bigrock and john_dennis,

What type of Quicktime files are you using in terms of codec (e.g., avc, DNxHD, ProRes etc.) and source (e.g., Canon DSLR, rendered from another program, etc.)? Also, what version of Quicktime do you have installed?

bigrock - You aren't alone. See this thread on DNxHD (Quicktime) file problems

@JasonATL

Here are the MediaInfo specs for my Canon G15 video in a MOV wrapper:

General
Complete name : \\EP45-UD3R\_Photos\2013\2013-05-17 San Juan Football Game\MVI_0329.MOV
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt
File size : 130 MiB
Duration : 30s 155ms
Overall bit rate : 36.1 Mbps
Encoded date : UTC 2013-05-18 02:45:07
Tagged date : UTC 2013-05-18 02:45:07
Copyright :
com.apple.quicktime.make : Canon
com.apple.quicktime.model : Canon PowerShot G15
com.apple.quicktime.author :

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Baseline@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : No
Format settings, ReFrames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=12
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 30s 155ms
Bit rate : 34.6 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.695
Stream size : 124 MiB (96%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2013-05-18 02:45:07
Tagged date : UTC 2013-05-18 02:45:07
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Signed
Codec ID : sowt
Duration : 30s 155ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 536 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 5.52 MiB (4%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2013-05-18 02:45:07
Tagged date : UTC 2013-05-18 02:45:07

System 2, Quicktime not loaded. It looks as if it was loaded at one time since I have a stranded shortcut but no program folder.
System 1, Quicktime 7.6.2.

All these clips were direct from an iPhone4s. I am using version 563. I do not recall seeing this issue in previous versions. I went back to latest version of 11 and tried importing the same clips and had no issues. I also updated Quiktime and Nivida video drivers but that had no impact.

John,

Thank you for the detailed info. I won't have a chance to try it for a few days, but I'm intrigued by the fact that you don't have Quicktime installed on one of your machines. I thought that Quicktime had to be installed in order for a .mov file to work, so I'm going to try uninstalling it.

There have been a flurry of reports about Vegas Pro 12 and some flavors of MOV files not working together. For those not familiar, these issues have cropped up every year or two, for a long time.

A couple of things seem fairly consistent in the reports I've read on the forum:
-- Vegas 11 and earlier seem to open the files more consistently.
-- The old fallback version, Quicktime 7.6.x, does not correct the problem in VP12.
-- The very newest Quicktime versions (7.7.4) "may" be more problematic than others.

So, the question is, "Is this another Quicktime issue or is Vegas 12 struggling with these files?" This is complicated by the fact that Vegas has been using its own libs for decoding some QT files.

It's worth asking if there is an existing Quicktime version (in the 7.7.x series?) that will work better with Vegas Pro 12. Or do the problems exist regardless?

Anyone wanting to undertake some testing (preferably someone with Vegas 11 and 12 to cross-compare), will be richly rewarded, mostly with hugs and beer.

I have (and use) both VP11 and VP12. The "large number of files" issue with Quicktime appears in both, regardless of which version of Quicktime I've tried.

I'm in the middle of moving my office for the next week or so. On the other side of that, I'll try to do some testing with various combinations of VP11, VP12, and Quicktime versions. I have already tried different versions of each, with no luck in anything working. But, my efforts were not systematic, so I'll try again.

Sadly, users shouldn't have to bribe each other with beer to track down issues that competitors' products don't seem to suffer. Just sayin'.

For ANYONE who wants to "test" Quicktime for issues on their system really has multiple issues to cover. Here are some that I know of and there may be more:

1) Quicktime apps that are intetwined with other Apple products - commonly this is a known issue with using ITunes on a PC - but it could extend to many apps that are less known.

2) Third party apps that do write into special Quicktime files - a known example is Photodex ProShow - other than NLE systems which is covered in point 3.

3) NLE systems that are aligned on the same PC - best example is Adobe Premiere with Sony Vegas Pro installs. I believe that even lesser versions of the stripped down Sony SCS NLE products (Movie Studio) can conflict with VegasPro.

4) Finally, please don't forget that Quicktime as an Apple product has niches within each Windows OS from Microsoft. The best and latest example was the initial release of Windows 8. But this history goes back a long way - look at Quicktime in Windows95 versus Quicktime on the SP1 version of WindowsXP. Windows 7 has presented the most recent common challenge for most folk.

While I have identified several variables in the Quicktime experience, note that there are probably many combinations of these and others that present some challenges for the PC user.

I just imported 152 Quicktime clips by drag/dropping them from a windows exploder window into Vegas' project media window. No problem except that it wasn't terribly quick. FileIOSurrogate ran itself up to a bit over a half a gig of memory usage in the process.

The files are all DVCProHD and played using the Raylight decoder. This is a plain DV-like codec at 960x720x23.976 fps and 1.33PAR. Simple stuff. (BTW, Vegas now reads the timecode inside these files. Hallelujah!)

Using Vegas 12-563. Quicktime Pro 7.7.4. And, yes, Itunes is installed and up to date. This is not a production edit machine so it's sloppy.

I'd be looking at the codec or perhaps watch FileIOSurrogate, which is involved in Vegas' playback of quicktime media. Also, Vegas will make SFK files when the media hits the timeline. I don't know if that's a factor.

Rob

btw, maybe try importing your files with the Project Media window set to something like Details rather than Thumbnails?

Rob