Hi,

I've been a while out of the game and have recently upgraded to FCPX but have completed a few successful projects already.

The problem I have relates to a recent studio recording of my band (a very fine "Music of" Stevie Wonder tribute act). We were recorded at my local university in a broadcast studio there, using six HD cameras mixed live to one file, plus an additional wide shot recorded separately. My challenge is simply to edit these together and add the post-mixed sound back in (we took 32-tracks of audio from the live sound desk), plus captions and credits etc.

I have been provided with two hefty Quicktime files which playback perfectly well on the desktop (Finder). But when imported to FCP they are only available as audio files! When I checked a second time, they were actually only showing as audio files in the import window.

So I quit FCP and thought maybe I could open them in Quicktime and export them again from there but they behave in the same way in Quicktime. It initially says "Opening Movie" but then just shows up as an audio file.

Next stop, iMovie, where I can import and view them successfully. I ask it to 'copy' them as Full Size files and sure enough it creates files which I can then also view Quicktime and FCP but they are noticeably pixelated compared to the originals (even though they are now twice the file size!). I really don't want to use them for that reason - not a good start.

Very confused as to why these files should playback perfectly in the Finder but not in Quicktime. Anyone any ideas on how to get these into FCPX at full resolution?


Many thanks

Colin

Use MediaInfo or VideoSpec to find the codec used in the original file. Mpegstreamclip should also open the file and could be used to transcode it to Prores which FCPX should then import with no trouble.

You can download the Perian QuickTime component and see if that helps. Also if the files came from a Sony XDCam system you will need to download the free Sony XDCam Browser to convert the mp4 video files to ProRes.

Thanks chaps.

Perian is no longer being developed and apparently won't work with Quicktime 10.

I've downloaded MPEG StreamClip and am currently trying to re-export the movie from there. Should be ready in a few hours!

I'll let you know how I get on but thanks so much for the suggestions.

C
_

After hours of testing various codecs I still can't improve on the file which iMovie produced. But it displays poor encoding of the light and colour changes, resulting in blocky, pixelated artifacts.

I don't want to spend hours importing and working with these files if they aren't going to be up to it in terms of quality. Any other tips on how to get the original files imported to FCP without further compression?

Just installed MediaInfo now and interestingly the Iso file is ProRes (LT) - so why it's not loading in FCP or Quicktime is anyone's guess but the latest encoding I have done from MPEG StreamClip appears to be useable - perhaps because there are no direct light flashes going into the lens.

However, the pre-cut (multicam) footage appears to be in ProRes (Proxy) format. I can't guarantee that this is the whole of the problem, since it looks just fine on the desktop - but perhaps because it has been compressed already, it is suffering when I try to re-encode it a second time?

Trying to get hold of a new master of that one now but still confused as to why these ProRes files won't behave in FCPX.

Somebody messed up those files. You shouldn't be receiving Proxy files unless you are working off-line. Normal ProResLT imports perfectly into FCPX so why these files don't is a mystery. Could you make a screen capture of the media info and post it here?

Can you open the file in Mpegstreamclip, go forward 5 or 10 seconds, Mark out, Trim, then 'Save as' and upload it Dropbox or Copy and post the link?

Thanks again guys. Sorry I've been a bit slow getting back.

Still waiting to see if I can get revised master clips and have a very busy weekend of gigs ahead now.

I may be in touch again early next week if I can't resolve this....

Have a good weekend!

C

Did you ever download the codec package for FCPX? From what I remember, it needs to download the pro video codecs separately. Open up the App Store and click the update tab to see if anything comes up.