mp4 files

I have a project with a bunch of mp4 files and I can't get them to play back in the browser, even after optimizing them. It makes it hard to organize my clips. Should I be converting these files before bringing them into FCPX? I tried converting one in MPEG Streamclip to a QT file and it didn't make a difference. Any ideas? thx

You'll probably need to convert them, but how and to what nobody can tell without more information. MPEG-4 doesn't mean much. You ned to give the complete specifications of the original media. Open in the QuickTime player and report what it says in the movie inspector.

They're all h264 480x272 (and other sizes)
AAC 41,000 hz


I think they all were all originally downloaded from YouTube so they're obviously very compressed. I can work around it by opening the files in the timeline and going back and forth, but it isn't ideal. Maybe the browser is just fussier about playing back clips than the timeline. In a perfect world, I wouldn't be dealing with these crappy clips in the first place. However ...

In this sort of situation, I tend to convert everything to ProRes before I pull it into Final Cut. I'm impressed by the range of media FCPX can handle, but there are times when being kind to it saves trouble in the long run.

Just so you know, I searched around and other people were having similar problems with clips not playing back in the browser. Reverting to the Original Layout seems to have fixed the problem. It was getting to the point where even normal clips weren't playing back in the browser. Once I reverted to the original layout, even the MP4 clips play back now. Not sure why.