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iPhoto Not Importing Long Movies
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tavilach
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May 16, 2005, 02:02 AM
 
About a month ago, I started noticing a problem with my iPhoto movies, although the problem could have been going on for two months. When I insert my memory card into the reader, iPhoto opens up, and asks me if I want to import, say, 18 items. I say yes, and it goes through the whole process. Then, when I check "Last Roll," it only says 14 items, for example. After a bunch of testing, it seems that any movie over 59 seconds long does not get imported. This was never a problem when I first started importing movies: I have many 2 minute movies in my library. I definetely have enough space on my HD, too.

Any ideas? I don't want to keep having to drag the individual movies into iPhoto manually, and I'm kind of upset that I may have lost some movies.

I'm running OS X 10.3.9 with iPhoto '05 (with latest updates). The camera is an SD300, and the file format is .AVI (plays fine in QuickTime).

Edit: I may have manually imported all of my 2 minute movies, which means that the problem must have existed ever since I started importing directly from my camera. Crap! I probably lost a lot . My memory card is a 512 MB high speed SanDisk SD card. Any help would be most appreciated!
( Last edited by tavilach; May 16, 2005 at 02:09 AM. )
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
     
tavilach  (op)
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May 19, 2005, 05:28 PM
 
Help!
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
     
tavilach  (op)
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May 21, 2005, 10:54 PM
 
After some more investigation, it seems that the bug only occurs when it is importing from the camera via the camera import screen. If I go into the finder and select the camera folder, and simply drag that into iPhoto, all the movies are imported. Any ideas?
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
     
PurpleGiant
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May 22, 2005, 06:33 AM
 
No ideas, but I can say that iPhoto imports long movies fine here, through the camera (USB connection, or card reader). Up to 20 minute movies have imported fine, so it's not a definite iPhoto bug.

You using latest version I assume?
     
Randman
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May 22, 2005, 06:35 AM
 
Import the video in iMovie not iPhoto. Or spend an extra $10 or so and get a card reader and manually import the items in.

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Stingrey
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May 22, 2005, 10:34 AM
 
I'm tired of people who post things like "spend the extra XX.XX and use that instead" when someone explicitely described something that worked and then stopped working. I am not exactly in the same boat here, but then again possibly I am... I hadn't taken pictures since upgrading to Tiger... Prior to that I was running the latest version of Panther, always update right away for the most part. Reason I can say that I was taking pictures before and after is we have some (albiet messy) birds, blue with red chest which built a nest over our front door which we never use. Since they are there, I've taken pictures almost every three days since hatching. Man are they messy, but again another story.

Anyhow, upgraded to Tiger, a few days later take some pics of the birds and don't sync 'em, go to Boerne and hit the river and take pics and then come home to sync. Almost 500mb worth of stuff. Fails... Apple's "bad news" noise (same as when you don't have e-mail in Mail from what I can gather) sounds REPEATEDLY. No biggie, quit that app and just manually drag all from card to drive. Was well into 3 this morning so didn't mess with it. Up and around and the paper didn't get delivered so after calling to bi@ch the paper delivery people out (has happened 3x THIS month) I mess with this. I noticed something odd... EVERY time I have a movie file, it fails to transfer all of the goods consistantly. To test I am taking 1, 2, or 3 pics then a movie and then another pic. Sometimes it gets all the pics then fails on the movie, other times it gets just one pic and fails on the movie, not sure how it determines the sequence since it doesn't do the same thing all the time with the exception that the movie REGARDLESS of size would not download.

Using a Sony T1 (Black, just so you guys know... The guy's version of what the chick whips out of her purse to snag a pic of Steve Tyler : ) and it has ALWAYS worked in the past... 'Till recently. So I go through the Sony's settings. Has 3 USB moves. PictBridge, Normal, and PTP I think. PTP vs. NORMAL had something exclusive to the Mac's file structure when pics were downloaded where it would keep folder info intact or something like that, but I didn't like how that worked so had been using normal. That and when I used normal it mounts the Sony memorystick and since it mounts it, ImageCapture.app can automagically DELETE FILES AFTER DOWNLOAD. Turns out when I switched to PTP just a bit ago, it downloads ALL files successfully and without gripe (like when I had my cam set to NORMAL mode for since I've had it some four or five months ago now) but the downside is that it won't automagically delete all photo/movie content now. No biggie, at least it downloads everything.

