I registered the MPEG codec as you suggested. Then I shut down and restarted the computer just to make sure any registry changes were made. But Vegas still gives me the "unsupported format" error message. The clips will play in Windows Media Player, and as I mentioned, my colleague can bring the same clip into Premiere without an error.
Any other suggestions?

Can you import any MPEG2 files other than the ones from Digital Juice?

Can you render out to MPEG2? And if so, can you import the resulting MPEG2 back into Vegas?

If you're still unable to import any MPEG2 files, your reigstration might not have taken. There was an issue where the Vegas registration refused to "stick" no matter how many times you did it. You can do a search of the forum for "register" to see what comes up. I think the problem was related to Windows Service Pack 1 (not the recently released Service Pack 2), so you may want to add the term "SP1" or "service pack" to your search terms.

Rob

I can bring in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files from other sources, and can render MPEG files. It just won't handle any MPEG from the Digital Juice library. Does anyone else work with Digital Juice ckips? I thought it may be a proprietary codec, but if it is, why can Premiere handle it and Vegas can't?

If you don't have quicktime installed, you may want to try installing the latest version (actually, check to be sure you have the latest version even if it's installed - there was a frame drop problem in version 6 when it was first released; this shows up in renders from DJ). Will anything else on your system play the MPEG file? For example, WM9 player?

Have you tried rendering to an AVI file instead?

--Scott

Yes WM9 will play the Digital Juice .mpg file. QuckTime 6.5.1 also will play the DJ file.

Juicer doesn't give me any options to output in any format other than .mpg.

It seems like every program except Vegas can read these files.

you have to multiplex them with tmpgenc mepg tools or load them into virtuialdubmod and save them as a dv file if you want them interlaced or a huffyuv file if you want to keep them as progressive ..

That's not very helpful. Seriously, why can't Vegas import a DJ mpeg file? I can use my colleague's Premiere to import them and then render to AVI, but that means driving a half hour each way whenever I need a clip. Doesn't anyone else use Digital Juice clips?

I use Juice clips, but I can't recall ever getting one in MPEG format. I was under the impression that DJ clips were stored on the DVD in Quicktime format and then the Juicer would render them to QT, AVI, PNG sequences or VIdeo Toaster - there's no MPEG output option on the list. Have you downloaded the latest copy of Juicer?

Have you tried to drop tech support at DJ an email, tell them the symptoms and ask how the clip was encoded? Generally DJ tech support has been pretty responsive when I've had questions.

Edit: I just tried something based on another response. Is it possible that Juicer is rendering these as an elementary stream but naming the file .mpg (as it is was a system or program stream)? If so, that could be your problem. Vegas (for some reason) doesn't seem to like elementary streams - hence the suggestion given before the use TMPGenc - using the MPEG utilities, you can multiplex an empty audio stream into the file and produce something that can be read by Vegas.

--Scott

I've NEVER seen a DJ clip in MPEG. They only come as sequential PNG's that are then dumped into the Juicer to render out as whatever. (PITA, IMO) I no longer use DJ because of the stupid workflow.
Anyway, what happens when you change the extension of the file to something else like .avi, mpg, etc?
That might get it going.

Scott -
THANK YOU!! It does appear that DJ uses elementary streams. I downloaded TMPGenc, ran the DJ clip through it with a blank audio track, deselected the "output elementary streams" option in TMPGenc, and the resulting MPEG-2 file loads into Vegas with no problems!
Now, if I can just run my entire DJ library through TMPGenc before the 30-day trial period expires :-)
Note to Sony: include elementary stream import in the next upgrade.
Julian

I have 10 volumes of JumpBacks. The original are pre-rendered in Quicktime already. The other 8 volumes have to be rendered and I can select the format I prefer. I save them in a Quicktime .mov format (since it is less lossless than mpeg). I never have a problem.

Also, are your jumpbacks part of an Adobe bundle or anything? I know that I used to use Adobe with a Pinnacle DV500 board and the resultant mpeg files were not standard--and had to be used with Premier, and would not work with anything else when the DV500 board and codec was removed.

If you got them from Digital Juice you should be able to select your format, size, etc. If you copied them from a friend that had rendered them on his system (not that you did), then you may not be able to read his proprietary mpeg format.

Hope this helps.

Agree workflow is onerous, however apparently the DVD png-to-movie answer is the best way DJ can use to protect against piracy, plus give some output option flexibility..

What I did recently was just render out all my DJ jumpbacks (I own vols 1 and 3) into 720x480 .movs on one of my hard drives, which works great (about 5 gigs using a single loop for each animation)..

Workflow notes: I used the tsunami script to render out four 5x4 video walls (80 clips total, in four 20-clip walls of about 10 secs long each), and looped all 4 animations together, into one easy-to-use avi file..(did same w/my 'motionloops', decent too, got on ebay)

So basically it's very easy now for me to:

a) click on my 'DJ video wall" to preview all 80 clips in one avi
and
b) choose which one I want to then go get the mov for and drop into the vegas timeline..


fwiw..

ken