Videos taken on Sony A7iv not importing correctly to iMovie (only sound, black screen)

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Level 1

4 points

Videos taken on Sony A7iv not importing correctly to iMovie (only sound, black screen)

I am trying to import a 4K 10 bit 4:2:2 XACV-S video to iMovie running on a Mac mini with OS Sonoma 14.6.1. The file imports, but it shows up as completely black. I hear the sound, though. I have been surfing for answers and had a suggestion to change the file extension to .mov (it is stored as an mp4 in the camera) by first storing it on my hard disk, changing the extension and then trying to upload it to iMove from the HD instead of directly from camera. That doesn't work at all. The file is greyed out and impossible to import.

Not sure if I am missing something here, but would appreciate any help.

Posted on Oct 3, 2024 11:33 AM

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Answer 1

Rich839

Level 8

47,730 points

Oct 4, 2024 3:46 PM in response to fredrik231

Hi,

The Sony a7iv is listed as an iMovie supported camera on iMovies website.

There may be a codec in Sony's XAVC format that iMovie doesn't like. Or, perhaps Sony's Mp4 is not iMovie's required Mp4/AAC. Instead of importing directly into iMovie try importing to your desktop. Then use the free download, Handbrake, to convert the clips to Mp4/AAC. Handbrake will do it by default.

You can get Handbrake here:

https://handbrake.fr/

A simple way to do it is to open Handbrake and do a File/Open Source. Navigate to your video and choose it as the source from the resulting screen. Then do File/Start Encoding. Wait a couple of minutes for the conversion to

complete. Then save and import the converted clip into iMovie. Now see if it plays with sound.

-- Rich

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