Just started recording 4K video with my Canon 5D Mark IV. Downloaded it onto my newer windows Dell PC with a 1080p display monitor.
I have two issues where I am looking for guidance.
Replay of the video on my newer Win10 computer is unwatchable. It is choppy and sticks throughout playback. How can I watch the 4K video on my computer?
How can I stream this to my new 4K Samsung Smart TV?
What does it have for graphics card And processor? 4k is a lot of data to process and because you are playing it at 1080 the computer has to rescale it And can be a lot of work.
I don't do much video but, there is a lot, A LOT, of talk about the Canon 4K video being unusable straight out of the camera. Search you tube about it and you find many who will spell it out for you in great detail.
The 5D Mark IV (and the 1D X Mark II) use the Motion JPEG codec for 4K video capture. This creates huge files at a very high bitrate, and video compression is inefficient compared to H.264 codecs. The upside of Motion JPEG is that it enables very high quality still frame extraction from 4K video streams.
Given that these cameras are targeted firstly at news, sports, and event stills shooters who may need to occasionally capture short video clips (and not for professional or amateur videographers), this seems like a reasonable choice, if not to everyone's taste.
You would mostly likely get better results by first converting your 4K captures from Motion JPEG to a format that more software can work with. I'm not a video guy, so I'm not going to be able to suggest a tool, but you can probably find resources via a search.
The MJPEG codec that the 5DM4 uses for 4K video is very light on CPU/processing requirements but since the data rate is so high (500 Megabits/sec = 50 Megabytes/sec), playback can be jerky if the storage device used for playback has to service I/O requests from the Operating System or other applications while the video is being played.
i have a gtx 960 and core i7 overclocked to 4.5ghz and still stuttering with VLC and unplayable. eos movie utility is a little better but still stuttering.
Do you have an SDD? On my notebook i7-4810MQ with a NVidia Quadro 2100 2GB on a Samsung EVO 850 SSD I can play back in real-time even 4k 60p (1dxII) with the windows media player, vlc is crap with MJPEG.
I can edit in real-time up to 4k 30fps with Resolve (timeline set at 1080p) even directly from the CFast card.
Contrary to what most people think MJPEG is a good codec to edit because you can do fast scrubbing something that h264 LGOP struggle a lot. For example my notebook has much more pain with h264 4k from a Gopro than a 4k MJPEG from 1dx II. There are many factor that play a role like codec implementation, PC HW and ultimately how the NLE support the codec. For example on Windows until the latest version of Resolve it was carp now is quite good with MJPEG considering my notebook. Serious 4k editing needs serious HW.
There is really nothing to fix in the codec because today there is no better choice for high quality in a DSLR form factor:
Canon 4k DCI 4:2:2 500 Mbits All-I 8 bit
Canon XC10 XF-AVC 4k UHD 4:2:2 300 Mbits All-I 8 bit
Sony A7 series XAVC S 4k UHD 4:2:0 100 Mbits 8 bit
Panasonic GH4 4k UHD 4:2:0 100 Mbits LGOP 8 bit
Nikon 4k UHD 4:2:0 144 Mbits 8 bit
Today there is no DSLR with a perfect solution in term of codec. Best would be the XF-AVC but right now it needs a fan that is a no go on wheatear sealed body.
As you can see they are all compromises and I personally would pick the MJPEG over the competition 4:2:0 formats and low bitrate any day.
Don't listen to all the complains of people not understanding how video compression works.
C300 II 4:2:2 4k 30fps XF-AVC is 410 Mbits (10 bit)
C700 4:2:2 4k 30fps is 440 Mbits (10 bit)
So not that much more efficient in term of space, requires a fan to cool the camera and big hw for editing. But nobody is complaining because they know what they get.
Bottom-line you want to deal with high-quality 4k material you need a very good PC and not blame Canon.
If you ever have compared a 4k 60mbits from a Gopro or DJI X5 with a 1Dx II 4k 500 mbits file you will realize what it means high-quality.
gt3rs wrote:
There is really nothing to fix in the codec because today there is no better choice for high quality in a DSLR form factor:
Canon 4k DCI 4:2:2 500 Mbits All-I 8 bit
Canon XC10 XF-AVC 4k UHD 4:2:2 300 Mbits All-I 8 bit
Sony A7 series XAVC S 4k UHD 4:2:0 100 Mbits 8 bit
Panasonic GH4 4k UHD 4:2:0 100 Mbits LGOP 8 bit
Nikon 4k UHD 4:2:0 144 Mbits 8 bit
Today there is no DSLR with a perfect solution in term of codec. Best would be the XF-AVC but right now it needs a fan that is a no go on wheatear sealed body.
