Participant

Answered

PE 2021 won't import an mp4 but PE 14 will

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
November 8, 2020
3 replies
599 views

I have a project (recent) created in Premier Elements 14 which uses (with no problems) three mp4 files all shot on the same phone (Galaxy s10e).

Yesterday, I upgraded to PE 2021. I opened my project and it picks up two of the mp4 files fine but on the third it reports "The importer reported a generic error".

That file plays fine in Windows 'Films & TV' app and still loads into PE14, so it has not become corrupted since the last usage.

Any suggestions? (Other than using PE14 to act as a transcoder for PE2021!)

20201106_154744.zip

Import

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer Steve Grisetti

Open the video in the free download MediaInfo. In MediaInfo, set View to Text and then copy the text of this report and paste it to this forum. With a detailed report on this video we'll better be able to advise you.

Greg_S.

Community Expert

Strangely, the file opened in PRE 2020 but not in 2021 (where I got the same message as you). I transcoded it in Handbrake and 2021 now accepts it. So, yes, I think your solution is to render it out in another program. I will be curious if you render the file in PRE 14 and 2021 does not accept it. If you are not familiar with Handbrake, a free utility, you can find it here.

S

Steve Grisetti

Legend

Instructions for converting editable video with Handbrake can be found here.

B

Bill Sprague

Community Expert

You wrote that you opened a PrE 14 project in PrE 2021. That may be the problem. What happens if you start a new project in PrE 2021 and try the phone footage directly?

G

graham70Author

Participant

Thank you. I was pretty sure I'd tried that, but have just re-checked. Open PrE 2021, add media, select this file - same problem.

S

Steve Grisetti

Legend

What operating system are you using?

This is a variable frame rate file. Version 10 doesn't work well with variable frame rate files but version 2021 is designed to work with them. You should be having problems with it in version 10, not version 2021.

That said, can you confirm that you've started a brand new project in version 2021 and brought this file into it and you're getting a generic error? Make sure it's a brand new project and that this is the only media you've added to it and to your timeline.

There are also indications in the video's specs that it's been rotated 270 degrees. Did you do that manually? Is this still a 16:9 widescreen video when you add it to Premiere Elements?

There are other odd things in the file we can explore but let's start with that.

S

Steve GrisettiCorrect answer

Legend

Open the video in the free download MediaInfo. In MediaInfo, set View to Text and then copy the text of this report and paste it to this forum. With a detailed report on this video we'll better be able to advise you.

G

graham70Author

Participant

Thank you for coming back. Here is the output from MediaInfo as suggested:

General
Complete name : (Path removed) 20201106_154744.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42 (isom/mp42)
File size : 17.1 MiB
Duration : 10 s 78 ms
Overall bit rate : 14.2 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2020-11-06 15:47:56
Tagged date : UTC 2020-11-07 12:46:21

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 10 s 78 ms
Bit rate : 14.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Rotation : 270°
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS
Minimum frame rate : 21.552 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 30.030 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.225
Stream size : 16.8 MiB (98%)
Title : VideoHandle
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2020-11-06 15:47:56
Tagged date : UTC 2020-11-06 15:47:56
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
transfer_characteristics_Original : BT.601
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
mdhd_Duration : 10078
Codec configuration box : avcC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 10 s 48 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 314 KiB (2%)
Title : SoundHandle
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2020-11-06 15:47:56
Tagged date : UTC 2020-11-06 15:47:56

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded