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Import of PAL DV AVI fails

Hello forum,

I have DV AVIs which were captured on a Windows XP PC with the Miro DV500 capture card (with OpenDML option, PAL format, interlaced). When trying to import a given AVI file into Final Cut Pro X 10.0.1 (latest available update) I get an error message:

"No importable media - None of the selected files or folders could be imported. Change your selection and try again"

(I have the german version, so the above is just a rough translation)

I tried also with unchecking all import dialog checkboxes, to no avail. The same import failure happens on an iMac running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard and FCP X 10.0.1 (latest update) and on a MacBook Pro running 10.7.1 Lion with the original FCP X 10.0.

I copied the files onto the Mac harddisk. The size is nothing extraordinary, the smallest file is just about 172 MBytes.

The files import just fine into my Final Cut Express 4.0 version! They also play fine with QuickTime or any other application such as VLC on my Mac.

I found this entry here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3152268?start=0&tstart=0 which talks about (large) MJPEG AVIS from a Pentax K-7 camera. The same workaround described there works with my DV AVI files as well: I open the AVI with Quick Time 7 Player (on my Snow Leopard), "Save as" and then "Save as reference" ("Als Referenz sichern" in my german QT). This produces a very small *.mov file which I then can import into FCP X!

(Unfortunatelly I haven't figured out yet how that works on Lion with QT 10.1, since the "Save as" has gone (bummer!) and the Export doesn't seem to provide a "Save as reference" anymore - unlike the original post claims: "...and save the file as a movie with the media in the same format." - how?)

Anyone else is having trouble importing DV AVIs into FCP X?

Final Cut Pro X-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Sep 26, 2011 2:46 PM

Best reply

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Posted on Sep 26, 2011 2:58 PM

Use MPEG Streamclip or Compressor to convert the media.

View in context

34 replies

Dec 25, 2011 11:01 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Not sure if anyone else has discovered this but it worked for me. I had a full length movie in AVI that I wanted to edit in Final Cut. Compressor was just quitting and the free converters would leave watermarks unless I shelled out some money.

What I just tried worked and I'm editing the movie in Final Cut now:

-Open Quicktime Player

-Under the "file" drop down menu click "open file"

-Search for your AVI footage

-Click "open"

-In Quicktime now, click the "share" drop down menu and click "IMovie."

-Let the conversion happen, this takes a while.

-When it's finished, close Quicktime Player.

-Open Final Cut

-Under the "file" drop down menu, select "import"

-Locate your movie. (user-->Movies-->IMovie Events-->IMovie Dropbox)

-Make sure to decide whether to add the movie to an existing event, or create a new one.

-Click "import" (bottom of window)

-Then, it should show up as a new event in Final Cut

Hopefully this helps!!

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Dec 26, 2011 8:32 AM in response to DirtyStrange

MPEG Stramclip does not leave a watermark and it's free.

This is not a good technqiue, because the QT player does not convert to a good production format.

Dec 26, 2011 10:25 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Fair enough. But this might be a good technique for some people who want to get their project put together in a pinch. Like me! :). And actually, it comes out pretty good!

Dec 26, 2011 6:07 PM in response to DirtyStrange

I just downloaded that MPEG Streamclip and so far it's sweet. A lot of options. Definitly will keep this one around. Good suggestion Tom

till213 Author

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Dec 27, 2011 9:13 AM in response to DirtyStrange

DirtyStrange: well, good for you that you found a working solution.

But before anyone else writes more "Did you try the Foo Tool yet?" kind of postings in this thread let me repeat for the x-th time that YES, "MPEG Streamclip" provides a "working solution" (albeit I'm still hoping for Apple to fix this import bug), and YES, it was already mentioned from the very beginning onwards of this thread!

That solution consists in simply re-SAVING the clip (no conversion involved)!

And off course Tom is absolutely right that converting a clip is the most desperate "solution" you should try, not to say avoid (unless off course your format is officially not supported by FCP X and you have no other option than converting the material). And if you do convert, take a proper tool 😉.

So the status quo - for whoever might stil be interested in this topic - is that Apple has my "bug report", together with a sample AVI, they said "thanks for reporting" without actually confirming whether they could reproduce (I guess that's the way Apple employees are told to do), and no, it is not yet fixed in the latest of greatest 10.0.1 (that I have). At least they said "they have LOTS to do" (so I guess this bug is kind of on the "low prio list"....).

Let's keep our fingers crossed... 🙂

Thanks,

Oliver

Tom Wolsky

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151,058 points

Dec 27, 2011 9:35 AM in response to till213

I don't think you can call it a bug when AVI isn't a supported framework.

How did you send them a sample file?

till213 Author

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Dec 28, 2011 7:08 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Agreed, I just checked the "supported formats" website:

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs/#supported-formats-and-io

and it does not specifically mention AVI as supported container. On the other hand, it also does not explicitly mention MOV or any other video container either.

Only the codecs are mentioned, among them DV, and that is exactly the codec I am dealing with.

