Sony XDCAM EX files no longer read in AE/Premiere?

[Katory_Digital]

I have an After Effects project (a feature film) on Mac that references XDCAM EX .avi files from a Sony EX1. This project has worked fine until I opened it again recently and now the .avi media cannot be imported due to a 'missing codec'. I cannot even import the files individually into AE/Prem to transcode them into Mov. The files are not broken or corrupt as Resolve 14 will open and edit them just fine. What gives? Is anyone else having trouble with the Sony .mp4 file format all of a sudden? Is this a Adobe issue - or a Mac/QT issue? And what has changed in the last 6 months that has broken what previously worked just fine?

Thanks in advance.

[Warren Heaton]

Hi Katory:

You're definitely experiencing something unexpected.  It sounds like you've been trying the right things to trouble shoot it.

Did you upgrade your macOS or change computers?

Is your project file and your source media on an external drive?  I've gotten past MP4 issues like this by forcing them to be Offline or Missing.  So, I'd copy my project file to desktop, disconnect project drive, open the project and allow all the files to be Offline (in PR) or missing (in AE), save it, reconnect the drive, then copy the duplicate project back to the original location (with a different name as to not over-write the original project) and then open it (with my fingers crossed).

You could also try changing the file name extension on one file from .avi to .mov to see if that forces PR or AE to look at it correctly.

It's my understanding that both PR and AE should be able to support XDCAM without QuickTime.

Since Resolve is seeing the files as expected, you could use it to transcode to Apple ProRes and then continue to work in PR and/or AE from there.  Not the best workaround, but should get you to an edited master.

-Warren

[Warren Heaton]

Oh, I forgot this!  Whenever media files to not open and/or import as expected, try using the Media Browser panel.  There's something different about how it looks at the media than the project does (something I read in an Adobe blog post awhile back explains what's going on, I just don't remember exactly what it is).

Also, if PR and AE don't support the format directly without QuickTime, a QuickTime component or import utility may be needed (that would come from Sony).

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Katory_Digital,

You might try signing out and then signing back in to Creative Cloud. Let us know what occurs.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Katory_Digital]

Hi all, thankyou for the feedback and ideas - Warren in particular.

I have solved the issue - it turns out it was not with XDCAM EX files themselves (which are .mp4's if I remember rightly) -   I had, in fact transcoded these files (eons ago) to the Cineform codec - (now 'Gopro Cineform') and kept the original file names so it looked like they were straight out of the camera - which is what was throwing me. Once I installed the Cineform reader - all the files came back online in AE and happy days.

Thanks again for your responses.

Cheers,

David.

[Shawn Burns]

Never forget, Handbrake app can save you some hair from being pulled out. I was having a similar issue with YT clips ripped from youtube with the ClipGrab app. AE wasn't showing video (only audio) for anything I ripped with ClipGrab above 1080p. I ripped a 4k clip, then through it threw handbrake with a YouTube 4K preset, and exported, then the video worked with AE no problem.