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ZC_Mom
Participant
June 2, 2020
Answered

Need to convert older .mov files and preserve the alpha.

  • June 2, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 1645 views

Does anyone know a Mac program that will convert older .mov files and preserve the alpha? I cannot import them into AE since they are no longer supported. I've downloaded a few free trials, and when I convert to ProRes 4444, I lose the alpha and gain a black background.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Denise

    Correct answer ZC_Mom

    You still haven't offered any info on the actual CoDecs used, so I'm at a loss what to tell you. Could be the old PNG-CoDec bug, could just as well be incompatible older files rendered with the Final Cut Studio Pro CoDecs. Anyway, you need to provide that info. We simply cannot know.

     

    Mylenium


    No need to respond - thank you for all your help! I'll replace the .mov files with something more current.

    4 replies

    Sako-55
    Sako-55
    Participant
    February 3, 2026

    I’ve been using https://cnvrt.app/mov-to-mp4 for old slideshows and videos I have in the MOV format. It seems to work well.

    R
    rostekr
    Participant
    March 18, 2025

    open it in photoshop and export png seq and recompose in after again

      R
      rostekr
      Participant
      March 18, 2025

      if you open the mov (with png sequence) in photoshop it will read the transparency. then you have to export to desired format 😉

        Mylenium
        Mylenium
        Legend
        June 3, 2020

        Without any info about the actual source CoDecs nobody can advise just like info on what programs you actually used to do the conversion might allow people to give you tips on how to get it working. As far as I know Apple only recently added Alpha support to 444, so it may be as trivial as updating something on your system.

         

        Mylenium

        Z
        ZC_MomAuthor
        Participant
        June 3, 2020

        Thank you for your reply. My h/w and s/w specs:

         

        iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017)

        Proc.: 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

        Mem: 32 GB 2400 MHz DDr4

        Graphics: Radeon Pro 560 4GB

        Running AE 17.1.0 / Media Encoder 14.2

         

        I receive the error "After Effects Error: file 'flare.mov' cannot be imported -- this 'MooV' file is damaged or unsupported" when opening older, 2015 AE files. I'm unable to contact the independent contractors who created the videos.

         

        I've used https://cloudconvert.com/mov-to-mp4 to convert the older .mov files to .mp4, and that fix has been working for files that don't require an alpha channel for transparency. When I convert .mov to .mp4, I lose the alpha channel and gain a black background. I need to figure out a way of converting the older .mov so that AE will import accept it.

         

        Hopefully, the above makes more sense. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

        Mylenium
        Mylenium
        Legend
        June 3, 2020

        You still haven't offered any info on the actual CoDecs used, so I'm at a loss what to tell you. Could be the old PNG-CoDec bug, could just as well be incompatible older files rendered with the Final Cut Studio Pro CoDecs. Anyway, you need to provide that info. We simply cannot know.

         

        Mylenium

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