Organizing Video Files

I have run into some caveats in regard to a JVC Everio video camera.
This camera exports video to the Mac in a .MOD file. I have read VLC can play this type of file (not for me it doesn't). I have also tried re-naming the files to .MPG and .MOV. Neither works. Quicktime attempts to play and tells me "This is not a Movie file". I'm trying to avoid using any video conversion application (my attempt to keep this simple and avoid degrading video quality).
iMovie '09 converts this type of file for me. Here is where I get confused. In order to get the files off my camera in a readable format I have to go through iMovie. I don't want to create iMovie projects with every piece of footage I shoot.
I need to figure out how to organize the footage outside of iMovie and just trash it in iMovie. If I ever want a piece of footage for a project, I could then import it back to iMovie. Ideally I want to store all video footage on an external HD. I have found out the hard way if you start moving files around once a iMovie project is started it screws up the project.
This is my plan. Am I doing this the hard way?
1) Import video from camera into iMovie '09
2) Find the file in finder, re-name and move to new folder
3) Move the video in iMovie to the trash
4) When time to edit footage or create project, import video from the new folder into iMovie

Unfortunately not, but you can send feedback to Apple
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Similar Messages

  • My complaints and Questions MP4 M4V video files and other complaints

    My complaints and Questions MP4 M4V video files and other complaints
    I have been scratching my head as to how to fix my problem and I found some answers and some questions along the way. First of all, I have a video that should be correctly formatted for my iPod. Its specs are:
    Kind: MPEG-4 video file
    Size: 19.4 MB
    Bit Rate: 125 kbps
    Date Modified: 8/18/2009 2:15 PM
    Play Count: 1
    Last played: 8/21/2009 12:25 PM
    Profile: Low Complexity
    Channels: Stereo
    Total Bit Rate: 360 kbps
    Video Dimensions: 352x264
    Video Codec: H.264
    F:\File\AnotherFile\A3rdFile\TheMovieFileInQuestion.mp4
    Wow that was a chore. Apple! Let us drag copy and paste our info tabs information so we don’t have to type all this stuff when we are having trouble. **another problem and suggestion** right there.
    Ok, back to the problem of the forum.
    From what I can see from http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/specs.html this file falls in line of everything required in order to be able to play on my iPod. It plays in iTunes fine but will NOT sync with my iPod. I get an annoying message that states, “Some of the Songs and videos in your iTunes library, including “BlaBlaBlaiPondFixYourJunkBlaBlaBla”, were not copied to the iPod “My iPod” because they cannot be played on this iPod.” Why oh why can iTunes play this video file but my iPod cant. Especially when the specs on Apple’s website say it can.
    So that was bugging me for a LONG time until I found my “Create iPod or iPhone version” option in the “Advanced” heading. Thank goodness this made my files playable on my iPod. Extremely LONG wait though. I know that other programs convert it in ½ the time. But times not to important as long as it gets done, (would be very convenient if it was faster though **Problem and suggestion**)
    Ok, now that I have used the “Create iPod or iPhone version” option it has slowly but surly converted my video. Ok, here is my main problem, the new file which is the result of the conversions information is as follows:
    Kind: MPEG-4 video file
    Size: 35.4 MB
    Bit Rate: 125 kbps
    Date Modified: 8/18/2009 2:15 PM
    Play Count: 1
    Last played: 8/21/2009 1:28 PM
    Profile: Low Complexity
    Channels: Stereo
    Total Bit Rate: 658 kbps
    Video Dimensions: 352x264
    Video Codec: H.264
    C:\File\WhyIsThisNewFileInMyMusicFolder\TheMovieFileInQuestion.m4v
    So basically it has made my file bigger *not a bonus in my book* greatly increased my Bit Rate *another interesting feature*, and I think the biggest change it has changed it from an .mp4 to an m4v.
    Why does it need to be an .m4v I could have sworn some of my videos were or are in mp4 which shouldn’t matter anyway because I was under the impression that iPods could play mp4 files. So that’s my biggest complaint and question. Why can my 80GB classic iPod not play my MP4 files and why am I forced to convert them??
    This conversion also creates 2 files in iTunes when I am done which is annoying because I have to go into my files info and look to see what file is the mp3 in order to remove it. Very annoying I can open my iPod options and see the files and some are faded (the ones it can not play) why can’t I remove them from that area.Suggestion Apple please make files that cannot be played on my iPod stand out some how for easier cleaning Suggestion. Thank you.
    Speaking of cleaning iPods, when I moved my entire library to an external drive I was faced with a terrible problem. “This file could not be found, would you like to locate file”, I was faced with this annoying message at least 600 times. Now I am glad that iTunes has a little “!” mark to show dead links so that you do some minor cleaning, Good Job iTunes No compliant there. However iTunes has no way of selecting all the broken files for major cleaning (like in my case). Going through and deleting over 600 files 1 by 1 is extremely time consuming and annoying. **Suggestion Apple please add more cleaning features for organizing iTunes**.
