Riff Header is Missing

crown2020 wrote on 5/11/2021, 11:49 AM

Hi Guys,

This post is out of curiosity, mostly, as I have found another codex in Vegas Pro 17 that works around this issue.

I captured several 8mm video's using ScenalyzerLive. ScenalyzerLive uses the Type 2 DV format for captured output files. My batch encoding in Vegas Pro 17 could not "batch" effectively because it was being stopped by the attached error screen. The batch process would and did continue, BUT, not until I selected ok on the error screen itself. Kind of defeats the purpose of "Batch" right? YES it does.

I suspect this error has something to do with the DV format the files were captured in and the Sony MXF (NTSC DV) format I selected these files be "batched" out to. Notice that the error message indicates the files could be corrupted. They ARE NOT and play fine in VLC. They also encode to m4v using Hand Break just fine.

Best I can tell, Riff has something to do with AUDIO. I have searched this form and located at least one other person that encountered this same error. However, he had what seems to be a little different issue. Based on the media info I will attach for the source file and the error message I will attach, and the codex I encoded to, Sony MXF (NTSC DV), the only reason I can think of that I am receiving this error message, and the resulting files are fine, is perhaps there is unneeded metadata that is NOT present in the source files that the Sony codex is looking for and it's not there?

So, the codex I used to work around this pain in my butt error screen was "Video for Windows (NTSC DV)" This codex does not "error out" if you will, allowing my batch process to actually "batch". Best I can tell, (and at face value), there is no difference between the Sony codex and the "Video for Windows" codex, (at least not by the description Vegas Pro 17 gives for each of them). 

Does anyone know if these two codex, provided in Vegas Pro 17, are the only way to render RAW DV?

** If anyone is still reading this and cares, I render to RAW DV so I can send video, via local network, to mini pc's. I use these mini pc's to "farm out" my renders using Handbrake. ** This is ALL these mini pc's do, period. I have found this much faster, and by todays hardware pricing, (even for used Video Cards), more cost effective than buying the BEST video card money can buy for Vegas and using only (1) PC.

UPDATE: I just noticed there are (5) apparent or otherwise available audio steams for the Sony Codex below, but, only (1) Audio Stream in the SOURCE media. Not sure if this makes "a hill of beans" or not. It is just something I observed after posting this thread the first time. Also, the Source file shows an audio format of "Little / Signed" but the Sony Codex file shows "Big / Signed" for "Audio #1" All other Audio in the Sony Codex, (Audio #2-#5), shows "Little". The duration of the Source is 2 h 2 min while the Sony encode was 1 h 59 min? Again, I am not sure if this really means anything as to the error I kept receiving or not.

I welcome clarification and/or any thoughts on the above matters and questions. I'm always willing to learn something new, or, at least new to me. Also, if one can not accept constructive criticism, you just may never, ever, grow your passion.

Here is the SOURCE file Media Info:

General
Complete name                            : C:\Users\Owner\Videos\Customer Raw Data\JD Films\Oct 96-0001.avi
Format                                   : AVI
Format/Info                              : Audio Video Interleave
Commercial name                          : DVCPRO
Format profile                           : OpenDML
File size                                : 25.9 GiB
Duration                                 : 2 h 2 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 30.4 Mb/s
Writing library                          : PARf
TAPE                                     : sclive

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : DV
Commercial name                          : DVCPRO
Codec ID                                 : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint                            : Sony
Duration                                 : 2 h 2 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 24.4 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Original display aspect ratio            : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Original frame rate                      : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:1:1
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Bottom Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 2.357
Time code of first frame                 : 09:14:37;19
Time code source                         : Subcode time code
Stream size                              : 24.5 GiB (95%)

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : 1
Duration                                 : 2 h 2 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 1.31 GiB (5%)
Alignment                                : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration                     : 500  ms (14.97 video frames)

Here is the SONY Codex Encoded Media File Info, (Using the above Source):

General
Complete name                            : S:\Customer Videos and Film - Final Cut\JD\Modified DV\Oct 96-0001.mxf
Format                                   : MXF
Commercial name                          : DV
Format version                           : 1.2
Format profile                           : OP-1a
Format settings                          : Closed / Complete
File size                                : 27.0 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 59 min
Overall bit rate                         : 32.4 Mb/s
Encoded date                             : 2021-05-11 03:47:26.000
Writing application                      : SONY Vegas 13.0
Writing library                          : Sony MXF Development Kit (Win32) 4.0.0.5000.1

Video
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : DV
Format settings, wrapping mode           : Frame
Codec ID                                 : 0D01030102020101-0401020202010100
Duration                                 : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 24.4 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:1:1
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Bottom Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 2.357
Time code of first frame                 : 00:00:00;00
Time code source                         : Subcode time code
Stream size                              : 20.3 GiB (75%)
Color range                              : Limited
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2-0
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Big / Signed
Muxing mode                              : DV
Duration                                 : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 1.28 GiB (5%)
Duration_Source                          : General_Duration

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little
Format settings, wrapping mode           : Frame (AES)
Codec ID                                 : 0D01030102060300
Duration                                 : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS (1601.6 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 655 MiB (2%)
Locked                                   : Yes

