Converting .avi files for import to FCPX

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Level 1

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Converting .avi files for import to FCPX

Had some 16 mm movies converted to video by a lab and got back some .avi files. They sent me these files on a hard drive they formatted. My first problem is that FCPX won't recognize the hard drive. To get around that I copied the files over to a drive FCPX does recognnize and tried to import it from there. In both cases FCPX give me this error message:

No Importable Files

None of the selected files or folders can be imported. Change the selection and try again.

I can open the file in Quicktime player.

Would Compressor (which I don't have) convert the files to a format FCPX would read or is there another way around this?

I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

Ed

Posted on Mar 10, 2012 7:13 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Mar 10, 2012 7:43 PM in response to squamish ed

That's unfortunate. Most labs will telecine to QuickTime on a Mac drive.

MPEG Streamclip, which is a free app, will convert your media.

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Answer 2

squamish ed Author

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65 points

Mar 10, 2012 8:00 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks for that Tom. Unfortunately MPEG Streamclip won't recognize the file either. It gave me the option to open anyway which I did but then after spend a couple of minutes converting the file it came back with an error message saying it couldn't find the video or audio files.

Any other suggestions?

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Mar 11, 2012 3:37 AM in response to squamish ed

Any way to get a small file you could upload somewhere to look at it. Any AVI I have opens with Streamclip without problem.

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Answer 4

squamish ed Author

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65 points

Mar 11, 2012 12:43 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I'm still stuck on this one.

Tried to copy a file to a different drive both internal and external. In each case the .avi would play in Quicktime Player but would not open in FCPX or in iMovie '11. The lab guy said to copy the file onto the internal drive and that then it should open - nope.

Trying to upload a short file of about 4 mb to Vimeo now. The upload is going slower & slower (it's around .30 Mb per sec) and the estimated upload time keeps growing. It's now grown in size to 2080 mb (according to the Vimeo upload) and the time is up to 1:44 and growing slowly. This is with a Vimeo+ membership which is usually pretty quick. While typing this question the time remaining has jumped by an hour to 2:39 and counting.

The lab also suggested FCPX might be missing the AVI driver. How can I check that? FCPX help doesn't recognize AVI as a subject.

I'm using a late 2011 MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Core i7, OSX 10.7.3, FCPX 10.0.3

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Answer 5

squamish ed Author

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Mar 11, 2012 1:11 PM in response to squamish ed

Quick update: after 45 minutes of trying to upload the file Vimeo aborted the upload. Something's not right.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Mar 11, 2012 2:21 PM in response to squamish ed

Can you open the AVI in MPEG Streamclip or Compressor? FCP is QuickTime based, not AVI based.

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Answer 7

squamish ed Author

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65 points

Mar 11, 2012 2:42 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks for your suggestions Tom. Out of desparation I tried starting up another older MacBook with Snow Leoparrd and iMovie '11 on it and moved the HD over. It worked first try. So that suggests the new MacBook is possibly hanging up because of Lion since neither iMovie or FCPX will work with these files.

Is it possible to run two operating systems simultaneously on one system? My old one with Snow Leopard doesn't have an acceptable graphics card. The new one runs FCPX under Lion.

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Answer 8

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Mar 11, 2012 2:50 PM in response to squamish ed

If it works in iMovie is really quite irrelevant to FCP. iMovie uses many different formats. Whether a file will open in an application does not mean it will work with it properly.

If you don't have it, can you download Streamclip, it's free, and see if theAVI file will open in that. Only one operating system can run the computer at a time.

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Answer 9

squamish ed Author

Level 1

65 points

Mar 11, 2012 3:01 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Just tried again with MPEG Streamclip. It gives me this error message:

File Open Error. This movie file is not supported.

Then it gives me the option to open anyway. When I select Open Anyway it works for a minute or two and then comes back with:

File open error: can't find video or audio tracks.

iMovie won't open the clip on the computer with Lion which is why I wondered if it was an OS problem.

