Black video clips - help

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Level 1

56 points

Black video clips - help

I've been having more and more problems with black video clips.

Today's issue comes from a Canon video camera I use very regularly. It records with the avc1 codec. I just imported a long file from the Canon. In this screenshot, it is "Clip #7". All frames appear black:

But if I play it in the browser, I hear the audio.

If I right-click on it and choose Reveal In Finder, it does reveal, and it plays fine in QuickTime Player.

In the Inspector, this is what it looks like. All of this looks correct to me:

I tried File > Check Media for Compatibility: it reports no problems.

I tried Analyze and Fix. It doesn't fix the problem.

I could trash then reimport it, but that's time-consuming (I need to get to editing this thing!) and being that this isn't the first time this has happened to me, I really just want to find/understand the cause, and fix it. I'm kinda sick of people telling me to trash my FCPX preferences. If they're that fragile, something is seriously wrong.

Any other tips to get media to work?

N.B. I have imported hundreds of clips from this Canon camera in the past and not had problems -- so it's not an unusual codec or something like that.

Last week I had this exact problem with a different camera (GoPro clone) but assumed the reason was that I quit FCPX right after it was imported, so I had to cancel some analysis tasks, which I didn't know how to restart the next day.

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on May 21, 2019 12:56 PM

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Answer 1

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Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

May 21, 2019 2:24 PM in response to David Das1

Yes, except if you go into the bundle you can remove an individual file, which you can't do from inside the application.
No. You would have to initiate transcode manually. For most projects, working in AVCHD, I think the great majority of users never bother with creating optimized files.
I don't know why it happens. I've not seen it myself, but then I don't optimize often. If you have created ProRes files that's what the application is supposed to be using.
Analysis and fix does a limited range of things. It only auto fixes audio, not video. Analysis isn't a repair tool.
No idea.

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Answer 2

David Das1 Author

Level 1

56 points

May 26, 2019 6:00 PM in response to David Das1

Well, it just happened again, in a completely different library/project. This time, the culprit is a movie I imported from my iPhone XR. (There are several other media clips in this library from other cameras; they all work fine.)

Here's the odd thing: when I used the Import window, I told it to import from my iPhone XR, and I specifically told it to generate optimized and proxy media. Then I left the computer alone all day.

Tonight when I came back to it, the background processes were all finished, but I noticed that clip was all black. (It plays fine in QT Player.) When I looked at the inspector, it tells me optimized and proxy aren't available.

I've now asked it to re-generate them (it'll take a few hours). I checked the folder in the Finder: it's there in the Original Media folder, but doesn't exist in the Transcoded Media folder (either HQ or Proxy).

I guess I'll report back after re-re-generating the proxy files...

But this is getting really annoying. And chronic.

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

May 21, 2019 1:58 PM in response to David Das1

It depends where the files are stored. If they're in the library they're pretty easy to find. Close the application, and right-click on the library in the Finder to select Show Package Contents. In the event folder with the clip will be a file path: Transcoded Media/High Quality Media. The ProRes file will be in there with the same name as the original.

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Answer 4

David Das1 Author

Level 1

56 points

May 21, 2019 2:18 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thank you.

(In the intervening time, not knowing how long a reply might take, I just had to move on, so I trashed Clip #7 and reimported from the camera. It's currently finished importing, IS visible as a normal clip, and is undergoing its analysis. I hope it works this time.)

But I would like to keep your response on hand in case it happens again. All my media is in the library, so yes, it's easy to find. When I look in High Quality Media, I do see files of all my clips. So this is what I should trash if, in the future, I have a problem with a black video.

Small questions and nitpicks:

1) Trashing a file here is the same as using FCPX's File > Delete Generated Event Files, then telling it to remove optimized media, right?

2) Then next time I launch FCPX I'll have to force-re-create them, right?

3) Just wondering why this happens in the first place... (it's happened twice in a week for me, to different cameras each time)

4) Also wondering why the Analyze and Fix command is unable to...you know...FIX.

5) Inside the library, you pointed me to High Quality Media -- but in FCPX the terminology is "optimized media" -- why does FCPX use two different nomenclatures for the same thing?

Bottom line, I hope it's solved, but I bring all these things up to help other users who might come across this thread in the future, and as a note to the FCPX team to help make it better in the future!

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Answer 5

David Das1 Author

Level 1

56 points

May 21, 2019 2:43 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Since I deleted/reimported, I no longer see what I saw when I initially posted, however, I am 99% sure I did not see a warning triangle.

If I had, I would have centered on that as a place to start troubleshooting. I didn't see ANYTHING out of the ordinary -- except for all frames of Clip #7 being black.

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Answer 6

David Das1 Author

Level 1

56 points

May 21, 2019 2:59 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

No, thank YOU. Thank you for your constant presence here patiently answering questions from less experienced users. It's greatly appreciated.

FCPX works well for me in most ways, and then has some odd behaviors that are difficult to google for or work around.

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Answer 7

David Das1 Author

Level 1

56 points

May 26, 2019 11:17 PM in response to David Das1

Update: background tasks finished. I checked the same area as the screenshot in the last post: it briefly flashed with green icons on all three, then reverted to exactly the way the screenshot is above.

I checked the Transcoded Media folder, and there are no HQ or Proxy versions. I also double-checked: there is more than 1TB free on the disk. So it's not a disk space issue.

Why is FCPX showing black video for this file, and why isn't it creating Optimized/Proxy media???

Maddening...

Tomorrow's project: make a copy of the original media, rename it so that there's no chance FCPX will think I'm reimporting something that already exists in the Library, then re-import it, and see what it does.

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