FCP ancient version

[Robert Withers]

Someone told me these interlaced files are in “Apple codec.” I had footage edited in FCP2, then FCP5, then same footage in FCP7 . . . exported the timeline as XML and got it imported into Pr CC. This was a sequence, however, not camera files.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Nick Meyers]

the file name “the shape of things 3pm-av-0” could imply that there are other parts to that clip.

back then people often captured with file-size limits, so clips wound up being spread across more than one file.

audio was often captured as a separate file altogether, though the “av” in the file name suggest you have audio AND video together.

so have a look in your capture scratch and see if there are other related files such as:
“the shape of things 3pm-1”

however, that sort of file naming is also associated with media managed material,
where multiple instances of the same clip wind up with those various suffixes
(sorry it’s been a LONG time since i dealt with files like that, so I’m guessing a bit)

nick

[Shane Ross]

Nick’s right…although the next clip would be called “the shape of things 3pm-av-1” and then “the shape of things 3pm-av-2.” The “av” being AUDIO and VIDEO tied. If you captured audio and video separate, then you’d get “the shape of things 3pm-v-0” and then depending on how many tracks of audio, “the shape of things 3pm-a1-0” and so on. And yes, they were broken up into smaller 4GB chunks early on. Either the hard drive size back then couldn’t deal with it, or something. But you needed all of them in order for the clip in FCP to work. If one was missing, then the clip was offline.

This was a very “Avid-like” way of doing things. And when I first used FCP 2, that’s how I set things up, to be Avid like, because that is what I was used to…how I was used to working. When I figured out how FCP did things, I adapted and actually preferred it.

BUT…the point is that the files all needed to be joined, and really, needed FCP in order to play. Even QT wouldn’t open them. And yes, what is the codec it used back in FCP 1-2 days? I think the DV/NTSC one came about in FCP 3.

You might need to export these out as self contained files…or recapture them. But then that means rebuilding the cut in Premiere. Or sticking with FCP 1 or 2 to finish this. That sometimes happens when projects are that old, and are started on very old systems. I once had a client call me to figure out what to do with their project that they started on Avid v6.5….I’m talking OLD 6.5…on those Beige Powermacs, late 1990s. Everything was OMFI. They started a project, shelved it for years, and then needed to go back to it…and all they had were the tapes and the drives of media…and a project file. Wondered if there was any way to get this media working with the current Avid. No, there wasn’t. Had to track down some place that had a very old system moth balled, and they dusted it off and powered it on. And went about figuring out how to export the cut so it could be recaptured and re-build on the current system. It was no small task, but they did it.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Lisa Sanders]

Thanks Nick. I suspected there might be a referenced file missing somewhere. The situation is that all the captures are on an archive hard drive and I’ve moved everything over to a jump drive that can be read on both PC and Mac. Come to think of it, though, that may be the problem. Perhaps PC can’t read the audio portion. At that point, the codec issue is beyond me.

[Lisa Sanders]

Hm. That’s a thought. As an experiment, I’ll try opening the file in QT Pro on the Mac (where it plays fine) and send it out with a different codec and see if Premiere will play both audio and video. Though I’m not sure if just wrapping it in some other codec will fix the problem, but it’s worth a try. Thanks!

[Misha Aranyshev]

DV/NTSC came with FCP 1.0. Then 1.2.5 brought DV/PAL. That was the first version I could use for paying jobs.