.mov to MiniDV for editing in FCP5

[Skiphall]

New to the forum, longtime video editor ...
I have a .mov file from a client, which I need to use in a multicam MiniDV project. The project is well underway, so starting from scratch would be costly. I just need to know how to convert the .mov file, compressed apparently using H.264, into whatever format FCP captures MiniDV tapes to.
I've tried exporting from QuickTime, to DV/NTSC, 29.97, 720x486 (might have been 480), etc.. Ended up with a 41Gb file (from a 114 mb .mov file!), which when imported into FCP, still didn't allow me to create a multi clip, citing a "codec error."
I apologize if the answer is already here, I just don't have time to search for it right now... deadline, you know.
Thanks so much for any available help!

Skip Hall
Homeworks Video Productions
Suffolk, Va.

[edDV]

DV would be DV/NTSC, 29.97i, 720x480.

What is the source of this h.264 clip? A camcorder?

Is it standard def?

What is the clip length?

41 GB DV would be around 3.3 hours.

[Skiphall]

Well, I just typed up a full reply to your post, but when I hit "preview post," everything I had written got deleted. Don't cha just LOVE when that happens?

Anyway, in a nutshell (because I can't bring myself to type all that again), the original .mov file (+/- 30 minutes, or so) came from an iMac that was connected to my XL2 (SD) via FW400 while I was shooting. My camera developed an unresolvable "eject tape" error following a tape change, so we decided to just record what my camera was shooting, to the HDD on the iMac. The IT guys operating the iMac, burned the resulting .mov file to a DVD before I could talk to them about formatting issues, so we just got what we got.

However, since my first post, we exported the original .mov file from the Browser in FCP, using Batch Export, with settings for DV/NTSC, and after and hour or so (we're using my older iMac for this job) we had a usable file to drop onto the timeline. We synched it up and multiclipped it, just like we normally do. For some reason, IT's iMac recorded my footage in 4:3, even though my XL2 was shooting in 16:9, but checking the anamorphic setting in the FCP Browser fixed that.

I'm certainly not sure that this was the "best" way to address this issue, but it seems to have worked, and for now, has gotten us out of a jam. If you know a more straightforward way to deal with this, by all means let me know in case I encounter this situation again.

Thanks a lot for your input!