An information bulletin about a user-side video export problem that can cause your video to be unplayable when uploaded to a video share site, such as CLAS (isit.arts.ubc.ca/support/clas)

1. Videos
with
correct
header
but
no
data
–
cause
and
solu3on
Informa3onal
Bulle3n
Arts
ISIT
University
of
Bri3sh
Columbia
Nov
2014

2. Symptoms
• You
upload
a
video
but
it
takes
forever
to
process
and
will
not
play
• On
closer
examina3on,
you
find
that
the
video
is
very
small,
say
100kb
for
5-­‐6
minutes
(should
be
50+MB)
or
1MB
for
50-­‐60
minutes
(should
be
500+MB)
• The
support
staff
say
that
the
video
looks
like
it
has
all
the
valid
metadata,
except
that
it
has
no
actual
data
to
be
played

3. Cause
• You
may
be
expor3ng
your
movie
from
iPhoto
or
Final
Cut
• These
program
by
default
will
export
a
“reference
file”,
which
has
a
.mov
extension
like
a
normal
movie
file,
and
can
play
on
your
computer
• But
there
is
no
data
in
this
file,
the
data
is
referencing
another
master
file.
So
when
you
upload
the
reference
file,
it
will
not
play
anywhere
else

4. Solu3on
• In
iPhoto,
do
NOT
use
the
File-­‐>Export
menu
in
the
top
bar.
Drag
and
Drop
the
video
directly
out
of
the
library
onto
disk
(e.g.
your
Document
folder)
is
the
easiest
method
to
get
a
self-­‐contained
video.
• In
Final
Cut
Pro,
make
sure
to
choose
“self-­‐
contained”
instead
of
“reference”
file
when
expor3ng
with
File-­‐>Export
(there
is
no
direct
drag
and
drop
export)

5. Not
this
problem?
• Please
email
thomas.dang@ubc.ca
and
let
me
know
which
device
you
recorded
the
video
on,
or
how
you
exported
the
video,
from
which
program?
• I
am
ac3vely
trying
to
find
all
the
root
causes
of
this
problem,
and
I
will
assist
you
to
get
your
video
online