What formats will FCP import?

I am in a prosecutor's office. We recieve videos from a wide range of sources of which we have no control. I have limited training in handling videos. Most interviews are Video_TS discs. Some are .wmv with IMM4 codecs and some are .avi files. We are a windows dominated area. We frequently have playback issues in court (embarrassing) often times it is a software conflict issue. We need to be able to edit these videos to excluded scenes or dialogue that is bad for the defendant (court ordered). Currently we use several different conversion apps and edit in Pinnicale Studio 11 or 12. The final product is burned to a disc and given to the attorneys and judge.
We also rip the audio track and send it out for third party transcribing.
We want to set up a dedicated machine to handle videos. I don't want to create more compatability issues. We need something dependable and simple.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

I used to be a certified computer farencics specialist back in my IT engineer days, before I decided training and consilting for media production was more enjoyable. I understand about evidenciary proceedure and al of that. Thus, I'd stay away from freeware and free open source solutions. They can be challanged to easily.
Cinematize is about the best app for ripping stuff from DVDs. Episode by Telestream is the best for handling the widest variety of codecs. It integrates into FCP X and Compressor 4 nicely.
If you can transcode everything into ProRes 422 on ingest, that'd make editing go faster and easier.
If you can transcode everyting into H.264 on output, that's make playback more reliable and universal.
Feel free to contact me if you have any in depth questions.

Similar Messages

What format should I import CDs on???

Hellllllooo
I have just started to get into audio quality, and all that sort of stuff...
I would like to know what format I should import CDs to my itunes library on, as i have just purchased a pair of high end Sennheiser headphones, and i do not want to waste the quality of the headphones with cheap, rubbish sounding music.
I currently use AAC with Itunes Plus (128kbps mono/ 256kbps stereo, 44.100kHz, VBR) and was wondering if this would get the full potential out of the headphones. I will just be using the music for home listening but i am quite picky about music quality.
Should i change these import settings? If so, then what should i change them to?
Please help, Thanks!
P.S What are 'Channels' and what do they do? There are 2, 'Stereo' and 'Mono'...? Help again please!!!

I currently use AAC with Itunes Plus (128kbps mono/ 256kbps stereo, 44.100kHz, VBR) and was wondering if this would get the full potential out of the headphones. I will just be using the music for home listening but i am quite picky about music quality.
Should i change these import settings? If so, then what should i change them to?
Most users, who are not so demanding about audio quality, use MP3/256 or AAC/256.
Since you are "picky" about quality and are using good quality gear, you should consider a lossless format, of which iTunes Supports three: WAV, AIFF, and Apple Lossless. Apple Lossless is the most compact of the three, so is the best choice as long as you don't plan to use your music on non-Apple players.
P.S What are 'Channels' and what do they do? There are 2, 'Stereo' and 'Mono'...? Help again please!!!
If you are importing from audio CDs, you are using 2-channel stereo. If you switch it to mono you will lose all the stereo separation.

I am going to place a 30 minutes dvd film on a website for one of my clients. Before converting tje old vhs-film to dvd I must know what format will suit the needs best. HTTP, Flash, Quicktime or something else?

I am going to place a 30 minutes dvd film on a website for one of my clients. The film was shot 15 years ago and is in vhs-format. Before I will have the film converted into a dvd-format I want to know what format will suit my needs best. HTTP, Flash, Quicktime or something else? I will make it easy for myself placering the dvd film on the site and for the vistors who wish to look att the film.

The DVD format (MPEG-2) isn't appropriate for Web use.
Use QuickTime and H.264 video codec with AAC audio. Size the file at 320X240 (best fit for your old file).

What Video Formats will iDVD5 import?

Apple's website is not very clear on this.
Will it import anything other than DV?
Will it import all QT codecs? MPEG2?
Thanks for any help,
Ross
P.S. My search here did not find it either.