I can tell you for a fact though that something changed that does not allow Tiger to download movies on the fly from my T1 if my T1 is set to "normal" which is the way that I would use to transfer pics in the beginning. Again ONLY videos seem to cause the transfer to fail on mine IF my cam is in normal vs. PTP and that didn't happen before. WHY do I care? 'Cause again NORMAL mode mounts the memory stick and allows (for whatever reason there is this system limitation) for ImageCapture.app to automatically delete all content, which is how I had it and so therefore I miss it vs. my now newly improved routine of having to FORMAT card (and lose my nifty name for the card each time) or delete all pics individually from the menu before going and shooting for the day. Any help or similar/different experiences appreciated!

Rey :)
     
Randman
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May 22, 2005, 12:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by Stingrey
Long meandering rant
WTF does that have to do with Tavi's problem?

IMovie will allow easy importing. A card reader is a very handy tool. I use mine with my phone memory card, pda memory card and camera memory cards. Very nice for copying back and forth large or multiple items.
And ...if you read the post correctly, the suggestion of a card reader was an alternative to the in-house answer. That might not fit your needs but Tavi asked so I offered a few ways to go about solving his problem.

And to respond to yours, I have no problem sending and receiving videos to and from my Nokia 6600 via bluetooth. Maybe it's your phone. Or operator error.

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Stingrey
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May 22, 2005, 01:22 PM
 
Well, HTF it has to do with his problem is that the common thing is that a MOVIE is not being able to be imported as easily as it previously was. iMovie DOES allow easy importing, great. So do all the other apps that Apple has graciously provided. Recently something has changed. This is something I have noticed as well when it comes to uploading movies from a Sony T1 which is in fact a CAMERA had you read my post instead of being Super Ret@rd as per your self branded sig... I read YOUR post correctly as did I read the original post which asks why it worked before and then stopped working. Same thing here. User error could possibly be part of this in either case... Possibly. When both people state nothing has changed (and belive me, I have done hardware and software support on live web servers where "nothing changed" was more often than not untrue) it is POSSIBLE that something else is off... On an unrelated note, when I posted to my last thread here about two cursors when you have a dual display setup being a glitch, I was looking for other people having the same glitch or something similar/different yet related. I felt this was somehow related and thought I'd pop in some details that were useful to fixing the issue versus a workaround that involved buying something else. Not that it isn't an alternative, just that it was not what was asked. Bluetooth is not being used in my setup by the way, moRon, one paragraph in my "rant" was a useful description about how a setting on the cam itself came into play in what workaround I found to resolve my issue. The card reader the original post refers to likely does not have similar settings, but in case this helps someone else whatsoever in this similar yet different issue that RECENTLY has happened to two different people, perhaps it would be of worth to mention. Go buy something else is not really a solution that people who post for help in these threads are looking for when it worked before and then stopped.

Rey.
     
Randman
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May 22, 2005, 01:45 PM
 
iPhoto = import photos.
iMovie = import movies.

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tavilach  (op)
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May 22, 2005, 06:53 PM
 
Rand, I'm using a card reader...

"When I insert my memory card into the reader"
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
     
Ulrika Zugzwang
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Jul 30, 2007, 11:01 AM
 
Originally Posted by tavilach View Post
About a month ago, I started noticing a problem with my iPhoto movies, although the problem could have been going on for two months. When I insert my memory card into the reader, iPhoto opens up, and asks me if I want to import, say, 18 items. I say yes, and it goes through the whole process. Then, when I check "Last Roll," it only says 14 items, for example. After a bunch of testing, it seems that any movie over 59 seconds long does not get imported. This was never a problem when I first started importing movies: I have many 2 minute movies in my library. I definetely have enough space on my HD, too.
I just noticed last night (almost two years after the original post quoted above) that iPhoto has not been importing long movies for me either. I have been using the latest version of iPhoto 6, version 6.0.6 (322), with a Nikon Coolpix 4200 camera. After searching around a bit, it seems like the solution is not to use iPhoto to import images and movies from the camera but instead to use the Image Capture application. From the Image Capture overview on the Apple Matters website:
Originally Posted by Chris Howard of Apple Matters
Image Capture is probably the most overlooked application on the Mac. But what it does are things you’ve probably wished iPhoto could do. Image Capture, if you’ve never noticed it, can be found in the Applications folder. ... Image Capture, as mentioned, allows you limited management of your images before you download from the camera. You can delete, rotate and preview them (but only in thumbnails to 128x128). Also, most useful, you can select some or all images for download. ... Image Capture is also the place to go to enable sharing of imaging devices across a network or even the internet.
I'll follow this post up with some tests to see which movies are imported and which are not. I'll also see if iPhoto is reporting that it will download a specific number of items and verify if it actually downloads that number. If it doesn't, it's a bug that's leading to data loss. If anyone has any information on this, let me know. If this doesn't affect you, give Image Capture a try anyway -- it's quite useful.
     
