Which DNxHR codecs are supported by FCP 10.5.2 (on M1 Mac)?

I have lots of DNxHR encoded files which I recently tried to import into FCP.

Disappointingly, the DNxHR HQX (10-bit 4:2:2) files only import the audio and not the video.

DNxHR LB (proxy quality) import and play OK.

Does anyone know exactly which DNxHR codecs (at FHD, 4K DCI and UHD) are supported?

The DNxHR HQX files were created from a Panasonic GH5 10-bit 4:2:2 source using ffmpeg.

Incidentally, this behaviour (audio only) is the same as if I try to import the 10-bit camera files into the free version of Davinci Resolve. Is it a codec licensing issue?

Thanks!

That is an interesting issue. Originally DNx codecs were not to be supported on FCP after the big switchover to 64-bit codecs and the related change from 3rd-party codec extensions via the Quicktime framework to AV Foundation codecs.

Then later Apple said DNxHD would be supported, and the method of support was via Apple Pro Video Formats:  www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2019/...xhd-and-dnxhr-codecs

One question is whether your specific DNx codec is supported on an x86 Mac running Catalina or later and FCP 10.5.2 with the latest 2.2.1 Apple Pro Video Formats. If that works, I think it should be supported on Apple Silicon. If it does not work, maybe FFMPEG messed up the encode somehow. 

You could check if the latest version of Apple Pro Video Formats are installed on your M1 machine. That's in About this Mac>System Report>Software>Installations, scroll down to Pro Video Formats and note the highest number. Updates to those are done via System Preferences>Software Update. 

I will try to test this on my iMac Pro but I must first get DNx activated on my Atomos recorders. There is some kind of licensing hang up and I emailed Atomos today about that.

I don't know if this could be help you but Edit Ready 2 can transcode Avid DNxHR to Apple ProRes: 
(copy from EditReady Manual):
Avid DNxHR
Avid DNxHR is designed for larger-than-HD sources, like 2k and 4k. EditReady suppots DNxHR, but you’ll need to create a custom preset in order to use it. Select “custom” from the preset dropdown, and then select the desired DNxHR codec from the “Video Format” dropdown. We strongly recommend using PCM audio with this format. You can save that preset for reuse later by selecting “save current preset” from the batch menu.
For details on the framerates, frame sizes, and bitrates that DNxHR supports, see Avid’s format table.

Jose

joema wrote: That is an interesting issue. Originally DNx codecs were not to be supported on FCP after the big switchover to 64-bit codecs and the related change from 3rd-party codec extensions via the Quicktime framework to AV Foundation codecs.

Then later Apple said DNxHD would be supported, and the method of support was via Apple Pro Video Formats: www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2019/...xhd-and-dnxhr-codecs

One question is whether your specific DNx codec is supported on an x86 Mac running Catalina or later and FCP 10.5.2 with the latest 2.2.1 Apple Pro Video Formats. If that works, I think it should be supported on Apple Silicon. If it does not work, maybe FFMPEG messed up the encode somehow.

You could check if the latest version of Apple Pro Video Formats are installed on your M1 machine. That's in About this Mac>System Report>Software>Installations, scroll down to Pro Video Formats and note the highest number. Updates to those are done via System Preferences>Software Update.

I will try to test this on my iMac Pro but I must first get DNx activated on my Atomos recorders. There is some kind of licensing hang up and I emailed Atomos today about that.

Thank you for your detailed reply! I reinstalled the latest (2.2.1) codecs but there is no change. I have an Intel Mac with Catalina, so I will follow your suggestion to test the same clips on that machine. Of course, I may well have done something weird with my ffmpeg command....so I'll also try a different app. Does Apple Compressor support encoding to DNxHR?

johngwheeler wrote: I have lots of DNxHR encoded files which I recently tried to import into FCP.

Disappointingly, the DNxHR HQX (10-bit 4:2:2) files only import the audio and not the video...Incidentally, this behaviour (audio only) is the same as if I try to import the 10-bit camera files into the free version of Davinci Resolve. Is it a codec licensing issue?..

I just tested the following DNX-series codecs recorded from my A7SIII to Ninja V. They all worked OK (audio & video) in FCP 10.5.2, Catalina 10.15.7 and Apple Pro Video Formats 2.2.1 on my iMac Pro. See attached file for Invisor metadata characteristics of each one.

Wow! Thank you for going to so much trouble to test this!

It looks like the DNxHR HQX recorded to your Ninja does work on FCP 10.5.2 on Intel/Catalina Macs.

I will try this on my Catalina MBP16 and see if it behaves differently to the M1 Mini I was using. I'll let you know the result.

If it doesn't work....then there is something wrong with my ffmpeg encoding. FYI, this is the line from the batch script I use for encoding:

ffmpeg -i "$file" -map_metadata 0 -color_range pc -pix_fmt yuv422p10le -c:v dnxhd -profile:v dnxhr_hqx -c:a pcm_s24le -movflags write_colr "../DNxHR/${file%.mov}"

Since you are on FCP, why don't you just import the Panasonic GH5 10-bit 4:2:2 material and create proxies? That assumes your M1 Mac is not fast enough to edit the original full-res camera files (which it may be due to improved video decoding on M1).

Alternatively you could batch transcode the full-res files to ProRes 422 using FCP itself, Compressor, or a 3rd-party tool like EditReady2. The below video shows how to batch transcode files using FCP: