Hello to the group.

I've been asked to bring into FCP what are said to be 'raw' video files with the suffix .yuv. I've also been asked to import/open .avi files in Final Cut. These files are of unknown origin and currently live on a hard drive.

I am not a seasoned Final Cut user so please speak slowly and no over big words please.

Thank in advance for any responses.

Keith

It sounds like you are dealing with an UNCOMPRESSED AVI (RAW) file in the YUV color space. Have you tried changing the .yuv to a .avi to see if it will open in QuickTime? Also, you will want to TRANSCODE or COMPRESS your .avi's into a .mov file format you can edit with inside Final Cut Pro. Can you supply any other information about the avi clips you are working with? Is it HD, SD? This will affect the settings of your .mov files you will want to create from them.

Thanks for the response.

I'm actually dealing with two separate file formats, .avi and .yuv.

The first are old .avi files. No luck opening them in QuickTime. I may not have tried changing the suffix to .mov... I'll try that.

As for the .yuv files:

Thanks to an earlier tip, I changed the .yuv suffix to .mov and .avi. and tried opening in QT and FCP, to no avail. A sample file name for the .yuv files is: "basketball_game_final.yuv" (Windows or other non-apple file name?) Some of the individual files are huge, several hundred mb in size. They are said to be HD.

I am away from the computer on which the project and the source files live for the rest of this week, so I can't provide more information about either format.

Thanks again for your help.

First, I think your .AVI's are going to need a special codec that you may not have. Can you open them in QUicktime? They may not playback, but they will tell you the codec if you choose WINDOW/SHOW MOVIE INSPECTOR or hit COmmand-I. Under format it should tell you the compressor used.

Avi's aren't great for Mac's in general because they tend to use strange codecs that are hard to get. My bet is it is using some proprietary codec from Premiere or something.

As for the .yuv, that file extension I've never heard of, but it could be telling you that it is in the YUV colorspace like Christophr mentioned. When you change it to .mov or .avi and try to open with Quicktime, what does it say? Does it give you an error or does it open, but just doesn't show video? If it opens then hit the command-I again and give us the specs on the codec, listed under FORMAT.

Do you know what kind of camera this video was shot on? Do you know what/where the original files came from, what system? Once you can determine that we could probably help more.

I did find this link that might help:
www.fileinfo.net/extension/yuv

It is saying to use the Mplayer to viw the files. The fact is, that you'll need to get Quicktime to recognize them, so if that requires loading Mplayer then do it. Then, drop them all in Compressor and switch them all over to a ProRes 422 file. Then you'll have an easier time editing them.

You could also download Perian for QT. That should playback your .AVI. Another application that might work is MPEG Streamclip. It is free and might help. You can export into different editable codecs from either MPEG Streamclip or QT Pro.

Good luck.