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Why are .mov files from quicktime 10 incompatible with FCP 4.5?
Hi everybody,
I’m trying to make a video in FCP 4.5 using a screen capture video I made in Quicktime 10. Let me elaborate a little…
I have Final Cut Pro 4.5 on my old G5 tower. I have a new MacBook Pro, but I don’t have FCP loaded on it yet. I’ve have FCP on my old G5 for years. The G5 is on Tiger 10.4.11. My new MacBook Pro is on Snow Leopard 10.6.4. I plan on upgrading to a newer version of Final Cut Pro soon, and loading it on my MacBook Pro. But for now I’m still using the old version (4.5) on my G5.
I shot video on my MiniDV camera and loaded it on my G5 in FCP 4.5 as I normally do. I’m making a tutorial video of new software that I’m using on my MacBook Pro, so I also recorded a screen capture on the MBP using Quicktime X.
The file that Quicktime X made of my screen capture is a .mov, and it plays back fine on the MBP. I brought the .mov file over to my G5 with a USB jump drive. The G5 can play the screen capture back in Finder, but, when i try to import it into FCP 4.5, I get an error message saying that the file format is incompatible, and it fails to import!
It’s a total drag. My tutorial video will really suffer without bringing this .mov file into FCP 4.5. Does anyone have an idea why FCP 4.5 is not recognizing this .mov file?
Many thanks,
Sam -
7 Replies
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Obviously it’s a codec that 4.5 can’t handle. Use something like iShowU and capture to a more friendly codec for 4.5.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.
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It’s odd that I use .mov files with 4.5 constantly, and when I export stuff from 4.5 I always make .mov files. So it just seems contradictory that a more advance version of .mov would be incompatible. Why would they continue call this file a .mov if it’s not going to play well with tools that seem to live and die by the .mov format?
I considered buying iShowU, but since the screen capture in QuickTime X is free, I was hoping that it would actually be a tool that could be used.
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I\’m going to guess that it\’s because they couldn\’t the the future?
Generally the computer world strives to be backward compatible. Not forward compatible. Seeing the future aside, how would the computing industry make money if all the old stuff worked with new stuff? And if new stuff couldn\’t play old stuff, why would we buy it?
That said, it is odd that QT will play it, but FCP won\’t. You may be treading the line and using a more advanced version of QT than 4.5 supports. Hard to say. We\’re talking 6 years ago, and a different processor platform.
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“That said, it is odd that QT will play it, but FCP won\’t.”
Right? I just launched QuckTime Player 7.0.0 on the G5, and it has no problem playing the .mov file from QuickTime X.
It’s just a drag because if this worked I could easily finish this project. Now I’m back to deliberating if I should spend money on iShowU, or if I should hold off until I upgrade FCP on my new computer. Oi vey!
I was just reading up on iShowU HD Pro, and it does seem like a useful app. But, I can’t really tell if it’s going to solve the issue I’m having right now. Here’s what the iShowU site has to say about FCP:
“Never export your video using QTPro again! No longer do you have to re-export captured media in order to get it to play nicely with Final Cut. Simply drag the media from the preview bar directly into your project. iShowU HD Pro also comes with a bunch of built-in presets making use of the ProRes codec.”
This doesn’t make me feel like my specific issue will be addressed. Unfortunately, spending $60 is something that I need to really think about.
I need to make this free option work. I need QuickTime 10 to be my friend.
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One thing you need to understand.
,mov is not a codec, all it means is that the file is a QT movie. there are 100s of codec. Most likely the codec is H264, all you need to do is to convert that to an editing codec. If you are editing with a DV timeline, convert the movie to a DV .mov.
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Thanks Michael! I imported the .mov into iMovie (because I don’t have FCP on the MBP yet). I clicked on Share, and went into the export options. It gives me several options for “Compression Type,” the closest looking option to “DV .mov” is DV/DVCPRO – NTSC. Is this what you meant?
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Solved! The “DV/DVCPRO – NTSC” .mov file I exported out of iMovie worked. FCP 4.5 accepted it! I saved $60, and I’ll be able to finish this project up today.
Big thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread!
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