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Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 – Stopped Importing .MXFs
Hello,
I recently purchased a Canon XF 100. (Got it $600 off, some lady returned it to best buy after 1 day as it was too advanced for her)
I shot a bunch of content with it, for a day in the life of.. Imported just fine into CS5, “Canon XF MPEG2 1080p 30” just fine. Without even copying over the file trees, just by searching “.mxf” on the contents folder, and pasting them over to my Hard Drive.
I cleared those cards, went back to film, just got back from WrestleMania 31… the files imported just fine on my Macbook, so I could watch some clips on the plane, however on my desktop they won’t import.
I recently installed the Canon XF utility software, a few weeks ago before I left, and I thought I saw a popup about some codecs, kept going.. The “OLD” videos still import and work like a charm.
However the new videos, whether backed up by Canon XF Utility, Copying the WHOLE file tree, etc I keep getting “Missing codec or unavailable.” I’ve tried everything at this point and it’s very frustrating. I could edit on my macbook but its a 2011 Macbook Pro w/ 8GB Ram vs, my Editing Rig. Not sure what else to try, I’ve used all the other suggestions.
For a work around I’ve been using “Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate” I’ve had it for 4+ years, works like a champ, good quality but you can tell it’s been downsized in quality a bit..
Any Suggestions?
tubby
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6 Replies
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Hey there…
The old files work because they were on their own. If you try to pull them from a disk image or file tree that was backed up, you may have a problem. MXF and MTS… …They are usually wrapped up in a folder that is seen as a bundle. You can pull them out and drop them into premiere, but they have to be free of your camera completely.
Alternatively, if you can use prelude, you should be able to break down the folder structure correctly, then send the timelines from prelude to premiere, or to AME for recoding to a full format like pro-res or AVC intra. These are EDIT formats. -
Ok, so It has nothing to do with how I cleared the cards then. That’s a sigh of relief. After I copied over all the .mxf files last time, and they all played and work perfectly, I cleared the cards from the camera and that’s when the issue started arising.
I couldn’t import the videos at all, with all the folders, ripping just the mxfs like before etc. I will give prelude a try.
Thanks
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How did you clear the cards? Did you use your computer? when you finish with these current videos, remember:
Format as FAT on computer. Put in camera. Format in camera. Will probably be FAT12.
I’ve gotten away with ExFAT on some older cameras, and some newer, but not all. It has a huge file size limit, and tends to be easily read. You can only format this from your computer if your system supports it though.I also image every card before importing anything from it. That way I can clear the card without that “Oh Crap” moment. I then RAR split it if necessary and burn the pieces to discs for an archive. I always have a copy of the card when I need it. Get it? Mac makes that easy. You can find some utilities for windows that are pretty easy to use and many are freeware. You’ll have to collect them though.
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I apparently hit Initialize Media, which cleared the cards. After I did this, all future videos started showing the codec error.
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Hmm,
It doesn’t seem like that’s related. They still import just fine on my Macbook. I’m not sure what changed in the time I filmed the original day in the life footage versus after wrestlemania. Frustrating. -
Sounds like the card blew a transistor or two, or they got locked in place. Try formatting the long way on your computer in disk utility (applications>utilities>disk utility). Select the card, go to the erase tab, give it a name if you wish (not necessary) and select msdos FAT as the format. This will erase the card and format it with the FAT file system in 32bit FAT. Fat12 is a 12bit system and used by many small unix variants in cameras. When you place the card back in the camera, try recording right to it, no initialize. IF it works, then your card may be fine (to know for sure, take out the card and place in a reader, then import the mxf). If that worked, card is fine, wipe again as before, then put in camera and initialize the card. If it has a problem after that, your camera is the problem (or more accurately, the way the hardware behaves when formatting the cards). Stick to formatting on your computer and you’ll be fine. Have your camera checked out, and look online for solutions or recalls or new firmware, and repair at the earliest convenience. If the card failed the first test, try an initialize in camera, then shoot a few seconds, and try to move the mxf file again. If the same error occurs, your card may have problems or not be compatible with your camera.
Alternate file system:
ExFAT is a larger bit depth file system, and is almost universally accepted, as it has a fat12 file table as well as a 16 and 32 (it carries all 3). It also has permissions attributes but they are not used by most systems (only done on servers where the permissions can be done by a custom automated command). There is little support for Exfat on mac, but you can read and write to it just fine. You could use this in your camera if you wanted to, just don’t initialize it when you put it back in the camera.One final note:
Some cards are actually just a container for a micro sd card. These require you to place the whole thing, container and all, into a reader when downloading any files from the card. While these adapters will allow you to get huge amounts of space on the little card, there is some space on many adapters that is used for formatting information, so the micro sd cannot be removed when full to replace with a new one, but should remain in the adapter shell until the files have been copied. Even with similar or the same formats, this cannot be done. The formatting is a binary table of where files begin and end on a card. Break that, you’ll break the headers and possibly the files.
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