    Ok, speaking of organization now, another problem that appeared when converting my video files was that it put my new videos into the location where I have all my songs (my external hard drive) why can’t it put the new files in the locations of the original file? I have my computer highly organized and my original files were in that drive in that folder for a reason. If I could open my original file and skip the conversion, my iTunes would go to that specific folder to access the file which is fine. But now these new conversion files are elsewhere taking up space and disorganizing my computer. True I can go into the new location and move the files to where I want them (original location) but I don’t think I should have to hunt them down, copy, move, delete ect etc for all these files over and over. Very annoying, time consuming and should be unnecessary. **Suggestion Make file creation and location more customizable, and user friendly, your customers will love you for it**.
    Well since I have gotten into Apples iTunes and iPod problems that I have had to face I might as well bring up one or two more problems and suggestions. About a month after purchasing my iPod a sibling bought one as well. His however is way more convenient then mine. I suppose he has a 5th gen. so here is my question: why does he have a search option and I don’t!!!! Why does he get more features every so often and I don’t?! Why can’t Apple write some software for us classic guys which got the iPods going! It’s very annoying when I have to spend more time looking for the song then I spend actually listening to it, when he can pull his up in like 3-6 seconds? I highly doubt the hardware between our iPods is that dissimilar and even if they are why cant software be written for us. **Suggestion treat all your customers good not just the newer ones, and make some more features for the classics like me and my iPod.” We will be grateful for it I promise.
    Ok, I am almost done. Let me just recap my questions, I know my post is kind of lengthy.
    #1. Why can’t my iPod play MP3 video files? And why do I have to convert to almost all the same settings except changing it from an mp4 to an m4v. according to Apples own site I should be able to play .m4v .mp4 and .mov files!! Note: remember iTunes plays them fine but my iPod will not.
    #2. Would be much more convenient to be able to copy the information from the windows in iTunes so that problems and trouble shooting would be much easier. A little check on off options in iTunes advanced settings would be terrific.
    #3. Why is the conversion so slow? Please speed it, you have the power. Convenience is the thing that sells products.
    #4. Files that cannot be played on the current iPod need to be easier recognized for simpler cleaning.
    #5. Also make an easier way to select all dead link files for faster cleaning, deleting, etc. This one is important.
    #6. Make a user friendly way to change where my files are going to end up once I convert them for iPod more options and better customizable settings are need.
    #7. One of the most important is ADD A SEARCH OPTION. I and we classics will LOVE Apple for it.
    For you readers, I apologize for the long post, and any grammatical errors you might find throughout it. These are problems that I have faced with these programs and hardware and I wanted to make sure they got acknowledged and hopefully addressed. Any information about why I cannot play MP4 Video files on my iPod would be the best. If anything in my post gets answered that’s the one I want most. Will save me a lot of hassle.
    Thank you all and I look forward to your suggestions and comments. All are welcome and appreciated.
    Sincerely,
    Bond, James

    Was playing with iTunes and thought of another suggestion! Let us play files in iTunes from an iPod! A friend or sibling should be able to plug his iPod into my computer open iTunes and play any of the files there. Many times I have wanted to show a movie clip or video to a friend, and I have the dock so I can do it on my T.V. but play it on their computer in their iTunes forget it. That would be a very nice feature as well so we can watch our movies at maximum size or listen to music on a better sound system, just another suggestion that would be nice. Thanks

  • Elements 12 Organizer unable to preview .mts video files

    I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and Premiere Elements 12 on Windows 8.1. I have the newest version of Apple QuickTime (7.7.6) installed.
    I import .mts video files from my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 for organizing along my still photos. I am absolutely certain that previewing the video files in Elements Organizer used to work fine at least before I upgraded from Elements 11 to 12. Maybe it also has been working in Elements 12, but I cannot tell for sure. Now, instead of a preview, I get the error 'The selected file cannot be played because your system does not have the required compressor/decompressor (codec) installed'. If I add one of these files to an Premiere Elements video project, however, the file plays nicely from the Premiere timeline.
    I have tried downgrading my Quick Time versions all the way down to 7.3, with no result.
    Does anyone have an idea what might be wrong?

