Quicktime, OSX and MPEG-2 Issues across multiple Workstations

Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

Quicktime, OSX and MPEG-2 Issues across multiple Workstations

Posted by Jeremy G. butler on March 7, 2013 at 8:26 pm

Okay, the pertinent information:

I have two MacPro Workstations.

1 – An older one that’s running OSX 10.5.8, QT7.7 and FCP6.0.6

2 – A newer one that’s running OSX10.6.8, QTX and FCP 7.0.3

I have a JVC GY-HD250 Camera that uses a DTE DR-HD100 on-board hard drive that captures in either .MOV or .M2T. It’s default is set to .MOV

The older MacPro has absolutely no problem whatsoever. Everything works like a champ. The newer one, however, refuses to open anything that’s shot on that camera UNLESS I open it in FCP on the older one first.

Using Get Info I learned two things:
1 – the native codec from the hard drive is MPEG-2 Video, Linear PCM, Timecode.
2 – After I open that file in FCP (on the older one) it changes the codec to Integer (Big Endian), Timecode, HDV 720p60

Keep in mind that I don’t have to save or export the file in anyway – I just have to import it into FCP and it makes that change to the source file on its own.

Everything I’ve seen in Google recommends that I either…
1 – Download the MPEG-2 Playback Component, but it explicitly states on the download page that if I have QTX already installed on the machine that it has the Component already and I will not be able to install it. So I’m not going to spend the $20

2 – Downgrade QT using Pacifist, which I did, and there’s a shiny copy of QT7.6 on the new machine alongside QTX, but it still won’t open the files.

or 3 – Download the ProApps Codec Pack. Which I tried, but the newer MacPro says there was already a newer version of that installed.

So, how do I make these footage files work on the newer MacPro? I’m exasperated. AND – if I were to upgrade the older MacPro to Snow Leopard (7.6.8), will that mess up the current setup I already have and render the files unusable on that machine as well?

Jeremy G. butler replied 13 years, 5 months ago 1 Member · 1 Reply
1 Reply

Jeremy G. butler
March 7, 2013 at 10:27 pm

Resolved! A little bit of Googling with some different search parameters led me to this:

https://www.tinyurl.com/FocusConverterMac

It’s a patch utility put out by the manufacturers of the HDD. Here’s the documentation (and a link for Windows users with the same issue): https://www.focusinfo.com/dynassets/documents/downloads/HDFileConverterPro_Updater_FAQ_3.16.12.pdf

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