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Footage Unreadable on Other Computer
As someone who’s self-taught, I occasionally stumble into a situation that I feel like I should have the answer to — problems I secretly suspect everyone else already understands. So, I approach you all humbly, hoping this question isn’t too stupid.
I’ve been using Final Cut (Studio 1) to import nearly 200 hours of footage in preparation for a big documentary. I’ve been saving it all to an external hard drive, and everything seems to progressing well.
Then the scriptwriter, who lives in a different state, asked for a copy of the raw footage — both for personal reference and for archive purposes. I was horrified at the thought of recopying tapes or burning hundreds of DVDs; instead, I purchased a second hard drive and simply copied everything on the first one to the second one. Then, I mailed it off and assumed I could get back to quietly sorting through the piles of footage.
But, now they’re unhappy on their end. Apparently, when they run the files on their computer, it plays the sound but gives no indication that it contains any video at all. I’m trying to troubleshoot over the phone, but I have no idea what’s going on — my best suggestion was to run “Software Update.” That didn’t help.
Everything is fine on my end, but I can’t think of anything more to suggest on their end. The hard drive I sent them was a cheapo WalMart model — could it have genuinely failed to copy any video? Does Final Cut put in some kind of protection so that the files it imports can only be read by other computers with Final Cut? Am I doomed to start burning DVDs by the wheelbarrow?
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HDV Footage
NTFS-Formatted Hard Drive
Both Macs
—Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
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Novamation Studios
http://www.NovamationStudios.com -
3 Replies
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Without information on the exact item properties of the media I can only guess. If you captured in native HDV that’s most likely the problem as FCP uses a proprietary QuickTime codec that’s only available with Final Cut. If you captured using ProRes a playback component is available in recent versions of QuickTime or it can be downloaded. ProRes can only be used for editing in Final Cut, but it can playback on other machines, Mac and Windows, that do not have the applications.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop” -
#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.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
This looks like a winner. Thanks a lot for your prompt reply and helpful answers!
It was, indeed, a problem based around the fact that only one computer had Final Cut. I was assuming (hoping?) that just importing the tapes wouldn’t add in any proprietary encoding… but no such luck. Live and learn!
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Novamation Studios
http://www.NovamationStudios.com
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