    I am using Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 and Premiere Elements 12 on Windows 8.1. I have the newest version of Apple QuickTime (7.7.6) installed.
    I import .mts video files from my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 for organizing along my still photos. I am absolutely certain that previewing the video files in Elements Organizer used to work fine at least before I upgraded from Elements 11 to 12. Maybe it also has been working in Elements 12, but I cannot tell for sure. Now, instead of a preview, I get the error 'The selected file cannot be played because your system does not have the required compressor/decompressor (codec) installed'. If I add one of these files to an Premiere Elements video project, however, the file plays nicely from the Premiere timeline.
    I have tried downgrading my Quick Time versions all the way down to 7.3, with no result.
    Does anyone have an idea what might be wrong?

  • Importing and organizing video clips

    I have a question about iMovie. I've made a few movies with it but am no pro. I am really anal about organizing my photos, music, videos, etc. and for that I love iPhoto. If i've just taken some pictures on my digital camera but don't quite have a use for them yet I can just name the roll and save them in iPhoto. With iMovie it's a different story. Whenever I hook my DV camcorder up I have been importing the video i took into iMovie, BUT it makes me save it into a project. What if I don't have a project in mind yet that I want to use this footage for but I just want to get it off my camera and store it on my computer or in iMovie for future use and easy access when I do decide to use that footage in a project or a movie I am creating? Any idea or suggestions?

    One way is to do it manually. When you import to iMovie it stores the clips in a folder inside the project called "Media" and the video files are usually Clip 01, Clip 02, etc. Ya not very descriptive names, but you could rename them all after importing to give them meaningful names. If you don't need the project other than to import them, then import, rename, then drag and drop those to your storage folder(s). Trash the project or use it again to import more.
    Then you can create a generic folder structure to help you organize. Something like this...
    Video Clip Archives
    . . . Vacations
    . . . . . . Aruba
    . . . . . . Disney
    . . . Family
    . . . . . . Kids
    . . . . . . Aunt Martha
    etc.
    Inside the folders put the clips in. Give them date names or something to help. Like 060798-01, 060798-02 which would be the first two clips from June 7th 1998 and if they were in the Aruba folder then you know they are from a vacation you took to Aruba in June of 1998.
    Nice thing about this system is you are not dependent on some application which may or may not be around years from now and in fact you are not even dependent on having a Mac. You could move this folder structure to another computer since the clips are generic DV formatted files, they can be read on other systems.
    Patrick

  • Video files not showing up in FR

    Hi all, this is my first Mac. So far I'm loving it, God only knows why I didn't make the switch sooner.
    Most of my video-library consists of the following video file types; .avi, .mov, .mpg and .mpg.
    Reading some topics, I found that as long as QT could play these files given the proper codecs, FR would have no problem playing them, too.
    So I looked around and found out about Perian - worked to perfection, QT can now play all files.
    Problem is, when I place any type of file, including .mov's, in the proper Movies folder it does not show up in FR. The only way I can get files to show up in FR is to add them via iTunes, and the only files I can add to iTunes are .mov's and .mpg's.
    Does anyone know why my Movies folder is not "in sync" with FR?

