can’t import QT files to FCP 4.5

[Michael Gissing]

Possibly but you haven’t told us anything about the quicktime file that can help us guess.

Where did the QT file come from? Can you open it in QT player on any machine and find out the codec etc used? Any details about the file and even the verion of QT or FCP used to make the file will help.

FCP4.5 has limited codecs compared to later versions. If the QT is ProRes, XDCam or AVCHD, then you can’t import that into FCP 4.5 . Also FCP4.5 used an older version of QT which means you can’t import QT files with multiple audio channels.

[Vincent Sheehan]

Yes I can open in QTplayer 7.5. Re codec; the info from File Inspector: AAC, Stereo (L R), 44.100 kHz
H.264 Decoder, 720 x 576 (1024 x 576), Millions. It was created by a post house from a an HDSR master.

[Michael Gissing]

[Vincent Sheehan] “info from File Inspector: AAC, Stereo (L R), 44.100 kHz
H.264 Decoder, 720 x 576 (1024 x 576), Millions. It was created by a post house from a an HDSR master.”

FCP 4.5 will not understand H264 as it is old software. No version of FCP will be happy to edit H264 native so the file needs to be converted to an editing codec. Software like MPEG Streamclip will do the file conversion

https://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

If your drive is fast enough, you could make it Uncompressed 10 bit with the same pixel aspect (720 x 576) or at a pinch DV codec (yuck). The audio is the wrong sample rate so it needs to be converted to 48Khz PCM.

H264, although common now is not a universal codec. It would have been better to make the file in an edit codec from the start.