I'm late to this thread - so maybe this is for Those Who Come After.. - but, I found this all a bit hard to follow & still can't figure out why Sheila's buying Toast (a great but not cheap product) to make DVDs with all the 'fancy bits' when she already has a superb, free product that does precisely that.... iDVD. (Compared to most of the other software I've used to do this stuff iDVD is so User-Friendly I've taken it home to meet Mother ..
In a general answer to the original question - and related -, (HDVid,pics/extras aside)
b all the iDVD/ iMovie products were designed to take Digital Video,, i.e. DV from a compatible DV Cam (or precisely-formatted DV files which came from DV from a compatible DV Cam...) work with it and produce various output or Delivery products (whatever else the Docs etc. may suggest).
Ignoring pictures, iDVD takes in DV, allows extensive easy user customisation and produces DVDs after 'hidden' transcoding To MPEG-2 and creating the full DVD structure itself. (you could start from lots of other formats, transcode to a DV file and use iDVD from there but the results will likely range from bad to unviewable - if your Dad sends you an MPEG2 file, that's what you'll have to do to use iDVD - and chances of the transcoding screwing up are high - in my experience of the huge variations in file format/quality/bug level etc on PC-encoded MPEGs).
Best approach for iMov/iDVD (or almost anything else...is as suggested by our friend above):- have him send you a DV Tape copy, access a cam for a couple of hours and use iMovie to Capture as a DV file and proceed from there .... as you encounter the inevitable roadbumps (buy some DVD-RW.. you'll always have the original, full, highest-quality DV to go back to.
Toast (and DVDSP & other DVD creator/author tools) require solid, standards-compliant MPEG-2 as input (but I refer you to my comments above). There are a number of tools that'll do the DV->MPEG2 transcode on the Mac. They vary in quality, speed, price...... (you can't easily use the 'hidden' iDVD stuff last time I looked...).
To put it less technically, e.g. Mpeg-1 is mostly pretty small and pretty poor quality. "Enlarging' it in transcoding to DV is just going to give you a LARGE, bad-quality picture... - [an extreme example, but transcoding UP or 'across' - in 'quality' - is always bad. Transcoding DOWN from hi-quality DV to MPEG-2 for Delivery on DVD (e.g.) can be quite good - which is why you always try to do it ONCE and do it last.
[Perhaps it's not obvious to people, but most of these formats 'throw away' huge amounts of data/picture information: 2hr DV is about 30Gig... Transcoded to MPEG2, it may be 4. That's 26Gig worth of picture info that just isn't there anymore....]
For anyone working with this stuff, I recommend some Googling for info/tutes and FAAQs on Capture, editing and Delivery CODECs (CODECCentral used to be one....)
b 1 line summary: wherever possible, start with hi quality DV (or better), edit/play about in that, last, transcode to Deliver in whatever suits.
Best wishes.....

What formats will Quicktime Pro play

I just installed Quicktime Pro on Win XP, and I can't get it to open any format, including wmv! Is there any video format that Quicktime will open without buying their MPEG2 codec?

This page includes a list of formats that QT will open.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/specs.html
Note, however, that some of those formats are container formats that can have content compressed with many different compression formats and specific decompressors may be needed to be able to play a given file. This is especially true of avi and mov formats. If a file does not play then try opening MovieInfo in the Windows menu to see what compression was used. You may need to then search the internet for a decompressor for the file.
QT does not open wmv files, The mpeg2component is only used for playback of mpeg2 files so don't buy it unless you want to play that format in QT Player.

What formats will 'Play' on my iPod?

The counter person at my Apple store said the iPod will only play mp3. There are obviously more formats that can be stored on the iPod and I did try to play a .WAV file that I transferred to the iPod through iTunes and it crashed the iPod which did a reset each time I chose the WAV song. I converted that song to mp3 and it played fine on the iPod.
What is it with the other formats ACC, WAV. aiff and others that are talked about on these forums? Are they stored as data format and then transferred to computer to be played by a capable program? If so, I guess MIDI, Cubase, Finale and many other formats could be added.
Can someone clarify how and why formats other than mp3 are mentioned with the iPod, and how they are used?
G5 DP Mac OS X (10.4.8) 4.5G RAM

The iPod will play the following audio formats:
- AAC (16 to 320 Kbps)
- Protected AAC (from iTunes Store)
- MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps)
- MP3 VBR
- Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4)
- Apple Lossless
- AIFF
- WAV
I find it difficult to believe that an Apple representative told you the iPod could only play MP3. This is quite a blunder, seeing as the iTunes Store sells music that isn't even in MP3 format. iTunes Store sells protected AAC files, encoded at a bitrate of 128kbps.
Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV are considered to be lossless formats. Audio quality will be very high, but the file sizes will also be very large.
AAC and MP3 are compressed audio formats which will produce smaller file sizes without sacrificing too much audio quality. (Subject to opinion, of course.)
Audible format is for Audiobooks purchased from audible.com

What video format will iTunes accept?

I want to add some videos to my music video library. What format will iTunes accept and play? I am not concerned about playing them on an iPod so I would like a little better resolution than the standard for the iPod. Help!!!

Perhaps this will provide the information you need:
Adding, Browsing, and watching videos in iTunes
Hope it helps.

