problems going from quicktime mac file to usable pc file

[pjcom]

I received some footage from my friend (hereby known as friend 1) shot on a Red One camera. Problem is, I could not use or open these files on my PC (not in quicktime pro, VLC, Adobe Premiere cs4...). My hunch was that my problem stemmed from my friend using FCP on a mac.

I went to my other friend's house (hereby known as friend 2), and VOILA! The files magically opened in final cut. I went and slapped all the clips in the timeline and watched an 8 hour export. I put the exported file on my external hard drive and went back to my house.

Surprise surprise... I can't open them.

I have used a variety of video conversion tools on my new exported file as well as the original clips from friend 1.....
- aja plugins (i know they are for mac, but I installed them for a shot in the dark. It DID get gspot to identify the files though)
- ffmpeg ( i have no programming knowledge, or PHP software so this was a loss..)
- the red codec package for Adobe (still gave me an error on import...waste of time..)
- Quick Time Pro (i tried "flatten" the codec from it's native Mac format & only got the audio working)

my "flatten" term came off the very bottom post of this thread...http://www.vfxtalk.com/forum/quicktime-mac-pc-problem-t10564.html

- mpeg stream clip (only have the audio working after saving to avi)
- Format Factory (gave me "Illegal file name" crap)
- Winff (Just didn't work)

*note that i have not been able to access the original clips. All this tinkering was unfortunately done with the exported file from friend 2's FCP export (which wasted 8 hours)

My ultimate goal is to use some of these clips on a demo reel I am working on in Premiere cs4

Please help, I have been struggling for 2 days...

PJ

[pjcom]

update:

I'm going to try to put various files into Adobe Media Encoder

I also forgot to add that friend 2's FCP is old, and resulted in a 960x540 aspect ratio export instead of the Red One's 1920x1080.



Edit: Media Encoder Unsuccessful

[pjcom]

This is where I am at now..

If I take one of the original Red One clips in FCP quicktime format, open them in quicktime pro on my PC--> save as "self contained movie," I have a file that I can actually work with.

Now I am playing with MPEG streamclip and quicktime to try to find something that works.

The closest I have come so far is when I start exporting the "self contained" file from MPEG streamclip to .avi, but I'm still stuck because all I am getting is audio.

I'm thinking that playing with the compression settings in mpeg streamclip with either the converted "self contained" .mov or converted .avi is where I will find success.

~will keep you posted

[poisondeathray]

960x540 is probably AIC, which isn't compatible on PC's

You could use prores, and install the PC prores decoder on the PC (i.e. export that from the mac to use on the pc)

or , other options: you could use uncompressed, animation codec, png, or dnxhd - all these are .mov wrapped and can be used on PC in PP CS4 if you have quicktime installed

of course, the native clips would work as well in PP CS4

[pjcom]

What do you suggest using to convert to these? MPEG Streamclip? When I play around with that, I still get no video.

[poisondeathray]

If all you have AIC, you can't use it on PC. You need to go back to mac to convert to a format that is compatible.

Nearly everything is compatible or can be converted to something compatible on a PC - except AIC

What does mediainfo say about that file. If I were you , I would go back and get the original footage instead of using the low resolution files

[pjcom]

(my saved "self contained" quicktime file that I have been working with is derived from just resaving this original file somewhere different)

Original file broken down from gspot...

File Type: QuickTime (.MOV)
Mime Type: Video/quicktime
Recommended Display Size: 1920 x 1080

23.97 fps

Status: Codec Status Undetermined


Broken down from MediaInfo....

Video Stream: REDC 25mbps, 1920*1080 (16:9) at 23.97 fps
Audio stream: lpcm 536kbps, 1hz, 3 channels, lpcm
writing library: apple quicktime

[pjcom]

...back to the ProRes suggestion, I followed a link to download it, I recieved a msg saying "a later version is already installed."

I have QT Pro installed so I guess that nips that in the bud.

If I open the original file directly in QT Pro and attempt to export it directly to .avi, I get "error 8961," which I believe is something along the lines of a missing codec issue.

If I open the re saved original file ("self contained whatever") and export it in QT Pro as .avi, I get audio with a white screen instead of black screen.

A step in the right direction maybe?

[poisondeathray]

you can decode prores on a pc, but can't encode. My earlier suggestion was to export prores from the mac to the pc (or one of the other options listed)

I don't think there is a decoder for red in .mov for PC, I think you're screwed.

Go back to the mac and export one of the formats listed above that are compatible

[pjcom]

Poison, I think you're right. I'm about to throw in the towel. Why can't it be as easy as Fruity loops where you take any ole' sound file, drag-n-drop, and it works?

Lol... 'tis the life of a video editor...

Thanks for all the input.

[pjcom]

Bump (hoping for suggestion still...)

This is an ongoing issue for people, and it is a grand inconvenience to have to go back and re-export at someone else's mac. How can professional editing programs not have the capacity to go cross platform? Does anybody know if CS5 corrects this issue??

[bsulli]

When you said in the first post that you have footage from a Red Camera but then make comments later about a friends use of FCP on a Mac my question becomes do you have footage exported from FCP or do you have the actual R3D files off of the Red Camera? Was the original footage shot at 4k per Red's normal default? Red doesn't support 4k footage on PC only 2k footage and if memory serves it won't 4k to a 2k on pc's on import. Either way if you have the raw files then a free import encoder is available for CS4.1 and above right off of the RED support website. It's beta but that is about how RED feels about the PC platform for editing and it has some limitations on the pc platform. Also Requires a 3.0 quad processor on a pc platform. Anyone who works with RED cameras knows not to bother with pc's as all of the 4k world camera vendors primarily release codec's for the Mac only. The problem isn't Mac's or PC's or FCP or RED. It's as simple as RED's raw format is closed source and you have to install a RED supplied codec to import into any program. RED is a very very high end camera that my clients use and doing any work on RED files on not Mac platforms is a complete waste of time. I'm also at a complete loss as to why your trying to take it to avi as there are literally hundreds of encoding combination's within the avi wrapper. DV is the uncompressed format of choice and yes the files are huge because of it. 5 minutes can equal gig's of data. Save your self some misery and do the editing on a Mac or hand it off to some who has one. http://www.red.com/support/release_history/15. Pc requirements are quad core and raided hard drives. RED is one of the most hardware intense platform around.

Also the reason professional editings programs are focused on one platform or another is because Mac and PC's are very very different under the hood and it's just not as simple as it may seem. I use my pc's for surfing the web and my Mac's for video editing.

One final comment from your last post. This isn't an on going issue for people who edit for a living. Mac's is what they use.