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Hi! I've spent several weeks capturing about 30+ hours worth of video files from digital and analogue tapes, which I've saved on an external drive. I used iMovie to capture most of the video, because Premiere didn't work very well (kept freezing). Now I'm trying to import these linear PCM DVC clips (which I found inside the iMovie library) into Premiere to edit, but Premiere only allows me to import the first 10 seconds of each clip. (Exactly 9 seconds and 24 frames for each file.)
The reason I'd prefer Premiere to iMovie is so I can export the videos as square 4:3 format files (this is footage from the 90s). Is there something obvious I'm missing here, or do I have to export every single file from iMovie in widescreen in order to then edit them to 4:3 in Premiere? Seems a bit insane! Incidentally, Media Encoder can also only see the first 10 seconds of each clip...
Here's the MediaInfo report for one of the files:
General
Complete name : /Volumes/Balalaika/1997 sommer 1/2147483647-11-06 06_00_00.mov
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt 0000.00 (qt )
File size : 20.2 GiB
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 30.9 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2020-09-10 17:27:37
Tagged date : UTC 2020-09-10 17:27:47
Writing library : Apple QuickTime
com.apple.quicktime.make : Apple
com.apple.quicktime.model : MacBookPro11,5
com.apple.quicktime.software : Mac OS X 10.14.6 (18G4032)
com.apple.quicktime.creationdate : 2020-09-10T18:27:25+0100
Video
ID : 1
Format : DV
Codec ID : dvcp
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 24.4 Mb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Clean aperture width : 703 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Clean aperture height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Original display aspect ratio : 4:3
Clean aperture display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan type, store method : Interleaved fields
Scan order : Bottom Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.357
Stream size : 16.0 GiB (79%)
Title : Core Media Video
Encoded date : UTC 2020-09-10 17:27:37
Tagged date : UTC 2020-09-10 17:27:47
Color primaries : BT.601 PAL
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings : Little / Signed
Codec ID : lpcm
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 2 048 kb/s
Channel(s) : 4 channels
Channel layout : L R L R
Sampling rate : 32.0 kHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 2.44 MiB (0%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Encoded date : UTC 2020-09-10 17:27:37
Tagged date : UTC 2020-09-10 17:27:47
Audio #2
ID : 1-0
Format : PCM
Format settings : Big / Signed
Muxing mode : DV
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 768 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 32.0 kHz
Bit depth : 12 bits
Stream size : 513 MiB (2%)
Audio #3
ID : 1-1
Format : PCM
Format settings : Big / Signed
Muxing mode : DV
Muxing mode, more info : Muxed in Video #1
Duration : 1 h 33 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 768 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 32.0 kHz
Bit depth : 12 bits
Stream size : 513 MiB (2%)
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I'm gonna throw something against the wall and we'll see if it sticks. download mpegstream clip
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
and bring one of the problematic files in to it. do a save as and choose mp4. This should be a very quick process as it's just changing the "container" not the actual data. Then see if this file will import properly in to premiere.
In my opinion, Apple doesn't really care how there programs interact with other company's programs. In fact, they prefer to keep you working exclusively in their programs.
So give this a shot and let us know if it helps.
and for what it's worth, 32k audio sampling is not ideal for video... 48k 16 bit is generally the standard for video. Don't think that would be causing the problem... bwdik
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Thanks, I will try this and see what happens! I didn't see much ability to change capture settings in iMovie. But then again I have limited experience with iMovie, have mostly used Final Cut & Premiere. As I have no wish to spend several weeks recapturing all the footage again, and the footage itself being of pretty low quality to begin with, I don't think it's that useful to consider what the capture settings should have been at this point. Except maybe as a word of warning to others! Will get back to you once I've tried your suggestion. Would be amazing if it worked!
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Sadly it seems that MPEG Streamclip is no longer supported by Catalina...
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that sucks but not surprising... you might try this: (duplicate the file first in case this screws it up). simply rename the extension from .mov to .mp4.
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you might see if the files import into the free version of davinci resolve. For simple editing it would be fine. Not as full featured editing interface as premiere but perfectly usable.
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did you try to export as file with quality set to Best (ProRes) from imovie?
if you import it to media encoder, can you encode the files to something
like QuickTime GoPro Cineform YUV 10 bit? this is smoother for editing
than mp4... there is something premiere pro does not like with the format
you used, or that imovie used, and I would prefer progressive scan over
lower field interlaced
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Hi, thanks for your comment. The point is that I'm trying to avoid having to export from iMovie in the first place. But yes, I assume this will work, and it's my plan B if all else fails. I didn't choose any of the iMovie capture settings myself, they seem to be the standard ones.
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Which Premiere build are you using on Catalina?
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Hi did you ever find a fix to this solution? i am having the exact same problem now
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Same here. No one has a solution?