I have many old (2002-2006) home movies that were created/edited/exported to QT and archived as sucj. Most of these (almost all) will only play on QT7, and may soon not be visible at all. I am trying everything to convert these to a compatible platform, but no luck.
Do I need to install an old codec (ex. dvau, DV AUDIO)?
iMac 21.5", macOS 10.14
What codecs are being used? They may just need repackaging. I find Invisor Lite handy for reporting video data. If you have AAC audio and MP4 AVC video you should be okay.
About legacy media in iMovie for macOS
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209029
If you're going to be doing converting I would use Handbrake. You can get a list going and then forget about it overnight.
What codecs are being used? They may just need repackaging. I find Invisor Lite handy for reporting video data. If you have AAC audio and MP4 AVC video you should be okay.
About legacy media in iMovie for macOS
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209029
If you're going to be doing converting I would use Handbrake. You can get a list going and then forget about it overnight.
I converted my iMovie .dv clips with the following MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b8 (the last version) preset as a base. I'd recommend doing the same unless you have good reason to use other settings.
MPEG Streamclip > File > Export to MPEG-4... > iTunes... > Apple TV 4:3 (SD) (or Apple TV 16:9 (SD) if you have widescreen project -- I guess you didn't have HD projects?).
Then choose "Deinterlace Video" (if you are 100% sure that there are NO interlaced clips, you might leave that setting off and deselect "Interlaced Scaling". But usually some clips are interlaced and you want to deinterlace them because otherwise you get awful "comb lines" with moving objects on a computer monitor).
I have found that preset's 5 Mbps Data Rate a good compromise between quality and file size (I recently did a test and higher bitrates only bloated the file size with practically no gain in quality).
Then just click "Make MP4". The output is H.264 with the original frame rate and audio sampling (48 kHz audio recommended although some iMovie versions erroneously set it to 32 kHz).
MPEG Streamclip has also an option for batch (List > Batch List) if you have many small files that can have the same settings.
Thanks so much for your reply.
I have been trying to read online and have already tried a few things: Handbrake, Uniconverter/Wondershare, VLC, etc. None of them recognize my finished movies. They will convert only clips (from the media file) but not the edited movies.
I have literally thousands of clips, photos and songs edited into the (many) final movies I have archived. When I try to convert one of the finished movies, it is either not recognized or the error states that the software does not support the codec dvau, which I surmise is DV Audio.
I made these movies in the early 2000s with iMovie. I thought I was doing standard exporting to QT movies to be archived.
They still play on QT7 but nothing else, and soon that will also be going away. I fear I will lose the ability to view them at all (or share them of course).
I can try Invisor Lite, but I suspect it will be the same problem. These QT movies are much smaller than the 1 or 2 that WILL play on the new QT and are uploadable to YouTube (~2Gb vs. ~400KB), making me think I somehow exported them differently way back when. Anyway, each one has 3 files that I kept together: the movie file, the media file, and a text file (and sometimes also a dvdproj file).
Thanks in advance for any insight!
Invisor does not convert, it looks iside media files and reports what it can about components.
Boy, it has been years since I last used Quicktime. I remember something about reference vs. complete videos. Do these actually contain the full data set?
What codecs are the movies using?
I had all my iMovie DV projects exported as video-DVDs via iDVD (i.e. MPEG2 codec). But in addition I archived them to DV tapes to preserve original quality. And in addition to that, I also exported them as max 9 minute 28 sec =2GB .dv files (i.e. DV codec) so original quality was also preserved (minus some occasional ~5 dropped frames/hour that I tried to minimize by capturing twice and saving the occasional longer clip).
Now, video-DVDs are lossy and clumsy and also DV tapes are going to the history's dustbin... So those archived .dv files are now most important (although QuickTime Player X has trouble with even them...). So a few years back I exported all those .dv files via MPEG Streamclip as deinterlaced .mp4 files (AppleTV SD 4:3 as a preset). A little quality was lost but not much and I still have original quality .dv files if I want to re-edit something (I prefer iMovie 6 for this although I now use FCP for other videos).
I did the same export to .mp4 for all old digital camera and mobile phone files with various obsolete codecs that refuse to export or play in iOS 12's Photos (I rotated some clips 90 degrees while doing that).
MPEG Streamclip can also export .mp4 from video-DVDs if the MPEG2 Playback component is purchased from Apple. There are also other tools but I think MPEG Streamclip is the best (sadly it is no longer updated).