My podcasts what format for use with iPod

I have my own website www.chumlordfishing.com and I do instructional podcasts, so far every podcast needs to be converted in iTunes to play on my and others iPods. What format will allow the podcasts to be played without needing to be converted. Additionally, they don't show up in my iPod under podcasts once converted. They show up under videos.
Thanks for the help!!!

Intel processor in you MB Pro? Need it to capture avchd.
regarding file size and the need for external drive:
"AVCHD output files are about 120Mb per minute of footage. The converted output file will be about four times the size of the input. This is because AVCHD is a highly compressed HD format and we are uncompressing it into a Quicktime-friendly high definition format. Our example 1 minute AVCHD clip becomes about 500Mb in size, after conversion.
The final size of a converted clip has a lot to do with the amount of movement in the clip. A lot of movement will mean a larger file. Action clips can be as high as 7 times the size of the raw clips."

Iphoto recognizes my camera but will not import the photos becasue of the format, what do I need to do?

Iphoto will recognize my camera, but it doesn not import the pictures. It will give me an error message stating that it is the wrong format. Has anyone had this experience and can you advise?
Thanks, Jeff

Well it wold help a lot is you provided some details
What version of iPhoto? what camera? what format are you shooting? when did you last reformat yoru memory card? what has recently changed? has it every worked? any other information that might =hlep a totla strange who only know swha tyou tell them to assist you?
LN

What format to import AVCHD for best quality and how to export?

Hi
My boss has got himself a panasonic HDC camcorder of some sort that is formatting the video in AVCHD.
Basically he was using adobe premiere pro from around 2003 on an pc running xp and loved it. My I.T. director persuaded him to buy an iMac and Final Cut Pro 7. As we stand now he states he hates macs because he can't figure out how to get his home movies off his camcorder and onto a dvd without them looking blurry and fuzzy.
Can anyone advise what format we should be importing the AVCHD files into final cut pro for best video quality and how we should be exporting the final movie for best quality to go onto dvd?
I will also note that he is using toast 10 titanium to burn his movies to dvd.
Also he is not looking to burn to blu-ray as none of his familiy have blu-ray players. He just wants his HD footage off camera and onto a dvd with the best quality picture he can get. Also his movies are approx 2 hours long and he has just ordered some Dual Layer DVDs
Thanks
Kieran

I take it you mean Pro Res 422 from the AVCHD plugin options? And not going for any of the other 422's with bits in brackets?
Sorry for being dumb in this area but my boss and i are both pretty new to FCP
How do i ensure i edit in a pro res sequence?
Export straight to quicktime no quicktime compression or anything?
Thanks for your help
Kieran

What format should I burn video files in, so I could import it to final cut

I need to burn video files on a DVD and then upload those files into the final cut pro.
What format should I use when I burn those files on the DVD?

Ideally, you should stick with DV -it's already a highly compressed format to begin with and even then it comes in at 13GB per hour. Compressing even further and then converting back to DV to use the files in FCP will have a visible impact on quality.
A dual layer DVD can hold around 8 GB. They could burn the discs using Toast 9 or 10 which can split larger files across multiple discs.
If you have lots more, perhaps it would be better to invest in an external laptop drive and put the files on that. There are models that are powered via the FireWire bus, so that would also get around the fact that different voltages are used abroad.

HV30 FCP What format is used in Compressor

Is this correct?
HV30 and FCP7.0 workflow
From what I gather, I import footage using:
A/V setting:
Sequence preset: Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60
capture preset: HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec
my camera settings:
av->dv: off
playback: auto
comp. out: 1080i
dvoutput: hdv/dv
Right. so it imports like imovie. with no options after selecting "Log and Capture." Once imported. the files appear in the FCP file browser.
Do i need to send these files out to compressor?
The reason i ask is that the files appear on the desktop as simpletext files.
I deleted the files from fcp. then reimported them into fcp file browser from the desktop. It recognized it as an unknown file format.
later, i tried this again, it must've been the "save" project button. At first, i couldn't import these simpletext files into a new project. i then made a third new project. imported these files and voila. no problem. fcp recognized it.
What am i doing wrong here? perhaps a desktop or hardware problem?
Message was edited by: RichardRichardRichard
Message was edited by: RichardRichardRichard

Thank you Iain.
a couple questions:
you mentioned, "...normally recommend capturing to HDV and editing it natively." My interpretation is: re-import footage as ProRes into FCP and then render as ProRes.
That seems straightfoward.
So, my A/V settings should be the following:
Sequence Preset:
any of the "Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) __x1080 __ 48kHz"
And Capture Preset:
HDV-Apple ProRes 422
or
HDV-Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
just read this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10404099&#10404099
and it says that, "its worth converting to HDV-Apple ProRes422 (HQ), the normal HDV-Apple ProRes 422 is enough.
Is this correct?
HQ is beautiful, i would like to achieve this quality for youtube.

