QT plays an MP4, FCP gives me errors and a white frame... What?

I just got a reference quicktime from my client, who hacked something together in iMovie or some other 'i don't know what' kind of program.

The file is a 320x240 mp4, and plays just fine in quicktime.

When I bring it into Final Cut, I get a "general memory/out of memory" bunch of errors, and it won't play back.

When I try and export it out of quicktime and convert it to a better format, I get nothing but a white frame. Quicktime won't play the converted movie, FCP won't either.

What's going on here? Why does final cut not like this quicktime that Quicktime itself likes? And why the white frame of doom when I try to re-compress it?

Open it in QuickTime Player and press APPLE-I. List the information there.


www.derekmok.com

Oh yeah! I got Derek Mok on the case. Next stop, solutionville!

From the quicktime inspector:

source: /Volumes/Lions/Aug28 Final Copy Cosby.mp4

format: AAC, Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHz
AVC Coding, 320 x 240, Millions

FPS: 29.97

Data size 10.98 MB

data rate: 127.88 kbits/s

normal size: 320x240 pixels

***

Yes, Lions up there is a tribute to my long suffering NFC North hometown team, and no I'm not willing to concede that naming my drive after one of the NFL's perpetual losers has brought woe upon me.

Here's what I've been trying, and have possibly achieved success with this... I took the quicktime, exported it as an image sequence, deleted the first 10 frames from the folder, then re-imported it as an image sequence, sans those opening frames.

Why? Near as I could tell, whenever I exported the file out of quicktime into a new format, the first few frames played as solid white, but the rest of the frames seemed to be intact.... Only difference is that with those white frames, the piece wouldn't play.

So now the re-constituted quicktime will import into FCP and play, which is a huge help. Now I just have to deal with frame drift over 12 minutes of video. That's tough, but not insurmountable as I have accurate audio and it's a slow moving piece that my client wants touchups on anyway.

Still, the curiousity has the better of me. How does the first frames of a quicktime glitch in FCP? Or cause ruinous conversions?

Thanks for the help, Derek!

Jeff

My hunch is that you have a Quicktime plug-in that plays back the format OK - maybe Flip 4 Mac which plays back the MPEG4 but exporting and FCP doesn't work. I don't know why you can't export it though if you can play it back you should be able to export it out of QT.

AVC is 'Advanced Video Coding', better known as H.264, if that helps.

Try running MPEG Streamclip on it and go to a more editing-friendly codec. You shouldn't be trying to edit an MPEG-4, anyway.


www.derekmok.com

I think you might be right with the Flip4Mac plug-in... I think I installed that a long while back.

Not sure what MPEG Streamclip is - does it just convert files?

In any case, that image sequence process worked out. A tedious workaround, and makes me think there's something funky/corrupt in the first couple of frames. When I build a new movie after deleting the first 5 frames of the image sequence, all is fine.

And don't worry, Derek, I'm not trying to edit with this at all! I just need it as a reference to make sure I'm cutting the right picture into the right places.

Thanks for the help!

Jeff

You can get it here:

[www.lafcpug.org]

Mpeg Streamclip converts a whole garden variety of formats. Haha... Maybe technology is catching up with the FAQ. It's now relates more to "I have an xxx .mov file a friend sent me. How do I make it work in FCP?"

You're working with a codec that is designed for delivery- low bitrates, low quality, very compressor intensive to code and decode, temporally compressed with sophisticated algorithms, etc.. You basically need to transcode it to an editing format (eg. DV or Uncompressed). Quicktime Pro can both code and decode mpeg/avc files. Not sure what better format you're converting it to, but as long as it is an editable format, you'll be cool.

Here's a little discussion on it I had with Jeff:

[www.lafcpug.org]



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