Final Cut Pro Suddenly Hates FRAPS AVIs

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Level 1

135 points

Final Cut Pro Suddenly Hates FRAPS AVIs

Hey people I was wondering if you could help me. I post gameplay videos to YouTube (Example) that I capture with FRAPS on a Windows 7 machine (24 fps, 1280x720) and then send via crossover cable to my mid 2007 intel core 2 duo iMac for editing in Final Cut Pro 7.0.3. I have been doing this for weeks with no problem. Today however I go to edit the video and the AVIs only play sound in quicktime (no video) and when I load up Final Cut it gives me this beautiful image when trying to play the files in the timeline:

So I was wondering:

A. Have you run into this problem? How did you solve it? Do you think you know how to solve this problem?

or

B. How can I convert FRAPS AVIs into a video format that Final Cut can work with better, for example .mov files. (I've tried a few things but nothing has worked so far)

Thanks in advance for the help!

Here are a few more things that might help:

I had Perian and the free version of Flip4Mac installed at the time this occurred (and every time I've edited) I just took them off now to try and see if reinstalling them made a difference.

I took a break from posting videos (for the past 2 weeks) and installed the new Snow leopard security update and other updates in that time period.

Here are the sequence settings I used in previous episodes to make the video work that now do not work for some reason:

I actually posted my complete workflow on YouTube (when it was working) and it can be found HERE. The only difference is that 4 weeks ago I started using the sequence settings above as they also worked and fit my video size more accurately.

PS: here are the settings I've tried in Media Converter (I've tried some others as well)

All I get for my efforts is this error message:

If you have any other questions that might help you in helping me feel free to ask! Once again thanks!

iMac (mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on May 4, 2011 4:21 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Michael Grenadier

Level 7

20,374 points

May 5, 2011 8:32 AM in response to CWGuide

First, ALWAYS create a bootable clone of your startup drive using a utility like carbon copy cloner before doing any updates so you can quickly return your system to it's working state if things go south.

AVI's are not and have never been a suitable format for editing in finalcutpro. You may be able to convert them to a fcp friendly format in compressor. Look at the formats available in the fcp easy setups to see what's suitable.

It's not clear to me whether you did the reinstall of perian and flip4mac yet. This may very well make a difference.

You might also try creating a new user account and reinstalling them in that acount.

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Answer 2

CWGuide Author

Level 1

135 points

May 5, 2011 11:09 AM in response to Michael Grenadier

Thank you for your reply! I actually just figured out what happened. After doing some research on Perian I found out that the recent update was what was breaking the videos! So I rolled back to the previous version (1.2.1) and now everything seems to be working again! Hopefully Perian fixes this in 1.2.3.

For anyone who might have the same problem here is what I did to uninstall the new version and replace it with the old one:

1. Go to the Perian system preferences pane

2. Click remove

3. Download and open an app AppCleaner. This will completely remove Perian

4. In AppCleaner click "Others"

5. Click the magnifying glass icon and search "Perian"

6. Check off the result and click "Search"

7. This should rotate the app and show two or so files. In the bottom right corner of this screen click "Delete"

8. Download the old version of Perian from: www.downloadtyphoon.com/perian/downloadaffaovih

9. Install by following the instructions

10. Start using Perian! (but make sure to click the "Skip version" option when the update box pops up

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