FCX won’t import .mov captured files

[Jesse Miller]

I’ve been having the same problem of not being able to import our older .mov captures. Any news? We have a lot (many hundreds) of these files that we’re still using and I’m really hoping the solution isn’t having to transcode everything.

[Craig Seeman]

“older MOV captures” is kinda vague. MOV is a container. “older” is subjective.
I believe there are issues with how older versions of FCP handled DV MOV captures. It seems only with versions older than FCP6. Time to recapture those tapes.

[Jesse Miller]

Understood. To be specific, these are miniDV tapes captured in FCP5 (possibly earlier. I didn’t do the captures myself). I just mentioned the .mov wrapper since there are so many threads out there on how FCPX won’t import .dv files and I’m pretty sure this is a different issue. The specs on my captures look pretty similar to Brian’s, so I was hoping he had figured out a solution.

720×480, 29.97 fps DV/DVCPRO – NTSC
32kHz PCM audio

[Craig Seeman]

Apple has changed too much. Even FCP6 and 7 updated projects and such when importing older projects.
If you have FCP6 or 7 you might try importing to that first. If you have FCP5 you can try exporting the files to Apple Intermediate Codec (I think you can do that, I don’t think ProRes was supported at that time). Otherwise you’ll have to capture the tapes again.

[Jesse Miller]

Thanks for taking the time to think about and explain this.

Strange as it seems to me given what I’ve been reading, but just changing the extension TO .dv has allowed me to import the files into FCPX. I’m not sure why that is or what implications it has/problems it might cause further down the road. We’re in the process of adapting our workflow from FCP5 to X, so I guess this is just part of the experimentation process.

[Craig Seeman]

Seeing .dv probably results in it not looking at/getting hung up on the metadata issues. iMovie, for example, used .dv not dv .mov if memory serves me.

[Brian Houle]

Hi Jesse,

I was out this morning so late in replying. I need to find my notes and the latest email I had from Apple’s FC support team.

They had simulated the problem on their end from files i posted for them to download and try. Then they tried their own .mov files.

Their recommendation, off the top of my head, was to re-wipe, install the OS then Final Cut Pro (I have the FCS 3 and FCX). They did this on their end from an older machine running Leopard and the files from FCP7 were successfully imported into FCX. Now I know what you’re thinking – that was Leopard! and you’re right – but this still happens for my machine with Snow Leopard and my new machine with Lion.

I haven’t done what they’ve suggested as I simply don’t have the time to do what they suggested. I’ve decided to work around it by still importing into FCP on the 2 older machines and then use FCX on the new machine.

Not the best, but doable for now.

However, I’m convinced this has everything to do with Quicktime and nothing to do with file type ie. dv vs mov.

There was a profile type missing from QT 10.0 and 10.1 (ie. NTSC 720×480 etc..) from QT 7 (I need to find my notes b/c I might be slightly off), but that’s what i remember. At first, support was convinced it was my older machine causing an issue, but I bought a refurb 2010 mac pro in December (so ‘brand new’) and the same behaviour was happening. Files captured in FCP7 (on any machine) can’t be read in FCX (in both Lion and SL). Those files can be opened in QT 7, but NOT QT 10.0 nor 10.1. Same tapes captured in FCX (taking the capture files right out of finder) can be opened in QT 10.1 and 10.1 but NOT QT 7.

Soooo….there was something amiss in the way QT was written. Now I’m not a software engineer, but all tests to point to an NTSC 720×480 profile not included in the later QT versions. Again, I need to find my notes as I had concise profiles screen captured from when I tried opening files in different versions.

Why else wouldn’t the files open in any version of QT. Since FCP and FCX use QT, that would appear to be the underlining issue. To be clear, these were all .mov files. I haven’t tried DV, but I’m convinced the same thing would happen.

So, it’s probably safe to re-convert within QT or MPEG Streamclip. I tried a few that way and it didn’t appear to affect quality and more importantly, they worked in FCX 🙂 You could always start converting a few every night and check them the next day then delete the originals.

I should follow up with them again as I think their solution of wiping/re-installing, it’s the way to go.

I also sent feedback to their QT team.

Hope that helps in some way.

Cheers,
Brian

[Craig Seeman]

If what you say is true then DV .mov from FCP6 and 7 would also have issues. The issue is specific to DV .mov from FCP5 and earlier. In fact you can still capture DV in FCPX as well and that becomes DV .mov too.

DV .mov from FCP7 can be read in FCPX. I’ve tested this as I had captured files from FCP5 as well as FCPX.

It’s not “file type” at all. It’s metadata which FCPX is built around. There’s metadata (or missing metadata) in the construct of DV .mov from FCP5 and earlier that makes the file incompatible with FCPX.

[Brian Houle]

hmmm…all i know is that captured files from FCP7 (on either machine) can’t be opened in FCX.

Apple had the same issue until they rewiped/re-installed. Maybe it is an issue with the metadata.

I need to find my notes with the screen caps. Sounds like regardless of what exactly the issue, they haven’t included something in FCX from FCP which is preventing these files from opening.

[Craig Seeman]

[Brian Houle] “hmmm…all i know is that captured files from FCP7 (on either machine) can’t be opened in FCX.”

They can for me and all my machines were FCP7 until all the newer ones became FCPX as well. I haven’t worked with DV for some time so more of those were coming from FCP6 for me and those had no issue. Maybe you have something else happening. I have Quicktime Pro installed on my machines that have both 7 and X if that makes any difference.