P: Can't import videos

Decoded URI: hI have hit this issue a number of times. Today I took a more systematic approach to trying to isolate the trigger, and I seem to have made some small progress ...

If the set of videos to import includes some that are super-short (well under 1s) then dynamiclinkserver can't make sense of them - it just spins forever on them using 99% cpu (can verify with lsof that it sticks on these same files each time). If I move such source files aside them the import runs smoothly. The offending videos seem to have been produced on assorted iPad apps (kids playing) and (speculating) I think may also include Apple live photos (which is why the problem is worse in recent times; I removed all videos from catalog and started importing year by year or month by month - got to 2015 to find this issue, have not tried later years yet but based on inability to import from iPhones lately I am guessing live photos or mistaken video clips that are also short are the trigger).

I can supply some sample videos, but they are not difficult to find! From MediaInfo (Mac system) one of them shows the following (133ms duration):

$ cat MediaInfo.txt 
General
Complete name                            : /Users/pics/2015/2015/2015-01/2015-01-24/IMG_0255.MOV
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : QuickTime
Codec ID                                 : qt   0000.00 (qt  )
File size                                : 363 KiB
Duration                                 : 133ms
Overall bit rate                         : 22.3 Mbps
Recorded date                            : 2015-01-24T12:33:45+1100
Encoded date                             : UTC 2015-01-24 01:33:48
Tagged date                              : UTC 2015-01-24 01:33:48
Writing application                      : 8.1
Writing library                          : Apple QuickTime
Model                                    : iPad
xyz                                      : -37.8332+145.0890+075.884/
Make                                     : Apple
com.apple.quicktime.location.ISO6709     : -37.8332+145.0890+075.884/
com.apple.quicktime.make                 : Apple
com.apple.quicktime.software             : 8.1
com.apple.quicktime.model                : iPad
com.apple.quicktime.creationdate         : 2015-01-24T12:33:45+1100
Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 133ms
... (rest cut)