Determine codec Legacy status

Question

Determine codec Legacy status

How do I determine if my clips use legacy codecs? The names seem to be different in different places. For example, FCP X 10.4.4 gives me these names for codecs:

'avc1'
GoPro AVC encoder
XAVC Long 422/10 50Mbps

Quicktime Player, lists all as H.264. So does that make them non-Legacy codecs?

Just to get more interesting FCP X lists a codec as XAVC Long 420/8 10Mbps and Quicktime lists it as XAVC Long GOP. Is that the same as what Apple lists as "XAVC (including XAVC-S)"?

Posted on Dec 7, 2018 2:52 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Dec 8, 2018 10:38 AM in response to Rick Llewellyn

The most complete method is to use the MediaInfo application and look at the full metadata list.

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Dec 8, 2018 12:46 AM in response to fox_m

The most comprehensive list I’ve found is this, compiled by developer Chris Hocking. It applies only to codecs used in video and used in a QuickTime wrapper, i.e. TIFF and JPEG 2000 do not apply to stills.

Apple BMP
Apple Cinepak
Apple Component Video - YUV422
Apple Graphics
Apple H.261
Apple Motion JPEG A
Apple Motion JPEG B
Apple None
Apple Pixlet Video
Apple Planar RGB
Apple PNG
Apple TGA
Apple TIFF
Apple Video
H.263
JPEG 2000 Encoder
Sorenson Video 3 Compressor
Sorenson Video Compressor

Also third party codecs installed in QuickTime.

AVID 1:1x
AVID Meridien Compressed Codec
AVID Meridien Uncompressed Codec
AVID DV100 Codec
AVID DNxHR Codec
AVID DNxHD Codec
AVID DV Codec
AVID JPEG 2000 Codec
AVID MPEG2 50mbit Codec
AVID RGBPacked Codec
AVID Packed Codec
RED Digital Cinema REDCODE

Should also include

GoPro CineForm
Sony HDCAM SR

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Answer 3

fox_m

Level 6

13,348 points

Dec 8, 2018 11:19 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thank You! (finally!) It's a rather short list and I don't recognize

more than half of them (not counting AVID and RED which I don't use

anyway). Don't see why Apple couldn't have included it in the release

notes under "Last version to support the following codecs:".

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Answer 4

Dec 8, 2018 11:31 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks Tom. At least now I know what I have got.

The first library I tried this on, all codecs were AVC (h.264) and the audio codecs were all on the good list.

However, I still got the Legacy warning when I opened and converted the library to 10.4.4. When I re-opened the library, I did not get the Legacy warning. ???

Is the Legacy warning a one time occurrence?
Any suggestions of finding the offending codec? I really think I check all the codec types listed in the library.

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Answer 5

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Dec 8, 2018 10:33 AM in response to Rick Llewellyn

Yes.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Dec 8, 2018 11:37 AM in response to Rick Llewellyn

Yes.

No. There may not be any.

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Answer 7

fox_m

Level 6

13,348 points

Dec 7, 2018 9:49 PM in response to Rick Llewellyn

I'm not really answering your question, just putting in my 2¢ worth and providing what little information I have been able to gather about this.

When I first launched FCPX 10.4.4 I was told I had legacy codecs that wouldn't be supported. I was very much annoyed that if FCPX could find and identify that I had clips encoded with legacy codecs that it did not identify the codecs or the clips that would be problematic — which would have been most helpful.

After hunting down as many of these question/answers as I could, so far I've only been able to determine that THE codec that I have in use for ONE of my stock footage clips that will no longer be supported in the future is MotionJPEG — not PhotoJPEG, MotionJPEG (there's a difference, apparently). Everything else, as far as I know, will pass.

If anyone reading this knows of other specific codecs that fall into this legacy category, please chime in and list them here!!

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Answer 8

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Dec 7, 2018 3:29 PM in response to Rick Llewellyn

Yes to all that. avc1 is the H.264 codec using its abbreviation name. Every codec has one.

XAVC is a proprietary format that uses H.264.

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Answer 9

Dec 8, 2018 10:31 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks Tom, but regard to XAVC, is XAVC Long 420/8 10Mbps (which)Quicktime lists it as XAVC Long GOP), is that the same as what Apple lists as "XAVC (including XAVC-S)"?

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Answer 10

Dec 8, 2018 10:36 AM in response to Rick Llewellyn

Is the Info box in the current Quicktime Player a reliable way of determining the video and audio codec types? The differing names used in FCPX's Codec field does not help.

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Answer 11

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,815 points

Dec 8, 2018 10:38 AM in response to Rick Llewellyn

The most complete method is to use the MediaInfo application and look at the full metadata list.

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Determine codec Legacy status

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