General Error upon .mov import

Hi, I'm trying to import a .mov file (~50mb) into final cut 4.0, and when I do (using 'Import...' from the File menu) I get a "General Error" message.
I'm trying to add some titles on the end of it.
Not sure if it's relevant but I'm doing all this without a deck or any external playback.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

IMpossible to tell form we're sitting, sorry, too many possibilities. You could start by telling us where the movie originated. Meantime, search this forum for GENERAL ERROR. We see the topic roughly weekly so one of the dozens of threads might have a suggestion you can use.
bogiesan

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"File error: unknown file" upon movie import

Got a DVD. Extracted the footage with Mac the ripper. Created an mp4 file with Handbrake. It plays fine in Quicktime at 720 by 480 and 23.98 FPS. I've tried importing it into FCP and I get the error, "File error: unknown file". FCP sequence presents are 24 FPS...I've also tried switching it to 23.98 FPS. I've re-encoded the movie in Quicktime to a .mov file with "DV/DVCPRO - NTSC" compression and it still will not import. Any suggestions?

Tried making an AVI in Handbrake. Handbrake just froze everytime and it would never finish.
I should also note that FFMpeg did not like the footage either and would not convert it to a file of any kind.
So I put the DVD into a consumer DVD player and used my Panasonic DVX100B camera to record the footage in VCR mode. The tape turned out fine.
BUT...
I am trying to capture the footage from another low end Canon camera. Usually there is no problem. However, with this particular footage from this cursed DVD, I get a "general error" when I try to capture the footage in FCP.
No matter what file format or media is used, this footage will not import into FCP. It must be watermarked to not like FCP.
Any further suggestions???

General error upon import into fcp

I can import video into my existing timelines with no problem... when i create a new sequence i can drag the clip into the timeline, but I get a general error message and a red screen that reads " display unavailable. close and reopen window to restore." tried closing and reopening a dozen times to no avail.

Is your drive formatted macosextended? Can you edit bars and tone into a new sequence? What happens if you duplicate an existing sequence, select all and delete? Can you then edit into this sequence?
Have you tried deleting your fcp preferences? Get preference manager from www.digitalrebellion.com to do this.
Have you installed or updated any new software or hardware on your system recently?

General Error on opening several projects - even on all of the autosaves!

I am trying to open a project I was working on last week and it gives a general error upon opening. I looked at some of the previous posts about this and tried resetting preferences, opening up autosave versions (which also give the general error), and repairing permissions. I can open many other projects perfectly. Then I found that another project I was working on last week is also giving the same general error and all of its autosave versions are also giving the error. Is the file corrupt, and if so, why all of the autosave versions too? Is there any way to fix this? (I have many work hours of time invested in each project and closing deadlines!)
Thanks in advance,
Nathan

I found a solution! What had happened was I moved my "Music" folder from one hard drive to another and created an alias on the original disk to reference to the new location. What I did was change the name of the aliased folder and now I am able to open the project and reconnect the media to reference the new location directly instead of through the alias. Hurray!

"General Error" when importing QT movie to FCP

I am trying to import a QT movie to FCP to do a slideshow. The slideshow was done originallly on iPhoto and then exported to a QT movie. I then imported the file (the QT movie) to FCP. When I tried to play the movie in the Viewer, I got a "General Error" message. I shut everything down and tried again to no avail. I could move the playhead throughout the Viewer and see the photo at that spot but whenever I tried to play the clip the error message came on. I can export the slideshow to iDVD however, I then have no conrol over the music (I need to shorten a track and try to shorten the gaps between songs). I can't do that in either iPhoto or iDVD. That is the main reason I want to use FCP. I was able to do this a week ago for a different project although I was using a different computer then. My current problem is when I am using my G4, Dual 1 GHz, 2MB L3 cache per processor, 1 GB SDRAM. I'm using FCP 5.1.2.
Any suggestions? This is for a Christmas project!

Jon,
I don't know if I am reading the problem right but ...when you export your video from iPhoto to FCP I am pretty sure you have to change how it opens. When I do this I save my slide show from iPhoto to the desk top then highlite it and "getinfo" to change it to a "open with QT movie" Then when you import it to FCP you can do what you like with compositing re music, titles etc.
Be aware tho that anything you do with that QT while in FCP will take alot of rendering because it is a complete sequence.
Me personally...after you finish ... export it to the desk top again and drag it into iMovie for a clean compression in Mpg 4. The slide show should be cyrstal clear. The pros may have better stuff to add but as an amature this works for me.
I hope this makes sense!
Rob

I get a General Error message when I convert my film to Quicktime Movie.

