Final cut movie file dependency?

I'm hoping someone can explain to me how exactly "final cut express movie files" work. I've read that they're just .mov files, and I know that if I change what program they're set to open with they show up as "quicktime movie files" instead; what's confusing me though is that I thought they were independent of the project file, render files, etc but when I transferred several to another computer (having created them by exporting to quicktime in FCE), now only one of them will play (in quicktime - this computer doesnt have FCE). On one computer I've tried, quicktime just hangs, and on another, the file opens but it's only audio. Now one of them won't even play on the computer it was created on. I also have an iDVD project that references one of these movies, and opening that project file I get an error that it's searching for a referenced file - NOT the final cut movie file itselef, but apperenetly something that file is referencing (I'm not on that computer now so can't give the exact message but it's something with "Seq-1" in it as I recall). I may have also gotten that error opening one of the movies in quicktime, I can't remember anymore...
But it really seems these final cut movie files are referencing something - is that how it's supposed to be?? I have some I've made from previous projects that work just fine totally independently (I've deleted everything else from those projects). Any idea what's going on this time?
I'm using both FCE HD and FCE version 1 - the only movie that seems to be working independently was exported from version 1, but the others were from HD. Sorry I don't have more details about the errors, I'll try to post more later when I'm at home.
Thanks in advance!
Claire

Claire W wrote: - so is this file not a regular .mov file then? Or are you saying that's the case with all .mov files?
It is a regular .mov file. It's just that it is dependent on its Project and its Render files
and also, just purely out of curiosity, what would have happened to that render file that's missing on the computer the movie was edited on? I haven't deleted any render files, did it somehow just disappear?? Thanks!
I have found that Render Files seem to get lost. Whether they are deleted in some way or it's just that FCE can't find them, I don't know.
As far as opening the FCE Project is concerned, you can easily re-render to replace any missing Render Files, but I don't like Reference QT Movies (the Dependent ones) - see my recent post at:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1497598&tstart=0

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Hello guys,
lately, I am having problems with my videos exported as Final Cut Movie.
They work fine on my own machine, but they don't play on my friend's computers, even on brand new iMac with QuickTime 7 installed.
QT refuses to open the file. File's icon on their desktop does not show QT logo, but when I right click for file info, it says: File type - Quick Time Movie
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I have created this file by exporting it from Final Cut timeline using: Export as Quick Time Movie. So the file was created by Final Cut.
Yes, it was created by FCP so it will have an FCP icon. But you can change the default opening application to QuickTime Player in the Finder's 'Get Info' window.
But even then, as David S. has stated, that says nothing about the codec used to make the file.
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In any event, exporting a QuickTime Movie by the above method will create an identical copy of what you have in the Sequence. But it won't play on any other system without the proper codec installed on that system.
Is it true QT file, compatible with QT players worldwide?
This is a misunderstanding of what a QuickTime file actually is. The ubiquitous QuickTime Movie (.mov) is merely a container and the audio and video streams contained within could have been made from any number of codecs. The same is true on the Windows side of things with the .AVI file type. Unless the codec used to create the file is installed on the viewing system, the file will not play.
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Not sure if this matters, but when I exported my Quicktime movie from Final Cut I did not make the movie "self-contained."
That may well be one of the problems. If you do a search on the FCP board, you'll find that most experienced users recommend exporting as self-contained.
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Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

Final Cut Express files?

Can Final Cut Express 4 open Final Cut pro files?
Can Final Cut Pro open Final Cut Express 4 files?
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1. no
2. perhaps
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Final cut movie file dependency?

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