[Craig Seeman]

I wonder if an additional encoding service fee should be charged for a legacy file no longer supported by Microsoft adding a notice that the fee will be reduced/removed if/when they move to MP4.

It’s not like they would be in a great situation to find a competitor to do this. There’s an additional time and possible encoder cost to meet this format.

[Craig Seeman]

It seems few of the free/inexpensive encoders supported WMV9. My guess is there’s license issues around that.

Telestream Flip4Mac encoded to WMV9 but also involved a license and has long since been discontinued (a few years ago). The commercial encoders such as Telestream Episode and Sorenson Squeeze supported it but they are also long gone.

One would have to be running ancient hardware to be limited to WMV9 as MP4 playback on Windows started to supersede WMV9 during Windows 7 era.

If you have an older Windows computer this might install

https://download.cnet.com/windows-media-encoder/3000-2212_4-14887.html

download.cnet.com

Windows Media Encoder for Windows - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download

Download Windows Media Encoder latest version for Windows free. Windows Media Encoder latest update: August 8, 2018

[Craig Seeman]

I can’t think of any modern circumstance to create WMV 9 at all. All modern Windows computers support h.264 .mp4

If you’re working with a client that doesn’t know this you should correct them.

Supposedly this works.

https://www.movavi.com/videoconvertermac/

[Craig Seeman]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/105126

More details from Apple

iMac models introduced in 2011, 2012, 2013, and mid 2014

To use any of these iMac models as an external display:

• The iMac used as a display must have macOS High Sierra or earlier installed.

• The other Mac that you’re connecting it to must have been introduced in 2019 or earlier and have macOS Catalina or earlier installed.

support.apple.com

Use your iMac as a display with target display mode - Apple Support

Target display mode is a feature available with certain older Mac models.

[Craig Seeman]

Target Display Mode was only supported in iMacs from mid-2014 and earlier, and was officially discontinued with macOS Mojave.

At one time this was done with Target Display mode but can’t be done with recent macOS.

[Craig Seeman]

If it’s still larger, you need to lower the data rate more.

If the issue is quality it’s possible the codec that was used to compress the original was very efficient. Perhaps they reduced the number of Key Frames (keyframes are larger than P and especially B frames) but you’re not talking about quality but size. So your response is either incomplete or doesn’t make sense. If it’s still larger then make the data rate still lower. If you run into a quality issue (you haven’t mentioned), you need to look at other encoder settings.

[Craig Seeman]

I’m not sure why the math isn’t more obvious to people.

It’s very simple. Lowering the data rate lowers the file size. Depending on the codec though it will lower the quality. How visible that is depends on the content, frame size, and frame rate.

Apple Compressor gives you control over the data rate so you’d export to that or create a preset and use in FCP.

This thinking is more or less applicable to many things.

My car is traveling too many miles. Lower the speed.

I’m gaining weight. Lower your caloric intake.

Lower the Mbps (Kbps or Gbps or however you’re measuring). File too fat. Eat less bits.

[Craig Seeman]

I use 4K Video Downloader.

https://www.4kdownload.com/products/videodownloader-42

Free version is good enough and there are controls over the quality and speed of the download.

4kdownload.com

4K Video Downloader Plus | Free Download from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, SoundCloud

The simplest video downloader, ever! Download video and audio from YouTube and similar services on macOS, PC and Linux absolutely for free!

[Craig Seeman]

Least people forget Apple also announced:

An update to Final Cut Pro will enable creators to edit spatial videos on their Mac and add immersive titles and effects to their projects, and with the Vimeo app designed for Vision Pro, users will be able to upload and share spatial videos for others to discover and enjoy.

While:

Later this year, Blackmagic Design will launch the first-ever commercially available camera system, and an update to its post-production software DaVinci Resolve Studio, to support Apple Immersive Video,…

Apple is developing Final Cut Camera for iPhone which may lead to interesting equivalents for the iPhone.

While there’s some speculation Apple has always liked to have an ecosystem they can control. Apple isn’t always first but they do develop things their own way and I think we’re going to see some interesting things going on between FCP 10.8 and 11 and Final Cut Camera.

Also interesting that Apple mentions Vimeo which is going outside the YouTube/Google/Android ecosystem. While there’s stuff we see (stuff they announced) we might be seeing the tip of a much deeper iceberg.

When FCPX came out Apple referred to a 10-year roadmap which we’ve passed so we may be seeing just the beginning of the next 10-year plan.

More speculation but perhaps Apple learned from their FCP7 / FCPX mistake and rather than make a disruptive change FCP iPad may be the beginning of an overlap into the next FCP paradigm which may take a couple of years to go through. I wouldn’t doubt Apple’s own AI developments will play a significant roll in that.

[Craig Seeman]

I second what Doug says. It’s not importing into the Library. It’s likely leaving aliases point to the card. Please post a screenshot of your settings.