Thanks for the comment.

I'm still interested in hearing any suggestions for getting .mp4 files to open in Vegas Pro 13. Does anyone know if Sony will ever get such a common file to properly open in VP?

Has anyone tried the QuickTime file replacement fix?

Anyone? Anything?

Thanks!

I'm still interested in hearing any suggestions for getting .mp4 files to open in Vegas Pro 13

MP4 What? A MediaInfo report of your files(s) in question would be excellent.

MP4 is a generic file container. It can contain just about any codec(s) you can dream up.

While .mp4 is a common file format, it comes in many flavors.

It is no more reasonable to expect Sony Vegas to support any file with the .mp4 extension than it is to expect it to support any other file format regardless of the source..

Most importantly is the codec, and the setting of codec itself.

Usually, as detected in MediaInfo, most MP4 are AVC video, AAC audio. But for Video, there's another deeper settings.
Take one of Youtube video, I got AVC (High@L3.1) (CABAC / 1 RefFrames)
There are other video, forgot where, I seen other than written.

I just had one client, it is just simple task, transferring to DVD for other family to watch. It is from a special FlashDisk containing one AVI file movie he got from one studio tour in London.
The codec is confusing, really not standard, not 29.97, but 30fps MPEG-4 Visual (Simple@L1) and MP3 audio. Cannot directly put into timeline, I had to convert it, as these combination won't be accepted (although it is playable in players).

There are tools that allow you to change the frame rate of an AVI file without re-encoding. A file changed from 30 to 29.97 would play 0.1% slower.

Thank you. Yes, I'm now learning that .mp4 is a horse of many colors.

I downloaded MediaInfo and without fully understanding what it's telling me, hear is the information that was displayed on the file in question:

MPEG-PS: 7.84 MiB, 30s 597ms Overall bit rate: 2 149 Kbps
1 video stream: AVC
16 audio streams: MPEG audio / MPEG Audio / MPEG Audio / MPEG A

2048*1536 (4:3), AVC (Main@L5.0) (CABCA / 2 Ref Frames)

Is that what you were asking for?

With Mediainfo , you can save yourself a lot of typing by selecting:

View / Text

copy the file characteristics, paste into the forum message box.

I'd try the shotgun approach first. Try tsMuxer to non destructively wrap the avc video into a wrapper that Vegas will accept, .ts or .m2ts. I suspect that a security DVR is not capturing audio even though there are sixteen streams shown? I've been wrong before, though.

If that fails try Avidemux.

There is the free GoPro Studio application that converts to Cineform. It's worth a try to see if it might convert the file.

Or, you could upload a snippet of the video and let others have a crack at it. I've worked with a lot of non-standard video from security DVRs and my grand daughter has a Barbie camera.

You would right-click on the icon to get the full MediaInfo readout!

But this is enough to tell me that unless you have a rather recent version of Vegas, there's not a chance of it opening. And its not going to handle well on the timeline regardless. So conversion may not only be your best, but your only option.

2048*1536 (4:3), AVC (Main@L5.0)

4:3 uprezzed to 2K. And with mpeg-audio (16 streams no less). Where on earth do people come up with this stuff??
If by some chance this nonsense came off a torrent somewhere, my advice is simply, "Don't bother."

"[I]Where on earth do people come up with this stuff??[/I]

Security video manufacturers are using cameras with high pixel dimensions to capture activities being monitored. They sell a complete solution so once the customer buys a system, they pay for all the tools to use the video. Export to video editors is likely an afterthought. Assuming it is a security video.

john_dennis ... boy, you nailed that one :-)

Before signing on the dotted line I even went to a two hour "for your eyes only" dog and pony show at the security company. I am but a small fish in a very large ocean and still I was asking questions that apparently even the big boys weren't asking before purchase. I recall making the comment that "I can't believe I'm more demanding than your large customers" ... but obviously I am.

This is no inexpensive security system and the focus was to be on quality and performance - cost was a fairly distant consideration. While I did get a better than average amount of quality and performance, overall I'm quite disappointed and believe my Sony camcorders render far higher quality video.

As merely an FYI, there is no official "export to video editors" despite the NVR supposedly being "the latest and greatest." While it is relatively easy to download video it comes out, of course, as an .mp4 video (and in my case, with no audio) in whatever flavor of .mp4 the manufacturer uses - but you're on your own for doing anything else with it. Actually, it can easily be forwarded to law enforcement as there is an option to include a proprietary player with the video file.

Since I'm not aware of a manufacturer who claims their recorded video is "tamperproof" (it is now called "tamper resistant"), I wonder if there is something purposefully odd about the video file to make it difficult to alter the time stamp.

As deep as I dug before buying, I wish I would have dug a little deeper :-)

Also, thank you for the tip on using "view/text" ... I was surprised I couldn't copy and paste for my earlier post. I will try your other possible solutions as soon as I can. Thanks again.

john_dennis ... how do I upload a "snippet?" I'm blind in one eye and can't see out of the other so I'm not seeing any option to upload a file here.