Newbie question on import file size limitations.

Jaxian wrote on 1/6/2010, 11:08 PM

I have searched on these boards and also Googled and searched many others for about the last three days trying to find the answer to this question. I am pretty sure it's easy and I am just missing it or it's so basic that no one bothers to mention it. As someone completely new to video editing I am kind of overwhelmed with information and would appreciate some direction if possible.

I have a GoPro HD Motorsports recorder. It works perfectly. I have it set to it's highest resolution setting (R5) which is 1920x1080 (1080p). Records perfectly. First thing it does that threw me off at first was that it automatically on the fly cuts the recording into 3.66GB maximum chunks, which ends up being about 43 minutes. So if you are out for an hour and a half but under 2 hours you get 2 chunks at 3.66GB and another smaller chunk. I assume this is so they can be burned directly onto a standard DVD or something.

Here is my issue pertaining to Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 Pro Pack. The movies play fine on my computer using the latest Quicktime player. Smooth as can be and with perfect sound. My computer is a Vista 64bit Ultimate machine with dual video cards and 6GB of DDR3 ram. When I open Vegas MS PPP and try to Import Media to edit the files I get the message: "Warning: An error occurred while opening one or more files. The reason for the error could not be determined." The details just say the file could not be opened.

This only happens with the 3.66GB chunks. I don't have that many recordings yet but any of the smaller ones from 60mb to 1.3GB open up perfectly and I can edit them in Vegas with no issues. I have checked whether the files are write protected, they are not. The system is Vista so uses NTFS so the 2GB limit shouldn't be any issue, and I have the latest Quicktime version.

I have searched a bunch of different websites and tried changing project settings and making sure everything else was as they say it should be. Everything appears to be in order. The fact that the smaller chunks open and are manipulatable makes me think I must just be missing some setting where it allows larger files to be Imported. The type of file is obviously not an issue. The GoPro HD saves the files as .MP4 using what people say is the H264 codec.

Any help would be appreciated, I would like to be able to string these files together then start editing them down to a nice final product. Thanks again for any direction.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 1/7/2010, 9:28 AM

The movies play fine on my computer using the latest Quicktime player.

That's most likely the problem.
Roll back to QT 7.6 and iTunes 8 and try again.
Here is the knowledgebase article:
MPEG-4 audio is no longer functional

Jaxian wrote on 1/7/2010, 1:55 PM

I will make the swap of that file to check the results. Thank you very much for a direction to work in.

My only question would be why does it work perfectly with the smaller (sub 2GB) files and not the larger 3.66GB files? It would seem if it was a Quicktime version issue then it would either work or not work. Unless there is something about it's filesize scalability, but it has been a pretty clear cutoff on whether Vegas MS will Import the file or not so far. It seems to hit a certain size then just not load them. Wish I could be more specific on the size I just don't have that many videos to test with yet.

Ok, off to try moving back to the earlier version. Thankfully that is not my music computer so no iTunes on it to worry about.

musicvid10 wrote on 1/7/2010, 1:59 PM

There are no video file size limitations in Vegas.
Try the QT rollback first. You can always undo it.
If that doesn't solve the problem, upload a short (20 sec) clip somewhere and let us look at it.

Jaxian wrote on 1/7/2010, 10:03 PM

Ok, did both of the suggested things in your thread. Replaced the qtplug.dll with the one you had there and renamed the old one. Same result so I put it back to how it was originally.

Then I uninstalled Quicktime 7.6.5 and installed the version at the link you had, I believe it was 7.6. That also had no effect.

Still acts exactly the same. If I load a smaller file it works fine, but if I try to load one of the 3.66GB files it gives the error message I have above. Not sure where the file cutoff limit is where it starts giving the error, as I said I don't have that many of these files as yet.

I have loaded up to a 1.26GB, I had that and a 1.23GB open in Vegas MS at the same time with no issues. I tried a 3.17GB as the smallest other I had and it wouldn't import it, just gave the error message. Also it wasn't trunkated by the GoPro itself it just happened when I shut it off so I guess it's not something GoPro does to the files. I don't have any files between 1.26 and 3.17 atm but I guess I could just let the camera sit and run and try to create some to see if there is a fixed cutoff point size wise.

These files are all in the same folder with the same permissions. They are all generated by the same device and loaded on the computer the same way. The only different between the ones that import and the ones that don't is the size.

I am probably just missing something really basic. Maybe a switch or setting or checkbox of some sort. It's such a clear black/white type problem. Perfect function under a certain size and won't import over that. Hmm.

Thanks for all the help and anything you might be able to suggest. As far as uploading a file, a small one would already work and the large ones that don't import are obviously too large, and I have no way to cut them up to see if it's something about the file itself that was changed and post them. Very frustrating.

Markk655 wrote on 1/8/2010, 5:40 AM

Can you open up the large file in other media player applications? If not, it might be the way the camcorder cuts the files.

