We have known for a while that Apple is moving its operating system to support only 64-bit applications. But, a little-known aspect to this that affects filmmakers are that 32-bit media codecs will also stop working.
Not today, but “soon.” Which means that if you have media stored in one of these legacy codecs, you need to think about converting it into something more current.
Earlier this week, Adobe formally announced that it “will no longer support legacy QuickTime 7 era formats and codecs starting from the following product versions:
Affected codecs include:
Read the complete statement from Adobe here.
In my conversations with the Premiere team at Adobe, I learned that converting older files into Apple ProRes 422 (on the Mac) and/or GoPro Cineform (on Windows) would be excellent codecs that protect your assets into the future. While no codec lasts forever, ProRes and Cineform are already 64-bit and actively supported by Apple, GoPro and other developers.
Adobe continues: “Professional codecs typically found in QuickTime movie files, such as ProRes, DNxHD, and Animation, are not affected by this change.”
Keep in mind, it is MUCH easier to convert older codecs now – while the operating system and applications support them, than to wait.
I have contacted Apple to see if other codecs are affected or if their current software will continue to support QuickTime 7 codecs. If I learn more, I’ll update this article.
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15 Responses to Important: Adobe Warns QuickTime 7 Codecs No Longer Supported
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David Henderson says:
January 30, 2020 at 11:47 pm
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Larry says:
January 31, 2020 at 8:42 am
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David says:
January 31, 2020 at 3:07 pm
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Greg Levin says:
August 4, 2021 at 11:51 pm
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Larry says:
August 5, 2021 at 5:17 am
← Older CommentsThanks for all you do Larry!
Here we are ub 2020, and I’m trying to finish a near-dead-on-the-vine Doc that has reems of HDV footage (that was captured back in 2008-10 in FCP, to ProRes 422) that I can no longer reconnect to in Premiere. I’m running OSX 10.12, and (unfortunately) have Premiere 13.1.5 installed.
I’m happy to either downgrade to CC 2018 either to finish the piece, or to transcode the footage into something more modern. But I can’t do that because the Creative Cloud Desktop app no longer supports installing older versions it seems ( though i have found little discussion about this online)
I’m first of all shocked that my ProRes files are not recognized by Adobe CC, as ProRes is technically still supported according to Adobe.
Kinda screwed at the moment!
All the best in 2020 🙂
David
David:
ProRes in all flavors is still supported in Catalina as well as earlier version of the macOS. Time to call Adobe Support to get this resolved.
This is a Premiere issue, not an OS issue.
Larry
Thank you Larry!
Fast forward to 2021. I created a short video to my kid’s 21st. That was 7 years ago. I tried to update it recently with no success. The video comprises hundreds of family video Shot over the years on 8 mm tape, Hi 8 tape, and mini DV. I digitised them and they are all in the original PAL Dv format. I also have about 100 hours of tape digitised that was not used. Imagine my dismay when I found that I could not revisit the project. I am using the latest version of premiere on an iMac running Big Sur and the links in Premier to all the DV files have disappeared. When I try to import them it tells me the codec is not supported.
I could re-digitise everything to another format – perhaps prores – which I will do as part of upgrading the archives, but revisiting the Premiere project is a nightmare. I would be very happy to get hold of an old computer running an old version of Premier I but this is not practical.
I’m not sure there are answers to this dilemma and I’m just having a bit of a rant, but any suggestions most welcome .
Greg:
This lack of support happened two years ago. I wrote about it extensively:
https://larryjordan.com/blog/important-dont-lose-access-to-older-media/
Your best option is to find a computer system running Mojave or earlier and convert your media to ProRes. At which point, you’ll be able to relink to it in Premiere.
Larry