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User profile for user: Walter A.
Walter A. Author
User level: Level 1
130 points

"unsupported video format" - Aperture 3

After importing my iPhoto library into Aperture 3, many of my older mpeg video clips appear with an "unsupported video format" image. These same video clips play just fine within iPhoto. To make things worse, Aperture doesn't seem to offer any way to play the files with an external application, nor does it allow me to export or drag & drop the files to my desktop.

I'm hoping and assuming that this is some small glitch that will be corrected soon, but if by some chance it's not, I need to know now before I

1) decide whether to purchase Aperture 3 and
2) delete my old iPhoto library

What are the chances of getting an official answer from Apple before **** freezes over? I don't mean to sound bitter, but after waiting for 2 whole years for an Aperture update I'm more than a bit leery of Apple's level of support for the product.

iMac 27" i5, MacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 11, 2010 5:29 PM

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43 replies
User profile for user: Andrew N
Andrew N
User level: Level 1
93 points

Feb 15, 2010 7:02 AM in response to Larry Cohen1

Here's the work around that I used:

1) Copied the name of the video
2) Control-clicked on the aperture library in the finder and chose Show Package Contents
3) Searched for the video name
4) Open it up in Quicktime 7
5) Save it as the default .mov file
6) Re-import the new movie into aperture, delete the old one.

If you want to make the dates match you have to use a utility such as "A Better Finder Attributes" to alter the creation date as you cannot do this in Aperture.

Not an ideal process I admit. I wonder if it is possible to write an automator action that did it all for you?

No idea why Apple did not chose to support all formats. I thought that quicktime provided the video engine.
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User profile for user: Larry Cohen1
Larry Cohen1
User level: Level 1
63 points

Feb 15, 2010 8:01 AM in response to Andrew N

Thanks, Andrew

I just tried to drag & drop one of the movies that won't play. Aperture won't even allow me to do that! I COULD go through the menu and export it - it was a standard h.264 compressed movie that Aperture won't recognize. Not even an mpeg1 muxed - which it also won't play.

This Aperture is just a little flukey for me! Fortunately, I don't REALLY need it. C'mon Apple - this is very UNLIKE you!! 🙂
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User profile for user: lamont_ancient
lamont_ancient
User level: Level 1
9 points

Feb 15, 2010 2:15 PM in response to Andrew N

Your work around does not work with my problem movies - these are MPEG1 (Muxed) and are still unsupported by Aperture when converted as you suggest.

If Aperture 3 is to be a real replacement or improvement on iPhoto it will need to do ALL that iPhoto does and more.

At the moment iPhoto will play these movie/video files but Aperture 3 will not. Very disappointing.
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User profile for user: Andrew N
Andrew N
User level: Level 1
93 points

Feb 15, 2010 5:31 PM in response to lamont_ancient

Yes, annoying that drag and drop doesn't work with video files either. What does work however is right clicking on the bad video and choosing "Export Master". Then save it to the desktop.

Also I managed to replicate the problem above. Just choosing "Save As" in Quicktime when the movie is MPEG1 (Muxed) still results in an MPEG1 (Muxed) file.

Better to Export the file as a QuickTime movie using the default settings. This then re-encodes the file using h.264 creating a .mov file.

So here are my revised instructions. You need to have Quicktime 7 pro installed.

1) Right click on the bad video and choosing "Export Master". Then save it to the desktop.
2) Open it up in Quicktime 7.
3) Export it as a a QuickTime Movie file with the default settings.
4) Re-import the new movie into aperture, delete the old one.

If you want to make the dates match you have to use a utility such as "A Better Finder Attributes" to alter the creation date prior to re-importing into Aperture as you cannot do this in Aperture itself.

This definitely works.

Great to see movies in Aperture however it would much more sensible if Aperture just played all the video types that quicktime does...
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User profile for user: Walter A.
Walter A. Author
User level: Level 1
130 points

Feb 15, 2010 6:35 PM in response to angelobanjo

"I'm not sure if it's a bug, or they just decided to only support a small number of video formats out of the gate"

The video clips in question play everywhere else - quick view, quicktime player, finder thumbnails, etc. so it makes no sense for them not to be supported in Aperture - at least view only.

I checked and they're MPEG1 Muxed. Yes, they're ancient, but these are important memories from old photo albums. I don't care if I can't edit them in Aperture or embed them in slideshows, but at the very least I gotta be able to see their thumbnails and play them. Otherwise, we're back to square one on the topic of managing my existing image library with Aperture.
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User profile for user: Walter A.
Walter A. Author
User level: Level 1
130 points

Feb 15, 2010 6:45 PM in response to Andrew N

"Here's the work around that I used:"

Thanks, that was really nice of you to provide this workaround. Unfortunately, I have dozens - maybe hundreds of these video clips scattered across hundreds of photo albums. So it would not be very practical to find, convert, edit metadata, and reimport all of these. That's just way too much trouble.


"No idea why Apple did not chose to support all formats. I thought that quicktime provided the video engine. "

I totally understand where this is coming from. Aperture doesn't just organize and play these files. It's letting you edit and embed them in slideshows, hence the higher standard. As I mentioned previously, I totally understand if I can't edit or create slideshows with these older files, but at the bare minimum I need Aperture to display their thumbnails, allow me to play them (external player ok), and allow me to drag and drop to copy them to the desktop or an external drive when desired.

I suspect they thought of this but decided against the inconsistent user experience some might encounter. I care more about keeping all my files together than about the inconsistent experience.

If they wanted to handle this elegantly, Aperture could display an incompatible file notice only when attempting to edit these...
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User profile for user: Andrew N
Andrew N
User level: Level 1
93 points

Feb 15, 2010 7:17 PM in response to Walter A.

Complaining aside, I just made a simple automator application using the "Export movies" function. You can batch convert a whole bunch of incompatible movies using the Quicktime format dropdown.

The problem remains how to adjust the creation date other than one by one. Can someone suggest an applescript to do this?

Other options are:
1) Leave the incompatible videos there and hope that Apple changes their tune with a later release.
2) Remove the videos entirely and watch them in iPhoto instead.
3) Store them outside the Aperture library, and use the "Show in finder" command to play them in directly in the finder.
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User profile for user: F Shippey
F Shippey
User level: Level 7
21,500 points

Feb 15, 2010 7:42 PM in response to lamont_ancient

these are MPEG1 (Muxed) and are still unsupported by Aperture when converted as you suggest.



Sorry, but MPEG1 (Muxed) videos are OLD and aren't even supported in the iApps like iMovie of iDVD; I would be very surprised to see support for such files to ever show up in Aperture.

Use the free MPEG Streamclip to convert them to something else more modern.
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User profile for user: lamont_ancient
lamont_ancient
User level: Level 1
9 points

Feb 16, 2010 4:23 PM in response to Andrew N

1) Right click on the bad video and choosing "Export Master". Then save it to the desktop.
2) Open it up in Quicktime 7.
3) Export it as a a QuickTime Movie file with the default settings.
4) Re-import the new movie into aperture, delete the old one.


Not having QT Pro, I tried this (converting them to h.264 ) using MPEG Streamclip - Aperture 3 can't see the Videos to reimport. Any ideas where I went wrong?
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"unsupported video format" - Aperture 3

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