won't import m4v

Question

Level 1

0 points

won't import m4v

Very frustrating.
I had no trouble at first, now after a few months, the import movie command will not recognize .m4v files -- right on the desktop.
I read a bit and tried using quicktime to re-format, but still no recognition
At wit's end now, a big letdown.
Plus, I am stymied for preparing a presentation for tomorrow morning--looks like it's sunk now.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.3), 13"

Posted on Jun 6, 2010 8:27 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jun 6, 2010 9:34 PM in response to dobrujo

Try renaming the .m4v file to .mov - this worked for me when playing video through my Western Digital Media Player. The WD Player would not allow fast forwarding of .m4v files but when renamed to .mov they played fine. I think this has now been fixed by Western Digital in a recent update to the firmware. iMovie should recognise the .mov file and enable you to import it.

John

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 6, 2010 9:39 PM in response to John Cogdell

Another thought. Import the .m4v file to iPhoto. In iMovie the movie should appear in the Events area under the heading "iPhoto Videos". From here you can drag it into a Project in the usual way.

John

Reply

Answer 3

dobrujo Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 8, 2010 2:42 PM in response to John Cogdell

Dear John,
Thank you this did the trick, and I was able to get the presentation done just in time to run out...to give it!!!
You saved my rear end.
best wishes,
Doug

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 8, 2010 7:47 PM in response to dobrujo

Great to hear you made the deadline Doug! Just to be clear, and for the benefit of other users, which suggestion worked for you? Was it the import to iPhoto trick, or renaming the .m4v file to .mov? I suspect it was iPhoto (hence the star - thanks!).

John

Reply

Answer 5

Aug 18, 2010 1:47 PM in response to John Cogdell

Hi John,
Your suggestion solved my problem as well. Thanks a ton for that. I had created a lot of movies ripping my own home video DVDs as I use Apple TV to stream my content nowadays. I wanted to edit one of them and then realized that I no longer had the original DV files as I deleted them from the hard drive after completing the project. Using your suggestion, I was able to import the .m4v file into iPhoto and then open it up in iMovie.

Reply

Answer 6

Aug 19, 2010 2:54 AM in response to new2appletv

Glad it helped! It's strange that iPhoto will import .m4v files (and other odd file types) which iMovie won't import - but then they show up in iMovie after the import to iPhoto! But, no complaints - we are lucky to have a great program like iMovie '09 - it does most things very well.

John

Reply