Converting Nikon D90 Videos to work with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
I recently bought my first DSLR, the Nikon D90, which I have been having a blast with. One of the cool features of the camera, is that it supports creating HD video clips (of up to 5 minutes) (view an example here). However, the way the clips are created seems to confuse Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, which won’t open or import the clips without a little work on your part.
I found instructions here on how to use the terminal to get Premiere to understand the clips, and based on that (with some tweaks and fixes), I have put together a bash script that will “fix” all of the Nikon D90 AVI clips in a directory so that Premiere Pro will recognize them.
Usage:
d90topremier [dirWithClips]
The “dirWithClips” argument is optional, and if not specified will assume the clips are in the current working director.
The output will look something like this:
./DSC_0002.AVI --> ./DSC_0002.mov
./DSC_0003.AVI --> ./DSC_0003.mov
./DSC_0004.AVI --> ./DSC_0004.mov
./DSC_0005.AVI --> ./DSC_0005.mov
./DSC_0007.AVI --> ./DSC_0007.mov
./DSC_0008.AVI --> ./DSC_0008.mov
./DSC_0009.AVI --> ./DSC_0009.mov
./DSC_0010.AVI --> ./DSC_0010.mov
./DSC_0011.AVI --> ./DSC_0011.mov
./DSC_0014.AVI --> ./DSC_0014.mov
Requirements
The script requires the “setfile” command, which is available in the free Mac OS X Developer SDK.
Script
#/bin/bash
#################################################
#
# Bash script that modifies Nikon D90 AVI Video
# file so they are reconized by Adobe Preiere Pro CS4
#
# Created by Mike Chambers
# http://www.mikechambers.com
# Based on original script at:
# http://www.alexbeckett.co.uk/blog/2009/07/02/techie-importing-d90-dmovie-video-into-premiere-pro/
#
#################################################i
oldExt=mov
newExt=AVI
d="./"
if [ -n "$1" ];then
d="$1"
fi
if [ ! -e "$d" ]; then
echo "$d does not exist"
exit 0;
fi
for filename in "$d"*.$oldExt
do
if [ ! -e "$filename" ]; then
continue;
fi
setfile -t "VfW " "$filename"
newFileName="${filename%$oldExt}$newExt"
mv "$filename" "$newFileName"
echo "$filename --> $newFileName"
done
Just place this into a file called “d90topremier”, place it in your path, and make sure to chmod it like so:
chmod 755 d90topremier
If you run into any issues, or have any improvements for the script, post them in the comments.






[...] terminal to get Premiere to understand the clips, and based on that (with some [...] Pingback by Convert Nikon D90 Videos to work with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 at Mike Chambers — August 2, 2009 @ 7:43 [...]
Techie: Importing D90 dmovie video into Premiere Pro | Alex Beckett
3 Aug 09 at 2:15 am
[...] Converting Nikon D90 Videos to work with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 at … [...]
1.67% Steady Converting Xbox 360 Repair Guide. | Used Review
4 Aug 09 at 10:44 pm
[...] damit die Videos von der Nikon D90 von Adobe Premiere korrekt erkannt werden. Mike Chambers hat ein Batch-Skript erstellt, damit man die Umwandlung nicht händisch vornehmen [...]
» Videos von einer Nikon D90 anpassen für Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 » Fundfetzen
5 Aug 09 at 12:51 pm
[...] In un post sul suo blog , Mike Chambers, product manager di Adobe, ha spiegato come poter importare i video HD della Nikon D90 (ne parla da utente, ne ha appena comprata una) all’interno di Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. Non è possibile farlo direttamente, ma con le istruzioni che vengono proposte in questo post, potrete farlo senza problemi. Grazie Mike! [...]
Convertire video Nikon D90 con Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 | JumperNews
21 Aug 09 at 7:02 am
Hi, thanks for your work on this!
I have the exact same problem with my D90 and Premiere CS4…
I have created the file (d90topremiere), and placed it in the same directory as my AVI files.
I have the following in the terminal:
localhost:Video_Clips Chris$ chmod 755 d90topremiere
localhost:Video_Clips Chris$ d90topremiere
-bash: d90topremiere: command not found
I downloaded the developer tools too.
What am I doing wrong? is there supposed to be a file extension on the code file?
Chris C
29 Aug 09 at 3:29 am
@Chris
If you are in the same directory as your d90topremiere file, then you have to run it like so:
./d90topremiere
best bet is to just place the file in your system path.
Hope that helps…
mike chambers
mike chambers
6 Sep 09 at 10:01 am
Hi Mike,
thanks for the reply.
I tried this to add the file to the path:
localhost:Movies Chris$ echo ‘export PATH=/usr/Chris/Movies/d90topremiere:$PATH’ >> ~/.bash_profile
and I get:
./d90topremiere: line 1: {rtf1ansiansicpg1252cocoartf949cocoasubrtf540: command not found
./d90topremiere: line 2: syntax error near unexpected token `}’
./d90topremiere: line 2: `{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Helvetica;}’
What do I do?
Thanks for your help!
Chris C
8 Sep 09 at 4:23 am
Should it be oldExt=AVI newExt=mov ?
Martin
25 Sep 09 at 1:11 am
Hi Mike…. greetings !
I’m form Mexico, and I have this nikon d90.. so I also have the same problem with Adobe Premiere…
(my english is not that well… so I hope you clearly understand all I’m saying.. )
I’m on Mac OS X 10.5.8, just to make you know.
A have never used the “terminal” aplication… And I’m a complete newbie at this…. I really don’t understand what should i do.
Im lost from beginning…. when you use: “Usage:
d90topremier [dirWithClips]“… don’t know what this means….
when you talk about the “setfile”…. is the same for me…. don’t know what this is… I click on the link and got a XCodeTools.mpkg that have lot of things… but I can’t figure out what is the “setfile”….(should I say I’m also new with MAc ¿?.. ha!)
Well… this is looking really bad for me… but, to have a N D90, and can’t edit the videos on Premiere… is such a big problem right now.
Hope you could help me…. THANKS A LOT !!!
once again…. GREETINGS FROM MEXICO CITY!!
Jav
5 Oct 09 at 9:44 am
wow thats something different to the average photographer.
Mike you should make a video of the whole process. it would massively help thousands of people!
David
david
15 Dec 09 at 4:16 pm
Martins right, the old and new extensions have been swopped in the script
Gareth
7 Feb 10 at 1:59 pm
Hi Mike, I was wondering if this is just the GUI for your script:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/nikopre.html
Terry
18 Feb 10 at 4:22 pm
@Terry
Not sure. Looks like it basically does the same thing though.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
18 Feb 10 at 4:40 pm
Thanks for your reply Mike :-)
Terry
19 Feb 10 at 8:30 am