I've compressed my film down to 24p etc etc. That worked fine. Before I did the compression there were some things I had to reconnect, did that, there was only one that didn't reconnect but the compression worked fine. Then I go to turn the film into a Quicktime Movie, I get to about 60% then I get a General Error message. Anyone have any ideas why thats happening?

Have you tried the compression with cinema tools?
make a quicktime movie of the stuff at 25 that you want to compress at 24 and go to cinema tools. make sure you create a new database at 24fps and try menu clip / comform. notice that cinema tools doesn't duplicate the clip, so it converts the one you are importing, make sure it is a copy of the original at 25

Putting video clips (mov) in to edit work place time line after photos (jpeg) getting error message, the importer reported a generic error. ? please help thanks

premier elements12, putting video clips (mov) in to edit work place time line after photos (jpeg) error message, the importer reported a generic error. ? please help.

TINA54
Thanks for the reply.
Some general comments...
Regarding:
THERE ANY WAY I CAN PUT MULTIPLE RANDUM TRANSITIONS IN TO THE TIME LINE WITH JUST ONE CLICK ? .
There is no transition choice for random transitions across the Premiere Elements 12 workspace Timeline. But, the Elements Organizer 12/Create Menu/Slideshow and its Slideshow Editor does have that random transition choice. So, one possibilitity would be to create your slideshow in Elements Organizer 12 Slideshow Editor and then move the slideshow into Premiere Elements with the Output of Edit with Premiere Elements Editor command.
Pending more details of the slideshow you are creating, I think that you would get your best photo quality and overall results staying with Premiere Elements 12 workspace (1080p) project and the transitions randomized manually.
perhaps applying the default to all (all at the same time),
using Timeline Menu/Apply Default Transition,
and then replacing transitions randomly for the random transition look).
Please let us know if any of that worked for you.
Thanks.
ATR

"general error" importing mP4

Hello,
I have recorded with an ultraHD video flip camera.
I have tried importing other mov files and it worked fine...
(although they were not HD)
This is the info for my files that don't work...
8.6 MB
1280 × 720
H.264, AAC
HD (1-1-1)
00:08
2 audio channels
total bit rate: 8,972
It loads into the browser but as soon as I drag it into the
viewer there is the "General error" and that is all it tells me...
thankyou for listening and I hope you can help.

thankyou!!!
This helped a lot...
I needed to be pointed in the right direction
I ended up using the apple compressor cuz I already had it
but that topic let me know that I needed to convert it into
ProRes... so that's what I did..
thankyouagain!!!

Getting a general error message in FCE when putting .mov file onto timeline

Putting a .mov film onto the timeline above a moving image so we see the mov file playing in a reduced size in the background of whats going on ( a window). Don't know why this is happening but any advice would be appreciated!
We are really stuck so any help would be so appreciated!
thanks.

Its converted to an mpeg4 file but i think it may be the fact it is running at 30fps as oppose to the rest of the project which is 25fps. When I try to put it on the timeline it gives me the general error and then the footage which was on below it on timeline no longer exists. Very strange.

"No Movie in File" & GENERAL ERROR messages

I'm using FCP 6.0.3, QT 7.4.5, Mac OS X 10.4.11
I'm running the OS and FCP from my main internal HD,
The audio files from my second internal drive
The Video Files from an external LaCie FW-800 1.2TB drive
I've been editing this huge project for close to a year now. I was 24hr to completion when this fu&?*&?% problem came up. My job is split into projects each with it's own sequence. I've been working on these sequences regularly without problem. Today I open the 4th project and try to render everything that isn't rendered. When I do, I get this message: "No Movie in File". If I place my playhead over it, some parts show up in the canvas, others don't (I just see the last image that updated on the canvas). If I press play over the un-rendered clip I get "GENERAL ERROR" without any numbers next to the message. All my other projects work fine.
I tried the following:
Repaired my disk permissions
Trashing FCP's user data pref files.
Rebuilding the directory on my audio and video scratch disks
I trashed the render files for that sequence
I tried opening a 1 week old back up copy of the sequence (same)
I created a new project with a new sequence and copying my other sequence's content into it.
Nothing has worked so far. I'm looking at a couple of MONTHS of work if I have to re-create this...

