Importing .mp4 files leads to no playback

Hey everyone, thanks in advance for helping me out.
I recently compressed some large (15GB) .mov files into smaller (500 MB) .mp4 files. Then I moved them into FCP, and now they won't playback at all. I can't play the clips back in the viewer for some reason.
Any advice?

I only tried compressing them to .mp4 with the hopes that smaller files would = quicker rendering.
Why on earth would you think that? This is like saying, I dehydrated my carrots because I thought it would equal quicker eating. Compression (like dehydration) removes mass (and throws away useable stuff). It is designed to pack material in such a way that it is easily transported. But, to use it, the file must be decompressed (rehydrated) into a playable format. This is why all the formats are called CODECS (COmpression/DECompression algorithms).
Some codecs do not screw around much with the material, sort of like simply putting your carrots in the refrigerator. They leave the material in an easily manipulatable format. Other codecs (like mp4) heavily alter the material (more like running the carrot through a juicer). You can play it back easily because the software decoders for playback are efficient, but you can't cook with it. To reconstitute it takes lots of CPU cycles and your computer isn't happy spending CPU cycles on such a mundane task. It wants to do important stuff.
Clear as mud, eh?
x

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Is there any more info that would help you guys? I still cant figure this out.

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Importing .mp4 files leads to no playback

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