No Importable Files

Question

Level 1

5 points

No Importable Files

I'm trying to import a video into iMovie, but when I do, I get a dialog that says "No importable files."

The video is a recording of a webinar we hosted (GoToWebinar). GoToWebinar converts the recording to either .MOV or .MP4. I've tried both .MOV and .MP4 formats, and both formats cause the error. The funny thing is I can play both formats in QuickTime Player, so I know the data is there and intact, but I can't get it to iMovie.

I also tried exporting the .MOV format to 1080p and importing that into iMovie too, but no luck.

What next?

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 5, 2015 2:57 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

TheJana

Level 1

10 points

Apr 20, 2015 7:43 AM in response to DaveInFargo

After much research and troubleshooting, GoToMeeting replied with the final answer: We do not support the uploading of recordings to editing software. If you are having issues uploading a recording, unfortunately, we do not have tools or steps to resolve this. It is not a supported feature. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

The no longer plan to support editing of recordings made with their software. So, we are planning to find a new meeting provider.

Reply

Answer 2

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Mar 6, 2015 3:45 AM in response to DaveInFargo

What happens if you drag and drop the video file with the Finder into your iMovie Event pane?

Geoff.

Reply

Answer 3

DaveInFargo Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 6, 2015 4:18 AM in response to GeeD

The same thing happens whether I use the import button or drag-and-drop.

GoToWebinar suggested that I could reconvert the file by requeing the temporary audio and video files. I tried that, and got the same results. Then I tried importing the temporary audio and video files individually, hoping I could sew them together in iMovie, but I got the same result for both files individually too.

Reply

Answer 4

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Mar 6, 2015 8:11 AM in response to DaveInFargo

.mov and .mp4 are containers which can contain video that is encoded in a way that iMovie cannot accept. However, I would expect anything that plays in QuicktimePlayer 10 (the latest version) would be OK. If QuicktimePlayer has to convert first then the converted file should work OK.

If you open the offending video in QuicktimePlayer and select Window - View Movie Inspector what does it report in the inspector window?

Geoff.

Reply

Answer 5

DaveInFargo Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 6, 2015 9:27 AM in response to GeeD

Thanks Geoff,

I'm really not too sure what I'm looking for when I bring up the inspector window, but here are the screen shots.

Here's the one for .mov:

and here's .mp4:

The person that's helping me on this found that the video was created using a proprietary G2M encoder. (G2M = GoToMeeting, I'd suspect.) Perhaps there's some trails there that will help?

Reply

Answer 6

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Mar 6, 2015 9:44 AM in response to DaveInFargo

The frames per second is shown as 1.12 - just over one frame per second!. Normal values are 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50 or 60. Is this a time-lapse series of stills?

Reply

Answer 7

DaveInFargo Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 6, 2015 9:50 AM in response to GeeD

There's not a lot of motion in this video. It's a webinar recording ... basically a lot of powerpoint slide changes with audio on the top.

With what you're saying, and what my coworker is telling me, I think it's starting to make sense to me now. The proprietary codec appears to essentially be grabbing screen shots whenever something changes (powerpoint slides) and redrawing the screen at that time, discarding everything else.

So I'm starting to understand it. Now, how do I fix it? :-)

FWIW, once I hit the roadblockc my coworker (who is MUCH more skilled at this type of things) started playing with it in adobe premiere, so we have a few different paths to (hopefully) resolve this. But I'm still interested in the iMovie fix too, as I will likely bump into this again.

Reply

Answer 8

GeeD

Level 6

9,173 points

Mar 6, 2015 10:01 AM in response to DaveInFargo

So its not really a normal video with a fixed (high) framerate. This is almost certainly the reason for the problem. I did come across this article: http://open-media-community.com/2014/10/06/convert-wmv-for-moviemaker-and-fcp/

which might just conceivably help in finding a solution. I don't think I can help any further.

Best of luck!

Geoff.

Reply

Answer 9

D97axa

Level 1

0 points

Jul 10, 2015 5:11 AM in response to TheJana

Hey TheJana,

I am having exactly the same problem. Curious to know if you found an alternative to GotoWebinar at all?

Or if, miracle of miracles you found a work around?

Reply

Answer 10

kiwi1108

Level 1

4 points

Sep 4, 2015 9:35 AM in response to DaveInFargo

Did you get this to work in Premiere? I tried importing to Premiere and the audio is a different speed then the video (they aren't aligned and if I get the beginning aligned then the end is off). 😟 My screen failed to show for part of the presentation (when I went full screen) and they didn't tell me for quite awhile. I want to edit the click through of the screen that I re-recorded onto the original recording. 😟

Reply

Answer 11

cook8894

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2015 9:19 AM in response to DaveInFargo

I've had this same issue pop up recently so I'm glad I found this discussion thread.

After reading the response from GoTo, I can't tell if they're saying they just can't help since they don't specifically offer support for issues with 3rd party applications or if they're saying they specifically prevent uploading to editing software by how they "package" the recording file. If the former, there may still be a workaround to get the file into iMovie (not that I've found it yet). If the latter, we may be out of luck.

Deeply disappointed with GoTo right now...we record webinars frequently and I like to go in and edit a bit to clean up errors and make it look better before posting to YouTube.

Reply

Answer 12

Mossy392

Level 1

0 points

Oct 1, 2015 1:38 AM in response to DaveInFargo

Has anyone found a solution to this? GoToWebinar say they can't support help with third party solutions, and I can't find anything from iMovie.

Reply