Firestore FS-5 video with Final Cut X

It's worse than that. It looks like FCPX was delivered with a bunch of new codecs (or perhaps they were downloaded via System Update subsequently) that broke HDV recorded on the Firestore. I have a bunch of .mov files on my system now that can't be used anymore; they don't preview, play in the QuickTime player, open in the current OR PREVIOUS version of FCP.

I called Focus Enhancements to ask them for advice; according to them, I'm the first person to report this problem. You might want to call them (650-230-2400 x429) to ask about it too, though I suspect in a few days they'll figure out something is up.

Phil

I have the same setup you do (original poster) and have encountered the same incompatibility issue. I will call Focus Enhancements and see what they have to say day three, but I'm wondering if appeals to Apple might be more the right course, since they could, conceivably, fix w/a software update. Please report back here with any new info. So frustrating!!!

A combination of the two approaches is probably best. My prediction: Focus will blame Apple. Apple, if they deign to bless us with any communication whatsoever, will blame Focus. Focus has the most to lose from this problem, so they're probably the ones who will ultimately do the work to get this resolved.

Yes Focus has the most at stake, but how can they fix? It would have to be a FCP X software fix, no? Meantime are there any workarounds? I can play QT files that have been produced from my Focus captured footage, but not the raw footage itself. Maybe opening the rawfootage in QT and saving as something else? Ugh.

Did anyone get a response from Focus? I just discovered this problem today, and am none to happy about it, there's obviously been a ton of changes in FCPX, but I assumed at the very least it could open everything it could have previously.

I just got off the phone with their tech guy who told me they are aware of the problem and that they don't know what to do about it. Suggested I call Apple. 😁

On my MacBook Pro, which just finished downloading FCPX, I opened a Focus acquired file in QT v. 10 and Saved the movie as a Movie. The file opens in FCP X, but the file size is 1/5 smaller, meaning, I guess, that the quality is 1/5 worse, too. I then tried to Save the original file as HD 1080p and there was no converting. I then saved the file as HD 720p and it converted to a much smaller file size. Naked eye comparing within FCPX doesn't give me any meaningful way to choose which is best (at least for the bandaid workaround I'm trying to create until this is fixed properly by those responsible for screwing it up).

I don't have QT 10 on one of my iMacs (which never had FCS installed) and the two QT versions I do have will not open my Focus acquired movies, so no conversion is possible.

Any other wisdom about any of this would be greatly appreciated.

Call Apple - great 😟. I had come to terms with FCP X not being able to open old projects and such, but not being even able to open 100s of gigabytes of media? What a mess.

Yup I just called as well and got the same answer from FireStore. They said they knew of the problem, suggested I call Apple, and also mentioned they are trying to come up with a fix, but have no idea on when (or if) they'd have it working.

I'm on the phone with Apple as we speak - the Pro Apps tech is unsure why the files can't be opened as they are just normal HDV files. But he's checking into it and I'll report back anything I learn.

So I just finished talking with Apple - I talked to two techs and did a bunch of troubleshooting but nothing was successful. They seemed obviously confused as to why the files aren't working, as Quicktime reports them to just be native HDV files (which they are). My guess is in rewriting all of the Quicktime codecs in AVFoundation, they somehow changed the HDV representation unknowingly. I'm trying a FC X reinstall to see if by chance that clears anything up. So - no resolution yet, but this definitely does not appear to be an intentional change by Apple, and hopefully after troubleshooting and keeping in touch with the techs, it can get escalated to engineering to fix.

It'll be nice if it turns out to be something so simple, and so non-malicious, as a code writing error. I don't like to think that Apple would have intentionally created an obstacle like this, but then again....

I just hope that they take it seriously enough to move quickly. Thanks, topher1078, for moving the ball down the field. I'll be interested to hear whether your re-install does anything. (BTW, how do you un-install FCPX?)

Good to hear they acknowledge a problem. I've opened a bug report (#9665582) at bugreporter.apple.com on this issue; hopefully we'll see a fix fairly soon!

Reinstall didn't work - the tech said that just dragging the Final Cut app to the trash is actually the uninstall method now, so that's what I did. That's one big improvement over the cumbersome Terminal commands needed to install the old Final Cut.

I will submit a bug as well.