Final Cut Movie File vs QuickTime files

[Shane Ross]

[paolo drusi] “When I try to playback any of those files they play fine on my machine (where the actual projects are stored) but, as soon as I try play them on any other machine, either mac or pc, I can hear the audio only in some of them, some others play ok, some other I see only a black screen. “

#48 – Cannot view DVCPRO HD or HDV or ProRes on my computer.

Shane’s Stock Answer #48 – Cannot view DVCPRO HD, HDV or ProRes QT files on your computer.

The DVCPRO HD, HDV and ProRes codecs only comes with FCP. If your computer does not have FCP installed, it cannot view these quicktime files. It doesn’t matter if it is a Mac or PC, without FCP installed, you cannot view these files.

If you need to view ProRes material, you can download the ProRes decoder (mac and windows compatible) for ProRes

https://support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Windows.

https://support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Mac

If your footage was captured as DVCRO HD you can buy the Calibrated DVCPRO HD decoder:

https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/QDVCProHD.asp

HDV, XDCAM? Calibrated has you covered too:

https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/QXD.asp

If you have MXF files from a P2 camera and you need to view the footage on a computer without FCP, you can download P2CMS from Panasonic:

https://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/p2-hd/downloads-and-updates.asp

Or you need the other party to compress the footage into a format your computer can play, like H.264.

[paolo drusi] “Furthermore: what is the quickest way to make all those files available to be used on Adobe Premiere for further editing?”

Why are you capturing in FCP for editing in Premiere? Why not capture in premiere? That is the best way to do it. Otherwise you are wasting time by needing to convert the footage you capture into a format Premiere can work with.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Paolo Drusi]

Hi Shane and thanks a lot for your great reply.

My files are not HD, they are standard def. and they are the product of an several exportations over time. I simply need to use those files for a project to be assembled on a PC using Premiere.

The problem of no image happens to just on a PC but also on another Mac with FC installed in it.

Any clue?

Thanks
p

[Shane Ross]

What codec are these QT files? .MOV is not a codec, just in case you were going to say that. GET INFO on a clip and tell me what it says.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Paolo Drusi]

Some are Apple Intermediate Codec, most are DV.

[Paolo Drusi]

Some codecs are Apple Intermediate Codec, most are DV.

[Shane Ross]

THen their QT player and components might be out of date.

Ask them what they want and encode to that. Or give them the tapes to capture.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Rafael Amador]

[paolo drusi] “I’m a bit confused. I’ve got a bunch of files exported from different (several) projects. They are all .mov files, I thought they all were self-contained but I’m not sure anymore. The reason is that, when I open the finder and I list the bunch of files, the system tells me under ‘kind’ that some are ‘Final Cut Pro Movie File’ and some are ‘QuickTime Movie’. Also the icons are different, half FC half QT for the first kind, QT for the second one. “
The only difference is that some files are set to be open by default by QT and the others by FC.
You can change the default application in the Info Window. The Thumbnail will change too.

Reference files prompt to look for the media if QT can not find the files. The file do not open without all the elements. If you can hear the sound is because, as Shane said, you have no the video codec available.
Cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Benjamin Nunney]

It sounds a bit dumb but my recent solution to a similar problem was using the QT Conversion export as opposed to the QT Movie export- exact same settings.
The QT Movie (self contained or not) seems to package the file with the FCP icon which had similar issues (white screen/audio only) when imported into a PC based Avid MC.
Using the standard QT conversion settings gives you the standard QT icon and was importable on a PC…

A bit of PC vs MAC anti-competitiveness perhaps?

[Dennis Radeke]

Shane is right, why not just capture in Premiere Pro? In fact, you don’t have to ‘capture’ DVCProHD in Premiere because it understands something other than Quicktime! 😉

In Premiere Pro CS4’s Media Browser panel, you can view the P2 card directly, load the clips into the source view, mark an in/out and take to the timeline. In a pinch, you can edit directly off of the P2 card.

Also as Shane and I have discussed, there is a question about what you need to do to edit FCP ProRes with systems. My understanding is that the later versions of Quicktime already include the ProRes codecs, so downloading the QT decoder isn’t necessary.