    There you go. The other user short name! I never tried that, because I assumed the Movies folder that was in the sidebar from default would be the one. But yeah, all I did was create a Movies folder in the user short name (since there wasn't one to begin with) and voila! Thanks a lot!
    And about making saves as reference movies - thanks for that advice, it's been very helpful in getting me started organizing my digital video library.
    Still have some qualms about FR, though. The way videos are organized ... been playing with it for several hours today and here are some of my issues:
    I like to keep my stuff organized ... I like the fact that I have the option of using either FR or iTunes (cover flow), so that's the route I'm taking using both. Already, things get complicated.
    My video media is basically in three groups: movies, TV shows and music (music videos, concerts, etc.).
    First off, I've decided to use the FR-designated Movies folder only for saved movie references. This is to avoid clutter, so the actual files are not in the Movies folder. Is this a wise idea? I'll tell you the basis for this decision.
    When I first started organizing the files I found that any video placed in the Movies folder shows up in FR under .... yup, Videos->Movies. Be it music videos or anything TV shows. I don't like that. For everything that's not categorized as a movie, I'd like for those files to end up in their proper sub-menu in FR, but they don't. In iTunes, they are all in their proper place, because I've edited all the info so it looks neat and orderly.
    Is there a way around that? What I've done to make it seem cleaner, is in the Movies folder with all the saved reference movies, I've organized it like this:
    (user short name)/Movies/
    - Movie A, Movie B, Movie C
    - Other (folder containing all non-movies video files)
    So all the files in Other has been correctly arranged via iTunes, so these files show up in the correct sub-menu in FR.
    What I mean is that they show up twice in FR, once because they're in the Movies folder and then another time (this is what I want), because I've directed them to a specific category via iTunes, e.g. music videos. I only want them to show up once, not in sub-menu Movies of FR, but either TV Shows or Music Videos ... make any sense?
    Please don't tell me it isn't possible, or maybe advice me a better way to organize it.
    Also, I'm having trouble getting some files to play. They play fine in QT, but if I change some info in iTunes they won't play in FR ... and the preview thumbnail is just black.
    And lastly, wow ... there is a lot of load time, when you start FR up ... it's weird, sometimes there is none, sometimes I'll have to wait two minutes once I've gone by the main menu. I thought using saved movie references would help the load time, since the actual library is not in the designated FR-folder.
    That's basically it for now ... 1) organizational troubles 2) playback troubles and 3) load time.
    So far, you guys have helped me solve my issue, hope you will again!
    Love Mac!

  • Import and Management of Video Files by Date Still Broken

    It really is very disappointing that after 3 versions, and 110 bug fixes, basic things like importing or managing a video file by date is still completely broken.
    Even more troubling, is that for someone who uses LR3 this is a very obvious problem, and should be very easy to fix.
    When you import a file on a wide range of cameras the date that is used for the video file as far as LR3 is concerned is the date you are importing it, not the date it was taken. This makes any management of the file, especially when managed next to pictures, very difficult.
    The problem, as far as I can tell, is that in Windows, a file has both a 'Date Created' and a 'Date Modified'. 'Date Created' is whenever the file was created on the PC. If you bought a new computer and transferred a bunch of files over on 30/12/2010, all of your files will have a 'Date Created' that is 30/12/2010 regardless of when the photos or videos were taken. Or if you take a video on September 1st and import it onto your computer September 15th, it will have a 'Date Created' of September 15th.
    'Date Modified' however lists the date that the file was last changed. For video files, that most likely was the date the video was shot.
    Every program I have ever used for video files has always organized them by Date Modified (when organizing them by date). For example, its the default in Windows 7 Explorer when showing video files, all the video files listed by the date you have taken them. Date Created really doesnt have any useful information.
    Its inexplicable to me why LR3 uses Date Created instead of Date Modified. It is a glaring error, that should be easily fixed. Microsoft can manage to do it right, as a byproduct in its OS, Im not sure why an imaging company in a $400 piece of specialist software cannot.
    And just in case this is overlooked as a minor problem, it certainly is not. It happens to the following cameras:
    D90 (first camera to shoot video)
    D3s (thought by many to be the best low light camera)
    D7000 (likely to be Nikon's most important DSLR)
    D3100 (likely to be Nikon's most purchased DSLR)
    Canon S95 (one of 2 most popular P+S for DSLR owners)
    Fuji 31fd (Ill never forget you!)
    And those are just the cameras I have on my desk, Im sure it happens to many others.
    Also, when importing these files by date, LR3 will import them into a folder 1 date later then the date that LR3 is using for the file. So, just to be clear, you could take a video on May 1st, import it into LR3 on May 2nd and LR3 would say it was taken May 2nd, and it would be placed in the folder for May 3rd.
    Im really not sure why something so basic has not been addressed in so long, and it makes any sort of managment of video files by date in LR3 useless.
    Very disappointing.

    I agree that the wrong file system date is being used. But I scanned all my Lightroom files (manually) tagged with 'video'. When the file contains suitable metadata with a capture time that is used. When that's missing, the (wrong) file system date is used.
    Interestingly I even found one camera where the dates were originally right (in 2009), then disappeared for a while (probably due to a firmware upgrade!) and then came back again. Summary of what I found:
    Very old (Philips) webcam / format AVI / no metadata visible / wrong date
    Canon Powershot A80 / format AVI / metadata visible / right date
    Nokia N73 cellphone / format MP4 / no metadata / wrong date
    Canon EOS 5D Mark II around 2009 / format MOV / metadata visible / right date
    Canon EOS 5D Mark II around 2010 / format MOV / no metadata / wrong date
    Canon EOS 5D Mark II around 2011 / format MOV / metadata visible / right date
    So my conclusion is that the camera makers are making a bit of a mess when they introduced video. Nikon introduced its video a year or so later than Canon. I don't know if "no metadata" means that there is none, or that Adobe just doesn't like the format. But given the pattern of the firmware updates with Canon, it looks like Canon and Adobe ultimately agreed on the format. But in any case Lightroom (I am using 3.4.1) has a bug w.r.t. its fallback scenario of reading file system dates.
    In my case, the dates changed when I copied all my data from one disk (old NAS) to a new one (new NAS). It is disconcerting that you get the copying date despite comparison tools declaring the files to be identical (Beyond Compare 3 also keeps an eye on date differences).
    Hope this helps, Peter

