Can't Import Audio from QuickTime Video -- Assertion Error

[David Ziegler]

Hello everyone, I have a weird Problem:

With Protools 9 on 10.6.6 on a Mac Pro I get an error while importing a QuickTime Movie, as long as the "Import Audio File" Box is checked!

The Movie gets opened and spotted to a track without any problems, then I'm prompted to select an Audio Files folder, and then, instead of extracting the Audio, I get an Error: "Can't complete request because Assertion in /volumes/Development/Protools.9........" (and so on, you got the idea...).

Exact same error happened on two different QT Files, one DV-Pal and one MotionJPEG-A.
Deleting Databases and Pro Tools Preferences didn't help.

I'm really in trouble...

Thanks a lot in advance,
David

[Craig F]

Pro Tools will throw that error if the audio is a format it can't import
open in QuickTime and use inspector to see what codec the audio is in, I'm going to guess ACC

[David Ziegler]

Hello Craig,

thanks for your reply, but the Audio is PCM, 16Bit, 48khz.

I did this countless times on my old system (ProTools 7.4 on OS 10.4) without any problems. I could even import AAC-Audio Streams from the Quicktime-Container.
So it has to be something in OS 10.6 or a Quicktime X issue (i have the latest QT-Version, of course), or Protools 9.0.1 -- strange, that no one else seems to have this issue

Now I do an extra Audio-Export from the Quicktime via MPEG-Streamclip... But this is no permanent solution -- I really hope for another idea...

[David Ziegler]

OK, this Problem seems to stay.

Now I trashed all Databases and Pro Tools Prefs AGAIN, this time using the tool at http://www.jcdeshaies.com/. Unfortunately this didn´t help.


Again the problem in detail:
- importing ANY quicktimevideo (it happened with three completely different videos so far).
- in the following Dialog, check the box "Import Audio File".
- Next the video will be opened and spotted to a track (or the region list) without any problems.
- Next I´m prompted to chosse a destination folder for the audio, as always. I choose the standard Audio Files folder of my session.
- Now, after about 3 seconds I get a cryptic assertion - error: "Assertion in _Volumes/Databases/Development/ws.Protools.9.0.x/.../.../..."


Some more details on my system:
- I use an 8 core 2.4Ghz Mac Pro (2010), with Mac OS 10.6.6 (10.6.3 was Preinstalled when I purchased the Mac, I updated to 10.6.6 via Comboupdate).
- Pro Tools is 9.0.1 with Complete Production toolkit.
- Besides Waves Plugs, Altiverb and Soundminer, NO other Software is insatalled. This is a pure Work-Computer.


- The videos were Motion JPEG-A and DV-PAL QTs, QT-Audio was PCM.


Probably someone from Avid could give me some help?
Is this a known issue??

[DigiTechSupt]

Could you post one of the video files for us to check out? Use any free hosting service (or any service you prefer) - dropbox.com is a good bet.

[David Ziegler]

Thanks for your reply.

The problem only occurs with very long videos (90min+). I tested some shorter 10-20min videos, and I got no error there.
This narrows down the problem, but unfortunately this means that all the videos in question are at least 10GB to 12GB in size... That makes uploading a bit difficult.

I got this error now with 4 completely different (long) videos, ALL of which I CAN open on a different ProTools System without problems! (ProTools 7.3.1 HD, on MAC OS 10.4). So, it seems to be a moire general problem.

The affected video files are, so far:
2*Motion JPEG A with PCM Audio
1*DV PAL with mono PCM-Audio
1* Motion JPEG A with AAC Audio.

I made the following test now:
I created a 2min clip and a 90min clip with the EXACT SAME settings in MPEG Streamclip (Motion JPEG A, PCM Audio):
The Audio from the 2min clip could be imported without problems, and the 90min clip showed the error again. So it seems to have something to do with the duration or the size.


Here the complete error:
Could not complete your request because Assertion in "/Volumes/Development/ws.ProTools_9.0.x/AlturaPorts/NewFileLibs/FileFormat/MacBuild/../../FF/Audio/FF_AudioFile.cpp", line 748.

Thanks again in advance,
David

[DigiTechSupt]

I wonder if it's hitting the 4GB limit for audio - how, I can't see why.

Could you try exporting the audio from the video file using a different app and see if you can then import it?

I'll try to repro this here...

[David Ziegler]

Yes, I can extract the audio from the quicktimes with other applications: With MPEG Streamclip as well as with the ProTools 7.3.1(on OS10.4.x). -- the resulting wav file can then be imported into ProTools 9.0.1 without any problems. That is my current workaround, until the problem is fixed...

The 90min Stereo PCM audio is around 1.4GB in size.


I hope, you'll be able to reproduce the error.
Thanks for your efforts,
David

[Digiboy cs1]

A guy I work with called Avid Support and they admitted this is a known issue and will be fixed in the next CS release

[David Ziegler]

Thank you for that information, Digiboy!
OK, so it has nothing to do with my specific configuration. Good to know...

Well, if they had listed this at the "known issues" page, they would have saved me 4 hours of my live, I wasted with trashing Prefs and Databases, repairing permissions, trying different videos, searching the forums...

One would think, it can´t be that hard for a big company like avid, to keep one little "known issues" page up to date...

anyway, thanks a lot.
David