Mike Chambers

code = joy

Converting Nikon D90 Videos to work with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

with 14 comments

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.

Written by mikechambers

August 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 pm

Posted in General, Photography

Tagged with , , , ,

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14 Responses to 'Converting Nikon D90 Videos to work with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4'

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  1. [...] 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

  2. [...] Converting Nikon D90 Videos to work with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 at … [...]

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    4 Aug 09 at 10:44 pm

  3. [...] 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

  4. [...] 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

  5. 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

  6. @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

  7. 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

  8. Should it be oldExt=AVI newExt=mov ?

    Martin

    25 Sep 09 at 1:11 am

  9. 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

  10. 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

  11. Martins right, the old and new extensions have been swopped in the script

    Gareth

    7 Feb 10 at 1:59 pm

  12. 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

  13. @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

  14. Thanks for your reply Mike :-)

    Terry

    19 Feb 10 at 8:30 am

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