Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Help!!! Upgrading to iTunes 10.5 has destroyed all video in Final Cut Pro

After upgrading to iTunes 10.5 all of the video on my external hard drive was shot with a Canon XL-H1 and captured on a Focus Enhancements FS-CF. The files are HDV quicktime movies with the MPEG 2, Linear Timecode codec.


Movie files that are already imported into Final Cut Pro 7 appear as white screens and will not play. Final Cut crashes when I try to re-import them.


When I try to open them with Quicktime 7 I get a message saying "An invalid public movie atom was found in the movie." Quicktime X won't open them either. However, VLC plays them just fine.


I've looked in the codecs folder for Quicktime and the HDV codec is present for playback.


I'm experiencing the same issue on two systems: a brand new 27" iMac and a 17" MacBook Pro. Both are running Snow Leopard.


I was on the phone with Apple for over 4 hours. Ultimately they blamed my camera and hung up.


Dear God, someone please help!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 14, 2011 4:49 AM

Reply
28 replies

Oct 14, 2011 7:53 AM in response to brettcam

I recently had an issue where every video I opened from Final Cut Server opened in iTunes rather than Quicktime. I did not change anything but maybe iTunes did. I never solved the problem because it was only mildly annoying at the time.


Maybe Apple has decided that all of your stored movies should play through iTiunes rather than QT and that changed the file path. There must be a preference setting in either iTunes or OT that may have changed. But I can't imagine you would be the only one with that problem. If you click on a clip does it open in QT or iTunes? It is odd because all of the FCS clips that I opened are now in iTunes.


Just a thought.

Oct 14, 2011 11:06 AM in response to Robert Tompkins

Although I doubt this is the cause of Brettcam's problem, I am dying to say that iTunes is the Hitler of Apple software; it wants to own and control everything, tell you nothing and generally make things as difficult as possible if you want to do things it doesn't.


You can change the "Open with" application for any object by doing a "Get Info" on it and changing the app in the drop-down menu. Be prepared for a threatening message from iTunes that you'll be all alone in this cruel world if you go contrary to what iTunes wants... Kinda makes you want to b!tch-slap its cheesy little interface.


and oh, I'm still on iTunes 6... đź‘ż

Oct 17, 2011 6:54 PM in response to brettcam

Dear BrettCam,


The same exact thing has happened to me after upgrading to iTunes 10.5! I was working on a huge editing project, when suddenly I could no longer work with my HDV/MPEG 2 footage!! It really freaked me out at first, but none of the files on 3 seperate drives would open in Quicktime Pro 7, or Quicktime X.


I took my footage over to a friends house and the same thing happned there. He had already upgraded to iTunes 10.5, and I would get the same message, "An invalid public movie atom was found in the movie." Later I took the drive with the footage on it to my mom's house, (she is slow to upgrade anything) and everything worked just fine with an earlier version of iTunes.


I've noticed that only the HDV footage seems to be affected, I have no trouble opening the other movie types. I tried reinstalling quicktime 7, and I coppied fresh codecs from other computers to no avail! I have no idea what iTunes 10.5 did to my quicktime to make it so disfuntional. I did managae to get quicktime X to open the HDV footage after reinstalling the HDV codec into the quicktime folder inside the Library, but of course I can't do anything useful with it in there.


a possible work around is to take my footage to my mom's unaffected computer, install quicktime Pro on her machine and then export the HDV files into ProRes files. then I believe things will work fine again!!


But still looking for a way to get my computer to work with HDV files again!!

Oct 18, 2011 7:26 AM in response to brettcam

We are having the exact same problem as BrettCam. We are totally screwed. Is there no solution? Has Apple not addressed this? I too was on the phone with Apple and they blamed my camera. They said I should use MPEG Streamclip to convert the video to ProRes 422...but MPEG Streamclip will not open my video file either. I don't know what else to do. We have been shutdown for two days now and I need a solution.

