Question About Post Editing Work Flow Using FCPX And DJI Transcoding Tool

[AerialPerceptions]

Bear with me here as I am in the beginning stages of learning to edit my footage. So I am shooting all my videos in D-Log as I understand this gives me the most flexibility when it comes to color grading. I have also downloaded some Lut plugins from Colorgradingcentral.com.

What I am not understanding is if it's necessary to use DJI's Transcoding Tool before I apply a particular LUTs to Log footages? What, if any benefit does this have? Can I just bypass using DJI's tool and just apply a particular lut to my footage?

 

[gruvpix]

Bear with me here as I am in the beginning stages of learning to edit my footage. So I am shooting all my videos in D-Log as I understand this gives me the most flexibility when it comes to color grading. I have also downloaded some Lut plugins from Colorgradingcentral.com.

What I am not understanding is if it's necessary to use DJI's Transcoding Tool before I apply a particular LUTs to Log footages? What, if any benefit does this have? Can I just bypass using DJI's tool and just apply a particular lut to my footage?

Yes, bypass the transcoding tool. Although the prores files will come out about 5 times larger, they are not functionally adding any information that will improve the quality of the shot.

 

[Cactuswest]

Bear with me here as I am in the beginning stages of learning to edit my footage. So I am shooting all my videos in D-Log as I understand this gives me the most flexibility when it comes to color grading. I have also downloaded some Lut plugins from Colorgradingcentral.com.

What I am not understanding is if it's necessary to use DJI's Transcoding Tool before I apply a particular LUTs to Log footages? What, if any benefit does this have? Can I just bypass using DJI's tool and just apply a particular lut to my footage?

If you have X5 camera, you don't need to transcode anything, you can bring the files directly into FCPX.
If you have the X5R, the raw files will give you better grading flexibility but it comes at a price. The files are huge and you have to debayer (so is the process called to transform raw files into video clips) the raw files with the DJI tool. From there you can transcode into ProRes and into FCPX. Or you can transcode into DNG file sequences and import into DaVinci Resolve, After Effects before sending to FCPX.

 

[Ralph thompson]

Maybe this observation is mute to video experts but maybe of interest to beginner video folks like me. I got my I1 Pro 1 over a year ago mainly for the raw stills capability but have started fiddling with video as an untrained videographer. Transcoding has baffled me for a while as it seemed to have no visible benefit in my opinion. I have been experimenting with the different capture formats and settled on 3840x2178, 60 FPS, (which seems to generate 60 mbs stream rate). I use FCPx, ColorFinale and a DJI_X5_DLOG2sRGB LUT. I compared clips with and without DJI transcoding. After applying the LUT and minor processing the difference is not visible to me, but I noticed that the stream rate of the transcoded clip is a staggering 1.2 Gb/s (1200 mbs), the none transcode clip is its native 60 mbs. So I'm guessing that pretty much explains the file size going from 121 MB to 2.63 GB (2630 MB). Anyone on why we need 1.2 Gb/s bit rate? is this for TV and cinema? Most of my video goes to YouTube and Vimeo so I'm guessing Transcoding provides zero benefit.

 

[Cactuswest]

The short answer is raw video is more for higher end stuff and usually commercial purpose. An exception is if you push the ability of your camera like low light situation for example. Raw might help then. Just like in stills, raw video allows much more flexibility in post for color correction and grading. It is much easier to match the raw color footage to a main camera in a multi camera shoot. Unless you are after the best possible looking footage for personal enjoyment, you do not need to shoot raw. The DJI workflow is a pain in the a$$. I wish we could import directly into Resolve and dump the DJI utility. Hope that helps

 

[Ralph thompson]

Thanks Cactuswest. Its really the bit rate I find a little baffling. Im not sure how DJI selects the bitrate in the X5, it seems arbitrary and I don't think I can control it? Some settings like 1920x1080, 60 FPS and 3840x2178, 60 FPS seem to capture at 60 mbps. But some of the other setting capture at between 45 & 47 mbps. My observation was that the main purpose of the Transcoding tool seems to be to up the bit rate from the captured 60 mbps to 1200 mbps (I assume by interpolation and creating intermediate frames) and it would seem that 60 mbps is fine for none commercial footage. It seems to do very little for the color grading.

 

[Cactuswest]

4K raw contains a tremendous amount of data. That is why it is recorder on the SSD. And that is why it bogs down your computer. The normal workflow is to work with proxies right up to final color correction and grade. Raw will give you much more flexibility in post.