importing mpeg to FCP- no audio
 

Hi folks,

This one has me confused. I downloaded an old Bob Marley video
( stir it up ). It plays perfectly on my quicktime player. Thought it
would be fun to try and import it into FCP4 and mess around a bit.
The video imports, but the audio disappears. I've tried exporting it
from the quicktime player a few different ways, but it keeps telling me there
are no audio tracks, which is strange since I'm listening to one. I'm sure
this has happened to someone else, so can you tell me what's up. How
can I get both the video and audio of a downloaded music video into
FCP4? Hope this is clear and thanks for the help. Glen

MPEG is a bizzare, weird format to say the least. I'm pretty sure it was invented by barbers or maybe fishermen. You need to "demux" the tracks first. Go to http://www.versiontracker.com and search for bbDemux. Download it (I believe it is free) and drag the MPEG file on it. It will seperate the files and you will be able to play with them, including the sound.

demux
 

Ted,

Thanks....I demuxed the mpeg but FCP4 will only import the video
portion and not the audio...it gives me the "wrong file type" message when
I try to bring the audio in. Is there another stage, or conversion that I
have to do to the audio to make it work in FCP. Thanks. I'm off to work
but will check back. Glen

What type of file do you get after demuxing? It is probably an MP2. Open the sound with Quicktime Player and export to AIFF. iTunes might be able to do it, but iTunes is kind of a pain to deal with, IMO.

demux
 

Ted,

Okay, time for the next installment. I end up with an audio file which
has the suffix .m1a ( mla ). Never seen this one before. FCP4 won't except
it. itunes gives me an error message when I try to convert it to an aiff and
I can't seem to find the option to export to aiff in my quicktime player.
I guess I have to find some way of converting this .m1a file to something that
is usable by FCP4. Right now I'm puzzled. I fou have any ideas let me know;
I'd appreciate it. Thanks for the help so far.

Change the extension from M1a to MP2. Now try Quicktime.

got it
 

Ted,

Thanks for all the help. I ended up having to change the extension
to mp3 and then convert the file to a aiff using itunes....quicktime never
gave me the option....anyway, you got me going in the right direction so
thanks for the help. Glen

When I demux a .VOB (bbDEMUX) I end up with an .m2a video file, and at least one .ac3 audio file. I found this nice little free utility, bd4go, that quickly converts ac3 to aiff. I open the .m2a and .aiff files in Quicktime, copy the .aiff and paste it into the .m2a file. Then save as or export it to whatever format you want !

Kirk

Hey guys,

I downloaded bbdemux and can't get it to work. Running panther and don't know if it's really compatible. Any thoughts? Is there any other programs (free) that do this same thing and are compatible? Thanks in advance...

Clay