It's not just computer power alone that's relevant. Player with the correct codecs is critical.

I've been using a couple of GH3's for a year. When I travel to remote locations I playback/check the native files straight off the SD card every evening on a fairly basic i5 Sony laptop. I only shoot in 50p...absolutely no problem with playback.

I can't advise about the Mac (I personally can't tolerate them) but assuming there is something comparable to Klite available try installing some alternative players/codecs. You can also try replacing the HDD with an SSD...this will always improve laptop playback performance.

And please don't be so parochial...just because your fucking Mac can't play GH3 files doesn't mean there's something wrong with the GH3...or the GH4.

I don't have a MacRook® Retina™ or MacPro® with 8 Cores ... only a Samsung laptop (no idea how many cores, but the case is red) and a lowly 5 yr old HP workstation with 6 gigs of ram. It does have a rather bitching video card (for the price), though. GH 1080 footage plays back perfectly. Playback, editing, compositing - smooth, realtime, no problems.

Maybe the problem... is your Mac.

Actually, strike out the "maybe". The problem is your computer. Or both of them. Now, whether you solve that problem by purchasing a different camera is completely your decision. ;)

@jonpais

MOV files will play perfectly fine on a Mac.

They don't play fine on his, which is why he's asking the question to begin with. Are you offering to trade Macs with him?

You said in your earlier post "It sounds like your computer is powerful enough" - he's got an 8-core 24gig machine. That's certainly more powerful than both of the systems I have. There's more than enough CPU power.

And those suggesting the OP buy a new computer or camera make no sense either.

No one has suggested this - though the OP did ask if getting a different camera was the solution. I did point out the advantage of a good videocard.

If he can't get help here, I'm sure the Apple Community forums can be of help, without the swipes at Apple and without the gutter language.

I'll save him some time, and offer the standard Apple Community forum for nearly every problem:

1. Repair permissions.
2. Update to Mavericks, if you're on a previous OS.
3. If you're on Mavericks, roll back to whatever you had before.
4. Run that ever-popular RAM check utility for several hours and see what happens.

If none of those help, then usually AppleCare, replacing RAM or a Genius Bar are mentioned.

Seriously, your reply is like so many others on Apple boards...

Q: "My Acura isn't running on BP gas." A1: "Try different gas." A2: "Try changing your driving habits." A3: "I have a Honda, with a smaller engine, and it works well with BP gas. I don't think the gas is necessarily the problem."

Your Answer: "MY Acura runs fine on BP gas. There's nothing wrong with Acuras."

Huh?

Are you watching the files with QuickTime X (the one with dark minimal interface) or some older version (with bigger light gray interface)? QuickTime X should generally be able to handle 1080 60p H.264 on recent MacBook Pro and Mac Pro models, though playback may not be perfect on all systems.

On Macs as well as Windows PCs there are many ways of decoding material, and not all H.264 material is exactly same from technical perspective. So it is good idea to try different playback programs, even if only to check where the problem is. As others have mentioned, VLC is good one to try.

For troubleshooting it is useful to see how much CPU gets utilized when decoding - run Activity Monitor, select Window menu and from there "Floating CPU Window" and/or "CPU History". Then you can test the file with different programs and see how they handle it. When decoding H.264 at 60p, even with hardware decoding there should be some CPU utilization. Not much but noticeable when compared to when computer is idle.

For those interested, here is some basic info about H.264 decoding on Macs: http://www.divergentmedia.com/blog/fullpost/h264_decoding_on_the_mac

Also it's good to check if the drives from which the files are played back are too slow. Some external USB drives have surprisingly slow connection, especially when going through a hub. Internal drives are better, but with higher bitrates they too can be a bottleneck.

You mentioned transcoding with 5dtoRGB, was that to ProRes 422 or ProRes 422 HQ? At 1080 60p, ProRes 422 HQ has a bitrate of over 400Mbps, which in practice can be too much even for some internal drives as well as external ones. In such cases regular ProRes 422 at 1080 60p is worth trying.

When it comes to delivering 1080 60p to clients, if those clients are people with ordinary computers, one should not expect miracles. Even with best media player program 1080 60p may not playback well on older hardware, but 30p is more likely to work well. If 60fps is important for motion in the material (sports etc.), 720p is a good choice. Or even 960x540 if it is known that clients have old systems.

As for 4k 60p, AFAIK for next few years that will only work on high end systems and media devices specifically designed to handle it. It's easy to test - upconvert some 1080 60p into 4k 60p and different codecs, attempt playback on your systems ;)

@GH2UW

Please keep comments constructive.

Of course decoders used are important. Even settings of decoders are :-)

I Think you need To get a video monitoring card, like the intensity pro and Connect it To a tv. I never could get good smooth motion playback on a computer screen. If your playback is sloppy and not realtime you have some other problem.. 24 fps is best viewed in 24 hertz 1080p 60 i have not used yet so dont know.

This thread addressed the GH2 but it's basically the same problem. Lot of useful info there http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/526/gh2-stutterjudderstrobe-issues-discussion/p1

@trafficarte

I've tested that clip on a 2011 MBP (i7 2Ghz, 8GB RAM, Radeon 6490M, 5400RPM HDD, external 1920x1200 monitor at 60Hz connected through MiniDP-DVI adapter). Tried QuickTime 7 and X, VLC, MPlayerX and MPEG Streamclip. QuickTime X and MPlayerX performed best, and QuickTime 7 was practically as good (which I expected for ProRes).

With best players, on internal laptop screen the playback was very good (both in actual size and rescaled to fit 1440x900) but on external monitor there was always small amount of jitter. I'm not sure why.