I think this will work to find out if there are any offline clips in your sequence. Select the sequence in the browser, choose reconnect and make sure only "offline" clips are enabled.
A few other possibilities: Are you using any graphic files? If so, if they are cmyk, that's the problem. Are you using any reference (non selfcontained quicktimes?). If so, you may have deleted or moved some of the files that are being referenced.
Oh yeah, one thing to try. Select the sequence in the browser (or make the timeline active) and hit command-zero. Change the codec to animation. Everything will need to be rendered, but will the sequence play now? If so, try changing the codec back to it's original state and pray.
Message was edited by: Michael Grenadier
Message was edited by: Michael Grenadier

Debugging general error on import into FinalCutPro

I'm a developer (new to Apple products) who is working on interoperation with FinalCutPro of quicktime-wrapped clips which are not wrapped by Apple muxers. When I attempt to import the clips to FCP, I frequently see "General Error" with a red preview screen. Occasionally, FCP crashes soon after the import. If the import fails, FCP is unable to import other clips that it's normally able to import (eg, quicktime clips that it has exported) until FCP is shut down and restarted.
I've narrowed the investigation to a single clip, which contains a single h264 video track (fourcc "avc1") with no audio or timecode tracks. The clip I'm using plays ok in mplayer, vlc, quicktime, and quicktime pro, but FCP issues a general error.
The question: are there validation tools on the Mac that will report problems with the wrapping, or logging from FCP that will give more detail on why FCP issues the general error? I'm pursuing the issue now by analyzing an FCP export atom by atom and variable by variable against the clip, and tweaking the clip when it doesn't match the FCP export, but since there are hundreds of details, it's a long hunt.
Thanks for any help ...

The best place to ask developer questions is here:
https://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/pro-apps-dev
Two things to bear in mind:
1. It sounds like you're using FCP 7 or below. These versions do not work well with long-GOP media.
2. For some reason Apple appear to have written (or partially written) their own QuickTime parser in FCP, so in some cases it will not open files that play in QuickTime Player or other apps that use the QT API. For example, I vaguely recall an issue where FCP doesn't parse ImageDescription extensions correctly in certain instances and you have to add whitespace that's not in the spec to get it to work.

Export To Quicktime Movie (Reference or Self Contained) - GENERAL ERROR

Hi -
I recently had to re-install FCS2 due to problems with OSX.
Now, for some reason, when I want to export from FCP to get a QT reference movie, I get a general error message. All other options from FCP export seem to work, but NOT export to Quicktime Movie.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Chris

how so?
we can all do with a dummy's cheat sheet e.g. when making a master monitor the record device, not the computer.
So come on, what'd you do?

General error when trying to export as a QT movie

Everytime I try to export as a .mov from the timeline (FCP 4.1) I get a general error code. I can export as an .avi file, open in QT Pro and then to a .mov file.
I am having the same issue on two different machines, one is a Quicksilver and the other is a Gigabit Ethernet, same OS and version of Final Cut Pro.
Is there any preference I forgot to change, or got changed without my knowledge.
I need a little coaching here I am still new to the complexities of the programs.

I am exporting to my media drive which is the fourth partition of the master HD and is formated OS Extended (journaled).
By master HD do you mean the system drive? The one with your OS and all applications? And I assume that when you say media drive that you also capture to that partition?
Might not be the cause of your problem but that's about the worst setup you can have for capturing and playing media with FCP. The system drive has to run the OS, run the programs, capture and playback footage! That's a lot of work. And partitioning does not help in that respect... still just one physical drive, and some would say that partitioning slows thing down even more since the heads have to jump from partition to partition to perform various tasks.
If I've misread your post I apologize for going on, but if not, you should really consider adding another drive for capture.
rh

"General error" while trying to export my movie.

Hi all, I saw a few threads with this topic but no one seems to have a solution so I thought I would post a new one hoping for a miracle
I have a small movie that I made that I want to export with "using quicktime conversion" option. As soon as I rename the title and choose a destination, I get the "General Error" message that pops up with no number or error code attached to it. I tried saving the file to different hard drives with a lot of space to spare and still won't work. I also did the "render all" option before trying to export my movie. BTW, I'm only at around 11 minutes of movie and my whole project should be about 2 hours...
Also, I chose the correct AVCHD 1920 X 1080 codec since my original data comes from my Canon HF200.
When i was only a few minutes into my project, I did a test film and I managed to export it but had no sound when playing the test movie on my WDTV (that's another problem though) but now it won't even export at all... Any ideas?
Thanks,
Rob

A couple things to try:
1. Decrease the amount of RAM allowed to the application and see if it was a problem with the OS not having enough to function.
2. Basic troubleshooting procedure, trashing preferences and repairing permissions:
http://fcpbook.com/Misc1.html

"General Error" when I export to quicktime movie .mov

I have no idea why all of a sudden FCE4 says "General Error" when I export using quicktime movie... If i use another option like mpeg4 or other it works fine. What could be a problem?
I have lots of memory.

I made the movie self contained and it started but then stops at 10%. This isnt anything complex just a few clips edited together w/ music. I just want to upload to youtube. I have no idea what the deal is!

General Error upon .mov import

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