Importing Video From iMovie to Aperture

Joe D'Arcy

I want to try the new feature in Aperture 3 to create multimedia presentations using both still images and video. Most of the video I take is AVCHD on a Canon HF S100 camcorder. The first problem is that I cannot import video from the camcorder into Aperture as from what I can determine this is not currently supported - although I can import photos from the camcorder directly into Aperture. So I imported the video into iMovie '09 and then tried to import video from iMovie events into Aperture. Everytime I do it Aperture hangs and I get a spinning beachball. I tried exporting video from iMovie into another location and reducing the size of the file but I still can't import these files into Aperture also downloaded Aperture 3.1 today but this didn't have any impact.
Any ideas on how to resolve or work around this problem?

Joe D'Arcy

Tried a few things to see if I could work around the issue and have established that Aperture is not importing any videos in any format from any source. Within a few seconds of starting an import i get a spinning beachball and when I look at the Activity Monitor Aperture has gone red and is listed as not responding. This has been the same for .mov and .avi files created from iMovie and also avi files recorded on a Canon G9 which I tried to import directly from the card in the camera. The same thing happens every time. If I force quit and restart the thumbnails are there but the spinning ball appears and Aperture hangs saying it is "processing". Intend to try Apple support tomorrow but any help or suggestions appreciated

muggyog

Joe, open Console app and view system log in the background while running Aperture. You will see activity associated with your app. which you can use to pinpoint or at least narrow down the problem. You will get better info. than "processing", you will just have to decypher it. Unix based operating systems generate lots of logs, you just have to find the right one!

Simon201

Joe - just out of curiosity does your spinning beach ball start as soon as you click the downward pointing 'import' arrow at the top left of Aperture or does it happen after you've clicked 'import checked' in the bottom right hand corner? (after checking the boxes of the video files that you want to import)

Joe D'Arcy

It starts after I click "Import Checked" but not immediately - either after a delay of around 10 secs or if I try to open the project with the video files i am trying to import

Simon201

Ah ok - just that I had a similar problem the other day and it turned out to be a particular movie file that was corrupted in the location that aperture seemed to default to after I clicked the arrow at the top. In fact the same was happening when I tried to open it with QT.

Joe D'Arcy

Update: I contacted Apple support this morning and after trying lots of options including a new user, none of which worked, we found that I could get video clips into Aperture by just using drag and drop.
So the problem is associated with the Import process into Aperture which could be as a result of a number of things including a corrupted file as Simon suggests. I will try to resolve the problem when I get a bit of time but in the meantime I have a work around.

muggyog

So what errors did you see in the system.log? You can filter only instances of Aperture by typing the word into search at top right of console window.

Joe D'Arcy

Apologies Muggyog for not replying to your earlier suggestion. I looked at the Console log and there were some errors associated with Aperture but I have no experience in how to decipher these entries. I tried Googling the error script but that got me nowhere. One unusual aspect of the log was that there were a number of entries which read as follows

08/11/2010 00:38:03 WDDriveManagerStatusMenu[187] *** attempt to pop an unknown autorelease pool (0x1026000)

which occurred every time Aperture froze. The number in brackets at the end varied. Any ideas if this is of any relevance. There are 2 WD external drives connected to my Mac. One contains my iTunes library and the second is the backup to the computer hard drive and the iTunes external library via Time Machine. Neither are used to directly store Aperture files

muggyog

If the error happens when Aperture fails they ARE connected. Here is possibly a relevant link ( Drive Manager software seems suspect ). For faultfinding purposes try running Aperture without the drives attached ( you may even have to temporarily remove drive software ).

You may also want to remove it from startup items. You can reinstall it all later if there is no change with Aperture behavior.

Joe D'Arcy

I tried disconnecting the drives over the weekend but the problem was still there. I will try temporarily removing the programmes when I get a chance to see if that fixes it. Will let you know.

Just went back and read your links. It would appear that the WD software is not really performing a useful function in my setup. Hopefully removing it resolves the issue with Aperture

Joe D'Arcy

Very frustrating evening. Thought I had solved the problem. Found some offending Wd apps and removed them. Found others that I couldn't delete but removed them from the log in menu. Aperture seemed to be happy with video files and I created and exported a multimedia slideshow. Then I tried the import process in Aperture and things started to go wrong again. This time the log didn't refer to the WD status manager. Initially it didn't report any errors but after a few force quits and restarts the console read
09/11/2010 23:30:50 UserNotificationCenter[242] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:32:15 Aperture[248] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:32:17 Image Capture Extension[250] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:32:26 Aperture[248] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:32:45 Aperture[248] iLifeSlideshow - Font not found:Coolvetica
09/11/2010 23:32:46 Aperture[248] NULL CGImageSource for Path - aperture://nAStFm7pS1SMzGWvpXDvnA!!!
09/11/2010 23:32:46 Aperture[248] NULL CGImageSource for Path - aperture://nAStFm7pS1SMzGWvpXDvnA!!!
09/11/2010 23:32:55 Aperture[248] NULL CGImageSource for Path - aperture://%4fVq7yJQnCjRDaz8MMKPw!!!
09/11/2010 23:33:22 QTKitServer[261] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:33:22 com.apple.quicklook[259] 2010-11-09 23:33:22.482 QTKitServer[261:903] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:33:34 Finder[125] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:33:47 QTKitServer[262] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
09/11/2010 23:33:47 [0x0-0x21021].com.apple.Aperture[248] 2010-11-09 23:33:47.974 QTKitServer[262:903] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs


and more similar stuff. When I force quit again and deleted the project where I had the only video file in Aperture everything was okay again.
All help and suggestions appreciated

