HDV Split & Vegas

jimingo wrote on 4/17/2009, 10:35 AM

I just captured a m2t file with HDV Split and when I drag it in to Vegas, I get the message "Warning: An error occured while loading the project file. The file is most likely corrupted or of an unknown format."
In fact, I can't open the m2t in any program. Does anyone know what's wrong? I've tried capturing multiple times with the same error message.

Thanks
-Jim

Comments

jimingo wrote on 4/17/2009, 10:41 AM

I think the problem is with HDV Split...does anyone know of another capture program?

rs170a wrote on 4/17/2009, 11:10 AM

A couple of folks I know like CapDVHS.
There's an English download link at the top right of the page.

Mike

jimingo wrote on 4/17/2009, 11:14 AM

Thanks, I'm going to give that a try. I'd use Vegas's capture utility but every once in a while, it splits my footage (even with the scene detection turned off).

rtbond wrote on 4/17/2009, 12:11 PM

I use HDVSplit all the time with Vegas (V 8.0, 8.1) without an issue (I have scene detection off in HDVSplit).

Why are you getting a "project file load error" when dragging media onto the timeline? (or did I misunderstand what you are doing?)

--
Rob

jimingo wrote on 4/17/2009, 12:14 PM

You read it right...I'm getting an error when I try to import clips captured with HDV Split. I have no idea why. Maybe it has something to do with Vista64 and HDV Split? Just guessing.

Laurence wrote on 4/17/2009, 1:38 PM

Maybe this is related, maybe not. I cannot capture hdv video from tape with my Vista 64 computer no matter what I try. I have a Z7 which can record to either tape or compact flash, so for a while I didn't even notice (since I usually end up using compact flash). To capture from tape, I have to use my old computer. On the Vista 64 computer I have tried capturing with Vegas, Vista, Nero, HDV Split, etc. I believe it isn't working at the camera driver rather than program level. Video clips captured on the old computer work fine on the new computer.

NickHope wrote on 4/17/2009, 8:12 PM

jimingo i've successfully used HDVsplit for years with Vegas, with scene detection turned on, and in my case it works really well. I disable the preview in HDVsplit because that makes it less stable for me. Very occasionally if I have a file that Vegas does not like I repair it with MPEG2REPAIR freeware program. You could try that perhaps.

jimingo wrote on 4/24/2009, 8:29 PM

I have now gotten HDV Split to work.

The problem is that when I pull the captured clips in to Vegas, Vegas can't display the peaks properly. Vegas can only build peaks for small portions of the clip's audio. Anyone else having similar problems or know of a quick fix?

Laurence wrote on 4/30/2009, 9:16 AM

It sounds like you may have errors in your clips. Did you turn off your virus protection and any other background apps while capturing? I consistently get small errors if I try to capture HDV with my virus protection running. No problems with virus protection and SD captures, but with HDV captures, the virus protection will add errors every time.

These errors are subtle. You won't see them right away. The won't interfere with Vegas 7d playback or rendering (which used a less efficient but more error resistant mpeg playback engine). They will mess with later versions of Vegas though, and they will also screw up playback with media players.

I'm mentioning this because sometimes the first sign of these errors is when Vegas tries to draw the audio peaks. It could be that it is not the size of the clips, but the fact that the larger clips are more likely to have one or more of these errors.

John_Cline wrote on 4/30/2009, 9:25 AM

Many M2T file erros can be corrected with this piece of freeware:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MPEG2Repair

It has saved me many times.

Laurence wrote on 4/30/2009, 9:33 AM

My experience is that the mpeg error correctors like that don't really fix the problems, but merely rewrite the header. This seems to fix the problem because the clips will now work in Vegas. The problem is that they are merely playing back with the older less efficient codec, and if you smartrender these clips into a new project, the new project will contain these same errors. These smartrendered clips with errors will sometimes crash media players and glitch or stop on bluray players.

If you're not smartrendering and don't mind less efficient previews on "fixed" clips, that approach will work though.

On my system at least, turning off the virus protection is the thing that makes all the difference. That or just shooting to memory card and avoiding tape altogether. Error free clips are a joy to work with in Vegas. They preview and render really efficiently and have none of the problems that so many of us working with HDV have experienced.

jimingo wrote on 4/30/2009, 10:32 PM

I tried using MPEG2Repair and it didn't work. Thanks for the link though.
I don't think my problem has anything to do with HDVSplit. I later tried capturing with Vegas and I had the same problems. I actually posted another question on this forum the other day because I didn't think it was related to this problem but after lots of testing, this is what I found out...
I can capture with both Vegas & HDVSplit and my clips are fine. If I move (copy and paste) those clips to my external western digital hard drive (I'm not capturing to this drive, just copying the clips to it), the clips become no longer playable in Vegas or any media players. I can't figure out why this is happening because I have lots of media stored on that drive and everything is fine EXCEPT m2t files. Standard DV clips that I copied to that drive are fine and so is all other kinds of media, but for some reason if I try to copy and paste a m2t file to the drive, the m2t file becomes messed up. The same thing happens if I capture to the drive directly. Even if I capture a clip to my internal hard drive, copy it to the external and then back to my internal, the clip is no longer playable (if it's an m2t file). I'm 99% sure there is nothing wrong with the drive but it ruins any m2t file it touches. I have the drive connected via eSata and my transfer speed is around 60MB/sec.
I was copying my media to this external drive because I don't have much room left on my internal drives but I'll just have to use a different drive.