As you can see they are all compromises and I personally would pick the MJPEG over the competition 4:2:0 formats and low bitrate any day.
Don't listen to all the complains of people not understanding how video compression works.
C300 II 4:2:2 4k 30fps XF-AVC is 410 Mbits (10 bit)
C700 4:2:2 4k 30fps is 440 Mbits (10 bit)
So not that much more efficient in term of space, requires a fan to cool the camera and big hw for editing. But nobody is complaining because they know what they get.
Bottom-line you want to deal with high-quality 4k material you need a very good PC and not blame Canon.
If you ever have compared a 4k 60mbits from a Gopro or DJI X5 with a 1Dx II 4k 500 mbits file you will realize what it means high-quality.
Comparing the 500 Mbps of a 1DXII to a Gopro/DJI isn't really fair since the latter have poor optics and processing chains. H.264 4K is very space efficient and looks rather good - however it's very processing intensive and is meant to be a delivery codec rather than an intermediate/editable one. It would be nice if Canon provided multiple codec options - for many H.264 would be more than sufficient, while MJPEG could be used by those with more demanding editing requirements. A Prores 422 option would be nice too, even if it required a purchased upgrade to buy a license from Canon/Apple. If I had to guess I'd say Canon left out H.264 support due to thermal issues.
Nobody is able right now to put ProRes or DNxHD HQ or any other top codec on a weather sealed camera with no cooling fan. This is the main issue. It will happen but not this year.
Where I have no excuse is the Canon subpar 1080p quality where all the other manufacture have progressed canon not.
I cannot judge the 4k of 5d IV because I don't have one but the 4k from the 1Dx II is one of the best and also the only DSLR/mirrorless class camera doing 4k 60p.
So a very good quality h264 All-I 1080p would solve the issue for the people that don't want to pay the price for high quality 4k.
DJI X5 is very similar to a GH4 coupled with a good optics the comparison is more fair that what you may think, and everybody agree that the big issue is the crappy codec (h264) at 60 mbits. If you take a X5 and a GH4 with the same lens you can already see the big difference that 60mbits vs. 100mbits does.
gt3rs wrote:
Nobody is able right now to put ProRes or DNxHD HQ or any other top codec on a weather sealed camera with no cooling fan. This is the main issue. It will happen but not this year.
Where I have no excuse is the Canon subpar 1080p quality where all the other manufacture have progressed canon not.
I cannot judge the 4k of 5d IV because I don't have one but the 4k from the 1Dx II is one of the best and also the only DSLR/mirrorless class camera doing 4k 60p.
So a very good quality h264 All-I 1080p would solve the issue for the people that don't want to pay the price for high quality 4k.
DJI X5 is very similar to a GH4 coupled with a good optics the comparison is more fair that what you may think, and everybody agree that the big issue is the crappy codec (h264) at 60 mbits. If you take a X5 and a GH4 with the same lens you can already see the big difference that 60mbits vs. 100mbits does. ...Show more →
Prores isn't very computationally intensive, esp compared to H.264, and there are sealed cameras without active cooling that do H.264 4K.
h.264 is very computationally intensive but it is now HW accelerated in most chipset, prores is not.
Can you point me out any camera or external recorder that can do 4k Prores 4:2:2 that has no cooling fan? I can be wrong but I'm not aware of any.
I'm sure it will come but we are not there yet, this is why I don't understand all this complaining about MJPEG because is the best compromise at the moment.
I agree with you that an option to choose 4k 4:2:2 MJPEG 500mbits or h264 4k 4:2:0 100mbits would be even better but if I need to pick only one the 500mbits is the one that I will pick.
People should complain about the mushy 1080p, the lack of zebra, peeking etc.. or the too sever crop of the 5d IV but not the codec IMO.
gt3rs wrote:
h.264 is very computationally intensive but it is now HW accelerated in most chipset, prores is not.
Can you point me out any camera or external recorder that can do 4k Prores 4:2:2 that has no cooling fan? I can be wrong but I'm not aware of any.
I'm sure it will come but we are not there yet, this is why I don't understand all this complaining about MJPEG because is the best compromise at the moment.
I agree with you that an option to choose 4k 4:2:2 MJPEG 500mbits or h264 4k 4:2:0 100mbits would be even better but if I need to pick only one the 500mbits is the one that I will pick.
People should complain about the mushy 1080p, the lack of zebra, peeking etc.. or the too sever crop of the 5d IV but not the codec IMO....Show more →
Prores is a variant of MPEG-2 and is performed in an ASIC the same as MPEG-4. There aren't any embedded processors in cameras that are fast enough to encode either without hardware assistance. The reason you don't see any high-volume solutions for Prores is a function of licensing cost.
