Getting "Video Format Not Supported" with Dorico 4

Dorico
1

When I attempt to import and MP4 into a flow, I get the message “the video format is not supported”. I also tried that same video in MOV and AVI. I even made sure that the Frame Rate and Audio setting were compatible.

What I do not get when I import the file is the Video Properties Dialog box.

Suggestions?

Thank you in advance. BTrumpetBC

2

How do you try to import your video? I ask, before I wasted time trying to drag and drop. But you have to right click the flow, and attach a video. Hope it helps.

3

Hi Marc,

Exactly, this is what I did too. It is not Dorico.

The last project’s video I did worked. So, it was definitely the file (and I can blame the video editing software). All I needed to do was top and tail the band’s video to align things up and prepare an arrangement for a recording session using my skeleton track.

BUT, I found a work around which is better. Thank you Greg Ondo for his Cubase Hangout’s.

Use Cubase. What I did was import the video into my Cubase project and aligned the video to the skeleton track. Then I top and tailed the video, aligned it to my skeleton track and Exported the video. Fantastic, it worked.

Lip synch alignment was not necessary as my ultimate goal was to get my Cubase Audio skeleton track into Dorico to write and score out the arrangement.

I am a very happy man, because I have a workflow to use Cubase and Dorico together…

Cheers for coming back to me.
BC

4

I’m having the same issue attempting to attach a WAV file that I’ve converted to MP4, MOV, and AVI video formats both through an online converter and on my Mac using the VLC Player. All result if the “former not supported” error message.

Any advice from the community for a (Mac) user without Cubase?

5

You might try using a video editor on your own computer to produce a video in the right format. For example, you could use the free and open-source Shotcut:

  1. Start a new Shotcut project.
  2. Set a sensible video option in Settings > Video Mode – HD 720p 60fps is probably fine.
  3. Click the ‘Playlist’ button in the toolbar.
  4. Drag a JPG graphic (so your video has a picture) and your MP3/WAV file into the ‘Playlist’ panel on the left. For simplicity it is probably a good idea to make sure your graphic is the right size – for HD 720p that would be 1280 x 720 pixels.
  5. Type Command-I to add a new video track.
  6. Drag the JPG from the ‘Playlist’ panel to the new video track in the ‘Timeline’ panel at the bottom of the window.
  7. Type Command-U to add a new audio track, and make sure it’s active by clicking on it: in the dark colour scheme it goes a kind of mustard yellow when it’s selected.
    8, Drag the MP3/WAV from the ‘Playlist’ panel to the new audio track in the ‘Timeline’ panel. It may come in offset a tiny bit after 00:00, so be sure to drag the audio track to the left so it’s definitely lined up with the start of the timeline.
  8. To make the picture last as long as the audio, zoom out using the controls in the header of the Timeline panel, then hover over the right-hand side of the image clip in the video track and drag it out to the right so that it’s the same length as the audio file.
  9. If you would find it useful to add timecode, activate the video track.
  10. Click ‘Filters’ on the toolbar at the top of the window.
  11. In the ‘Filters’ panel on the left, click the + button to add a new filter: in the search field type “text”, then choose the “Text” filter. By default, the text filter will use the text #timecode#, which is replaced with the timecode of the current frame during playback, which is very helpful. Position the timecode as you like in the preview window. You can use the arrow keys to move left and right frame-by-frame.

Once you’re happy, click ‘Export’ in the toolbar, and click the ‘Export File’ button at the bottom of the Export panel to export a file. All of the frame rate and resolution settings etc. should be correct. The export process takes a couple of minutes.

3 Likes
6

Thank you very much for this generous tutorial! I was able to get everything working.

7

Hi Daniel!

Is there really no way to make this process easier? Is there maybe some specific issue with the codec or bitrate that you know of?
For electroacoustic composers like myself it would save a lot of time if I could simply transport an mp4 converted online from an mp3 or wav file instead of trying to get it to work by exporting it from external editing software, especially if there are different versions of the electronics being made meaning that the “film” has to be regularly updated

1 Like
8

Right now, I’m afraid there’s no simpler way than using a video file of some kind. Sorry!

9

An option is to use a video tool like VLC that has the option to do conversions on the command line. So you can run it from a Dorico script or stream deck. Depending on your ratio of annoyance to time, a Python script could monitor a directory and auto convert any files you drop in it. For bonus if that directory is one you use to receive the files like Google drive or whatever, it can be completely transparent to you. Can do that converting audio to video too.

10

Pretty sure that you are supposed to be on Holiday. :confounded:. Merry Christmas :grinning:

1 Like
11

I don’t understand why you would need to edit the video for this to work. I have a short film in MP4 that I want to score in Dorico. Why can’t I just right click in the Flow and choose Video / Attach. Isn’t that how this is supposed to work? I am doing this with a straight forward MP4 and getting “The video format is not supported” error.

12

Welcome to the forum, Robert. Check that the video really does use a supported format. Lots of advice can be found here: