Bad public movie atoms? at DVinfo.net

April 4th, 2005, 06:16 PM

I am having a problem opening Quicktime files that I am getting from a partner on a video project.
He is working with FCP HD, and capturing with a GL2. I am using the same equipment.
When I hooked my harddrive up to his and copied about 200 video clips I later found that I could not open them on my powerbook. Every now and then I find one clip that will work but for every one there are 50 that open in Quicktime with an error saying 'bad public movie atom' and an unreadable error in FCP.

The icons for the video clips in finder are also not normal, as you can see in this screen grab. http://www.fourtenmedia.com/icon.tiff

Has anyone experienced/solved this problem before?

Boyd Ostroff · April 4th, 2005, 06:30 PM

Never saw that before. OS X appears to be interpreting the files as unix "pipes" (this is what an active output stream looks like to the unix filesystem).

My guess would be something went wrong when you did the file copy, perhaps your drive has a problem? Or maybe the files were busy? Or some sort of write permission error? Did you perhaps just unplug the drive without first ejecting it?

If possible, try again on your friend's machine and then see if he can open the files from your disk while you're still there.

April 5th, 2005, 06:41 AM

that is going to be a little harder to do now that we are 3000 miles away. but thank you for your help, i will have to get the media some other way it looks like.

Cannon Pearson · April 5th, 2005, 04:59 PM

You might try putting a .mov extension on the end of the file and see if it will open then. If some of them open and others won't they are probably corrupted, but it's something to try.

Shane Ross · April 5th, 2005, 05:58 PM

How are you trying to open them? Did you import them into FCP? Or did you just try to open them with Quicktime?

many times FCP will break apart a long capture (30 min) into several QT chunks. The clip in FCP refers to these chunks, but if you try to open them manually with QT, you can't.

Have you tried importing them into FCP?

Boyd Ostroff · April 5th, 2005, 06:20 PM

One other thing to try would be a utility program like DiskWarrior, maybe it would recover something? But those icons imply that something went wrong during the copy process unfortunately...

April 5th, 2005, 08:17 PM

no luck adding the .mov to the filename but thank you for the suggestion. Its looking like my problem stemmed from possibly not ejecting the drive before transferring the files.

April 4th, 2005, 06:16 PM	#1
Guest Posts: n/a	Bad public movie atoms? I am having a problem opening Quicktime files that I am getting from a partner on a video project. He is working with FCP HD, and capturing with a GL2. I am using the same equipment. When I hooked my harddrive up to his and copied about 200 video clips I later found that I could not open them on my powerbook. Every now and then I find one clip that will work but for every one there are 50 that open in Quicktime with an error saying 'bad public movie atom' and an unreadable error in FCP. The icons for the video clips in finder are also not normal, as you can see in this screen grab. http://www.fourtenmedia.com/icon.tiff Has anyone experienced/solved this problem before?

April 4th, 2005, 06:30 PM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	Never saw that before. OS X appears to be interpreting the files as unix "pipes" (this is what an active output stream looks like to the unix filesystem). My guess would be something went wrong when you did the file copy, perhaps your drive has a problem? Or maybe the files were busy? Or some sort of write permission error? Did you perhaps just unplug the drive without first ejecting it? If possible, try again on your friend's machine and then see if he can open the files from your disk while you're still there.

April 5th, 2005, 06:41 AM	#3
Guest Posts: n/a	that is going to be a little harder to do now that we are 3000 miles away. but thank you for your help, i will have to get the media some other way it looks like.

April 5th, 2005, 04:59 PM	#4
Cannon Pearson Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Atlanta, GA Posts: 123	You might try putting a .mov extension on the end of the file and see if it will open then. If some of them open and others won't they are probably corrupted, but it's something to try.

April 5th, 2005, 05:58 PM	#5
Shane Ross Major Player Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Los Angeles, USA Posts: 539	How are you trying to open them? Did you import them into FCP? Or did you just try to open them with Quicktime? many times FCP will break apart a long capture (30 min) into several QT chunks. The clip in FCP refers to these chunks, but if you try to open them manually with QT, you can't. Have you tried importing them into FCP?

April 5th, 2005, 06:20 PM	#6
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,801	One other thing to try would be a utility program like DiskWarrior, maybe it would recover something? But those icons imply that something went wrong during the copy process unfortunately...

April 5th, 2005, 08:17 PM	#7
Guest Posts: n/a	no luck adding the .mov to the filename but thank you for the suggestion. Its looking like my problem stemmed from possibly not ejecting the drive before transferring the files.