...sadly macOS Catalina will finally break both MPEG Streamclip and QuickTime Player 7 Pro...
" I remember something about reference vs. complete videos. Do these actually contain the full data set?"
I think not. I think I may have reference videos that are still playing. Somehow the media is in a separate place (see pic above), and that is why the edited movies are so small in size. Maybe they were compressed in QT or maybe they reference the media files through QT?
I am not sure how it is working but I clearly did not do a good job "exporting" these in a meaningful way. :(
It is possible that I could still export them properly through QT Pro, but they don't sell it anymore, and so I have not been able to get my hands on a copy.
Wow. You obviously did all the right things. I must admit, I spent all my time on the "artistic" side of making all of these home movies and not the technical components. And I am paying the price.
I can try MPEG Streamclip this weekend, but I am not optimistic. It seems like I have reference videos that don't contain all of the data, and I feel like only QT can use this particular codec (which I think is "dvau" based on error messages I get from converters).
I can definitely do what you did and go back to the individual media files and convert them separately to mp4 (I have done this for some random clips that were never incorporated into an iMovie). But I have 100s (maybe 1000s) of man-hours in editing of my movies, and it would be totally time-prohibitive to try to recreate re-create them with compatible media.
I think you nailed it on the head when you mentioned QT 7 Pro. Although it will not work much longer, it should still operate on Mojave. I feel like it is my only way out, since it would allow me to still export them properly...
but of course, it is no longer available.
Is anyone aware of places to buy "obsolete" software/apps?
Thanks for your advice!
I suspect when Apple (and everybody else) transitioned from optical drives for software to download only, it likely killed off a good part of the used software market. How would somebody sell you their copy of something when it would require you use their Apple ID with all their other software associated with it to transfer it to you? Kind of unfair but since when did that word enter into a corporate lexicon?
iMovie made a reference .mov from its project and you could use that as an input for MPEG Streamclip if you wanted to export it that way. But that needed the original .dv clips inside iMovie Media folder.
I guess QuickTime Pro 7 licences are no longer sold? But MPEG Streamclip still limps along even in Mojave. I had to set "use low resolution" or something like that in its Get Info to get rid of display artifacts. But despite that it still seems to work in Mojave. I don't know whether the MPEG2 playback component needed for video-DVDs works in Mojave.
I still have a 2004 PowerBook G4 running OS X 10.3-10.5 and 2009 Mac mini running OS X 10.6-10.11 if I need to run old software (I also have 1998 PowerMac 8600/200 running Mac OS 8-9 or OS X 10.1-10.2 and 1988 Mac Plus running System 1-7. And a lot of old DD and HD floppies and CDs and DVDs full of old software, just in case...).
What does MPEG Streamclip's or QT Player's info say for the offending clips' codec?
Oh sorry, I didn't read the start of the thread carefully enough (I haven't had to deal with dvau codec although I remember DV, DV25, DVCPRO etc. ...oh and "archived as sucj" got me disoriented even more about obscure codecs and now I realized it should obviously read as "archived as such").
...but yes, those folders do look like iMovie project folders (later iMovie versions had them in packages you could open via ctrl-click -- also MPEG Streamclip could drill inside the package to the reference.mov via its File/open menu option).
I guess if QT Player can open the reference.mov that should contain the edited project, also MPEG Streamclip should be able to open and export it as .mp4 (I haven't tested whether this works in Mojave like it did in old systems). So QT Player Pro might not be needed.
p.s. Archiving iMovie projects on non-HFS volumes (don't know about AFS) corrupts them so be careful where you store them.
Sorry for delay in response (was on vacation). I am VERY happy and I thank you all so much!
After 9 attempts with 9 different converters that did not recognize my finished iMovies (exported to QT), I was finally able to convert one last night using MPEG-Streamclip. And it was free! :)
I created an MP4 and was able to both play it with the newer QT and upload it to YouTube and the cloud for safe keeping. :)
Such a relief!
There were a lot of choices as to what I would convert it to. Are there any other things I should know when I convert the rest of my movies? Should I keep another copy in another format such as AVI or the newer version of QT??
Thank you all again so much!
Here is the menu of my choices from MPEG Streamclip (above). I also have a lot of choices for quality....
Thanks!
What does MPEG Streamclip's or QT Player's info say for the offending clips' codec?
That's the information I have been trying to get with the use of Invisor Lite since the first reply. :-/
It's working. Thank you so much. I feel very grateful. :)
Help with old DV MOVs (QT) that need to be converted
