I'm trying to reduce background noise in an MP4 video that I downloaded from my security camera. I've selected a portion of the video in the timeline, but all the controls are greyed out. I've looked at other threads but they don't solve this problem.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.5
It might be an incompatible audio codec causing the issue. Open the Mp4 video in QuickTimePlayer and do a Window/Show Movie Inspector. Post a screen shot of the inspector window.
Sometimes the Mp3 audio codec can cause issues and make the equalizer/noise reduction functions not show up. You want the audio codec to be AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).
Make a duplicate of the clip s to preserve your original, and then re-render the duplicate clip to H.264, Mp4/AAC with the free download, Handbrake. Do that even if the codec already is indicated to be Mp4/AAC. Re-rendering often cures the issue.
You can get Handbrake here:
A simple way to do it is to open Handbrake and do a File/Open Source. Navigate to your video and choose it as the source from the resulting screen. Then do File/Start Encoding. Wait a couple of minutes for the conversion to complete. Then save and import the converted clip into iMovie.
-- Rich
It might be an incompatible audio codec causing the issue. Open the Mp4 video in QuickTimePlayer and do a Window/Show Movie Inspector. Post a screen shot of the inspector window.
Sometimes the Mp3 audio codec can cause issues and make the equalizer/noise reduction functions not show up. You want the audio codec to be AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).
Make a duplicate of the clip s to preserve your original, and then re-render the duplicate clip to H.264, Mp4/AAC with the free download, Handbrake. Do that even if the codec already is indicated to be Mp4/AAC. Re-rendering often cures the issue.
You can get Handbrake here:
A simple way to do it is to open Handbrake and do a File/Open Source. Navigate to your video and choose it as the source from the resulting screen. Then do File/Start Encoding. Wait a couple of minutes for the conversion to complete. Then save and import the converted clip into iMovie.
-- Rich
I'm out of ideas at this point. You might want to contact Apple Support and talk with the techs there. They have the capability of remotely accessing your computer that we can't do here. To contact Apple Support click on the Get Support item in the upper right hand corner of this forum's screen. Navigate to a place where you can enter your telephone number. The support people are pretty savvy and may be able to address your issue better than we can do here.
-- Rich
I rerendered it in Handbrake, but the controls are still greyed out and the video quality is worse.
Problems cleaning up audio in iMovie
