Uncopressed AVI files fail after Mac OS Catalina update

Report · Jan 22, 2020

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a big project with many uncompressed AVI files and after updating my Macbook Pro to Mac OS Catalina, they do not work anymore. In Premiere it says "Error message: file format not supported." I tried updating all Adobe applications. I tried buying Apple's "Compressor", but that did not recognise the files either. I tried to open them in After Effects, same thing. So my question; is there a solution to get the files working again? (apart from converting all of my AVI files to a supported file format on a different computer.)

Thanks!

Report · Jan 22, 2020

AVI is a wrapper, what is inside YOUR wrapper - Exactly what is INSIDE the video you are editing?
Report back with the codec details of your file, use the program below
Free program to get file information for PC/Mac http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download
- when you analyze your file in MediaInfo and post a screen shot in the forum, do so in TREE view

Report · Jan 22, 2020

Hello, thanks for your quick reply!

I am aware of that and I should have put that in my post. Looking it up via the terminal I saw no codec.
But in your programm I found this:

Codec ID : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint : Sony

Is that the right info?

Report · Jan 22, 2020

screenshot

Report · Jan 23, 2020

Catalina dropped support for many older codecs but not the DV/DVCam codec your AVIs are encoded with.

However obviously support for them 'in an AVI wrapper' has gone.

Apple suggests taking the files back to a Mac with Mojave (or lower) installed and converting there (yeah great!).

You could try Handbrake V1.3 (compatible with Catalina and free) or Uniconverter (trial, then paid) as 'possible' solutions to convert.

I've found Uniconverter can often deal with obscure formats. Though I'm not running Catalina so can't test.

Though I did just get Uniconverter to open an AVI that QuickTime would not open ... though this is on Mac OS Sierra.

I don't think this will work - but copy one of your files and rename the extension to .mov or .mp4 and see if that does anything.

Best of luck, let us know how you go. regards SteveG

Report · Jan 23, 2020

Hi Steve, thanks for your reply!

I found out that I never should have updatet my Macbook Pro because I edit old footage in AVI. And I read that also they do not support capturing thru Fire Wire anymore. (For me not an issue because I capture on an old PC.) But for a user like me, the impact of Catalina is huge. I still capture new old footage. But I also still want to be up to date and be able to run all the newest software.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions! Changing the extension did not work, I hoped for the same thing. And Handbrake is a nice app. I used it a lot when I only owned an iPad and a PC to convert video's. I will try Uniconverter. But for now my workaround is an old Windows PC with Adobe Premier 5.5 fixing a giant queue of AVI's in to high qualty MP4's.

Best Regards,
NK Graphix

(Oh! I tried "One Click Video Converter", free in the app store and it runs on Catalina. It worked super quick. Like in 3 minutes it got the 14gb one hour AVI to MP4 but the size of the video was strangely different. And the maximum quality of the MP4 was still visibly worse than the AVI. Not acceptable for me, but perhaps for others it might be a good solution. A much better solution than the 55 EURO solution that Apple suggested... "Compressor" is a fail is this situation. )

Report · Jan 23, 2020

Yeah Catalina is (to be kind) 'problematic'. I've stayed with Sierra for about as long as I can ...

Batch conversion on your PC sounds like a good solution. Note that your original DV/DVCam files are using a data rate of 25Mbps. So to maintain good quality (without going to an uncompressed codec) I would suggest about 35-50Mbps for your MP4s. That should minimise any quality loss (though there will *always* be some) without creating huge files.