One of the main reasons that I upgraded to Vegas Pro 14 was that H.265 support was listed as a feature of this release. When I try to open an H.265 video file I am told that the file contains no video. What do I need to do to use H.265 files?
What's the file container type? MP4, MOV, other? Maybe post a MediaInfo report to give some information on your file.
It's an MP4. Here is an export of MediaInfo for this file. In case it matters, this file was generated by a DJI Phantom 4 Professional camera drone. The file plays flawlessly on my Windows 10 machine.
General
Complete name : E:\Drone\2016-12-04 Ranch Distance Run (P4P)\DJI_0018.MP4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : JVT
Codec ID : avc1 (avc1/isom)
File size : 3.81 GiB
Duration : 5 min 28 s
Overall bit rate : 99.8 Mb/s
Comment : DE=None, Mode=P
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main@L5@High
Codec ID : hvc1
Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration : 5 min 27 s
Bit rate : 100.0 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.402
Stream size : 3.81 GiB (100%)
Title : DJI.HVC
Language : English
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Other
Type : meta
Duration : 5 min 28 s
Default : No
Bit rate mode : VBR
There are a couple of items that look a little strange in that info. Its the whole listing?
"Codec ID : avc1 (avc1/isom)"
I am not sure why avc1 is up there in the file header. avc1 is for AVC files and not HEVC files. The isom is common and normal.
I don't know what the "Other meta" stream is at the bottom
From reading posts on this forum the Vegas HEVC decoder has been kinda finiky. Maybe it is confused by the avc1 in the header and complaining about that. Maybe it should ignore that file header item since the ID in the video stream header is correct and that is the one that really matters. Maybe the meta stream is confusing the Vegas decoder.
Those are my thoughts. Have you contacted Magix support yet?
I don't have a DJI media file but I can load HEVC MP4 files into Vegas 14 that have been generated by ffmpeg based utilities.
You could try remuxing the file with ffmpeg or something else. That should get rid of the avc1 in the file header which can help to see if that is a workaround until Magix can truely sort the issue. Here is a Windows batch file that you can drag and drop file(s) onto and it will remux the file. The new file has the same name as the source with an _mux appended. Change the path to whereever you unzip ffmpeg. Zeranoe is a good place to get an ffmpeg binary. You can name the batch remux_hevc.cmd. Any name is fine. You just want cmd or bat as the file extension.
@echo off :top c:\systools\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg.exe -i %1 -c:v copy -c:a copy -chunk_size 64K "%~dpn1_mux.mp4" if errorlevel 1 goto error shift if NOT %1$==$ goto top goto :EOF :error echo !!! error encoding !!! pause
That's everything that was in the export file. I went back and checked the "Advanced" box but MediaInfo output the same data. Below is a MediaInfo export of an H.264 file from the same drone. It appears to have more information in it. I have not contacted support yet but that will be my next step. Just wanted to try the forum first. Thank you for the observations/thoughts and the information about ffmpeg.
General
Complete name : E:\Drone\2016-11-06 JCWMA Camp Area\DJI_0802.MP4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : JVT
Codec ID : avc1 (avc1/isom)
File size : 1.37 GiB
Duration : 3 min 15 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 60.0 Mb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2016-11-06 10:11:52
Tagged date : UTC 2016-11-06 10:11:52
Comment : 0.91.142
©xyz : +35.041462-95.479394+3.000
©xsp : +0.00
©ysp : +0.00
©zsp : +0.00
©fpt : +4.80
©fyw : -51.90
©frl : +0.30
©gpt : +0.00
©gyw : -51.10
©grl : +0.00
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=8
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 3 min 15 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 60.0 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.241
Stream size : 1.37 GiB (100%)
Title : DJI.AVC
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2016-11-06 10:11:52
Tagged date : UTC 2016-11-06 10:11:52
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
In another thread the OP made a sample file available. I copiped the text of my response from there to here.
I downloaded and tried the file. Vegas does think the file is AVC. Probably for the reasons I mentioned in your other thread on this topic.
This is the text from a right click on the media file in Vegas, choosing properties and then looking at the general tab. compoundplug in the Vegas code used for general MP4+AVC file input.
Plug-In
Name: compoundplug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 14.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\compoundplug
Format: AVC
Version: Version 14.0 (Build 201) 64-bit
Company: MAGIX Computer Products Intl. Co.
The ffmeg remux command I mentioned in the other thread does fix this until MAGIX gets this fully sorted. I don't think DJI should be outputting the avc1 ID in the file header since avc1 indicates AVC video. The video stream correctly lists hvc1. Still DJI stuff is out there and people need it to work so Vegas should compensate.
If your DJI can output MOV files that may work around this issue more directly.
I couldn't get anything to open this file. Not windows 10, gopro studio, premiere pro, vegas 13,14... what NLE DOES open the file? (just curious). Maybe DJI needs a firmware update.
Windows 10 media player did play the file for me. Still laggy but it's high bitrate HEVC so that's realistically expected.
VLC tried to play, just got a couple of still images, but VLC has problems with any high bitrate HEVC file I've tried.
Vegas 13 should not be able to open the file. It has no HEVC support. Same for GoPro studio. No idea what version of PP supports HEVC if at all.
So the question that comes to mind is what NLE do DJI expect/recommend people to use to edit this footage? Seems a bit "bleeding edge" doesn't it?
https://1drv.ms/v/s!ArIFEVg5KvU7i5oqm2eshe7tXc5p8Q
The link that OP post on other thread.
I will try using the MOV format with H.265 and also use ffmeg to remux my existing files. I'm glad to see that the issue is not with all H.265 files. BTW, I have a post in a DJI forum and the only suggestion so far has been to try MOV format. I may open a ticket with their support over the video file header but not sure it will be high on their list.
