Mpeg Streamclip freezing on Mac (mp4 -> ProRes 422 conversion)

[Ian Larsen]

I have a large volume of mp4 videos (no audio) to convert to Apple ProRes 422 so I can use them in Final Cut Pro, and I'm having very little luck converting any of them in Mpeg Streamclip, and none of the solutions that I've seen people have found for similar problems on any forum have got me going.

I've converted a few clips, although more slowly than I've seen the program work on a PC, and whenever I start it up it seems to move at some speed, but eventually slows right down and stops. Also the progress bar often lags behind the actual progress, at least until the program stops responding altogether.

When I first started to use it I loaded all of my clips into a Batch List and left it overnight, but in the morning it had only converted 8 1min clips. those 8 clips play fine, though. Today I managed 4 more in two hours, but lately even if I try one at a time it might not even complete that in an hour.

The rest of the computer works fine while the conversions are running (or not) in the background.

I'm on a mid-2009 Macbook, with 4GB ram and OS Maverick. I'm conscious that this isn't a relatively powerful machine but is there a way around this? I'm considering paying £25 for Pavtube but the consensus seems to be that Mpeg Streamclip should be able to do what I need for this.

[smrpix]

Final Cut Pro should include all the tools you need to do the conversion.

Please be more specific whether this is FCP7 or FCPX. Also please include the info on your source files. (Window/Show Movie Properties in Quicktime)

[Ian Larsen]

Sorry yes, I meant to say this is for FCP 6.0.5.

The mp4s are H.264, 1920 x 1080, 24fps, 10.43mbit/s.

I'm not sure if it's pertinent but maybe it's worth mentioning that these are timelapse clips, created from series of jpegs. But I guess a video's a video, isn't it?

[smrpix]

A few thoughts, but no real solutions.

The issue seems to be that it's very slow -- but it does work. Correct? Quicktime is not a particularly efficient engine. Do you have a recent version of QT7 on your machine as well as QT10. That might make a difference to MpegStreamclip.

I'm surprised you are able to get FCP 6.X to work on Mavericks. It's very likely some sort of conflict and crash will occur with that combination.

MpegStreamclip likewise is qualified for Mountain Lion, not Mavericks.

Do you have access to the original jpegs? It might be faster to try importing those directly as a stills sequence.

That's about what I've got as far as ideas.

[Ian Larsen]

Do you mean to say I can have more than one version of QT installed at the same time somehow? I've downloaded and installed QT7 just now but that doesn't seem to have done anything.

In a way the problem is slowness, but it seems to be inevitable that it eventually gives up altogether. And if the conversion has frozen, any attempt to stop it conventionally makes the program crash.

Getting the jpegs isn't out of the question, so maybe I'll have to take that route. As for FCP 6, I don't think I've actually done much with it since installing Mavericks, so if it does fail I'll at least be prepared now so thanks for the warning.

[poisondeathray]

Maybe there is a problem with that MP4 file that causes it to completely freeze? Is it a specific one that causes the batch to abort?

How about file=>log & transfer in FCP ?