I recently purchased the Panasonic DVX 200 about 6 months ago.  It's a great camera, but had no idea I would have trouble importing video into AVID Media Composer.  I shot Ultra High Definition (UHD) 3840x2160 as an MP4.  AVID says I need to convert the video to .MOV but no one so far can tell me how to do it.  Help is appreciated.

I believe you can re-wrap the files to MOV using FFMPEG - someone will hopefully add on here and explain how.  In future set it to file MOV with uncompressed audio and that should work directly in MC.

I'll give that a try.  So far, I've tried Sorenson, VLC and HandBrake and neither of them worked.  There are a number of different options in each so there's no way to know what will work without trying.  Just wondering if anyone knows the exact settings.

This thread on the vegas forum explains how to re-wrap an MP4 to a MOV using FFMPEG:

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/gh5-4k-24-30p-problem--105152/#ca658569

There's also Convert, by HDCinematics.  Reputable tool - costs a little bit, but powerful feature set.  You can rewrap, you can keep the original timecode, you can do a bunch of things.

The idea behind a "rewrap" is keeping the original media intact, just wrapping it inside another file type.  As it's a copy rather than a conversion, it's a very fast process.  By contrast, the tools that you've used - Sorenson, VLC, HandBrake - all re-encode the video, which takes much longer.

Thank, have you actually had an experience using this software?

Wes Torain:

 I shot Ultra High Definition (UHD) 3840x2160 as an MP4.  AVID says I need to convert the video to .MOV but no one so far can tell me how to do it.  Help is appreciated.

I have the same camcorder. To avoid your problem, set your camcorder to "MOV" and your clips are easily linked or imported into MC.

To do this, enter into the camcorder menu, select System Mode, then select REC Mode and change it to MOV.

Best regards,

Joachim

I'll do that in the future Joachim.  But for now I'm trying to convert 2 hours of video that I can't re-shoot.

I have used FFMPEG to rewrap files, but I did it using a command prompt.  FFMPEG is a free program which does lots of stuff, and you have to type the commands in with various different options to get the kind of file you want.  Many people write a "front end" for it which gives you a GUI and boxes to tick.  Some are free and some cost money.  

The link to the Vegas forums gives a simple way to just convert files and was recommended on another forum I use.  I have not done the command prompt way for ages and would have to go and look up the options again to tell you what to do.

When re-wrpping it does not destroy the originals just make copies in a MOV file whic Avid understands.

Wes Torain:

Thank, have you actually had an experience using this software?

Wes, I use Convert V4 all the time to re-wrap my XAVC-S to MP4. It's extremly fast to re-wrap. If all you need to do is a few existing clips, then you don't need the paid version. The trial version supports re-wrap, and you can do 2 clips at a time (then you have to exit and re-start the application). AFAIK The only difference between the paid and free versions (I have the paid version) is support for unlimited number of conversions, and support for a few additional CODECs.

FYI:  I ended up using Adobe Media Encoder CS6.  Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Curious - what settings did you use?  I thought Media Encoder CS6 didn't do rewrapping, only transcoding.

If it is indeed a transcode, it takes far longer than a rewrap would, and because it's being converted, you do have at least a little bit of a quality hit.

By contrast, a tool like HDCinematics Convert will rewrap the raw files, almost instantaneously - which is much faster, and it's a direct copy of the original media - no quality hit.  It'll also maintain the initial timecode of the raw media if that's important to you.

So, Media Encoder may work as a one-off, but if this is something you'll be doing more frequently, another tool might save you lots of time down the road, and also add some other features that help the production process and maintain the original quality of the media.

You're right it was a transcode and yes I lost some quality.  I was just ready to get this project behind me.  It still looks nice...probably around 2k quality.  Once the semester has ended I'll give your HDCinematics suggestion a try.  Thanks.