'The movie files contain no video frames'

[ah12121212]

I am trying to import video from my Fuji XT3. I have previously imported movies from my XT1 fine, but I am now getting this error message - 'The movie files contain no video frames.

The files are .mov and I'm using Classic 8.0 Camera Raw 11.0.

Does anyone know what the issue could be?

Thanks.

[Bill Sprague]

The XT3 published specs include the option to shoot H.265.  Lightroom Classic on a Windows machine does not (yet!) support that.

You shooting H.265?  Is your Lightroom on a PC?

[johnrellis]

If whsprague's suggestions don't help illuminate the issue, try copying one of the .mov files to your desktop and changing its extension to .mp4. Another person (with videos from another camera) was experiencing the same error message and accidentally discovered that workaround.  (It's a little mysterious why it worked, but I verified it.)

[ah12121212]

I am using a mac.

[Bill Sprague]

Are you shooting with H.265?

[ah12121212]

Yes I'm shooting in H.265. I tried renaming one of the files to .mp4 but I got this error when I tried to import it

'An unknown error has occurred while reading the video file. Connecting to Dynamic Link server failed'

[Bill Sprague]

My understanding is that H.265 support on a Mac does not come unless you have the latest Mac operating system.  You can convert H.265 footage to H.264 with the free program Handbrake.

[johnrellis]

My understanding is that H.265 support on a Mac does not come unless you have the latest Mac operating system. 

Almost: HEVC (H.265) requires LR 8.0 and Mac OS 10.13 or later. (The latest Mac OS is 10.14.)

HEIC and HEVC media files support in Lightroom and Camera Raw

[johnrellis]

Please copy the first ten lines from the menu command Help > System Info, so we can see precisely which versions you're running.

[Jao vdL]

As noted above, just change the extension of the file to .mp4 and it will likely work. This is clearly a bug in Lightroom that it doesn't recognize H265 in mov containers. For H265 files, mov and mp4 are interchangeable as the mov container and mp4 container for these files are the same thing so you can just change the extension.

[ah12121212]

I am running OS 10.13.6

I have tried changing the extension name, that it what gave me the second error message.

[ah12121212]

As requested:

Lightroom Classic version: 8.0 [ 1193777 ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en-AU

Operating system: Mac OS 10

Version: 10.13.6 [17G65]

Application architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 4

Processor speed: 3.3 GHz

Built-in memory: 16,384.0 MB

Real memory available to Lightroom: 16,384.0 MB

[Jao vdL]

The dynamic link error indicates a different problem that is pretty common.

Often it is solved by clearing the video cache from Lightroom and/or

rebooting the computer. Does the file play in quicktime player even after

renaming?

[ah12121212]

Installed the latest update which seemed to be security only. Tried to import the .mov file and got the same error, tried to import the renamed .mp4 file and the error changed from the 'an unknown error occurred...' to the the 'file contains no video frames'.

I can open both the .mp4 file and .mov files in quicktime from my desktop.

[johnrellis]

This smells similar to a recent bug report. Can you upload a sample video to Dropbox or similar and post the sharing link here?  We can take a look, see if it's an issue specific to your configuration, and file a new bug report or add to an existing one if necessary.

[ah12121212]

here you go: Dropbox - DSCF5542.MOV

[johnrellis]

I think there are two separate issues with this .mov:

1. The error message "The movie files contain no video frames" results from the bug where LR sometimes requires HEVC files to have the .mp4 extension, even though internally they are encoded in the Apple QuickTime format rather than MP4 v2 [ISO 14496-14] format. (The two formats are very similar but not identical.)  See this bug report: Lightroom Classic: Can't Import Certain Videos, says "File Contains no Video Frames" | Photoshop Fam...

2. The file has a very large bit rate, 204 Mbits/sec. My Macbook Pro (15" mid-2015) can't play the file in QuickTime Player without severe stuttering, even though the file is stored on the internal SSD. This large bit rate could be causing the error message "Connecting to Dynamic Link server failed". I used Adobe Media Encoder to make a version with a much lower bit rate of 7.7 Mbits/sec (with the same resolution, frame rate, and HEVC), and LR didn't have any problems with it. 

Does your camera have an option for using a lower bit rate?

[Bill Sprague]

Thanks for the file.  I can't help with Mac issues.  However, I was able to confirm that Lightroom on a Windows computer isn't going to work!  A work around for Windows is to use Handbrake (quality freeware) and convert to a H.264 file that did work.  

[ah12121212]

I can both open and run the file in Quicktime, and since I've upgraded my mac OS I don't get the 'connecting to dynamic server failed' error, I just get the "The movie files contain no video frames" message.

I can shoot in 8 bit instead of 10 bit.

[johnrellis]

since I've upgraded my mac OS I don't get the 'connecting to dynamic server failed' error, I just get the "The movie files contain no video frames" message.

After you upgraded Mac OS, what happens when you rename a copy to have the .mp4 extension and import it into LR?

[ah12121212]

I get the "The movie files contain no video frames"  message

[johnrellis]

I get the "The movie files contain no video frames"  message

To avoid splitting important details across multiple threads, please continue the discussion in the bug report in the official Adobe feedback forum: Lightroom Classic: Can't Import Certain Videos, says "File Contains no Video Frames" | Photoshop Fam... . That post contains a simple workaround that works for some.

[zhon]

I have the same problem on MacOS 10.5.4 and Lightroom 9.2.1. I rename the extension to MP4 and then I got the error:

An unknown error has occured while reading the video file. Connecting to Dynamic Link server failed.

I am able to play it on my mac. I had to resort to using Image Capture to get it from the X-T3 to my computer.