Something is up with h264 encoding on Final Cut Pro 10.4.1, Compressor 4.7

 h264 encoding using either Compressor 4.7 or FCP 10.4.1 on M1 with Sonoma 14.2.1 are showing blockiness with busy/semi busy imagery.

It wasn't like this with previous versions on FCP/Compressor/Pro Video Formats/macOS that I recall.

 h264 encoding behaves very poorly compared to Adobe Media Encoder. I tested both on the same ProRes master, Apple output is dirty where AME is relatively clean. Same data rate, using the default settings.

I tested previous versions of FCP/Compressor on the same machine: Monterey and Ventura, and results are the same: blocky, sloppy, prone to artifacts on certain images.

It was not like this before: I looked at the same h264 export I did in June 2023 with FCP 10.6.6, Pro Video Formats 2.2.5, and Ventura, it was clean throughout. Same machine.

Something happened since, and now it's screwed. What is going on Apple? Anybody seeing a similar problem on their setup?

Below are 4 frame exports of the same image:

1. ProRes export
2. h264 export from FCP
3. h264 export from Compressor
4. h264 export from Adobe Media Encoder

Superimposed to the original sequence. Opacity switched to Difference, and Midtones Exposure pushed to 100%.

1) ProRes

2) h264 Final Cut Pro

3) h264 Compressor

4) h264 Adobe Media Encoder

5) h264 DaVinci Resolve

ProRes looks the best as expected. Clearly Media Encoder h264 output looks much better than Compressor, Final Cut Pro, and Resolve h264 outputs 😵.

Final Cut and Resolve are close, both doing a sloppy job at encoding h264 compared to Adobe Media Encoder. Compressor is the worst of all 😩.

NOT GOOD APPLE!! Not great Blackmagic Design!!

Premiere Pro, Adobe Media Encoder - h264 Exports Problem, Image Tearing Up

  Mac mini M1, macOS Monterey 12.3.1, Premiere 22.5.

 Footage is h264 1080p 59.94. Editing Multicam 2 angles (same thing happens with non Multicam Clips btw.) Hardware acceleration is enabled (Same thing happens when Hardware Acceleration is turned off.) Exporting h264 VBR 1 pass, (the same thing happens with CBR.)

 Why on earth is Premiere Pro crapping up h264 exports? This is what I get in the exported file:

Last image before a "problem" cut, looks fine

First image after the cut, what the hell is this?

It goes on being total crap for 21 frames

Then for some reason it's back to normal at frame 22

 Why is this happening Adobe? What makes it even more infuriating is that it feels TOTALLY RANDOM. Why does it happens on this cut and not on another one? I'm not cutting at the very first frame or at the very last frame of a Multicam Clip.

 They are hundreds of other cuts exactly like this one in this piece. I'm far from fast cutting. The shots in this Sequence are between 2 and 19 seconds. All cuts are fine but for two that are severely damaged on export, like what you see in these picts.

 Note that nothing is visible on playback in the Program window at 1/2 res, it all looks good.

 Sequence is not rendered, but if I force render, the same thing happens. If I check use Previews for Export, the same thing happens.

 When I try to change the position of the cut, the crap goes away on the next export. But then some OTHER cut gets damaged that wasn't before! Totally at random, totally AGGRAVATING!!

 What a waste of time...

 This is painful!!! This should not be happening! Adobe FIX this abnormal behavior now!!!

--- I tried to Flatten the Multicam Clips on each side of the cut, and lo and behold, now I can SEE the tear in the image, but only if I go frame by frame over the cut. Playback is still just fine and shows absolutely nothing. Bizarrely, the tear appears on the second frame after the cut, not the first one like in the exports. If I stop the cursor over the teared image, it goes back to normal after about a couple of seconds!! What??! 

--- If I add an Adjustment Layer over the "problematic" cut, and play frame by frame, the tear is gone. But it's still in the export... Same thing if I overlap the clips a little.

--- If I do not use GPU, same thing happens.

--- If I use Software Only, same thing.

The only thing that works is to change the position of the cut. But since you cannot predict what will happen, you have to change the cut position, export the section with the cut, QC that, and if the image is still tearing up, adjust some more until it doesn't.

THAT"S NOT A WAY TO WORK !  THIS IS WRONG !  I WANT TO BE ABLE TO CUT ANYWHERE !

MAXIMUM AGGRAVATION ADOBE !

Premiere Pro Multicam Clip Not Showing Audio Waveform

 Premiere 22.5.0 on macOS Monterey.

One thing that has been plaguing Premiere for years: audio waveforms snafus. Last in a row of a long list of aggravation, Multicam Clips not showing any audio waveform in the Timeline.

In this example, the first Multicam Clip shows the waveform, the second does not:

Why? You'd rightfully ask. Well it's because of the way the Mulicam Clip is panned. I kid you not.

The fist Multicam Clip is panned as follow:

The second Multicam Clip is panned as follow:

Do you see the difference? Track A1 is not panned all the way to the left to -100%. It's at -98.8%.

And that is enough ladies and gentlemen to trip Premiere and cause it to not display waveforms in the Timeline for any Multicam Clip that's not panned 100% left or right.

Is Vimeo Not Reseting 5GB "Plus" Weekly Quota In Time?

It's Monday January 20, 2020 in Los Angeles, I uploaded my last video on January 17.

Vimeo alerts: "You've used 81% of your weekly storage limit, Upgrade". "Quota 4GB of 5GB, Upgrade". "Your weekly limit will reset on January 18 at 11:50 PST."

"WILL RESET ON JANUARY 18" ??? What? Hello?

"This Mac can't connect to iCloud because of a problem with..."

Update!

Grrr... This creepy message is back again, I'm sick of it Apple!

"This mac can't connect to iCloud because of a problem with..."

"Open iCloud preferences to fix this problem"

Grrr... Apple, I've had this problem for weeks now, I've reset the password, nothing works, each time I start again, here comes the message.

Finally today I was able to get rid of it by doing the following:
1) Start the Mac,
2) Go to System Preferences Panel, iCloud and Sign Out,

3) Make sure you are keeping things local if you need to, else all the iCloud related files will be erased from your computer, be careful here, when you are logged out of iCloud,
4) Restart the Mac,
5) The stupido message should not appear this time -duh! You are logged out of iCloud,
6) Go to System Preferences Panel, iCloud and Sign In,
7) Restart the Mac to see if you finally made it.

For me that did the trick, pfff.

Update: Nooooo! It's back!!! What a pain this is.