The simplest suggestion is to open your AVI in Windows Movie Maker, and render it again, as either a new AVI or a WMV file.

Use the absolute highest-quality settings possible, to preserve as much quality as possible during recompression. Windows Movie Maker will effectively "repair" the file to a state where Sony Vegas Movie Studio can read it.

If this doesn't work, or is unacceptable, try installing FFDShow (just google it). That package will solve many encoding and rendering issues.

Sorry I am a techno phobe, I have been making music vids in WMM for the past year with downloaded avi's with no hitch and got this package 'cos it said it supported AVI on the box which it obviously doesnt!

1. Sorry I do not know what is meant by render
2. I thought my 'paper sack' was AVI

I was told to download mjpeg which you have to pay for, not gonna 'cos I have just paid for a product that is supposed to support avi!

Sorry frustrated and feel mis-sold by Sony any help much appreciated.
Sue.

First off, relax. All Vegas products support AVI. Either you're doing something wrong, or there's something wrong with the file.

What are you doing, specifically?

Did you create a video track? Are you dragging the file onto the video track?

Try double-clicking on the AVI clip. Tell us if it works.

OK, I have AVI videos on my hard drive which I downloaded off the internet, I have tried dragging the file but it will not drag and drop, I have tried double clicking on the avi clip but nothing happens. Usually in WMM when I import a clip it shows an image of a piece of vid but here I just get the little arrow circled with blue circle. I cant understand as in WMM it is OK and when I download them to a flash drive they play OK on my DVD player so the clips are OK.

I tried dragging a previous whole WMM vid that I published and that drags and drops OK but really I need the avi files. Sorry to be a pain I just bought this package as I wanted some better effects but its just not as simple as I thought!

Thank you.

When I import media (video) into SVWSP8 all I get is an icon showing my AVS DVD player symbol/logo arrow in blue circle which is my default player. I have quite a few codec packages on my PC as I need these when I download, it is just the vegas that doesnt seem to recognise the clips.

Many Thanks.

It is a codec issue. Google for the K-lite codec pack and install it.

Especially for a self-proclaimed techo phobe, I think the simplest answer is my answer from above. (reprocess the file in Windows Movie Maker to fix it. Then use the result in Vegas).

Even though you feel mislead by Sony right now, this isn't their fault. Sony does an excellent job of supporting AVI files.

Here's the issue with AVI files:

AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave... which means its a way to combine both Audio (sound) and Video (pictures) together to make a movie. The issue comes in that there are many different ways to store both the Audio and the Video. So even though you may have a valid AVI file, your computer may not know how to play the audio, the video, or both.

Vegas most definitely does support AVI files, and supports virtually all types of audio and video inside them. But since any company can come out with a new storage technology for the audio or video, its impossible to guarantee that all AVI formats will be supported at all times. AVIs extensibility and flexibility is also its greatest weakness.

Like other posters said, try installed FFDShow and/or K-Lite.
Those are both free, and will give you new codecs.
A codec is a Coder / Decoder, used to play movie files (decoding), and make new files (encoding).

Thank you all. I already have k-lite and other codec packages on my system unless there has been and update in the past year. I will try and install FFDshow. If not I have about 15 hours of footage to convert into WMM aren't I lucky :-)

Once again thank you.

OK progress report.

Tried latest K-Lite - did not work
Tried FFDShow - did not work
Tried enableing 3rd party codecs in preferences(default is off) - did not work
Tried downloading the update for VMSP8 - YAY well sort of picture no sound (come on Sony!!!)
Tried dowmloading divx 7 as this has worked for some people - did not work.

Please does anyone know the actual codec I need? losing hair now. Seems lots of people have had/having this same problem and from what I have read some of the above have worked for some people and not others.

Thank you.

Randomly installing codec packs is not the way to go.

You need to find out what format these AVI files actually are.

Download and use something like GSpot:

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

or MediaInfo:

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Using these tools will help you identify what codec you might need to install to get Vegas to open them properly.

For both tools within the Video information there should be a four character codec identifier. With MediaInfo you may well get a nice button that says "Go to the web site of this video codec". Regardless post back here what it says.

Hi

Ran the mediainfo and already have those codecs shown on my computer (spent all today downloading and updating my codecs) but still no sound. OK playing the AVI on my computer just not in SVMS8P.

Don't know what else to try banging my head against the desk.

So, wat was the FOURCC code?

WMP and WMM will use DirectShow filters to playback files so you may indeed already have those codecs shown. Sony Vegas will use VfW codecs, so you may not have anything compatible installed despite spending all day updating them.

Edit...

No sound? Are you saying that video playback is now ok in VMS? If so what format is the audio? My point about DirectShow filters will still apply.

sueann, Vegas will play back AVI files for which it has the proper codec installed. Vegas requires a VfW codec so even if you have a directShow codec (which some other players use) installed, Vegas won't play back the video if there is no VfW codec installed for that video format.

