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Issues with file formats in FCPX

J

joeysarks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
122
0
Detroit
So i'm not TOO familiar with FCPX yet, just been using .mov files to make some youtube content. My friend uses an HD-PVR to record gameplay from his Xbox and can't seem to get it working in FCPX, only iMovie. The available formats he can record in are...

.TS
.M2TS
.MP4

Does anybody know why he wouldn't be able to import and edit with FCPX, or what would be the easiest work around to use FCPX for editing one of these formats?
 
F

floh

macrumors 6502
Nov 28, 2011
460
2
Stuttgart, Germany
joeysarks said:
.TS
.M2TS
.MP4
Click to expand...

First of all, very shortly: A video file consists of a stream with a codec (which is the method the video and audio is compressed) and a container (which "contains" the stream and some information like resolution, framerate, ...).

The file endings (.TS, .MP4 or .MOV) only tell us the container format that you use, and nothing about the encoding of the content. The easiest way to find out the codec is to click on a file and press "Command+I" for the information window. This will however only work for containers that Mac OS knows well, for example .MOV or .MP4.

Now, I have two suggestions for your problem:

1. If it really is just about the video container (I thought FCPX could handle .MP4 files, not sure about the others though...), you can try converting the video files with this little tool I wrote into a .mov container and see if FCPX will import this. Out of the choices you wrote, I would definitely go with .MP4 by the way, if all three record the same codec.

2. Try to find out the codec of your friend's videos. If Command+I reveals nothing for the .MP4 file, he can try to open a video file in VLC and press "Command+I". In the window that opens, go to the "Codec Details" section and flip down the stream information. Tell us what the codec is. Although, in my experience, FCPX will be able to deal with a lot of codecs.

I hope this will help a little. I am very surprised though that the .MP4 file wouldn't import into FCPX. Do you get any error message? And what does it say? It's kind of hard to tell with so little information what could be going wrong.
 
M

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
joeysarks said:
So i'm not TOO familiar with FCPX yet, just been using .mov files to make some youtube content. My friend uses an HD-PVR to record gameplay from his Xbox and can't seem to get it working in FCPX, only iMovie. The available formats he can record in are...

.TS
.M2TS
.MP4

Does anybody know why he wouldn't be able to import and edit with FCPX, or what would be the easiest work around to use FCPX for editing one of these formats?
Click to expand...

What HD-PVR is it? Most consumer-priced (read: no more than $300; full 1080p30 RGB / HDMI recorders cost at least $800) Full HD-capable RGB digitizers only record interlaced contents at Full HD. Maybe this is why it uses TS / AVCHD(?) M2TS as output?

It's not even guaranteed to export a H.264 video track. (Only to MP4? Then, it might export ASP only) I bet it's MPEG-2 inside, which FCPX indeed can't read.

What you should do is as follows:

- get the free MediaInfo to see what's inside the videos. It's far better than VLC's Cmd + I as it displays a lot of additional info (interlacing; H.264 level if it's H.264) and far more reliable.

- if it's MPEG-2, use either MPEG Streamclip or Compressor to reencode it to AIC or ProRes 422. They can be directly read by FCPX - and AIC is its own, native format, with which you can avoid reencodes (except for the final export). Let me know if you need help with these two apps - I've written a pretty thorough tutorial on using them to convert MPEG-2 content. I can paste it here.
 
J

joeysarks

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 21, 2011
122
0
Detroit
floh said:
First of all, very shortly: A video file consists of a stream with a codec (which is the method the video and audio is compressed) and a container (which "contains" the stream and some information like resolution, framerate, ...).

The file endings (.TS, .MP4 or .MOV) only tell us the container format that you use, and nothing about the encoding of the content. The easiest way to find out the codec is to click on a file and press "Command+I" for the information window. This will however only work for containers that Mac OS knows well, for example .MOV or .MP4.

Now, I have two suggestions for your problem:

1. If it really is just about the video container (I thought FCPX could handle .MP4 files, not sure about the others though...), you can try converting the video files with this little tool I wrote into a .mov container and see if FCPX will import this. Out of the choices you wrote, I would definitely go with .MP4 by the way, if all three record the same codec.

2. Try to find out the codec of your friend's videos. If Command+I reveals nothing for the .MP4 file, he can try to open a video file in VLC and press "Command+I". In the window that opens, go to the "Codec Details" section and flip down the stream information. Tell us what the codec is. Although, in my experience, FCPX will be able to deal with a lot of codecs.

I hope this will help a little. I am very surprised though that the .MP4 file wouldn't import into FCPX. Do you get any error message? And what does it say? It's kind of hard to tell with so little information what could be going wrong.
Click to expand...

This is the device he uses, the Hauppauge HD-PVR, which seems to only record in H.264 regardless of it being the regular, gaming edition, or gaming edition V2.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
 
Z

Zwhaler

macrumors 604
Jun 10, 2006
7,110
1,605
.mp4 works fine in FCPX. I use that for almost everything that doesn't come from my camera.
 
M

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
joeysarks said:
This is the device he uses, the Hauppauge HD-PVR, which seems to only record in H.264 regardless of it being the regular, gaming edition, or gaming edition V2.
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
Click to expand...

1. Do you try importing the AVCHD videos in their original file structure, starting with "PRIVATE"? It's only in their original structure and intact "index.bdm" that you can import m2ts files to iMovie / FCPX directly, NOT by directly dragging them (or the dir structure). Basically, if you can import some AVCHD clip to iMovie, it should also work with FCPX (and vice versa) - assuming you use exactly the same, original dir structure.


2. strange you can't even import MP4 files. Could you upload some short examples of these MP4 files so that we can test them?
 
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