Hey Guys and Gals . I'm looking at buying a new camera that record native .mov files to a SD card . Will Vegas import these files as they are? Or will I have to convert them to another format? Thanks for the help
Wondering this myself. It will import QuickTime (.mov) though that's just the container and you have to have the appropriate codec also. I have have heard that Vegas plays AVI more smoothly than QuickTime but can't confirm that either way myself.
One option is to re-wrap:
[http://estore.cineform.com/products/TechNotes/AVI-MOV-ReWrap.htm]:
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CineForm's HD Link software can perform a lossless rewrap of headers between AVI and MOV files (either direction) without disturbing the underlying compression. The rewrap utility simply replaces an AVI header with an MOV header (or vice-versa) so the utility is as fast as a file copy.
In general, AVI files work better on Windows than MOV files, and MOV files work better on Mac than AVI files, even though you can use either file type on either platform. Rewrapping between header formats becomes a common operation when multiple platforms are involved.
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Without any direct experience, it looks like their MPEG-2 wrapped as .mp4 or .mov "might" be problematic in Vegas. Of course one never knows until you try. Maybe Johnny or Spot has tested it and can shed more light.
The XDCAM format option looks much more promising.
Just for the record - I just installed the Microcosm codec (2003 version) and 9c-64bits now plays .MOV files encoded with it. The hype at the time was that it was a 64-bit codec, which gave me no thrill since in 2003 I had no 64-bit OS; but now I'm astonished that it installed correctly into Win7-64bits, even though I did get a Win7 prompt asking if it installed OK, and suggesting alternatives if it didn't (thank goodness it went well by default)