An option might be to splice the files together using multiAVCHD prior to bringing them into SVMS.

http://multiavchd.deanbg.com/

Don't be daunted by the interface. It is is almost as simple as selecting files, selecting the output directory and clicking go.

Jaxian wrote on 1/8/2010, 11:45 AM

I usually just open the files with the generic Quicktime player (non Pro) to view them when I get home from making them. That works perfect, great sound and picture, regardless of the size of the file.

I thought that was the only media player that played .MP4's. I don't know much about all this stuff. If there is another standalone player I could try to open them just to see if they have issues at the larger size I can give that a shot no problem. Thanks for the suggestions.

Been opening the smaller ones and playing around with them a bit in Vegas and it's really fun, I wonder if actually calling Sony tech support would be worthwhile or if they aren't too useful. It's so close to being fantastic fun playing with software and making movies, just need to be able to open the larger sized ones.

Assuming it scales size to time in a linear fashion I might just do as I said in the previous post and just sit the camera down on the table and make some of different sizes so I can see exactly where it stops loading. If it consistently has a hard cut off point that would really point to a setting rather than an incompatability.

These cameras are selling like hotcakes now and Vegas is the most accessable product to edit them, I am surprised a lot more people aren't starting to pop with the same issue though if it's not specific to me. Have to wait and see I guess.

musicvid10 wrote on 1/8/2010, 3:23 PM

If there is another standalone player I could try to open them

-- VLC
-- Mplayer
-- Windows Media Player (Win7 only)

Another suggestion: Contact the folks at VASST. They use Go-Pro all the time and are one of the best Vegas resources in existence.

Jaxian wrote on 1/8/2010, 4:15 PM

Cool, I will give those others a try. Not sure what VASST is but I can Google it. One odd thing I found while doing the .dll swap was that the default install location on my Vista 64-bit Ultimate machine is not C:/program files/sony/etc, it was C:/program files x86/Sony/etc. I wonder if it installing itself in there maybe attached some types of limitations since it thinks its an older program. I checked the properties of the .exe itself and didn't see anything. I will have to do some more searching around. Will go find the VASST people now and see what I can learn. Thanks again for all the help.

Jaxian wrote on 1/8/2010, 8:15 PM

Rats, I guess this kind of answers my question. Hope they release a patch sometime soon.

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/vegas-pro-and-movie-studio-platinum-9-bug-confirmed-with-sony-t377076.html

Jaxian wrote on 1/11/2010, 12:01 PM

Ouch, guess I spent the money on Vegas for no reason at all. I had better let all the other new GoPro HD users of this know asap before they all waste a lot of money. Here is Sony's official reply to the problem of no over 2GB files being importable.

"Thank you for contacting Sony Creative Software.

Due to licensing reasons, we are not able to fully support opening H.264 files in Vegas software. This is not a bug, as we are not able to license the particular codec needed to open the files consistently.

If you still have a follow-up question on this particular incident, please feel free to update it. If you have a completely different question, please create a new incident.

Sincerely,

Eric D.
Customer Service & Technical Support
Sony Creative Software Inc
www.sonycreativesoftware.com"

That is truely too bad. At this stage this information is still obscure enough I didn't run across it before buying Vegas. Wish I had. Oh, well. Caveat emptor and all that.

Markk655 wrote on 1/11/2010, 1:07 PM

Did you try splicing the files together using multiavchd and bringing that into Vegas?

richard-amirault wrote on 1/11/2010, 2:54 PM

Did you try splicing the files together using multiavchd and bringing that into Vegas?

I'm not sure I understand that. Wouldn't he be better off trying to *split* the file (because it is too large) then bring the two pieces into Vegas?

Jaxian wrote on 1/11/2010, 3:41 PM

I downloaded some shareware app that was recommended called I think Avimediux or something to that effect. It could import the file no problem. It's not a simple app for a beginner to just chop a file in half with though. It has a bunch of settings and the only time I have tried it so far it generated what it said would be an AVI rapped something. The outputted file was the right size but had no extension at all and isn't recognized by any program. So I will have to figure out how to use that program so that I can import the results and use the Sony program.

More steps wasn't really the desired result, especially knowing that I will lose some of the audio/video quality each time it is sliced diced or converted. But I already bought Vegas so I will figure it out. Apparently after posting to the motorcycle forums most people seem to be of the opinion I should have bought Adobe Premier Elements instead. I didn't know it existed, I thought Premier was only available as a very expensive piece of professional software. So be it, just have to take a few extra steps until I can get some different software that keeps it simple. Thanks for all the help all.

Markk655 wrote on 1/11/2010, 5:17 PM

If SVMS can't open the pieces, I am guessing that once the pieces of the file are back together, it could open up the revised h.264 file (likely a slightly different flavour). Hence the suggestion.

Of course, the multiAVCHD may also be save the OP by splitting the files, as you suggested too. In fact that would be a better suggestion as it would reduce the file size of the original footage.