SD card footage only looks good when viewed on TV through camcorder, nowhere else

Trickster30

Hey all,

Again, apologies for the terrible delay in replying. Lots going on this week, and the weather is....well, a bit rubbish (meaning I have been stuck at work a couple of times).

But.....my friends,  I have a little update on the issue (and Harry, thanks for the post above I think I may have found the answer. I have been experimenting. I shot some footage today, and tried to shoot exactly the same thing, but one clip in 4K and one in HD.

And the HD appears to play back pretty much perfectly, whereas the 4K playback is a bit choppy (and has the issue I first mentioned). So, this looks to be the issue. Which means it is (I think) how the SD card or the external hard drive is playing it back on the TV. Which is pretty much what Harry was saying above.

I am not overly bothered. I have a 50in TV and cant really tell the difference between HD and 4K, so I will just shoot at HD. The camera seems to have more available when I shoot in HD as well (more settings available).

I may look into a new external hard drive (do any come with HDMI, or are they all USB). It may of course be the TVs media player. Might not even support 4K playback via the SD or external drive (though would think so as its a 4K TV).

Anyway, that's where I'm at. The fun experiments go on, but im feeling a bit happier about it all now.

Yes, I am now starting to enjoy the camera although weather has meant most of the trial footage has been of my lounge (which does get a tad boring after a while lol). Also noticed that the photographs I have tried with it are spectactular, esp when viewed back on the TV (which was a big surprise).

JH4, I will have a look at VLC playback, though struggling to find how to get this. Not sure I have google play on the TV but this is probably just me being an idiot. So thank you for this advice. Sounds like it worked very well, so I will try and find out how to do as you have suggested.

Thanks Mark for the suggestion of the 4K player, as this is my next option. I am looking on amazon as we speak, and there are loads to choose from. Any good suggestions. A lot of them seem to be for streaming (which I don't overly need, just need something that will play back files at 4K levels). For example, am I after something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Android-RK3328-supports-2-4Ghz-Resolution/dp/B07FYB2HK4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1549131680&sr=8-3&keywords=4k media player


Kindest regards,

Richard

Trickster30

Or maybe I need something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dune-HD-DEHDSOLO4KBASE-Media-Player/dp/B074XHQJPF/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1549131680&sr=8-9&keywords=4k media player

though its £200 more. Bit of a minefield really.

Trickster30

This may help. I have just played some 4K videos that I recorded on a Panasonic HC X1 pro camcorder in 3840 X 2160 150Mb/s, stored on a HDD, and plugged into my 4K Sony TV's USB port, and played back using the VLC player that I installed on it. They play back superb, in glorious 4K ! Hope this helps. ( They are MP4 files, btw. ) Download the VLC player via the Google Play Icon on an Android TV.

Ref above, I have a Panasonic 4K TV. Would I be able to download the VLC player to use on this ?  I'm not sure how and where I do this. I don't have an android TV, but from the above (you are using this on a Sony TV) sounds like VLC could be used on a TV which isn't android. I might be getting confused here though. The TV does have connection to the net, and has Apps, but it does not have VLC player in those apps (god knows who uses to apps, they look rubbish) so don't know if I can get VLC.

chrishull3

Not sure if its any help but i make all my 4K films on external drives  like Seagate STEB2000200 Expansion (2TB) 3.5 inch Desktop Hard Drive USB 3.0 Black (External) | Stuff-uk.net and PlayStation 4  and they play perfectly on my 4tvs

12harry

FWIW,  I thought VLC was a Win-Playback program for PCs - (there may be Mac-versions), with  Options to play almost any format. However, after discussions here, some years ago I settled for Windows Media Player Home Cinema - I'm not sure if this a Microsoft product, but suspect it's not.
WMPHC plays HD via my Graphics Card to my HD-ready 42" TV.
( I Edit only HD camcorder material.  When it's good it is excellent, but I know some Pana 700's were slightly sharper, judged on a projected screen, probably 6 ft. ).
OP's 4K TV should show the difference between HD and 4K, IMHO - but IMHO you'd need to be pretty picky to complain. Indeed average older folks probably can't see any worthwhile improvement - oops!  The "advantages" of 4K are "future-proofing" and the notion that you can "Zoom-in" during Edit - but it will be interesting to know if OP's 4K footage (after downgrade to HD, in Edit) shows as well as the best HD he can obtain.

I suspect that a 4:4:2 Pro-camcorder (HD-only), might well outperform a consumer 4K camcorder . . . . but the issue of "playback" could wreck 4K because of "Data-rate" issues . . . .

. . . . . nevertheless the "original" complaint hasn't been fixed - merely "Gone-Away"  - - - by using HD.... is that the Case?
Some features are "HD-only" due to the need for huge data-shifting in 4K-mode.

I think all external HDDs/SSD's are USB3 nowadays. HDMI is the reserve of very fancy TV players/recorders and PC Graphics-cards, starting at RAM=500Mb, for 4K you may need RAM=2G  . . . . Gamers using 3D will need more RAM and dedicated power wiring!
Cheers,   glad to have adding some prior help.

MarkE19

Loads to choose from is really understating it, there must be thousands ranging from the cheap Android boxes to high end players such as the Dune.
For more info have a look in the dedicated section of the forum - Video Streaming Boxes & Services

Mark.

Trickster30

ok guys, this gets weirder and weirder !!

After my test footage that I spoke about earlier (with the HD footage looking great and the 4K footage looking 'choppy). - I replayed it again, and both now look absolutely fine on the TV. I have since gone back to the original footage that caused the entire of this thread in the first place, and now that looks fine as well. The 4K footage looks fine playing on the TV via both the SD card, and when I transferred it to the PC then copied it to the external drive.

I seriously have no idea how it has suddenly changed. But safe to say its the TV that has caused the 4K footage to originally look 'choppy'.

There is one other clip that still looks bad, but all else looks fine (which is kind of annoying).

There will no doubt be an explanation (some setting on the TV that has magically decided to now work). SO I will go through all the TV settings to see if anything could have caused it. I havent changed anything. I did change the picture mode (from normal to dynamic, but then back to normal). It may be that this has somehow kicked something into place.

So........I dont know what else to say. Except apologies for all of your time as it now all looks ok.  Modern tehcnology at its best.

I will still buy a SD reader though as I do need one. And I will also look at the media players too (thanks for the link Mark).

But im happy that it does not appear that either the camera or the SD cards were at any fault.(though its a niggle to not know why all now seems ok when for 4 weeks it hasnt).