Red screen software problem with MOV file

IYC wrote on 7/10/2012, 2:58 PM
I use Movie Studio Platinum 10.o for editing.

When I edit using MOV files along with MTS and WMV, the preview screen goes red, the program locks up and the project is no longer renderable.
The only solution I can find is to Encode the MOV files in Microsoft Expression Encoder to a WMV file, then use those. The problem is the encoding process to WMV reduces the quality of the file.

So two problems to ask advice on:
1) Any suggestions on using MOV files?
2) A better quality of free encoder than MS Expression Encoder?

Thanks in advance for any help.

LE

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 7/10/2012, 3:13 PM
There really is no better free encoder than MS Expression. But that's kind of the nature of free encoders.

You're not encoding to WMVs so that you can edit in Vegas, are you? That's a pretty inefficient workflow, since there are many video formats that Vegas edits much more smoothly and efficiently than WMVs.

As for MOVs -- Well, an MOV can use any of thousands of codecs, so simply knowing that it's an MOV doesn't really tell you much. Is it an MOV from a camcorder, a smart phone, a still camera, an encoder of some kind? Is it standard definition or hi-def? Is it a DV file, an AVC file, an MP4 or something else?
IYC wrote on 7/10/2012, 3:26 PM
Steve:

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, because of this "red screen" and software lock-up problem, I am having to encode to WMV first in order to edit in MS. I agree, it is a terrible workflow. I think this should be a problem that Sony Movie Studio should resolve. But in the mean time I need to find a better solution.

I see that MS Expression also encodes to MP4. Would that be a better choice than WMV?

As to the source camera, the MOV file is created using a Nikon D5100. The quality of the video is sharp and clear.
Specs from Nikon are:
- 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) or 720p (1,280 x 720) HD recording at 30 / 25 / 24 fps
- MPEG-4 / H.264 AVC compression, .MOV container

Any thoughts?

LE
TOG62 wrote on 7/10/2012, 3:58 PM
You do have Quicktime player installed, don't you?
musicvid10 wrote on 7/10/2012, 3:59 PM
What version of Quicktime is installed?
Have you tried the VMS 11 trial version?
IYC wrote on 7/10/2012, 4:50 PM
Yes.
By asking that, I assume you think the player codec would have an impact on VMS?
Apparently not in my case.
IYC wrote on 7/10/2012, 4:55 PM
No I haven't tried that. Good suggestion. I will try it when I get some time and see if it works.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced this same "red screen" problem?

As a temporary solution, I am now using VMS to encode the MOV files individually as AVI files (to keep the quality high) then including them in the project. It is a pain n the rear, but fortunately the project is only 5 minutes with about 12 clips involved in the problem.
Steve Grisetti wrote on 7/10/2012, 6:54 PM
Maybe you should start by telling us what model of camcorder your original footage is coming from.

All this encoding could well be taking you further from a solution rather than nearer to.
musicvid10 wrote on 7/10/2012, 9:28 PM
"By asking that, I assume you think the player codec would have an impact on VMS?"

YES.

VMS 10 uses the Quicktime 32 bit libs to decode most MOV files for editing. And certain versions of QT bork certain versions of Vegas, going all the way back to Quicktime 7.6.4 and Vegas 8. And there are more than one report of QT 7.7 borking Vegas 10, that rolling back to 7.6 have sometimes corrected. Thus TOG's (and my) questions were spot on.

This goes back to day one, and the problems (along with others) were not fully addressed with dedicated libs until VMS 11. Thus my second suggestion.
I wouldn't have asked if it was not a relevant question. I first wrote about it over three years ago.
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=12&MessageID=660127[/link

"Apparently not in my case."
Well then, best of luck.
MikeQuell wrote on 7/17/2012, 2:57 AM
I've had an issue in about corrupted preview screens for about a month. I just tried reverting back to an older version of Quicktime (7.6) and that did the trick for me. Thanks!