Tutorial .mp4s will not import into After Effects

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
December 14, 2021
2 replies
1162 views

Hi, I've had this issue for a while: no matter how many times I download Adobe's own tutorial practice files, CC2021 refuses to import them. This includes the ones that came with the install. I keep getting an error that "it (the .mp4s in question) cannot be opened and that it may be in an unsupported format".

When I close out of the associated dialog boxes, I see that it is now listed in the bottom-left panel but will not play (usually I just see multi-colored bars but other times, it remains blank).

I've seen other threads that say AE can't handle .mp4 and to convert these to .mov but why would Adobe staff include .mp4 in their own tutorials if they were never going to work in the first place? If anyone has any suggestions as to how to fix this permanently, I would appreciate it.

Mylenium

Legend

Most likely your hardware acceleration isn't working correctly and H.264 playback is massively relying on that. So unless you provide actual system info and details about your settings, we can't really tell you more than the standard blanket advice of checking settings, updating drivers and all that. If reinstalling AE doesn't work, consider escalating user privileges by signing in as administrator or creating a secondary user account. Anything beyond that will require proper technical details.

Mylenium

Legend

Nothing to do with Adobe making a mess, but rather very likely an issue on your end. Either GPU acceleration is not working or you have messed up your system's CoDecs by installing some fishy "CoDec pack", alternate media players, screen capture software or anything of that sort. Anyway, check your system's graphics driver and update it, check AE's hardware acceleration preferences, get rid of potentially interfering tools, reinstall AE to fix your CoDecs. everything else will require better information, beginning with proper system info of which so far you haven't provided none.

Mylenium

C

Clever_niceness5FEBAuthor

Participant

Wow, your reply was unnecessarily condescending and aggressive. I never said 'Adobe made a mess'; I said it didn't make sense that there were threads saying the solution was to convert the videos to a different format, so I concluded I must be missing something.

I actually haven't installed any codecs, alternate media players, or screen capture software. I also updated all of my video drivers prior to making this post. As for providing system details, I don't typically provide them prior to someone requesting further info. I think I'll wait for someone who can interact with others respectfully, so thanks!

Mrtn Ritter

Participating Frequently

Are those files playing in another media player or adobe app (like premiere)?

AE is capable of working with mp4 files. However, mp4 is just a container, the issue often lies in the codec. AE does support H264 and H265. Those files are most likely H264. Get MediaInfo to get a technical look into those files.

My guess is, that those files are just corrupt.

Get some other mp4's (H264's) to check if they import and play.

*Martin

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