mp4 audio and video problems

cbrillow wrote on 6/17/2010, 3:00 PM
Working in conjunction with a friend, I've taken on a project to create a series of DVDs. The footage was shot with a Canon VIXIA HF20 camcorder, and the original file format was MPEG4-AVC / H.264. My friend did all the required editing for this project in Vegas Pro 9, and gave me his output as widescreen DV. All is well with these files.

Without notifying me beforehand, the customer had his son create a 1 minute clip to be used as the introductory video and motion menu background. He supplied this file as MPEG4. I believe that he used (gulp) Pinnacle Studio 12 in its creation.

While the customer was here discussing the project, I played the video in VLC so that we could discuss a few points. VLC handled the file without problem.

After the customer left, I loaded this MPEG4 video clip into Vegas Pro 8.0c, and that's where the trouble began. Just looking at the clip properties as I imported it indicated a problem. Vegas didn't recognize the included audio. I recalled reading a couple of threads here regarding Vegas not playing audio in this type of file, and that certain versions of Quicktime were to blame. I revisited those threads, which identified Quicktime 7.6.4 as being one of the troublesome versions, and that's the version that was installed on my machine.

With a sigh of relief, I updated to Quicktime 7.6.6 and imported the file. The properties showed that it was recognizing both video and audio streams, and I thought it was good to go. But after dragging it to the Vegas timeline, I was dismayed to see that the preview window remained black as I played through the video. Now I had audio, but no video.

On a lark, I imported this same file into DVD Architect 5.0b, which recognizes and plays both the audio and video portions of the file! This isn't the first time I've seen inconsistent handling of files between the two applications.

Unfortunately, I need to edit these MPEG4 files, and I need both the audio and video to work. Anybody have suggestions? I'd be happy to supply MediaInfo data or anything else that would help...

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 6/17/2010, 3:36 PM
You might try Quicktime 7.6 or 7.6.2. They are the most reliable fallback.
7.6.6 is supposed to work on VP9, but it hasn't been confirmed yet in all situations.
Yes MediaInfo output (and a sample) would be helpful.
richard-amirault wrote on 6/17/2010, 5:17 PM
Or you could play the audio (in the setup that allows you to hear it) .. export it to a file .. then import that file and sync it to the video (in the setup that shows you the video)

Yes, it's a bit of a "kludge" but it isn't all that hard.
cbrillow wrote on 6/17/2010, 7:47 PM
Thank you both for your suggestions.

@brighterside: I'd thought of that, but had already installed the latest Quicktime on both machines on which I edit video.

@musicvid: I wound up trying 7.6.2, and it works. I would have ended the sentence with an exclamation point, but I'm not pleased that I have to revert to a version that has security issues.

Makes one wonder why they can't address security issues without also changing functionality?
musicvid10 wrote on 6/17/2010, 8:31 PM
@musicvid: I wound up trying 7.6.2, and it works. I would have ended the sentence with an exclamation point, but I'm not pleased that I have to revert to a version that has security issues.

Yes, it is a stable release, and I am sorry you bought into the bs about "security" issues in Quicktime. That excuse has been bandied about by Apple and its innocent enablers since QT 7.1.4 (I think), when Apple released its first purposely broken version, which btw also contained GUIDs. Whose "security" has Apple been concerned with in the past five years, ours or theirs?

I can assure you that 7.6.2 contains intrinsically no more or no less end-user security issues (except for those purposely introduced by Apple), than any other version, either before or since. They know what they're doing, but like any disingenuous big corporation, they don't want us to know that.

Makes one wonder why they can't address security issues without also changing functionality?

There's your answer. But a better question would have been, "Makes one wonder why they continually use security issues as an excuse to change functionality?"
cbrillow wrote on 6/18/2010, 11:40 AM
I use the Secunia PSI to keep abreast of non-Microsoft security patches. It advised me of the purported problem with 7.6.4, and that started me on the merry chase.

In this instance, I'll happily choose stability and correct functioning over something so 'safe' that I can't use it! I run a pretty tight ship and don't engage in risky internet hijinks, so I'm not too afraid of contracting something my malware and anti-virus can't quickly dispatch.

Thanks for the info.