I appreciate everyone's input and I will post my results - hopefully tonight.
So the question that comes to mind is what NLE do DJI expect/recommend people to use to edit this footage? Seems a bit "bleeding edge" doesn't it?
I don't think anyone is going to "edit" high bitrate HEVC on most any PC. It is going to be very laggy. You will probably always want to transcode to something else like CineForm, DNxHR or Prores or a low overhead AVC variant. HEVC can never be low overhead.
DJI is probably trying to use HEVC to fit more footage time onto the limited flash card capacity.
Agreed. So do they have a transcoder of some kind that the OP should be using? ...looks like maybe they have a prores transcoder of some sort, but I can't be bothered to wade through that forum. One is enough :)
Okay, shooting the video in MOV works (simply renaming the MP4 file to MOV did not). It also worked after I remuxed it using ffmpeg. However, even though all of these videos play flawlessly with the built-in Windows 10 video app, they bring my machine to its knees in Vegas Pro 14. Its worse than a slide show and all CPU cores max out at 100%. My machine has an Intel Core i7-3960X 3.30 GHz (6 cores/12 logical processors) with 64 GB of RAM and the disk subsystem is a 4-drive RAID 0 array of Samsung SSDs. For most things it rocks the house!
Bottom line is that even though I have a solution, I don't think I'll be using H.265 unless I find some way to edit them without going through too many hoops. I do very much appreciate everyone's input and suggestions. Thank you all.
You may be able to improve the playback with some of these steps. Personally I would probably use proxies (as Set suggested on the other thread) but I might go for Cineform or XAVC-intra intermediates. If you use proxies, consider Vegasaur and also check out the extra scripts provided by Altarvic in this thread.
Thanks Nik... better copy-pasted the suggestion here as well... (please everyone - minimize the double posting / reply / comment... - thank you in advance):
Right click on these media in Project Media tab, and 'Create Video Proxy'. The preview will use the proxy, but the rendering process will use the full original quality.
Thank you for the link to you FAQ. I will definitely look into those settings even though the proxy worked great. Nice to have several options to work with. I appreciate all your contributions to this site.
Hex Editor
From Sony Vegas Pro specification official page, I find that Vegas Pro can export H.265 codec, but not import H.265 codec.
Supported formats by Sony Vegas Pro 14
Import
4K XAVC S, 4K XAVC, XDCAM EX, XDCAM Optical, DV, HDV, AVCHD, NXCAM, MOV, MP4, WMV, MPEG-1/2/4, H.264/AVC, WAV, FLAC, AAC, MP3, OGG, WMA, Surround Sound/5.1, BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, OpenEXR-, DPX- and WDP image sequences
Export
DVD, Blu-ray Disc, AVCHD Disc, (DV-)AVI, MJPEG, MXF, MOV, WMV, XAVC, XAVC S, MPEG-1/2/4, H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, WAV, MP3, BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, OpenEXR- , DPX- and WDP image sequences
Maybe you will need a H.265 converter to transcode H.265 to any of Vegas Pro supported editing codec.
What's the file container type? MP4, MOV, other? Maybe post a MediaInfo report to give some information on your file.
From Sony Vegas Pro specification official page, I find that Vegas Pro can export H.265 codec, but not import H.265 codec.
Supported formats by Sony Vegas Pro 14
Import
4K XAVC S, 4K XAVC, XDCAM EX, XDCAM Optical, DV, HDV, AVCHD, NXCAM, MOV, MP4, WMV, MPEG-1/2/4, H.264/AVC, WAV, FLAC, AAC, MP3, OGG, WMA, Surround Sound/5.1, BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, OpenEXR-, DPX- and WDP image sequences
Export
DVD, Blu-ray Disc, AVCHD Disc, (DV-)AVI, MJPEG, MXF, MOV, WMV, XAVC, XAVC S, MPEG-1/2/4, H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC, WAV, MP3, BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, OpenEXR- , DPX- and WDP image sequences
Maybe you will need a H.265 converter to transcode H.265 to any of Vegas Pro supported editing codec.
What H265 are you talking about? I am regularly edit native Samsung's camera with H265 on VP14 with no issue. Prior to that I have to transcode the footage for Vegas to be able to edit.
What H265 are you talking about? I am regularly edit native Samsung's camera with H265 on VP14 with no issue. Prior to that I have to transcode the footage for Vegas to be able to edit.
These H.265 files are being generated from a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone camera. It appears that when using the MP4 file type there is something in the header that Vegas Pro doesn't like. Recording in the MOV file type or remuxing the MP4 files with ffmeg allows the files to be used in Vegas Pro. See above for more information.
From Sony Vegas Pro specification official page, I find that Vegas Pro can export H.265 codec, but not import H.265 codec.
Supported formats by Sony Vegas Pro 14
Import
4K XAVC S, 4K XAVC, XDCAM EX, XDCAM Optical, DV, HDV, AVCHD, NXCAM, MOV, MP4, WMV, MPEG-1/2/4, H.264/AVC, WAV, FLAC, AAC, MP3, OGG, WMA, Surround Sound/5.1, BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, OpenEXR-, DPX- and WDP image sequences...
(Magix, not Sony) Vegas Pro 14 does import H.265/HEVC files. It is an omission on that web page.
I came across this old thread looking for answers as to why my 4K/60fps files from my DJI drone are crashing (hanging with "not responding" message) Vegas Pro 18 every 10 minutes. I can confirm Vegas will indeed import H.265, it just won't play them back at more than 3-4 fps (at least for my newly old 6 yo PC or my newly built one).
Have these suggestions changed any since this old thread?