iPhone footage imports without video

Hi!

I'm editing footage that a client shot on his iPhone. I've been editing this material for the past couple of weeks, but had to switch computer and brought the files on an external drive.

However, after relinking them, the footage does not contain any video. The clips are displayed as audio files, and everything seems right except that I can't see the footage.

I've previously edited these files on Davinci Resolve 14 Studio, but I downloaded the regular version and I don't have internet right now to download the studio version... Could it be because of that? This version is v14.3.0.014.

I'll try to transcode it and see if it works, but if somebody knows another fix, I'd love to hear about it!

It seems that the problem is that I don't have Apple's Pro Video Formats (ProRes, Apple Intermediate etc) installed. So I tried to install it, but I'm unable to do so without having FCP or Compressor installed. I'm not using any of those, but it seems strange that I would need to have them...

Does anyone know of any way to get them without having to purchase Compressor for that sole reason?

And sorry for double post.

Resolve can read ProRes without any further installation. AIC is quite an outdated codec, I don't know any camera or recorder using it. The iPone is using H.264 anyway, or H.265 under iOS 11 (iPhone 7 or newer).

I can read everything I record on my iPhone SE or recent iPad just fine in Resolve on a mid-level iMac under High Sierra. There must be some other problem with your installation. Can you read H.264 from other devices?

Hi and thank you for your answer!

Yea, I noticed that the MXF and ProRes files from other cameras such as the C300 MKII and BMPCC worked just fine. I did however update Resolve to the latest 15 version, and bought compressor. That solved it except for one timeline with iPhone clips. I can't get that timeline to show me the video, but the others work just fine.

It is indeed H.264 files, but I tried transcoding them into new H.264 files, and for some reason they worked when I did that. Very strange... Again, thanks for your answer

That points to a clip with inconsistent frame rates. Quite a few smartphones do that.

And, BTW, not a very good idea to transcode into a heavily compressed codec again. Better use a good intermediate one, like ProRes, instead.

One way would be via MPEG Streamclip. Open the video and choose save as Quicktime. The export window allows you to transcode to Prores/DNxHD and to set a desired constant framerate, which Resolve can read.

On the command line, you can use ffmpeg. The -r option sets the output framerate (e.g., -r 24).

That points to a clip with inconsistent frame rates. Quite a few smartphones do that.

And, BTW, not a very good idea to transcode into a heavily compressed codec again. Better use a good intermediate one, like ProRes, instead.

Yeah, it was only for review. Once I got back to my regular computer I kept on working without any trouble. I just needed a fast transcode so I wouldn't show up to the client with corrupt files.

One way would be via MPEG Streamclip. Open the video and choose save as Quicktime. The export window allows you to transcode to Prores/DNxHD and to set a desired constant framerate, which Resolve can read.

On the command line, you can use ffmpeg. The -r option sets the output framerate (e.g., -r 24).

Yes! For testing purposes I attempted this and it worked like a charm. Thanks!