underxposed area but its all over the picture

There is also a faint green vertical line on the left side of the image.

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LEGEND ,
Nov 30, 2012 Nov 30, 2012

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Also very visible in QT.

Again pointing to the issue being with the actual footage, not PP's handling of it.

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New Here ,
Feb 18, 2013 Feb 18, 2013

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I use the GH2 with PP CS6 and the digital rain is a real, consistent problem. It is not in the source file, it occurs in rendering of shadow areas. The problem has a workaround, which is to resample the footage to another codec, such as Cineform. I'm assuming the problem is in the mainconcept decoder. There is only a slight loss in quality from using an intermediate codec, but it is a bug of some sort.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 18, 2013 Feb 18, 2013

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It is not in the source file

It has been in the few that I've checked.  (And apparently the one Ann checked as well.)

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New Here ,
Feb 18, 2013 Feb 18, 2013

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Well, then the people who have the problem can still fix it using the workaround, and the people who don't have the problem don't need to use the workaound. It would be nice if there is no need to resample the source file, nothing is perfect. I think most people who have the proble--and this is more than a few people--just decided to convert to an intermediate codec; I use Cineform, but I see several people are using 5D2RGB and prores to solve the problem. I'm happy to upload some particularly vivid examples, I don't use Vimeo because they resample the source files. However, I'm resigned to resampling, I don't have hours and hours to go over each clip to see if they have noise added.

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New Here ,
Feb 18, 2013 Feb 18, 2013

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Here are two files, the first is the Cineform intermediary solution

https://truck.it/p/mOaWfQTQsN

The Second is the AVCHD file encoded directly from PP6

https://truck.it/p/jMrhW0Zc00

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LEGEND ,
Feb 18, 2013 Feb 18, 2013

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Well, then the people who have the problem can still fix it using the workaround

You shouldn't have to, though.  I'm saying something may be wrong with your camera if it's recording those artifacts, because in several hundred hours worth of shots using stock firmware and half a dozen patches, I have never had it.

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New Here ,
Feb 18, 2013 Feb 18, 2013

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Well, you could say that there are a number of cameras that have a problem--like a large batch with an identical design flaw--but you would not be able to repair it because it only shows up in videos with a combination of high bitrate and short GOP. You would never be able to cover that under warranty. The camera company would simply say it is PP CS6 fault, and no one could blame them for saying so since every other NLE can handle it with no problems. After all, it doesn't show up in playback.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 19, 2013 Feb 19, 2013

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The fact that the artifacts do show up outside of PP is pretty strong evidence that it isn't PP CS6 fault, though.  The fact that clips which do have the problem show it in PP for me, but my own clips do not is also pretty strong evidence that there is something wrong with those clips.

Now why the artifacts show up in some software but not others is a valid question to ask.  For those with the problem, it might be worth finding an answer.

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New Here ,
Feb 19, 2013 Feb 19, 2013

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They only show up in PP, as far as I can tell. To see if your camera can repeat the issue, you have to set the parameters to highlight the problem.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 20, 2013 Feb 20, 2013

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I've seen the artifacts in VLC and Ann saw them in QuickTime, so it's not just PP.

I'm happy to do more testing with my camera, but you'll have to be more specific about 'parameters'.

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New Here ,
Feb 20, 2013 Feb 20, 2013

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What did you think of the samples I uploaded?

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Community Expert ,
Feb 20, 2013 Feb 20, 2013

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I see the 'rain' in the avchd clip but not in the CF clip (both played on VLC and PP)

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Guest
Feb 25, 2013 Feb 25, 2013

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Hi guys.  Just wanting to pitch in here as I found this post and I am having exaclty the same problems.  Here is my post today on Creative Cow.  It appears to be a problem with the Mainconcept filers used by PP which needs to be fixed.  I got thhat information from this post and my post follows:

http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/5120/please-help-problem-with-my-gh2-footage/p2  post near the bottom by "willyfan".

Here is my experience.

The problem is rain like artifacts on GH2 MTS files when viewed and exported from PP CS6 (I haven't tried but apparently cs5.5 was the same). I have taken some clips and you can view them with the links at the bottom of this post. The rain like effect builds up over 1 second then disappears then builds again cyclically every 1 second. Guessing this is GOP related??

If you view the original material in VLC the first second shows the effect then it disappears and you just have the normal background noise but no obvious cycling rain. I have tried both stock 1.1 GH2 firmware and with higher bit rate set via ptools but the effect is the same even with stock firmware.

Import into PP and you can see it on source and program monitor, it does not show if you set the monitors to half res. However the export does show the effect.

If I transcode the MTS via FFMBC to prores the prores files plays fine from the vert start, shows fine in PP when imported and exports fine too.

So this relates to some sort of comparability issue between PP (and AE I am told) and the GH2 MTS files.

If anyone else has come across this can you tell me how you resolved it. Obviously I can pre convert to prores prior to import the PP but that negates the huge advantage of native support on the PP timeline and wastes a lot of time.

Files below of 2 sec clip if you want to have a look but any ideas guys?

Cheers

Andy




Original GH2 MTS 1280/50F under exposed to show effect

https://mega.co.nz/#!WgpkBZrb!RlDm6n2xeq-bGI4t4UDnhHXmiaAZKRERg_YqxvXHKIA


Exported MP4 from PP CS6.0.3

https://mega.co.nz/#!38IxGQjA!WwAjaiIW7KF7lgoDkquGokrdutZqdDrvTEorl4o6dks


Original MTS converted to ProRes via FFMPEG, imported to PP then exported.

https://mega.co.nz/#!zsg3xL5Q!d8Sj1QZfLdQh6h6XMJfIJXvIuVEl69X5bCF6eGFd2aY

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LEGEND ,
Feb 25, 2013 Feb 25, 2013

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It appears to be a problem with the Mainconcept filers used by PP

That's unlikely, as my own GH2 clips have never shows these artifacts.  Further, neither VLC nor QuickTime require the MainConcept filter to play the clips, yet those programs do also show the artifacts.  I've also recently learned that at least one user is seeing these artifacts using Sony Vegas.

I'm telling you guys, all the evidence points to the problem being in the clips.

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Guest
Feb 25, 2013 Feb 25, 2013

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Hi Jim

The clips play fine in VLC but not PP so if, as you say, Mainconcept is not used in VLC that would point all the more to it being a compatabilty issue with PP and the MTS's.

I have 2 different GH2's bought at different times from differnet suppliers but both exhibit the identical problems.  Whilst I can understand there could be problems with the clip, ffmpeg seems to have no such trouble giving me a perfect prores transcode so the filters in PP are an issue in this situation.

Cheers

Andy

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LEGEND ,
Feb 25, 2013 Feb 25, 2013

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The clips play fine in VLC

They don't.  At least, the clips I've checked do show the artifacts in VLC as well.  And Ann has seen them in the QuickTime player.  And Sony Vegas shows them as well.

ffmpeg seems to have no such trouble giving me a perfect prores transcode

It is curious why some software will show the artifacts and not others.  It's a thread worth pulling.  But the totality of evidence so far still points to the problem being with the actual clip.

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