Audio #3
ID                                       : 4
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little
Format settings, wrapping mode           : Frame (AES)
Codec ID                                 : 0D01030102060300
Duration                                 : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS (1601.6 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 655 MiB (2%)
Locked                                   : Yes

Audio #4
ID                                       : 5
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little
Format settings, wrapping mode           : Frame (AES)
Codec ID                                 : 0D01030102060300
Duration                                 : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS (1601.6 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 655 MiB (2%)
Locked                                   : Yes

Audio #5
ID                                       : 6
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little
Format settings, wrapping mode           : Frame (AES)
Codec ID                                 : 0D01030102060300
Duration                                 : 1 h 59 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 1 channel
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS (1601.6 SPF)
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 655 MiB (2%)
Locked                                   : Yes

Other #1
ID                                       : 1-Material
Type                                     : Time code
Format                                   : MXF TC
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Time code of first frame                 : 02:01:37;07
Time code settings                       : Material Package
Time code, striped                       : Yes

Other #2
ID                                       : 1-Source
Type                                     : Time code
Format                                   : MXF TC
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Time code of first frame                 : 02:01:37;07
Time code settings                       : Source Package
Time code, striped                       : Yes

Other #3
Type                                     : Time code
Format                                   : SMPTE TC
Muxing mode                              : SDTI
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Time code of first frame                 : 02:01:37;07

Here is the error I was receiving:

Comments

Musicvid wrote on 5/11/2021, 2:07 PM

Are you looking for a delivery format? Sony MXF is not a very good choice.

crown2020 wrote on 5/11/2021, 3:50 PM

@Musicvid, No, not really. I was just trying to "Farm Out" rendered Vegas Pro 17 video to several other mini pc's, (2-3 of them). I thought this would improve or speed up my work flow if I could work on 2-3 projects at one time. Each mini would be encoding using Hand Break. So really, the DV format is what I was after by using the Sony MXF codex.

Are there better DV formats I am overlooking in Vegas Pro 17 I should be considering? I'm only aware of this Sony MXF codex and the "Video for Windows" codex. They appear to be the same. The only difference I can tell is that the "Video for Windows" codex does not throw the error which interferes with my batch renders in Vegas.

I'm REALLY interested in trying to understand why I got that error to start with. It's why I posted the Media Info. I was hoping it would shed light to someone that understands that data. I certainly do not understand it all by ANY stretch of the imagination.

Musicvid wrote on 5/11/2021, 5:15 PM

Are you describing network editing and rendering? In all honesty, DV AVI (Video for Windows), the native format, should be fine. It is lossless, so you can use it for intermediates, handoff, and the like. It will render fine to Handbrake, but you may want to check for a slight audio lead.

On the other hand, Sony MXF is MPEG-2, which is a lossy compressed format. That's not quite as bad as it sounds, but unless file size alone is a major consideration, I wouldn't bother with it.

Rather than handing off to Handbrake, Happy Otter Scripts or Voukoder will encode directly to x264 in Vegas, so your rendering farm scheme could probably be streamlined.

crown2020 wrote on 5/11/2021, 10:48 PM

@Musicvid, Thanks for the Voukoder and other recommendations. I will check them out.

Should I decided to continue with the Handbrake idea, do you know if I can run a script from Vegas that tells node 1, for example, to began encoding with Hand Break once Vegas has sent over the last DV file in the project? I could then work on the next project, send it to node 2, then, my actual workstation could be the third project. I am assuming here that the creation of the actual DV Source file in Vegas Pro can be sent over the network to say node 1, in real time. I had planed to have a copy of Hand Break on each node.

I have seen a few you tube videos on Voukoder. None really show it in use with nodes or a "data farm" situation that I have found. If my goal is to free up processing power on the work station and I have 2-3 projects going at the same time, would Voukoder not have to be on each node like I had planed to do with Hand Break on each node? Otherwise, I'd think one would just be running multiple instances of Vegas Pro and Voukoder on the same machine. In this case, my workstation.

Please tell me if I am not thinking of this objectively. I have a habit of making, at times, costly mistakes. Feedback here may just prevent that, at least just this one time. I make no warranty here, expressed or implied. 😁

Musicvid wrote on 5/12/2021, 5:18 AM

No. The Vegas2Handbrake script stopped being developed after Happy Otter Scripts were released. Have you actually tried Happy Otter Scripts? (Sorry, it does not do network distributed rendering.)

crown2020 wrote on 5/12/2021, 6:53 AM

@Musicvid, Thanks for the reply. You said "(Sorry, it does not do network distributed rendering.)" Are you refering to Vegas Pro, Happy Otter Scripts, or both that do not do network rendering?

Musicvid wrote on 5/12/2021, 6:56 AM

Neither. Distributed rendering was removed from Vegas back around version 8. Frameserving doesn't work directly with Handbrake. Frameserving is a single-source operation with Debugmode. With the introduction of quad processors, distributed rendering became an extinct dinosaur, except in the large production studios that use liquid-cooled rooms. And it was a complete pain in the ass to keep running.

But if you come up with a reinvented wheel, I would like to hear about it. I think you'll find out it's not worth the overhead. I gave up fully a decade ago, just saying.