Video Properties not recognized

Hello everyone!

I have been working with .MPG video files supplied to me by the model for our website. Unfortunately they can't be used with almost any video editing programs unless you convert them first.

So I got the MPEG Streamclip program, which will convert the .MPG files to whatever format you need. Though it was extremely difficult to figure out what settings to use so the converted clips will be as close as possible in both size and quality! But I finally figured it out.

BUT now Final Cut Pro keeps saying 'The video properties of this clip are not recognized.' for both .mp4 and .mov files I have made with MPEG Streamclip. And it wants me to set the properties, but I have no idea what to choose.

My question is, why aren't these clips being recognized, and how do I choose the settings that will give me the best results in terms of duplicating the size and quality of the original videos when creating an edited clip?

Do the files play in Quicktime? If it plays in quicktime it should play in Final Cut. Unless you need to add some extra codecs to Quicktime to play the .mpeg files

What export settings have you tried in MPEG Streamclip?

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried many, many different export settings on MPEG Streamclip.

The files play in Quicktime no problem.

They also play in Final Cut, it's just that Final Cut can't ever seem to recognize the video clip properties.

I don't like just choosing arbitrary settings because I don't know what the properties are. I am trying to retain the original file size, roughly, without any loss of quality.

Maybe the problem stems from the way MPEG Streamclip processes the videos, but I am damned if I can figure out what the problem could be.

Ok, that is strange. It does seem like the problem may stem from MPEG Streamclip.

If you open the video in Quicktime does it display the properties there.

Maybe MPEG Streamclip isn't assigning the properties to the exported out version

Thanks for the replies.

When I open the file in Quicktime it displays the properties, yes.

I just noticed that if I open the file using the top bar menu on Final Cut Pro, it doesn't do it (fail to recognize the properties). It's when I was dragging the file from the folder into Final Cut Pro that this problem was arising.

Naturally, for no apparent reason, it's not doing it anymore.

While I am grateful for the respite in maddening failure for the program to co-operate, NOW I'm having an entirely NEW problem with MPEG Streamclip...

Actually I think this problem has been recurring, I just wasn't aware how bad it was.

MPEG Streamclip seems to randomly assign sizes to the converted clips that are way too big.

For instance, when converting a 1280 X 720 video file to 640 X 360 size, the resultant file is actually BIGGER than the original!!!

These constant problems are really getting me down. Nothing I do ever seems to work. Editing videos for the website is a nightmare every damned time--when it ought to be a simple matter, you would think.

Only convert to ProRes 422 or ProRes LT for use with FCP (any version). Just because it has ".mov" on the end doesn't mean it's a supported format. QT is a front end container than can use a variety of codecs. The specific codec (Compressor Engine) is of most concern. Be sure it's ProRes 422 or ProRes LT (I'd recommend LT for what you're coming from).

When you say the file is bigger, do you mean file size (which is supposed to happen) or the frame size of the video?

File size will be larger, because you're converting from a very highly compressed Long-GOP format to an all I-Frame format. The Long-GOP formats fall apart very fast when transcoding, adding filters and effects, etc. Which is why we don't like to use them for actual professional editing. ProRes is all I-Frame and can be transcoded, filtered, etc, lots and lots and never lose any image quality, and places very low workload on the CPU and GPU.

Wow thanks for the reply!

When I said the file is bigger, I meant the size of the file, not the frame size.

So I should just bite the bullet and accept the very large file sizes if I want to do any editing with FCP, it sounds like. Video quality is of paramount importance to me, so I can deal with that.

But when I am not editing, merely trying to convert the .MPG file to an .mp4 or .mov file to directly upload on my website, what settings would you recommend?

My inclination when processing or copying videos has always been to go for 100% quality and use multipass settings. But when I choose those setting with MPEG Streamclip, not only are the files truly gargantuan, but it also takes forever to process them--and sometimes it will fail after well over two hours or more, with the bigger files I am trying to convert.

I am also concerned at the apparent tendency of MPEG Streamclip to fail to reset itself (or let me reset it) when making additional converted files and changing (or trying to) the settings.

It really seems to have a mind of its own sometimes, with varying file sizes being produced even when using the same settings (after changing back to them).

