Hey,

I just require some basic setup tips for editing 4K (H265) footage - I shot with the new Mavic Pro 2 yesterday evening in D-log 4K, and when I bring it into Premiere Pro to begin editing, as expected it is nigh-on impossible to work with (jittery, unresponsive etc.) I'm on a Macbook Pro that has handled a lot of edit workflows with ease in the past, and I always edit off my external, Thunderbolt 1TB HD for better results.

I'm assuming I need to convert the 4k, D-log files I've captured into something edit friendly? Could someone please point me in the right direction, as what to convert the files to & where I can do that. In the past I'd use MPEG Streamclip to convert the files into Apple Pro Res 422, and use the converted files to edit with, with no issues.

I'm new to editing with 4K, and have watched many tutorials on Youtube to help me get started, however no-one has mentioned converting the media to allow a smooth edit workflow.

Any advice would be hugely helpful!

Thanks,
Lewis

Your computer is too weak. There is no raw format from the drone. H.265 is a compressed format and likely the reason you’re having performance issues is because of the 100Mbps bitrate..
I would suggest using proxies to edit, rather than working with strictness 4K footage.

4k footages are pretty large files to work with even with the top of the line machines it still won't be smooth when you add effects/color correction.  Luckily in premiere/after effects, you can create proxies.  What proxies are you convert your 4k footage into a 720p as a placeholder to allow ease with editing and the best part when you render it out it will still be a 4k output.  Below are screenshots of how to create proxies.   The thing I drew a square around allows you to toggle proxies back and forth which means that if you want to preview your 4k footage final output instead of the 720p.  Also if you don't see the toggle proxies press the plus sign next to it and drag it into the selection.


Hope this helps!

HanSoloYang Posted at 2018-8-31 13:31
4k footages are pretty large files to work with even with the top of the line machines it still won't be smooth when you add effects/color correction.  Luckily in premiere/after effects, you can create proxies.  What proxies are you convert your 4k footage into a 720p as a placeholder to allow ease with editing and the best part when you render it out it will still be a 4k output.  Below are screenshots of how to create proxies.   The thing I drew a square around allows you to toggle proxies back and forth which means that if you want to preview your 4k footage final output instead of the 720p.  Also if you don't see the toggle proxies press the plus sign next to it and drag it into the selection.
[view_image]

Do you recommend this workflow mostly over any other? I've read people running their clips through Media Encoder as MPEG2's. However from the looks of it this workflow you're suggesting seems perfect.

I'll give it a go, thanks!

Try online converter  somotimes it help me.

Honestly unless you have an incredible top of the line computer you can't really do much. I was trying to work with DaVinci resolve and H.265 files and it completely froze my Dell XPS i7 with 16 gb of ram memory. That's the problem with working in post and why this drone is for pro's. So I guess I will shoot in H.264 no other choice.

The advice above about using proxies is the way to go.  You will be amazed at how much better your editing life will get once you start editing with proxies.  Also, you should configure Adobe PremierePro for optimal performance.  You can go to YouTube and find videos on the specifics of how to do these things, but I'll give you a few starting points to search for:

1) Creating ingest presets - you will want to create (using Adobe Media Encoder) an encoding preset that an be used to transcode the original forage from 4K to something much lower resolution.  I transcode to 1/4 resolution and use the Cineform Codec because it doesn't require a lot of CPU intensive encoding/decoding when playing back/scrubbing the timeline.  From your encoding preset, create an ingest preset out of it.  
2) Configure PremierPro to automatically create proxies when clips are imported [Project Settings > Ingest Settings].
3) Ensure that the media cache database is stored on a separate drive from the project [Preferences > Media Cache].
4) Ensure that the scratch disks are stored on a separate drive from the project [File > Project Settings > Scratch disks].  Scratch and cache can go together if you dont' have enough drives.
5) Ensure that the project and project files are stored on a separate drive from the Media Cache and Scratch disks (and ideally the Operating System and application files).
6) If using external drives - go fast (SSD).  Avoid spinng disks if possible.  Consider Samsung T5.  Think Thunderbolt [Mac] or USB 3.1 [PC]
6) Ensure that the Renderer in project settings is set to Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (CUDA) [Project Settings > General].
7) Set up Toggle Priorities in the preview and program windows so you can switch proxies on and off.

Hope these tips point you in the right direction to get you going..

I second that... create an Ingest Preset and convert to either Apple ProRes or GoPro Cineform. Even on my 10-Core iMac Pro native Mavic H.265 footage can barely be played back. Its a very inefficient codec for editing.

UPDATE - Managed to create workable proxies through Media Encoder that made my life much, much easier after following a tutorial on Youtube. Editing the footage itself was smooth, however the grading/effects editing/rendering was extremely sluggish. I guess that's expected when working with 4K, 10-bit H265.

I exported my first drone film this evening that I'm looking forward to sharing with you all.

Thanks for the advice guys/girls, much appreciated. Look forward to learning more as the months go by!

fans95d751d3 Posted at 2018-10-9 11:33
The advice above about using proxies is the way to go.  You will be amazed at how much better your editing life will get once you start editing with proxies.  Also, you should configure Adobe PremierePro for optimal performance.  You can go to YouTube and find videos on the specifics of how to do these things, but I'll give you a few starting points to search for:

1) Creating ingest presets - you will want to create (using Adobe Media Encoder) an encoding preset that an be used to transcode the original forage from 4K to something much lower resolution.  I transcode to 1/4 resolution and use the Cineform Codec because it doesn't require a lot of CPU intensive encoding/decoding when playing back/scrubbing the timeline.  From your encoding preset, create an ingest preset out of it.  https://youtu.be/Y9EJjqVV41o

what are the benefits to set cache and scratch disks separated from the one of the project?

Fre Mo Posted at 2018-10-10 00:10
what are the benefits to set cache and scratch disks separated from the one of the project?

In the world of SSD and NVM there isn't really.

In the old days of mechanical drives, having a scratch disk allowed for better access speeds as you weren't contesting with the OS / application e.g. the scratch disc was just for scratch, SSD and NVM technology has such a quick acess speed and io that there's no real world benifit (assuming you're on a fast disc).
That said SSD and NVM drives can fail after as little as 100TB of writing so a dedicated scratch means once the limit is reached you can simply swap that drive out.


https://blog.westerndigital.com/ssd-endurance-speeds-feeds-needs/

https://techreport.com/review/27 ... ent-theyre-all-dead

hey it's cool, in case if there was no SSD what could i do