Didn't think there was a way to run 2 OS at once.

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Answer 10

fox_m

Level 6

13,270 points

Mar 11, 2012 3:14 PM in response to squamish ed

AVI is a media container -- it's like a Windows equivalent to Quicktime -- it can contain almost any kind of media. The most common "best compression" scheme is going to be DivX (or XviD).

If your file will open in Quicktime 7 Pro, you can transcode from QT (to prores) - easily, efficiently, and with as good as you'll get from Compressor. If you owned a license for Final Cut Studio, your "pro" activation for Quicktime 7 was automatic. (However, for the last few OS releases, at least back to Tiger and up to Snow Leopard, you had to manually install QT7 from the install disk > Extras.) You can still buy QT7Pro from the App store ($29).

If your media will NOT open in QT7, try installing Perian (http://perian.org). That will install a bunch of mac friendly windows codecs (and a few linux, i think) so you can play a few dozen different types of video macs won't normally play. It should then open in QT7. (I think the only codec it won't play these days is something defunct, like .vivo) Together (QT7 +Perian) they really are the "swiss army knife" of video.

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Answer 11

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Mar 11, 2012 4:28 PM in response to squamish ed

Really need to know what codec is being used in this AVI media.

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Answer 12

squamish ed Author

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65 points

Mar 12, 2012 6:47 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Got this information from the lab:

THE TECHNICAL: Films will be transferred and saved in AVI (Audio-Video

Interleaved) DV TYPE 1 AVI file (codec = dvsd) at a bit rate of 25.0 Mbps

and a display size of 720x480 in a video format of NTSC

Does anyone know if Compressor will do the job? I suspect it's coming time to dig out my wallet.

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Answer 13

fox_m

Level 6

13,270 points

Mar 12, 2012 10:53 PM in response to squamish ed

The short answer is yes.

Here's the funny thing:

Compressor will handle any and all codecs that Quicktime (7) can...and vice versa. They share the same system resources. If you have a license for FCP7 (or less) and have an install disk for Snow Leopard (or before, back to... Jaguar?) you should have QT7Pro available for free. It's in the Extras folder of the Install disk, and FCP7 authorization automatically activates the license for QT7Pro. (You might even get the System update to 7.6.6 [I believe... there was a special fix for Leopard that had a version of 7.6.7?, but you won't need that for SL or Lion.])

I am not a big fan of Compressor. It's way too easy to make mistakes if you don't know what you're doing... and in compressor, I usually don't. It has a learning curve. It's $49 (QT7Pro is $29)... and every time I try to compress anything down as far as I know how to do in QT7Pro -- I end up with trash... But that's me. If you ever used VisualHub, there was a button for advanced settings: clicking on it brought up a dialog that said > Don't do it, you'll only mess things up. That's compressor for me.

Here's a screenshot of (most of) the export codecs (encoders) I have available in QT7Pro:

There's a few more XDCAM settings... but this is pretty much it. If you add codecs, QTP (as well as Compressor) will be able to handle them. [Some people recommend MPEG Streamclip: I find I can't because I'm pretty sure the transcoding has to non-standard programming so as not to violate Apple's copyrights... so, I don't trust it. However, MPEG Streamclip will also use any and all system installed codecs (with one or two exceptions, in which case you will have to install open source variants -- and I forget which ones they are off the top of my head — notice the x264 variant? Not as good as Apple's H.264.)]

This list does not show all of the decoders I have (like I said before, Perian provides a lot of coverage) but I don't think it matters. DV is a Quicktime "standard" and Perian can read the AVI format, and QT can decode it. About the only thing you have to look out for is if the format is anamorphic (which, if you forget to set the aspect ratio, is easily solved in FCP7... FCPX: not so much, and not in a way that makes anyone "happy".)

My experience with QT7 is it will open just about *anything* and if I can open and play it: I can transcode it to any of the above formats.

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