Please read very carefully and understand that this workaround may or may not work for you depending on your editing program, installed codecs, and other factors. Also, read the Comments for more info.
Apple’s proprietary MOV on Windows PC – Premiere Pro
Published by June 19th, 2008 in Codecs, Featured, Technology, Uncategorized, Video, Video Editing and Video Software. 14 Comments
Apple’s proprietary MOV on Windows PC – Premiere Pro
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Can you help…. ?
I have got some HD footage from my friends Sony CX7 camcorder.
He transfered it from his camcorder to his Apple Mac using Final Cut Pro.
He then copied the .mov files onto memory stick so I could use it on my PC with Premiere Elements 4.
I downloaded SUPER and followed your instructions, but it wont even start encoding.
A message comes up saying “An error has occured. Click to read more”.
If I do the same again but check the ‘DirectShow Decode’, the video is encoded but the output file doesnt play (in Windows Media Player or DivX player) – I just get a blank white screen with no audio.
Using the Multimedia Analysis Box in SUPER, the video details are displayed below (using advanced analysis)…
Video #0
Count : 90
Count of stream of this kind : 1
Kind of stream : Video
StreamKindID : 0
ID : 1
Codec : icod
Codec : icod
Codec/ : icod
PlayTime : 105505
PlayTime : 1mn 45s
PlayTime : 1mn 45s 505ms
PlayTime : 1mn 45s
PlayTime : 00:01:45.505
Bit rate mode : VBR
Bit rate : 57315917
Bit rate : 57.3 Mbps
Width : 1440
Width : 1440 pixels
Height : 1080
Height : 1080 pixels
Display Aspect ratio : 1.333
Display Aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate mode : CFR
Frame rate : 29.970
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
FrameCount : 3162
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.230
StreamSize : 755889484
StreamSize/String : 721 MiB
StreamSize/String1 : 721 MiB
StreamSize/String2 : 721 MiB
StreamSize/String3 : 721 MiB
StreamSize/String4 : 720.9 MiB
Encoded date : UTC 2008-07-08 21:47:41
Tagged date : UTC 2008-07-08 21:47:41
These steps may not work with Premiere ELEMENTS. I use Premiere Pro only.
Thank you
Hi and thanks for starting a post on this ridiculous issue (I can’t believe it when companies behave like this and wrap up perfectly compatible files in their proprietary codes – so childish).
I’ve been battling away with Super following your advice, and have tried so many different combinations of codecs/settings, yet always end up with a file that is a) out of sync with the audio and b)sometimes squeezed to 4:3, even though I’ve ticked the 16:9 box.
The file I’m trying to use is a 700mb, 3 minute video, shot on hdv by a sony z1 and exported by my editor’s fcp as a mov – it is now unreadable by anything except vlc on my own machine. I need to use part of the video in a sequence in premiere cs3, and the editor has long deleted the old files. The edit is too complex to consider recapturing from the original tape, which is in the posession of a third party. Basically, I really need to convert or ‘unlock’ this footage that the F******** $*££&*(%)($s at FCP have tied in knots for me. Sorry for that outburst. So frustrating.
Any further advice would be appreciated VERY MUCH! Please!! It’s also 25fps (shot 1080i50 PAL) and 48k audio
HELP!
Sent some suggestions to Alex, haven’t heard back though…hope it worked out for him!
yeah sorry for the late response kroy, and thanks for all your help. still not nearing a solution though, so I’d be so grateful if you could let me know if you had any more luck than me, with the original file i sent you.
cheers
Hi;
I appear to be having the exact same problem as John above – and I have Premier Pro CS3. It encodes the file (but only with DIrectShow Decode turned on). I know that the files are Apple Intermediate Codec encoded. Again, the format says icod and Codec ID says icod as well. Interestingly enough, I do have DivX installed on this PC, and it behaves the same way – will play the original .mov file without error, just no video (but audio works). I have over 100 video clips shot by a producer and loaded on his mac, which I copied to an external harddrive. Would love to be able to convert them so that I can use them. BTW, I tried initially to set the video scale size at NoChange, but it came back with an error, so, since I am producing standard video DVD’s (not high def), I selected 720:480 as my scale size. That removed that error. Everything else is the default settings. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks.
Okay Alex is taken care of, glad I was able to help.
So now Mike… I’m not sure what exactly you are asking.
You are or are not able to get video? DivX has nothing to do with any of this by the way, you’ll get audio no matter what usually (ie in Media Player Classic).
Go ahead and download the VideoLan player
http://www.videolan.org/
If you can play the footage with VideoLan you should have everything you need on your system to convert the footage. Double check your codecs and download the Morgan M-JPEG codecs as well if needed.
Remember to set the output to AVI and use M-JPEG as your codec.
Make sure FFMPEG is checked (MEncoder should also work).
Also, copy the files to your internal drive, don’t encode them from the external one. This may or may not help but I had an issue doing this workaround from an external drive.
Let me know how it goes.
Hi Kroy;
Thanks for the quick response. Just to be clear, I am NOT able to get video playback, sound works fine. I wondered about DivX because before I downloaded that, I would only get errors and unsupported messages from Quicktime and Media Player. After the install, it would at least play the sound, but not the video, which is the same thing it was doing after the conversion. But if it has nothing to do with it, then that is ruled out.
I made all the settings you suggested, moved one of the files to the desktop, and it (thought it) converted, and created a video that showed text in it that stated that the DirectShowSource: Could no open as video or audio, the format is not supported. So, I downloaded the VideoLan player, and it came up with the following error when I tried to play the file:
“No suitable decoder module:
VLC does not support the audio or video format “icod”. Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this.”
What a depressing statement! No “try other codecs” just a “sorry, no way to fix” message. Wow. I even downloaded and installed the Morgan M-JPEG codecs as well, and no difference, same error message. Basically, it is saying that it just can’t seem to read those .MOV files.
Would you like me to send you one?
Thanks for trying to help!!
Mike
Okay that’s a problem – the footage I was able to convert at least played (somewhat) with the VLC player.
Since yours does not it means the .MOV itself is the problem. Could be a lot of things like a different codec, corrupted structures and so on.
I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Apple pushed out a FCP update to make my workaround completely impossible.
I can look at your file and see if I can figure something out for you but I won’t be able to spend the time to convert the hundred or so files for you.
Hi Kroy;
No, I wouldn’t ask you to convert the 100 files! I would just like you to see if you can even play this on your setup – if so, then I know it would have to be some codec or something that you have that I don’t. If it doesn’t play on yours, then I am pretty much out-of-luck. How would you like me to send the file to you?
Kind regards,
Mike
Check your email for info. Thx
Hola Kroy,
I have the exact same problem as Mike in the above article… i’ve already tried everything you’ve said to try, but i get the same results….
Did you ever get to fix the problem for Mike???, as its hard to tell in the last two responses… if so, could you help me out???.
I understand that its like four months since you helped Mike, and that the .MOV files probably aren’t convertable, or even playable without a Mac. I just want to know the if you’ve come up with another way around it or not.
Thanks very much,
Time To Break Up.
Timetobreakup, check your email for further info.
Thanks and good luck