I just got a Zi8 about six weeks ago, just playing around by this point.

No problems with seeing the videos in version 8.c as MOV. Since I am still on a pentium 4, I REALLY need and upgrade.

So I convert 1080 .mov to Sony 720 MXF. Some of the footage is good enough for casual distribution. If I were to do something serious, I would use the .mxf as the proxy, Build the project. Then swap the proxy with the original for final render.

MXFs are great! But I do see a bit of change in the video quality. Don't know yet if it is for the better or not!

That solution works... sort of. Reverting to an older version of QuickTime and changing the extensions from MOV to MP4 does result in a file that is editable on Vegas 8.0c. Unfortunately, the audio is out of sync by about 2 seconds.

I did install a trial version of Vegas 9.0e, and it does edit H.264 files without a problem. However, the playback is extremely jerky (about 4-6 frames per second). This is on a Q6600 Core 2 Quad system with 3 GB of RAM. The files are 1080p, so perhaps this is the best performance I can get.

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Michael

Please forgive my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with MXF files. How does one convert MOV files to MXF files?

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Michael

Put the MOV on the time line, then select Render As / Sony MXF. Pick one of the 720 or 1080 templates.

If you see any quality decrease with the MXF, you can always "Replace" the media with the original just prior to rendering your final output.

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, the rendered MXF files are also black and missing the sound. Apparently, if Vegas can't play a MOV file, it also can't render it.

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Michael

The 2 second audio offset does not affect everyone with these cameras, and the workaround is rather simple (this has been tested):

1) Go to Options and Select "Ignore Event Grouping."
2) Grab the left (beginning) edge of the audio event and pull it downstream exactly 2.000 seconds.
3) Click-drag the audio event back to the beginning of the video track.
4) Grab the trailing edge of the video event and drag it back to the end of the audio event.
5) Go to Options and Deselect "Ignore Event Grouping."

Thanks for the suggestion. This is getting to be quite an involved workaround. I hope Sony and Apple and Kodak can put their heads together and solve this soon. The H.264 format is getting to be very popular, and I expect there will be many occasions where we'll need to edit MOV files.

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Michael

Neo Scene works pretty well with footage from my Zi8.

**I hope Sony and Apple and Kodak can put their heads together and solve this soon. The H.264 format is getting to be very popular, and I expect there will be many occasions where we'll need to edit MOV files.**

Every single pocket HD camera maker rolls their own nonstandard codec combinations and puts them in friendly-sounding wrappers like MOV or AVI. These camera makers don't consult SCS in advance of their releases, because Sony markets and sells its own line of pocket cameras. There are dozens of new competing models introduced every year. Although Sony Vegas developers do their best to accommodate the new h.264 and mjpeg flavors, I don't believe that is their primary development goal for their professional software, at least not at the expense of their commitment to XDCAM and RED.

I don't think you'll see Apple and Sony "putting their heads together" anytime in the near future, either. The reason is that Apple has their own professional NLE system called Final Cut Pro that they would like you to buy, rather than making their delivery formats compatible with Sony's NLE.

If you don't like my workaround, you can follow Laurence's suggestion. He can give you lots of expert advice on the zi8, which has the same guts as your Playsport.

It would be nice if the video editing world was all kittens and ice cream, but it's not.