Massive Red Green Pixelation

timtak1 wrote on 10/26/2009, 6:05 PM
I have some low resolution AVC/AAC files I want to edit.

General
Name: videofilename.mp4
Folder: C:
Type: MainConcept AVC/AAC
Size: 40.86 MB (41,841,498 bytes)
Plug-In
Name: mcmp4plug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 8.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\mcmp4plug
Format: MainConcept AVC/AAC
Version: Version 1.0 (Build 1162)
Company: Sony Creative Software Inc.

And while I can play it fine in Zplayer and Windows Media Player, in the Sony Vegas (Pro 8) time line and in the preview window there is lots of red/green pixalation/distortion, e.g. below, at its worst.

http://nihonbunka.com/temp/greenred.jpg

Zplayer tells me that I am using fddshow's H256 (+) libavcodec which is enabled in fddshow's video decoder admin tool.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 10/26/2009, 7:29 PM
I've seen this with some Type 1 AVI files in Vegas, but not with AVC.

Try disabling the codec you named in ffdshow.

If that doesn't work, upload the actual clip somewhere and let us take a look at it.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/27/2009, 7:06 AM
This is very common with mp4 files downloaded from YouTube. I see it all the time.

There are two things that you can do:

(1) Download the free x264vfw codec from SourceForge.net. This usually clears up the problem.

(2) Convert the file into a format that is easier for Vegas to edit. Get a copy of Avidemux 2.5 and convert the files to MJPEG, or HuffYUV, or Lagarith. This should make editing them easy.

~jr
musicvid10 wrote on 10/27/2009, 10:59 AM
Johnny, Does x264vfw work with AVC wrapped in .mp4?

The codec works with the AVI wrapper in Vegas, but I haven't seen it show up with MP4.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/28/2009, 6:21 AM
> Johnny, Does x264vfw work with AVC wrapped in .mp4?

No, not to my knowledge.

The name x264vfw implies H.264 Video For Windows which is the windows AVI wrapper. So it is specifically an H.264 codec for AVI only (ala. DivX, XviD, etc).

~jr
Laurence wrote on 10/28/2009, 7:26 AM
I've seen this sort of thing with certain types of video compression when you change the dimensions of the frame. Are your project settings matched to the format of the clips you are editing?
timtak wrote on 11/16/2009, 8:03 PM
Thank you very much indeed everyone especially, JohnnyRoy.

The files were indeed from YT. I research horror movies and I am attempting to get a few clips of Asian monsters emerging from mirrors and television screens and mirrors.

I tried the the free x264vfw codec from SourceForge.net after disenabling the ffdshow codec (I think) but there was no improvement.

I also tried setting the properties to suit the media but there was no improvement.

SOLUTION
I don't have Avidemux, but I used eRightsoft Super to covert to mov and AVI AVC1 and both worked in Vegas.

I have some other files that I am failing to covert to something that I can edit. I am dowloading Avidemux to see if I can convert to something usable using that.

Some general questions that I should perhaps put on another thread.

Is there a sort of general procedure for finding out what codec is needed and then installing it? I am not sure which codec is being used when I play using windows media player or Zplayer (today). In VLC Player>View >Stream and Media Information > Advanced information I am told that the codec is Xvid. I turn that on in ffdshow codec manager and still Vegas says

Is there a way of setting the properties of Vegas to match the media with a click or do I have to copy accross? It seems that YT is pretty much covered by "multimedia," the first of the presettable properties.

BTW It is so sad that these forums do not have email update. Is there a internet tool that we can use to find changes to the forum page to be informed of replies?
johnmeyer wrote on 11/16/2009, 8:33 PM
SOLUTIONOf course once you do this, you have re-encoded and thus lost quality. If you want to solve your problem without re-encoding, you could follow the directions I gave here:

Capture from Youtube?

I'll be the first to admit that it is a little complicated, but it does work, and you don't have to re-encode.