Oct 18, 2011 10:02 AM in response to brettcam

I emailed Focus Enhancements, the manufacturers of the FS-CF flash drive I use to recorde footage from my camera. They're aware of the problem. Here's the email I received:




Currently, there is an issue with Final Cut Pro X, Mac OSX Lion 10.7, the latest version of the Quicktime player (7.7 or any 10.0version and up) and our Quicktime HDV files. We have been working with Apple ona fix for this issue, however, I do not know when the fix will be available.The only workaround we know of at this time is to record in the .m2t fileformat and convert the footage to .mov (Quicktime).


If you are not running Lion and you have Final Cut Pro 6or 7, you may be able to downgrade your Quicktime player so your files willwork. Some of our customers have had success with downgrading their Quicktimeplayer by following the steps listed here: http://www.digitalrebellion.com/blog/posts/using_pacifist_to_downgrade_quicktime .html


If you cannot downgrade using Pacifist, you may need tocontact Apple for further assistance.




I tried the Pacifist route. It didn't work. And in my opinion, recording in .m2t and converting to .mov is a time consuming option, especially if you're on deadline. I'm going to dual boot my machines with Leopard and not upgrade iTunes.


iSkysoft's video converter is the only converter I've found so far that will convert my hdv files. But it pillarboxes the converted video and throws the audio 14 frames out of sync; issues that can be fixed in editing but then everything has to be re-rendered.


As far as Focus Enhancements working with Apple on a fix: don't hold your breath.

Oct 18, 2011 10:39 AM in response to brettcam

I talked with Apple again today and they basically said there was a problem with my Final Cut and that I needed to reinstall it. So far, that hasn't helped any. Why are they refusing to accept responsibility for screwing thousands of users and just revert back to what worked? I am using FCP7 and my next step is to totally erase my harddrive and start over installing everything from scratch and not upgrading to iTunes 10.5 or the new version of QuickTime. Instead of forcing me to FCPX, they are forcing me to Adobe Premiere. Don't mess with something that is working! Why are you refusing to fix this Apple?

Oct 18, 2011 10:55 AM in response to charles1116

Well , I don't think you need to be so drastic...


Last time I checked, you could still download QTPro 7...

In regards to iTunes 10.5... first just try reinstalling your FCS programs. But first use FCS remover from Digital rebellion (it's free). Install only the programs, not all of the extras (templates, audio files, etc) and verify it works.


If you must delete iTunes, you could use "AppDelete" to delete all of the files relating to iTunes, then re-install iTunes from your install disks....

Oct 18, 2011 11:31 AM in response to Christina Rodriguez

I have downgraded to iTunes 10.3, I currently have QT 7.6.6 and QT10 on my system, I have reinstalled my OS to 10.6.8 and I am currently reinstalling FCP7 as per the Apple support instructions. This is day two of wasted time. My next course of action is to erase my harddrive and start over, not that it will fix anything but I cannot do this for a third day. People are yelling at me and it's not my fault. I have been an loyal Apple and FCP user for many years, but I am very disappointed at their lack of action to address this. They have basically told me twice "Sorry, there is nothing we can do." That's BS and that attitude is a good way to lose customers.

Oct 18, 2011 12:24 PM in response to charles1116

I HAVE A FIX...AND IT WORKS!!!!!!!!! Actually a friend found this fix somewhere else, but I just did it and it worked. The only rub is you need to have access to another system that has not been updated to iTunes 10.5 or QT 7.7.


On the system that has not been updated, go to:


MAC HD/System/Library/Components and copy that folder to an external drive...next go to


MAC HD/System/Library/QuickTime and copy that folder to an external drive.


On the system that is not working, go to the same places on the MAC HD and delete those two folders. Then copy the folders from your external drive to the same location. Restart you system...i did it twice...and everything should be back to normal. This has worked on both systems here that were previously jacked up. If you do not have access to a system that was not messed up, let me know and maybe we can swap files.

Help!!! Upgrading to iTunes 10.5 has destroyed all video in Final Cut Pro

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.