  • Comprehensive overview/question about organizing videos and movies

    I've made a few movies here and there in the original iMovie, have made a fair amount of home movies using FCE. I have 20 years worth of videos scattered around on HI-8 formatting and some videos I downloaded from a hand held digital cheapo-movie cam. I'm to the point of trying to figure out the big picture on importing, structuring, storing, and sharing these files between iMovie, FCEHD 3.5.1, mobileme, my iPhone, etc.
    I'm now wanting to start uploading movies to gallery.me.com. I started doing some of this before I got cancer last year. I'm basically restarting this whole process now that I'm beyond the rigors of chemotherapy and I'm trying to make a systematic approach to managing video files and already made movies. I have a lot of questions and would appreciate any insight you can offer in this discussion forum or if you recommend I copy this over to another discussion forum. I'm not sure to even begin hot to explain all this, so be patient as I try to start this process.
    #1 - I've tried using iMovie 8 in the past. I ended up, somehow, with clips here, there, and who knows where. The original iMovie seemed rather straight forward and seemed to work in conjunction with iPhoto rather seamlessly. As iMovie made that big change some time back, I quickly backed out of using that program to manage clips as I couldn't find where they were stored and more importantly, they seemed to start disappearing after time. Is iMove 08 a good resource to manage clips or is it a bit of a dead end for people who are using various programs such as FCE and so forth? Seems the transparency of how the newer iMovie manages files is a bit not-so-transparent to me anymore and I simply am not finding many of the files in iMovie 08 that I can easily spot in iPhoto. Not sure what has happened there, but I can find the files in iPhoto and browse them, but NOT in iMovie 08. Help?
    #2 - the only real reason I'm asking about iMovie at all is that I want to start uploading files from HI-8 tapes into my computer rather quickly and make simple basically unedited videos of what is on the Hi-8 tapes, then perhaps transport onto mobileme and/or make some DVD's. I did a few of those somehow before the cancer/chemo deal, but can't really recall the exact steps I took. Rough bout with cancer last year and my brain is a bit fried to be honest, not to mention all of this is a big hard to grasp deal for a RN who isn't trained in video stuff at this point in his life. Besides, I ended up having to reinstall my entire OS - long story. Bottom line, the few movies I do have on mobileme are in .m4v format. Not a big deal when using my mac at home, but notice that it causes iTunes to load onto my pc's at work or when visiting friends. Slow, clunky, and not sure how it wound up in that format. I'm thinking I did that somehow through iMovie or Quicktime 7 Pro. Before I go that route again, I need to ask about #3.
    #3 - I just exported my first high definition video from FCE. I did so because we got our first new TV in 22 years, nice HD flat screen. I'm wanting to start understanding options for exporting videos onto mobileme. I got Quicktime Pro 7 and used the H264 or some option like that (file>share). It was able to take 1.5 gig high def video I did over my cancer journey and put it seamlessly onto mobileme. But it is in the .m4v video option which seems to cause some people and computers problems because of the whole proprietary iTunes angle. Is there a way around this being forced to use iTunes and simply share to mobileme gallery using .mov? I tried the file>export option, seems to want to use movie folder and I'm guessing that is another iTunes deal.
    #4 - as I load files into my computer from HI-8 format and the newer cheap little HD dual SD card camera I got, those seem to either want to go into iMovie's folders (which I mentioned my confusion about above) or I can manually put them into a file structure that I'm slowly learning to build using FCE. I don't mind the FCE option and it seems logical. I still run into the problem of how to share web based content of the videos. Using iDVD is rather straightforward, but I'm wanting to use some kind of web centric approach to sharing my videos on the output and have one big file structure for organizing my files/videos on the input.
    I notice that iMovie has many exporting/sharing options in its menu. Are they really any different/better/worse than what I have with quicktime Pro 7? Should I even try to utilize iMovie at all or simply go with the capture option on FCE? I at least can find the files and organize them with FCE.
    I'm not sure how to further word this at the moment as I'm trying to better understand all this as I'm moving forward.
    Any suggestions you might have at this point would be most beneficial. I'm sure as I get further into this, I'll start clarifying my own questions and thoughts.
    Any resources you can point me to for newer (but not totally new) to video structure input/exporting on the mac?
    Thanks,
    Robert