You've never said what type of video you're looking at. It was suggested you look at it in gSpot or mediainfo. What type of video did it say you had?

Another important thing to note: Vegas does NOT support DivX/XVid. While some have gotten these formats to work, many others have not.

So the bottom line is: What FORMAT are you trying to use?

"Vegas does NOT support DivX/XVid. While some have gotten these formats to work, many others have not."

Yes, this.

Vegas may say that it supports many types of AVI files, but the fact is, it supports some far better than others. Very often the videos you download off the Internet are DivX/Xvid and Vegas does not do very well with those. DivX and Xvid is a "delivery format" (meant for watching your finished video) not an "editing format." (Like what might come out of a camcorder.) The easiest thing to do is what someone else already suggested—open the video files in Windows Movie Maker and save them as an AVI. This AVI will have the DV codec, which is most definitely an "editing format."

When you open these DV AVI files in Vegas, make sure you set the aspect ratio by right-clicking on your clips in the timeline, selecting "Properties" and clicking on the Media area. There will be a drop-down menu where you can pick your video's aspect ratio (Widescreen or regular aka fullscreen, PAL or NTSC). If you don't do this, Vegas may end up squashing or squishing your video (so it looks distorted) and we see too much of this lately already.

Actually i've had pretty much complete success with DivX. I installed the free DivX player and after that, Vegas reads and writes DivX flawlessly.

I believe the problem is that there is a lot of very bad DivX creation software out there and that results in a lot of very poorly formatted DivX files floating around. Any random DivX file you download from the 'net may be one of these badly formatted files and that could cause a problem with Vegas opening them. That's the fault of the bad software that created it, not of Vegas.

I've never had a file created by the official DivX encoder or by Vegas have any issues at all.

Cin,
I have mixed feelings about divx files. Compared to wmv, it takes Vegas much longer to render, without much advantages in filesize or quality. Do you know any tweaks or tricks?

All my episodes are XVID I have found the easiest thing to do is to open in WMM and publish it takes 1/2 hour per episode but I am left with a workable format with picture and sound where as at the moment all I have is picture.

May sound like a stupid question if I import the AVI/XVID clips with no sound as sometimes I just set to music once I have published the video will the sound come through on the finished video!?

Thanks for all your help everyone.

I can understand your frustration... You PAID money for a program that claims it works with the format you're using and WMM is free and works better.

Do you happen to have a sample internet video that you download? Maybe someone can down load it and replicate what type of issue you're experiencing.

Byron K, Vegas has NEVER claimed to work with XVid/DivX formats.

XviD is a delivery format, not an editing format! All video editing software prefers to edit codecs which do not use interframe compression (and codecs like XviD, DivX, etc use this kind of compression) because with interframe compression, not every frame is complete—it relies on information in frames before or after it to make a complete frame. It is difficult sometimes for software (any software) to decompress these kinds of codecs on the fly. They sometimes will do it for a while and then they'll stop. They'll work great for some people and horribly for other people. And it's not just Vegas, it's any editing software, for Mac or PC. When I stopped editing in DivX or XviD, my crashing and extra rendering time stopped.

Converting the XviD files to DV AVI with WMM (or some other video encoder) is better, because DV does not use interframe compression. Every frame is treated as complete. Or even better than converting XviD or DivX to DV AVI is to use DV AVI from the start if possible. If you are using footage you got from a DVD, convert that straight to DV. I think it's completely bone-headed to go from DVD > XviD > DV when you can go straight to DVD > DV. The picture quality will look tons better, for one thing, because DV loses very little detail, while XviD can sometimes lose a lot.

But whatever. . . do whatever you want as long as you like the results and Vegas isn't crashing on you. But don't blame Vegas if it does crash. XviD and DivX were never designed to be edited. They are just meant to be viewed.

Edit: And think of it this way: When you set up a project to be edited in Vegas, it gives you several different templates—DV PAL Widescreen, DV PAL (fullscreen), DV NTSC Widescreen, DV NTSC (fullscreen). There is no template for DivX or XviD and I don't think there ever will be. (Neither is there for Vegas Pro.) If you edit in DV, rendering time is much less as well.

Edit again: Read John Rofrano's post in this Creative Cow thread: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/24/885131 (Apparently he's written some Vegas books.)

"Something like DV or M-JPEG would be best. Understand that VOB is a delivery format, not an editing format. Converting them to an editing format is always your best option."

That's what I'm talking about! VOB (MPEG-2), DivX, XviD, WMV, H.264 are all delivery formats. DV, MJPEG, Lagarith—they are editing formats.

Ah.. My bad, I thought suann's referral to AVI/XVID were the same thing (.avi)... sibeliusfan's explanation helped to clarify things. ;)

-bK