I am suddenly encountering the same exact problem, so if I can horn in here and give my situation and info, maybe it would shed some light.
I too have recorded FRAPS on a PC, which uses its own codec (FPS1), to create AVI files, although the mac indeed says “Perian” in parenthesis when you look at the file. These are only slightly compressed, so they do recommend compressing after the fact.
(Fraps is typically used for recording PC game footage but can be used to record many programs running on your PC.)
Anyway, I have previously been able to take these file to work and import them in final cut pro without any conversion or compression and with no problem.
Now, however, these clips, when pulled into FCP, display with a completely blank (white) screen, but with perfect audio.
However, they play in Quicktime just fine, ALTHOUGH, when I try to export them, in some formats they turn white, like Divx. They convert fine to Mpeg4.
What is ODD is that:
A) I did this last month with a clip with NO problem which still plays fine in FCP.
B) I HAD converted some of these problem files using Divx Conversion which fixed it, but NOW some of the files I convert still have the white screen issue. Some worked, others didn’t?
I thought perhaps the issue was that I recorded the new batch @ 25fps a second, but recording at 30 and 29.97fps did not help either.
The only thing else that is different from last month and this is that
1) The “good” clip was recorded @ 1024×768 and all the “bad” clips were recorded @ 512×384
2) Just before I did the new batch, the drivers for my PC’s graphics card were suddenly declared invalid by Windows XP (Thanks, Microsoft!), and I had to install new drives for my Nvidia GTX 7800 just to get my graphics back up to speed.
3) The good clip had a data rate over 12mb, but the white ones have data rate of 7-8mb, and at least 1 had a rate of 18kbs…
I plan to do some more experimentation when I get the time, and in the end, I guess I can convert all these clips using another program, but the sudden change is mystifying and certainly adds to the workload.
Apple System
System – Mac Pro
OS – OS X Version 10.5.7
FCP – 6.0.6
DivX – 6.0