I've just starting shooting some short video clips and the MP4 files won't open in iMovie. The files also won't open in quicktime, but will open in an older VLC media player that I had installed. From what I've google'd, it looks like I need to convert the MP4's to something else? Can anyone advise on the best way to do this, or what program to use? Thanks in advance.
bjhurley wrote:
Two different things: XAVC is a codec; MP4 is a container. So your files are XAVC wrapped in an MP4 container.
What version of MacOS are you using, and what version of iMovie? And finally, which of the video modes are you shooting in:
XAVC HS 8K
XAVC HS 4K
XAVC S 4k
XAVC S HD
XAVC S-I 4k
XAVC S-I HD
I'm on Mac OS Monterey 12.2.1 and iMovie 10.3.1. The video clips are XAVC S 4K. When I try to import, iMovie is saying there are no importable files and won't let me select any of the video files. I'm just trying to do some basic edits, so if there is another program better suited than iMovie, I'm open to it
GreggNY wrote:
I'm on Mac OS Monterey 12.2.1 and iMovie 10.3.1. The video clips are XAVC S 4K. When I try to import, iMovie is saying there are no importable files and won't let me select any of the video files. I'm just trying to do some basic edits, so if there is another program better suited than iMovie, I'm open to it
Well, that's a head-scratcher because everything you're using is up to date. iMovie can't open the 8K files but all the documentation I've seen suggests it can open all flavors of XAVC 4K.
You could try DaVinci Resolve, which has a free version, but it may not run well on your Mac depending on your configuration (RAM and processor speed don't really matter for Resolve, what matters is GPU. You can have the fastest processor in the world and 60 terabytes of RAM and Resolve still won't run well if you don't have the right GPU specs). But it's worth a try. Resolve isn't the most intuitive program to learn; if you want something closer to iMovie you can buy Final Cut Pro X -- worth it if you think you'll be doing video on a regular basis. Final Cut and Resolve are both good choices; note that the free version of Resolve is missing some important features such as noise reduction. Resolve is more professional and fully featured; Final Cut is professional too (lots of pro editors, ad agencies, and others use it) but simpler and more efficient. I'd avoid Premiere; I hear a lot of complaints about it.
Regardless of what you use, you'll want to edit using proxy files (Final Cut or Resolve will create these for you) because trying to edit .h264 footage is taxing for any computer; Final Cut or Resolve will transcode to ProRes, which is a much better codec for editing. h.264 is really a delivery codec and was never meant to be worked with within an NLE although lots of people do it.
Speaking of this, another solution would be to spend $70 on Apple's Compressor app, which you can use to convert your XAVC files to ProRes and I'm sure those would open up in iMovie. That would save you having to buy Final Cut or grapple with Resolve. There are free transcoding apps out there too, but I can't remember their names.
If you think you'll be doing video regularly, I highly recommend the tutorials by Ripple Training. Their intro training to Final Cut is legendary. They also have an excellent intro tutorial on Resolve as well as more advanced tutorials on both Final Cut and Resolve.
GreggNY wrote:
I'm on Mac OS Monterey 12.2.1 and iMovie 10.3.1. The video clips are XAVC S 4K.
first off, xavc is not a codec, it's a format that uses the h.264/h.265 codecs, wrapped in a container like .mp4
the last thing you want to do is re-encode the video to another compressed codec, because it's a slow lossy process that lowers the p.q., but you might be able to re-wrap it into another container that imovie likes, which does not re-encode the video, so it's lossless and it's fast... you could try evaluating this software, it does the first minute of video for free, but just make sure you understand the difference between re-encoding and re-wrapping: https://hedge.video/editready/benefits
you can also re-encode to more "lossless" formats like prores, but it doesn't improve the p.q.; it's time consuming and it takes up a lot of disk space because it creates bigger files... creating proxy files for editing is a good idea, but you'll need to be able to open the original file first, that's kind of a separate topic.
i would be inclined to first install davinci resolve and see how it handles what you are shooting, because in the long run imovie isn't suitable for real editing... blackmagic created a free(?) series of help videos on using resolve.
osv2 wrote:
first off, xavc is not a codec, it's a format that uses the h.264/h.265 codecs, wrapped in a container like .mp4
the last thing you want to do is re-encode the video to another compressed codec, because it's a slow lossy process that lowers the p.q., but you might be able to re-wrap it into another container that imovie likes, which does not re-encode the video, so it's lossless and it's fast... you could try evaluating this software, it does the first minute of video for free, but just make sure you understand the difference between re-encoding and re-wrapping: https://hedge.video/editready/benefits
you can also re-encode to more "lossless" formats like prores, but it doesn't improve the p.q.; it's time consuming and it takes up a lot of disk space because it creates bigger files... creating proxy files for editing is a good idea, but you'll need to be able to open the original file first, that's kind of a separate topic.
i would be inclined to first install davinci resolve and see how it handles what you are shooting, because in the long run imovie isn't suitable for real editing... blackmagic created a free(?) series of help videos on using resolve.
Thanks for the help. So I downloaded the trial of Davinci Resolve and it wouldn't open the files either. When I import them, it says 'media offline'. I tried other video formats afterwards on the A1 and the HD settings work no problem. They load on the desktop and in iMovie without issue. Then I tried XAVC HS 4K, and that also works with everything. So I'm not sure what the real differences are between the 'S' 4K and the 'HS' 4K, but I'll just continue using the 'HS' for the small amount of video that I want now.
as long has your computer can handle it, you made the right choice with 'hs', see the link:
"The XAVC HS format uses the HEVC codec(h.265), which has high compression efficiency. The camera can record movies with higher image quality than XAVC S movies but the same data volume."
so to get the best p.q., use one of these choices in the menu:
When [File Format] is set to [XAVC HS 4K]
60p/50p 200M 4:2:2 10bit
60p/50p 100M 4:2:2 10bit
24p* 100M 4:2:2 10bit
if that 200M bitrate creates file sizes that are too big and too hard to edit, drop it down to the 100M version.
p.1 #10 · A1 MP4 video files not opening in iMovie
GreggNY wrote:
Thanks for the help. So I downloaded the trial of Davinci Resolve and it wouldn't open the files either. When I import them, it says 'media offline'. I tried other video formats afterwards on the A1 and the HD settings work no problem. They load on the desktop and in iMovie without issue. Then I tried XAVC HS 4K, and that also works with everything. So I'm not sure what the real differences are between the 'S' 4K and the 'HS' 4K, but I'll just continue using the 'HS' for the small amount of video that I want now.
The free version of DaVinci Resolve will not decode h.265 encoded files. You need the Studio version which is not free.
p.1 #11 · A1 MP4 video files not opening in iMovie
Depending on how basic your edits are you can also use Sony’s Catalyst software. It handles all of the formats their cameras support. The “Browse” version is free.