But IIRC I saw it in the online handbook (somewhere in FCP X under "Info"...) that it mentioned AVI as supported container (but naturally only a limited codec support therein, such as DV...).

(Furthermore, the fact that it actually does import AVI suggests that there actually is support for that container - even if not "officially admitted" 😉).

I sent my sample AVI via DropBox after they contacted me (following my feedback that I sent via the FCP X menu entry somewhere). Apple first suggested some FTP upload, but at that point the given user's disk quota was already exceeded (guess what: in the aera of "Cloud Computing"(tm)(C) 😉).

But apart from a "We have received your file" and "Thanks for the detailed bug description" I haven't heard anything since (3-4 weeks ago).

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Dec 28, 2011 9:19 AM in response to till213

I don't know what online handbook you're talking about but AVI is not mentioned once in the FCP manual or in any other Final Cut documentation.

AVIs have never worked in any version of FCP without conversion. You could import AVIs into previous versions but they ALWAYS required rendering, were bog slow, and often froze or crashed the application.

FCP has always been purely QuickTime based.

I really don't know why you insist that AVI should work in FCP.

Mar 10, 2012 9:52 AM in response to till213

till213, thanks for publicising this bug with FCPX. I use an old version of Adobe Premiere for my editing, but was thinking of buying FCPX. This thread has given me pause. Has the 10.0.3 update helped at all?

(Tom Wolsky: if Apple advertises that FCPX has "native editing support" for DV files, that should include DV files in AVI wrappers, which are, in my experience, the most common kind of DV files. Period.)

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Mar 10, 2012 10:03 AM in response to sampablokuper

AVI is an old Microsoft Windows format. FCP is made by Apple, runs on a Mac, and is based on AV Foundation and QuickTime. I don't think it's going to support an obsolete Microsoft framework anytime soon.

Mar 10, 2012 10:24 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom, get real. If the Finder's "Quick Look" feature supports those files (and on Snow Leopard, it does), then FCPX shoud easily be able to.

till213 Author

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Mar 10, 2012 10:47 AM in response to sampablokuper

Hi Sampablokuper,

no, unfortunatelly the 10.0.3 update did not fix the update of my particular DV AVI files (as generated by my old but perfectly funtional Pinnacle DV500 capture card). And the latest reply from Apple was "sorry but I don't have any additional information on if/when that would be addressed."

However: if I merely save my given AVI file with MPEG Streamclip into the very same container (AVI) with the very same format (DV), then FCPX does import that file just fine! The file size just being a few KBytes in difference, so really no recompression done (so I suspect it must be some weird AVI "header flag" which upsets the new AV Foundation which FCPX is using).

Off course every other programs such as Final Cut Express, QuickTime (and with it OS X file preview), iMovie, (you name it) does support my original AVI files!

Oh and Tom, really, it is embarassing: please stop spreading FUD here: I also repeated the above statements show for the x-th time that your statements are plain wrong:

a) FCPX does support the AVI container

b) Previous versions of FCP did support AVI

So your statement alone "I don't think it's going to support..." is plain...hmm... meaningless.

Oh and yes, I do expect a professional software to import a wide-spread container, doesn't matter how "unprofessional" that container might be. Because contrary to what you say it is still widely used!

Get used to the fact that there are now more and more Apple users that come from other systems and merely want to get creative and productive, and are demanding and not devotional, as so many other Mac user might be.

till213 Author

Level 1

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Mar 10, 2012 10:52 AM in response to sampablokuper

"If the Finder's "Quick Look" feature supports those files (and on Snow Leopard, it does), then FCPX shoud easily be able to."

Well, just another comment on this one: QuickTime (on both Snow Leopard and Lion) do cope with my DV AVIs just fine.

However Tom is right here when saying that FCPX is now using another media framework called "AV Foundation", whereas the rest of the OS is still relying on QuickTime (file preview, for instance).

So that explains why it works with previous version of Apple products, but not with this latest one.

Off course I agree with the statement in the sense that "FCP X should (at least) support the same formats as previous versions of QuickTime did". And I really think if some Apple engineer would have just taken a day to analyse and fix my video file that I sent in the problem would probably have tracked down rather quickly (after all, it is really not the codec, but some AVI header which is causing trouble).

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Mar 10, 2012 1:32 PM in response to sampablokuper

And you edit in the Finder, and it plays multistreams of video and audio with titles and transitions and transformations and effects. The Finder does all that does it? Get real.

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Mar 10, 2012 1:37 PM in response to till213

Off course every other programs such as Final Cut Express, QuickTime (and with it OS X file preview), iMovie, (you name it) does support my original AVI files!

Express does not support AVI without rendering before doing anything. FCP does not support AVI without rendering. It never has.

You can believe whatever crap you want, and you can spread whatever crap you want, but every professional who has used FCP will tell you that AVI should never be used with that application.

Nobody cares if AVI is widely used, and guess what? Apple cares least of all.

Import of PAL DV AVI fails