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need advice importing MPEG-2 to FCP!
Hello,
I am working in FCP 6.0, and am having trouble importing some footage taken for me. When I look at its spec it says: MPEG-2 Video, PCM, Timecode Original format: HD bitrate 35,725 dimensions 1920 x 1080I am working on an MacBook with OSX 10.6.8
When I import the video, I can only hear the audio and see a blank screen. I have the same problem in Quicktime on my computer, even though I bought MPEG-2 Playback (which I probably didn’t need to! Grr). I know this footage is ok because I watched it on someone else’s computer after it was taken.
All my programs are working fine – I am not sure if I have to find the right settings (1920 x 1080 is not an option is settings) or if I need some third party software to convert it. I have tried MPEG Streamclip but that also will not let me see audio.
I need to edit this for a video, and would prefer not to downgrade the quality through conversion.
Please help!!
thanks!
Jesse -
8 Replies
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Sorry this is slightly vague but I think we are missing some info here.
The reason that none of your apps will “see” this file is that you dont have the codec installed that was used to create it.
The reason you saw it working fine on the other computer is that they do have the required codec.
If MPEG 2 is the only clue that the properties gives you then downloading the playback component was a sensible move but this is almost certainly down to a missing codec.
Are you able to check with the originator how they created/encoded it ?
Are they able to transcode it to something you can use to edit it ?
Its hard for me to advise exactly what would work as it depends what Apps they have as to their options.
If you can find out how they originated it then may be able to help more.
best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv -
This seems like it’s SVC or H264 footage… try using mpeg streamclip on it, convert it to pro res and see what you get.
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Thanks Neil,
I emailed him today and hopefully can get more information. When I try to play it in FCP it does say that I do not have the right codec hardware, but I can watch it in VLC. I will let you know when I find out.
Thanks!
Jesse -
Hi Mark,
I am also not able to see the footage in MPEG Streamclip. VLC is the only program that can play it.
Thanks!
Jess -
Once you find out how it was created and can play it – I would transcode it to ProRes.
Mpeg and H264 are not really designed for editing so avoid those if you can.best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv -
[Jesse Gall] “I am working in FCP 6.0, and am having trouble importing some footage taken for me. When I look at its spec it says: MPEG-2 Video, PCM, Timecode Original format: HD bitrate 35,725 dimensions 1920 x 1080”
That might be XDCAM/EX-1 stuff, but that doesn’t works with FC.6.
You need at least FC 6.2.
Anyway, update your FC.
FC.6.0 probably has been the buggiest FC version ever released.
rafael -
Hi Neil,
I got this response today from the dop:
“I used XDCAM Transfer to convert it from a BPAV to .mov
The thing is, they’re already converted. The only way I can work with BPAVs is to transcode them through XDCAM transfer, and the only thing XDCAM transfer does is turn them into movs using MPEG2, so even if I now compress them into something else, the original codec is still there so it won’t make a difference if your computer won’t play MPEG2”Any ideas on how to work with these files?
thanks!
Jesse -
Hi
As Raphael says FCP 6.0 is not XDCAM capable – I think 6.02 and above is so if you can updae that – should help.
The XD package here may be useful. However it looks like FCP 6 updates are still available. So I would go that route first.
https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/products.asp
best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv
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