P2 Card Spanned Clips will not import to FCP

First of all I'm not even really sure why all of my clips that are over 10 minutes say "spanned" but second of all they will not import to Final Cut Pro. When I do Log and transfer, it pretends like it is working but when it is finished all it gives me is a red "I did not work" exclamation point. Can Anyone Help me?

P2 cards are formatted with an offshoot of FAT32, which has a 4GB limit. So anything over 4GB, will be broken up into multiple parts.
#36 - One or More P2 files failed to import.
Shane's Stock Answer #36 - "One or more clips failed to import..."
Very often in the field with this camera the camera operator will delete clips from the P2 card that they just don't like. That is the beauty of this camera. But, the still for that video file (located in the CLIP folder in the CONTENTS folder)...the still that you see when you are in the P2 Import window...is not deleted. So you will see the image, and the name, but the video file would have been deleted.
What you can do it compare the file names in the VIDEO folder and CLIP folder and see if anything is missing. If something is, then you know what the problem is. You can then just import the rest a few at time, skipping that one.
ALSO...in the P2 Import window...in the P2 Browser, there is a little sprocket drop down menu. Click on that and choose PREFERENCES. Uncheck REMOVE PULLDOWN and then try importing again.
ALSO...make sure your file names aren't too long. Try shortening them and see if that works.
ALSO make sure that the folders that contain the CONTENTS folder doesn't have any odd characters like /!@#$%^&*()?.
Shane

Ok, I give - what movie formats CAN I import?

I've been able to import almost anything to iMovie '06.
I have not been able to import any movies to iMovie '08; I've got QT Pro, and have tried exporting an .AVI in a bunch of different formats, but '08 won't recognize anything...
Any help appreciated!
thx
Andrew

I've been able to import almost anything to iMovie '06.
There are three levels of QT compatibility:
1) Playback Only -- these files (like muxed MPEG-1) can be played in QT based applications but cannot be properly converted to other QT compression formats or edited in QT based applications.
2) Conversion Compatible -- these files will playback in QT applications and can be converted to other QT compatible compression formats but canned be edited natively.
3) Fully compatible -- these files can be played, converted, and/or edited natively in QT applications.
To be imported into iMovie '06 and earlier versions, file need only be "Conversion Compatible" since these older applications automatically converted the files to DV compression for editing. Even MPEG-1 muxed files would be converted only losing the audio content during the import/conversion process. iMovie '08, on the other hand, will edit files natively in a number of different compression formats. Unfortunately, since these files are not converted during the import process, iMovie '08 will not import anything it cannot edit. So if either the audio and/or the video compression format in a movie is not editable, the the file will not be imported until converted by the the user.
I have not been able to import any movies to iMovie '08; I've got QT Pro, and have tried exporting an .AVI in a bunch of different formats, but '08 won't recognize anything...
iMovie '08 is known to be compatible with DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AIC, MPEG-4, H.264, and MJPEG video compression. Apple Video and Apple Animation compression formats can also be imported and edited but appear to have a bug in their export which is only rendered as a "black" display screen. Uncompressed, DV, "Big Endian", MPEG-4 audio (AAC), and, AIFF are known to be audio compatible while µ-Law and DVI ADPCM audio are not editable. Since AVI files can contain any number of audio and video compression formats in almost any combination, you need to ckeck to see what is and what is not compatible. A Casio MJPEG/DVI ADPCM file will not import/edit until the audio is converted to an editable format like AAC. The same holds try for a Kodak MOV file containing MPEG4/µ-Law.

HT4101 Since upgrade of IOS, my once dependable camera connection kit will only import landscape photos from my Sony Alpha DSLR, but red exclaimation symbol only for portrait format. Any ideas why?

Since upgrade of IOS, my once dependable camera connection kit will only import landscape photos from my Sony Alpha DSLR, but red exclaimation symbol only for portrait format. Any ideas why?
I am using an ipad2 with the latest operating system upgrade. My problems started with the upgrade to v6. Before that, portrait and landscape pics were uploaded from camera with no problems.

Hi,
I'm from germany so no 'best buy' but I think I will lock around sleeve/bag for a different product with same measures. Any tip?
The clear plastic case is not what I want. I would like to use the player without such protections. I just want a sleeve to protect the player while its in my jacket/pants.
Btw, i have bought this version: Creative Zen (maybe european version?). I also doesn't seem to have your mentioned sleeve. I also couldn't find it on the website.
Anyway, thank you,
Chris

What formats will FCP import?

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