MP4 out of Memory Issues... Will developers ever get with the program?

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/

MtD

Have you tried editing these with FCP X? That's the latest version of FCP.

Why haven't developers been able to deal with this? Well, because MP4s are NOT EDITING CODECS. They are DELIVERY codecs. Final ways to view your finished product. They are highly compressed in ways that don't easily lend themselves to be edited frame accurately. That format was never intended to be edited. That's not why it was designed.

>Many Clients do not have the original video files and it is worth a lot of money to them to have the mp4 videos edited.

Why don't they? They existed at some point. Perhaps because they hired people to produce content for them, and they were given the finals, but now want to edit them or make them into something else, but don't want to go back to the original place because they are too expensive, so they go "hey, I have these compressed files, they are easy to edit, right? I'll just get someone else to edit these, cheaper. Video is video after all." And they are wrong. Video isn't video, and they aren't easy to edit.

Try MPEG STREAMCLIP for converting. If you have, and it didn't work....well, don't know what to say. Other than to rant at the clients, not the designers of the codecs. Video codecs are designed for specific uses. Some are designed for editing, some are only for delivery. Some of the delivery codecs have security built in so that you cannot convert them into editable codecs. In that case, the engineers did their jobs well.

Shane is spot on; all video is not equal and as you've discovered, there are several variations of MPEG-4 video so even all MP4 video isn't equal. With each codec that's developed, manufacturers find a ways to modify that codec to their specific needs and advantage, thus creating a vast myriad of standards. A big part of any professional editor's responsibilities these days is to at least understand that there are differences in video formats, how those differences affect their job in editing and how to convert/transcode formats/codecs to obtain the optimum workflow while maintaining the best quality.

-DH

Standards are wonderful and there are so many to choose from.

http://xkcd.com/927/

-DH

"Hack" really isn't the right term. "Magician" or "Alchemist" might be more appropriate.

Clients seldom know anything about video other than that they know they can watch it on TV, handheld device or computer. And thankfully so; that's why they hire us.

-DH

You might try downloading and installing perian

http://perian.org/

Perian will add compatibility for a variety of video formats. Even if you get the files to load into fcp, I wouldn't work with them in fcp. Convert before using. They may work for a while and then cause enormous frustration.