I downloaded the "Great Zoom into Los Angeles, CA: The Hollywood Sign" file, the 1280x720 option to the left of top pic, from NASA at this url: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002100/a002108/

It says it's an MPEG-2 file, 84 mgs. Though when I click on it in the folder on my MB Pro 2.33 it says MPEG-1.

Anyway, I can download it and play in the VLC player. But I can't export it to any kind of file that will open in QT, much less FCP.

Any ideas what to do?

best,
lmr

Hello,

Try using Mpeg Steamclip, it is a free program you can download.. And I am pretty sure it will convert your file to a useable foramt..

look here:

http://www.squared5.com/

Thanks for the reply, Mike, but I tried MS and it wouldn't even open the file.

I'm stumped.

lmr

Although it might be a little costly, there is a solution you might consider, but I make no guarantees.

After reading your post I decided to download the file and see if it would open and export in any of my apps also, but just like you, I had a no-go. I could also open it in VLC, but not in anything else, nor could I open it in QT to export into something else.

I already trashed the file, so I'm not currently able to try this out, but have you tried using a screen captue utilit like Snapz Pro, with the video capture feature? There are also a few other apps out there that capture screen video also, but Snapz Pro is the only one I can think of.. (I think it costs about $69)

If you have enough system resources, theoretically you could open up the file in VLC or their web viewer and just run a Snapz Pro screen capture video during playback and then save your captured file in your preferred video format.

Now, I should add that they may have it encoded in such a way as to deter folks specifically from trying to download, manipulate or even use the file, but aside from that, I'm just presenting a theoretical methodology.

-Jon

I also downloaded it, and couldn't open it in anything other than VLC. I tried doing an export in VLC, but I couldn't figure it out. My next step is going to boot up Parallels and see if anything in Windows can re-encode it.

Video screen capture is what I'd go with as well.
Or, if you can, output your monitor's signal to another device and record through that... if you're lucky enough to have s-video out, etc.

Windows might be a decent idea, if you just search for freeware. Not enough of it on OSX, sadly.

I booted up Windows and used that Super C program, and from there, I was able to convert it to pretty much any format. If you're going to be editing in Final Cut, I'd use Super C to convert it to uncompressed (I didn't check if that was an option), and then use MPEG Streamclip to convert it to HDV or whatever your preferred format is.

can you not just download the PNG frames and them import as an image sequence? I know Premier will do that.

Also if you can do it on windows a program called Fraps will capture from Google earth and such. Give that a try