There are people who are professional compressionists, it's all they do. And from them I've learned a great deal over the years. To start with, I'll recommend the book "Apple Pro Training Series: Compressor 3.5". All the information applies to Compressor 4. But here's some information to help you along.

Compression is a balance between speed and quality. You can't have both, you sacrifice one for the other. Faster encodes, lower quality. Higher quality, slower encodes.

As for file sizes, the truth is that what you refer to as huge file sizes are actually normal file sizes. Long-GOP file formats such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, HDV, XDCAM, AVCHD, etc, are all very highly compressed. They are smaller than normal file sizes and were originally developed as web delivery formats, and later adopted as low cost consumer/prosumer acquisition formats.

Formats such as DVCPRO-HD, ProRes, NTSC, are all full resolution, full frame size, full data for each frame, minimally compressed "normal" file sizes.

Uncompressed is what we professionally consider "larger than normal" file sizes.

It's a fact of life. H.264 off your DSLR is a TINY file, VERY compressed, and does not contain 100% of the data for each and every frame of video. It's very taxing on your CPU, as edits can only be done on I-Frames, which means the GOP structure has to be reformulated for each edit in the background, playback requires 8-12 frames of data to be read for each single frame to be reconstructed, output takes much longer, etc, etc, etc, which is why it sucks on any NLE to edit with. And every NLE uses a background proxie to edit it with (even those claiming to do it natively, the industries dirty little secret). And most importantly, if you pile effects on these file formats, transcode more than once or twice, try to color correct them, they start to fall apart in ability to manipulate and maintain image quality, FAST. ProRes was made to hold your image quality over dozens of transcodes, tons of image processing, etc. DVCPRO-HD holds up in this way, also.

As for MPEG Streamclip, I have found it to be somewhat unstable, wonky, but it's a useful tool seeing as how it is free. The big question is, are you making a living at this, or doing it on your own?

If you're making a living, you figure in the price of additional Compressor plugins or something like Episode and Cinematize, then pass that cost on to your clients.

If you're doing it for free, you use Handbreak and MPEG Streamclip for free and work with their quirks. You may also want to look in to FFmpegX, which is free, takes some doing to get it fully installed and functioning, but is well worth the efforts.

Faster CPUs mean faster encodes, there's not much else you can do about it. Welcome to the art and science of compression.

Thanks for the excellent explanation on video compression, BenB.

Yes indeed, thanks!

I think I figured out the problem I was having with MPEG Streamclip!

I was trying to export smaller files (knowing full well the quality would be lower but it didn't matter for this purpose) after exporting the same file in high quality format.

I needed to click the 'iTunes' button, and it makes the clips exported suitable for iPods.

I am hoping this finally resolves the problems.

Do NOT use the iTunes preset. That will compress your files even MORE than they are now, and you will be losing quality, that's not a very good format to use. ProRes 422, don't use anything else to go into FCP with.

Thanks so much BenB!

I know it causes the quality to drop, but I am not using THOSE converted files with FCP!

What I am doing is selling video clips on two different websites.

On my own website I want the video clips to be as high quality as possible, without getting too much bigger than the original MPG files. And if I have to edit the clips before putting the final product on my website, I will definitely follow your excellent advice and go with ProRes for the FCP.

Even though a 1.6 gigabyte file wound up being more than 10 gigabytes after conversion! It was a long video, about 37 minutes. But hey I can always make the export file from FCP smaller.

But no--the ones that I am using the iPod settings with are being sold on another website (not my own) that actually requires the files be that small! They do not care about the quality of the video, they just want to sell a lot of clips (mostly to Europeans I guess).

When I convert the files for my own site, and don't have to edit them (which is about half the time), they wind up a little bigger than the original files. I have carefully checked them so that the quality appears to be the same, even if maybe not so good with FCP or editing.

If there is an Apple TV preset, try that one, you'll get top quality and small file size. Not sure if it'll be small enough, but I'd recommend giving it a shot and see. Best of luck!

OK cool I will try it!

Hey if you want a couple clips for helping me out I'd be glad to give them to you. It's not nasty stuff, kinda like Playboy--tiny bikinis etc.

I was looking for a Private Message button but I don't see it, so I don't know how I could send you the links, but if we can figure out a way, I'd be happy to do that.

You can contact me via my web site bbalser dot cee oh em. It's not necessary, mPV takes good care of me. They're the best folks to work with. It's my job to help folks out.