Joe D'Arcy

Tried to drag and drop 2 video files into Aperture but it's now freezing almost immediately. Console reads as follows

10/11/2010 00:16:11 Aperture[429] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:16:13 Image Capture Extension[431] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:17:14 QTKitServer[436] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:17:14 [0x0-0x55055].com.apple.Aperture[429] 2010-11-10 00:17:14.338 QTKitServer[436:903] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:17:50 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[119] ([0x0-0x55055].com.apple.Aperture[429]) Exited: Terminated
10/11/2010 00:17:52 UserNotificationCenter[440] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:18:12 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[119] ([0x0-0x4b04b].com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX[391]) Exited: Killed
10/11/2010 00:18:22 Aperture[448] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:18:24 Image Capture Extension[450] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:18:32 Aperture[448] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:18:34 QTKitServer[452] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:18:34 [0x0-0x5a05a].com.apple.Aperture[448] 2010-11-10 00:18:34.557 QTKitServer[452:903] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:18:58 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[119] ([0x0-0x5a05a].com.apple.Aperture[448]) Exited: Terminated
10/11/2010 00:18:59 UserNotificationCenter[456] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:19:09 Aperture[459] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:19:11 Image Capture Extension[461] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:19:16 Aperture[459] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:20:10 QTKitServer[465] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs
10/11/2010 00:20:10 [0x0-0x5e05e].com.apple.Aperture[459] 2010-11-10 00:20:10.602 QTKitServer[465:903] __CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations timed out while talking to pbs

muggyog

You are having issues with your pasteboard server (pbs). Exactly what version of OS are you using?

Joe D'Arcy

Pretty sure it's 10.6.4 I'm at work at the moment so can't check on the Mac. Thanks for all the help

muggyog

OK, fire up the Activity monitor and see is pboard running. I have enclosed screenshot of mine.

If it is not running, open the Terminal and paste in the following: nohup /System/Library/CoreServices/pbs & and type return.
This should restart your pasteboard server (launchd normally does this automatically). This advice has been stolen from here.

See what happens. This is only a temporary fix (if it works) because this should not happen normally.

Here is another link which relates to 10.4 & 10.5 that might be of use.

Joe D'Arcy

Problem solved. Called Apple support this morning. Went through all the basics again including a complete repair of the hd etc. Then deleted and reloaded Aperture and updated to 3.1 and installed 10.6.5 while I was at it. This took us up to lunch time. But the problem was still there that if there were any video file present in an Aperture library, it froze and you had to force quit, relaunch and delete the offending file in the 5 secs before it frozen again. Looking at the Console log the errors were pointing at a web interaction, but we couldn't work out the cause. Then when I was doing a drag and drop of a video file into Aperture, an error window appeared on the screen saying that a "Community Toolbar" wasn't compatible with the current version of Safari. I had been getting this error message occasionally when on the web over the past few months but had been ignoring it. So we looked in the Toolbar folder in Applications and found a Vuze folder which contained an Uninstall programme for the offending toolbar. After getting rid of it, Aperture is now functioning with video files again. So somehow or other a toolbar application that I had unintentionally pulled in - probably during a vuze version update was interfering with video content in Aperture, causing it to freeze. Hope this all helps others with similar problems in the future.
I have to say that the support guy in Apple this morning was excellent and that I feel very embarrassed. If one of my kids had caused themselves problems by pulling in a problem application from a p2p site, they would have got lectured by me on being careful etc.

muggyog

Good to see you got sorted. Log files are the way to go when faultfinding, cryptic but useful.

There is a link between vuze toolbar and the CFServiceControllerBeginPBSLoadForLocalizations error you were getting and that is they are both java apps.
Interesting to see how bloatware can damage apps. on the Mac

Joe D'Arcy

Muggyog, thanks for sticking with me on this. Your advise re the Console log really helped as it was the combination me looking at this and the Apple support guy interpreting the log and the toolbar/safari error popping up that got us to the solution. I try to not take in any of this bloatware as you call it but it can get in on the back of stuff without you knowing, especially in the p2p environment. I have a vague memory of Vuze trying to install a toolbar and I probably thought that I had rejected it, but while I obviously stopped it from operating in my core vuze app, it had been installed and caused this apparently unrelated problem months later