How to import MOV files to After Effects CC/CS6/CS5/CS4

Summary: Adobe After Effects will not import .MOV files or MOV importing only audio? Luckily, there is an easy solution to fix this. Find it out here.

Adobe claims that After Effects CS5 and above offer native support for MOV format. But the problem is, many AE users found it a painful experience to import MOV files to After Effects for editing. And there are frequently asked questions quoted below:

Q1: Can’t import .mov files into After Effects CS5

I’m just starting to learn and use After Effects and was wondering why I can’t import a .mov file (with sound and video) edited in Final Cut into after effects – I get a message that says “MoV file is damaged or unsupported”. This file also can’t be viewed in Quicktime, sound plays but no video. I’ve had a look at some of the forums on this same issue and it appears it has something to do with Quicktime X? If this is correct how can I get rid of Quciktime X?

Q2: .mov files no longer reading Audio in AE CS5

In AE, all imported .mov files will show the video just fine, but I can hear no audio. The speaker icon will show up in the timeline, but if I view the Waveform, I now get two flat lines. It is as if the Audio was -48.00 dB, but it is set to 0.00. I have even tried to push it up to +12.00 dB, but the Waveform displays only the flat lines.

Many folks are facing the MOV importing issues with After Effects CS4, CS5, CS6 or even with the latest AE CC. As far as I know, MOV is a container format which can contain data encoded using various compression and encoding schemes. If your MOV files are not accepted by After Effects, it’s probably because of the video or audio codec incompatibility issues. To fix the problem, the easy workaround is to transcode MOV to a more editing-frinedly format, such an AE’s MPEG-2.

To convert MOV files to AE, we need to get some help from third-party software. After countless tests, I highly recommend EaseFab Video Converter for Mac to all of you which can help users to encode any MOV files to After Effects supported format at super fast speed effectively. After the conversion, you can smoothly editing the converted MOV files in After Effects. What’s more, besides AE, it also supplies powerful profiles to other NLEs like FCP, iMovie, Avid Premiere, etc. for Mac users. It has an equivalent Windows version Video Converter for PC users. Just get the right version according to your computer’s OS and follow the step-by-step guide below to convert MOV videos to After Effects smoothly.

How to convert MOV to MPEG-2 for After Effects CS5/CS5.5/CS6/CC

Step 1. Add MOV video files

First download and install the MOV Converter for After Effects. When completed, start the program and then drag and drop your MOV files to the program. You can add multiple video files to convert at a time.

Step 2. Choose the output format

To import MOV files to After Effects, you can select MOV, WMV or MPEG-2 from “Editing Software” as the output format. All output videos will keep the original quality of MOV video and seamlessly fit After Effects CC, CS6, CS5.5, CS5, CS4 and more.

Tip: If the default settings do not fit you requirement, you can click “Settings” icon to adjust video size, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channels.

Step 3. Convert MOV to After Effects

When everything is ready, click the Convert button and all the loaded MOV video files will be converted to into an editing-friendly format that can be imported into After Effects without any trouble.

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