Transcoding anamorphic footage

[AaronChicago]

I've had a hell of time editing 4K anamorphic 4:3 footage from the GH5. I guess it's the scaling that is slowing it down. Do any of you guys transcode your footage into the stretched aspect before you start editing?

[Bioskop.Inc]

3 hours ago, AaronChicago said:

I've had a hell of time editing 4K anamorphic 4:3 footage from the GH5. I guess it's the scaling that is slowing it down. Do any of you guys transcode your footage into the stretched aspect before you start editing?

What I do, with FCPX, is create a timeline with the desired stretch format (2048x858 - 2k 2.39:1) & then stretch the footage - as i'm shooting on 16:9, the edges do fall outside the timeline's borders. It all depends on what your NLE will let you do - some might not let you make custom timeline sizes & then you'll just have to adjust the height of anamorphic footage, so you end up with black bars on the top/bottom.

If you still have to transcode your footage to an editable format, then yes, your best option is to do the stretch/squeeze then.

I stick to Cinema DCP standards:

http://unravel.com.au/files/Unravel_Resolution_CheatSheet.pdf

[AaronChicago]

9 minutes ago, Bioskop.Inc said:

What I do, with FCPX, is create a timeline with the desired stretch format (2048x858 - 2k 2.39:1) & then stretch the footage - as i'm shooting on 16:9, the edges do fall outside the timeline's borders. It all depends on what your NLE will let you do - some might not let you make custom timeline sizes & then you'll just have to adjust the height of anamorphic footage, so you end up with black bars on the top/bottom.

If you still have to transcode your footage to an editable format, then yes, your best option is to do the stretch/squeeze then.

I stick to Cinema DCP standards:

http://unravel.com.au/files/Unravel_Resolution_CheatSheet.pdf

Yeah I actually don't mind having the black bars in a 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 file. The scaling playback is just so slow. I can play 4K or 10 bit GH5 files just fine in Premiere (other than anamorphic stretched).

[nahua]

I just transcode direct - no stretching.  I did this with the "5K" h265 4:3 files.  Transcode h265 to ProRes.  Then in Premiere, just change the aspect ratio to 2:1 (interpret footage).  Plays back fine.  Or you could use Davinci.  But I let the program stretch the footage, not the transcode stage.

[Ian Edward Weir]

On 6/4/2017 at 10:07 AM, AaronChicago said:

I've had a hell of time editing 4K anamorphic 4:3 footage from the GH5. I guess it's the scaling that is slowing it down. Do any of you guys transcode your footage into the stretched aspect before you start editing?

I do it in my work flow. I shoot GH4 4:3 4k with 1.75x and stretch to 5k 2.35:1 - 5120x2179. I then build a dailies sequence and do a media management transcoding to Pro Res or go clip by clip adding an in and out. I export out 5k Pro Res and then edit and finish on a 4k timeline 3840x2160. I have a Mac Book Pro from 2012 and it works like a charm. I do allot of nature films and do it this way so I have a collection of 5k pro res footage.

 

[AaronChicago]

The stretching of the footage is what slows it down for me. I can play back the 4:3 4K files in Premiere no problem. As soon as and adjust the scale to 58% x 29% it drags.

[Ian Edward Weir]

2 minutes ago, AaronChicago said:

The stretching of the footage is what slows it down for me. I can play back the 4:3 4K files in Premiere no problem. As soon as and adjust the scale to 58% x 29% it drags.

It slows you down because your messing with H264, which is always a night mare. I can't edit at all with H264 or computer crashes. I dump out 5k Pro Res and everything works great. If you are doing music video or something small I would transcode. Feature or documentary maybe not.

[Todd Matthews]

I had the same issue, but editing via proxy in Premiere resolved that.  720p worked fine and left plenty of headroom without requiring a lot of extra space.