    Robert,
    A lot of questions, perhaps to much to go into detail but,
    I can second the views of AppleMan
    Since iMovie 08 I finally am able to organize and categorize my clips in an easy way. Just recently I made a DvD for one of my grandchildren containing a selection of events from over the last to years. Really a joy (not only the kid ). This would have been a much larger job without that.
    When I like to do real "sophisticated" movie editing I use FCE and pick up the clips from the eventsfolder from iMovie.
    Of course if you are happy with FCE for organizing (I found that a bit hard), you always can use the File->export-> quicktime movie feature and use Quicktime for uploading to mobileme or use the File->export->Quicktime conversion function.
    Also within iMovie you can use the: share ->export with Quicktime, and use that to export your movie in the format you prefer.
    HtH
    Ben
    Message was edited by: Ben Bloks

  • Combine/Split Video files

    What is the best way to combine or split video files?  I have found a third party program that will do this (ScenalzyerLive), but I would think that Adobe Premiere or Photoship could to this as well.  My understanding is that Premiere does not actually change the root file, which is what I want to do.  I am less concerned about using Premiere to create great videos to burn to a dvd than to quickly combine my short videos into one video file (i.e. 13th birthday).  Conversely, I would like to split my long videos that are 2 hours long from my old, old 1992 camcorder (Sony Video 8 TRV21 Handycam with .avi files) into much shorter segments.
    With technology today, I think a lot of people simply want to combine and split videos instead of create great transitions from one scene to another.  Espceially now that you can use remote into your computer from your iphone to play videos (i.e through AirVideo).  Ease of finding relevant and organized clips is getting more important.

    The reason I change the original file is that I can watch my videos from my
    iPhone or iPad remotely (i.e. through the AirVideo app) in an organized
    manner.  I currently have nearly a terabyte of video that obviously cannot
    be stored on my iPhone or iPad.  Therefore,if I am away from my house and want
    to show someone my child's soccer game, I don't like having to remote into my
    home computer to play 30 clips (files), versus one clip (file) that was
    combined.  I think with "the cloud" direction we are going, and more and more
    people watching videos remotely.
    My editing of the original files is not extensive.  I simple cut out parts of
    scenes I don't want, and combine others.  ScenalyzerLive 4.0 does this very
    well.
    Since there is not an Adobe PRE app that allows me to watch videos remotely,
    this is the best alternative.

  • Help! Lost all Captured Video Files Using FCE 3.5 and Lacie 1TB Drive

    Hi all...
    I was wondering if anyone here could advise me on a most dissapointing occurence...
    A few weeks ago, I started learning Final Cut Express 3.5. I began by setting my scratch disk to my new Lacie 1TB drive and loading about 5 tapes to the drive via the capture function in FCE... all went well. I then spent the next couple of days organizing all the clips and subclips into bins that I made based on the kind of clips I had shot (my first doc attempt on a local photographer).
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    Now I find that ALL of my video files are gone!! The 200 GB of space they took up on the Lacie drive has been regained... either deleted by FCE or by the drive itself... I don't know which. The weird thing is, that the folders containing the sound, and still photos that i put together are still fine, both on the Lacie drive AND in FCE. You'd think if it was a faulty drive that all files would be deleted, or if it was FCE going beserk, that it would kill all bins, not just the video files...
    This issue really is difficult because I just don't know which item is at fault and I'm reluctant to try downloading all my data again because I don't know piece of hardware is killing my files... My FCE is not a pirated copy... am using a mac book pro 15" 2 years old w/OS 10.4.11.
    Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated!!!
    Thanks very much
    Take care
    Mark

    Problem solved - I had deleted all the necessary preference files. I did not reinstall Quicktime, thanks for the suggestions, though. I called Apple Care. A very helpful person on the other end of the phone directed me to trash the preferences (again). No luck. He asked me to create a new user, which I had not done, the problem was still there. The fix was a reinstall of FCE HD. All's good now. Thanks, Apple Care!
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  • Is there a way to easily batch convert hundreds of video files to h.264, while retaining the original dimensions, metadata, etc.?

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