TETENAL
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Jul 30, 2007, 11:12 AM
 
It also doesn't import long movies for me. It works with image capture, but it's annoying to go via this extra step.

iMovie is not a program to organize media, so why this was brought up is a mystery.
     
tavilach  (op)
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Jul 30, 2007, 08:43 PM
 
Well, I must admit I forgot about this thread .
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
     
Ulrika Zugzwang
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Jul 31, 2007, 02:34 AM
 
Experimental Results
I wanted to see if I could repeat iPhoto's failure to upload large movies in a controlled experiment and I was able to do so.

Specifications
Software: iPhoto 6.0.6 (322)
Hardware: Nikon Coolpix 4200 connected by USB
Computer: Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5, 4 GB DDR SDRAM, MacOS 10.4.10

Trial One
I created nine movies, each with a different size to see if and when iPhoto would begin silently failing to upload a movie. To see if iPhoto was dropping all movies after a few large ones were dropped, I added a short movie at the end.

Name: Time (s), Size (MB), Downloaded?
DSCN2617.MOV: 015 s, 11.2 MB, Yes
DSCN2618.MOV: 030 s, 21.0 MB, Yes
DSCN2619.MOV: 045 s, 31.5 MB, Yes
DSCN2620.MOV: 060 s, 42.0 MB, Yes
DSCN2621.MOV: 075 s, 53.0 MB, Yes
DSCN2622.MOV: 090 s, 64.0 MB, Yes
DSCN2623.MOV: 105 s, 74.2 MB, No
DSCN2624.MOV: 120 s, 86.1 MB, No
DSCN2625.MOV: 004 s, 02.9 MB, Yes


As can be seen above, iPhoto failed to import two of the largest of the nine movies. This is a definite bug, as iPhoto reports at the beginning that nine items will be imported, only imports seven, and reports no error on the missing two. If the camera is then cleared automatically by iPhoto (not a good idea anyway) or by the user, this silent failure results in data loss.

Trial Two
Looking for the maximum length (or size) that can be downloaded with iPhoto, I formatted the camera's memory and created two movies just short of the first 105 s dropped movie. Both the 95 s and 100 s movies were successfully imported.

DSCN2626.MOV: 095 s, 66.0 MB, Yes
DSCN2627.MOV: 100 s, 71.0 MB, Yes


To verify that the failure to import is not a function of the number of movies on the camera, I formatted the memory again and created two movies slightly longer than 105 s.

DSCN2628.MOV: 110 s, 77.0 MB, No
DSCN2629.MOV: 115 s, 81.2 MB, No


Both movies were dropped. Thus, it seems that iPhoto has a problem with the size alone. With my computer and camera, any movie 105 s or larger fails to import.

Trial Three
Perhaps the error is related to the use of a specific USB bus. For the previous tests, the camera was attached to a Cinema HD Display's USB port and then to the G5's USB High-Speed Bus. In this trial I hooked the camera directly up to the front of the G5 tower to a different USB bus, to see if that changed the results.

DSCN2628.MOV: 110 s, 77.0 MB, No
DSCN2629.MOV: 115 s, 81.2 MB, No


Nope. It's related to the file size.


Perhaps there's a maximum time iPhoto will wait for a given file transfer. Using System Profiler to see that the maximum rate that my camera can transfer pictures is 1.2 Mb/s, I calculate that a 105 s movie with a size of approximately 74 MB would take about 500 s to transfer. Perhaps there's a hardcoded timeout in iPhoto! (#DEFINE SILENT_FAIL 500)

I plan to submit a detailed bug report to Apple. I'll let you know if I hear anything back. If you have the time, experiment with your cameras as well. More data could be useful.

EDIT: A detailed bug report has been submitted.
( Last edited by Ulrika Zugzwang; Jul 31, 2007 at 03:18 AM. )
     
Ulrika Zugzwang
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Aug 8, 2007, 03:46 AM
 
I have good and bad news. The bad news is that the new version of iPhoto just released today, iPhoto '08 version 7.0 (332), still fails to import large media files as described above. The good news is that it now reports a failure when it fails to import large media files.

I consider this bug with a potential of data loss downgraded to merely an inconvenience. Those who see iPhoto '08 reporting that it cannot import a file should use Image Capture as a workaround.
     
   
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