Final Cut to wmv error

Ok... here's an odd one I can't figure out.... hope someone else has. I have a 1 hour 6 minute DV Self Contained movie that I tried to convert with Window Media Encoder. I would get the "bad codec or bad file error". I have even converted it to a Quicktime .mov without success.

HOWEVER, if I only use a short segment of that same .mov it converts just fine!?????!!! It's driving me crazy that it will do short segments but not the whole file. What could I be missing?

I don't have all of my system specs at the moment. But I'm using WMEncoder via Parallels and usually have great results.

Steve

Try encoding it completely within your Mac OS.

> HOWEVER, if I only use a short segment of that same .mov it converts just fine!

I may be jumping the gun, but it sounds like something farther down in your show is corrupted. You should try other troubleshooting theories as well, but if there's a corruption within your timeline that's causing this issue, then the only way to pinpoint it is by exporting the show in segments until the failure occurs. Then try to recapture or reconvert the bad segment.

I haven't used WMEncoder, but is it possible (as with Flip4Mac) that you downloaded an incomplete version of the software that prevents you from converting the entire show? Some kind of limitation on the length of the source file?


www.derekmok.com

Hi Steve...

Good to hear from you.

I have been amazed at how well Parallels works - I've run all sorts Windows video and audio editing programs without any problems, so far.

However, remember, Parallels creates a "vitural" PC environment - It does an excellent job of simulating a Windows PC within the Mac environment, but there is no way it can create an actual PC. There are bound to be bugs that haven't been found or fixed yet.

Also, there has been a long history of "memory leaks" in Windows Media Encoder - and crashes while attempting to encode long files.

Here's what I would do if I were in your situation.

(1) Try encoding with Flip4Mac, staying in the Mac OS. If you have a problem, troubleshooting will be much easer because you're not attempting to do something unusual. The People at Flip4Mac will want to help you.

(2) Try encoding with an actual PC. (Brand new, from $299 including the OS at Micro Center/Frys.)

(3) Try encoding using BootCamp - This will give you much more memory than using Parallels, and it's much closer to having an actual PC than using Parallels.

(4) If you must use Parallels, make sure you have plenty of Disc available on the Windows Partition, and that you have plenty of Memory available to Parallels. That's most likely your problem - parallels divides up your RAM into MAC and Virtual PC segments.

Good luck,

Travis
VoiceOver Guy and Entertainment Technology Enthusiast
[www.VOTalent.com]

When using Quicktime (DVcodec .mov from FCP), Windows Media Encoder has a 4GB limit so that may well be part of the issue. If you convert to .avi (dv .avi) it might help.

Of course you could use Flip4Mac in Compressor and get far more control than using WME.

Thanks everyone, in the essence of time I ended up giving them a h.264 quicktime and made sure they had quicktime on the machine playing it. It was for a live corporate event in Argentina this morning.

I have, for about 2 years or so, been using Flip4Mac but I've always noticed there being pixelation or lagging in files. (I'm probably doing something wrong) About 2 months ago I started using WMEncoder in both Parallels and Bootcamp and all of the problems with encoding wmv's went away. I like Parallels better because it's easier transferring large files via a shared folder.

Most of the issues that I have had trying to go cross platform usually ended up being "little endian" on the audio side.

With this file, no matter what I exported it to it just would not create a wmv. I tried avi, h.264, and a couple of others making sure it was well under 4 gb. It would just not take the whole file. I will trouble shoot it more on Monday and see if something in the timeline is corrupt.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and I will report further.

Steve