mpgv, MP4 to Final Cut

[grantwaddell]

Not sure if I'm posting in the correct spot but I have to start somewhere.
I have some video files that were supplied to me and need to edit them in FCP. The problem is FCP won't recognize them.
VLC has no problem playing the files.
They are labelled like this : 377_0003_09.MP4
Command "I" brings up the following:

Stream 0
Type Video
Codec mpgv
Language English
Res 1920 x 1088
Display Res 1820 x 1080
Frame Rate 29.970030

Stream 1
Type Audio
Codec twos
Language English
Channels Stereo
Sample Rate 48000 Hz
Bits Per Sample 16

Why does QT and FCP not recognize them, and what can I do to get it into a format that FCP will understand?
Thanks for any help you can give me.

Cheers
Grant Waddell

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

FCP doesn't understand anything or just not the sound?

[grantwaddell]

Nothing. No audio or video. Just brings up a dialogue box saying File Error: 1 file recognized, 0 access denied, 1 unknown.
When we tried this before I was given a folder filled just with the "MP4" files. The sound played in VLC but badly. They then said "we forgot to give you a folder".
It contained a series of folders called "card 1" 2,3,4 etc. in each there were DCIM folders which contained nothing and another folder named "PRIVATE"
In this folder was a JVC folder and in this was two folders called BPAV and CQAV. The BPAV has a number of other items in them CUEUP.XML, MEDIAPRO.BAK, MEDIAPRO.XML, and two other folders CLPR, TAKR. In the CLPR folder was another series of folders that matched the file names of the MP4 files I originally received. In these is a similarly matched (MP4 file name) as follows:

377_0003_01.MP4
377_0003_01.SMI
377_0003_01I01.PPN
377_0003_01M01.XML
377_0003_01R01.BIM

I hope that this gives some clue as to what the camera originally recorded to.

[wmgibson]

do you have a free copy of sonys's xdcam ex log and transfer. it converts the files to quicktime .mov to enable FCP to read them
The next time you get footage from the JVC camera askthem if they can record in .mov. You will then get a CQAV folder instead of a BPAV. this indicates the camera has recorded with a quicktime wrapper and not an MP4. Your footage will go straight in to FCP with out the need for sony's software.

[ajmas]

The odd thing here is that the camera is using an MPEG4 container, yet its using an MPEG2 codec (mpgv) for the video. As for for the audio codec (twos), I am not even sure what that is at this point. Its not listed in the codecs supported by VLC. Does the video play back in Quicktime, or any other open source video applications on the Mac?

At this point I would suggest following the advice of the previous answers if it works for you.

Edit: A bit of hunting around gave me this page: http://openquicktime.sourceforge.net/co ... type=Audio , which indicates the 'twos' audio codec is 'Twos Complement - Big Endian PCM'. BTW Have you tried VLC 1.1.0-rc to see if it makes any difference?

[ajmas]

Would it be possible for you to provide a brief 20sec recording from your camera? I have opened a ticket to have the 'twos' codec added to ffmpeg (used by VLC), but they need a sample for their development purposes.

Edit: Never mind I had mis-read the original post and this is a Final Cut issue. The best thing you can do in that case is convert to something Final Cut supports.