Time to import media VERY slow

Zondedo wrote on 3/8/2013, 8:08 PM
Sony Vegas Movie Studio 10 never worked for me so based on input on this forum, I am trying the trail version of Pro 12 which behaves very similarly. Can anyone shed some light on my issue? Importing the first 15 video clips seems very sluggish but finally works and I can get them on the timeline. The next 15 clips wont even show up as a video thumbnail in the media bin, only a small icon which shows the file extension. After waiting 30 minutes, the small white icons are still present. When I attempt to drag it onto the timeline, the audio is OK but no video. When playing through the clip, the audio is laggy and hestitates. This software should work out of the box right? What is going on? This is NOT instilling confidence in SONY products. Please help. Here are some details:

Sony Vegas Pro 12 - build 486
ASUS motherboard
i5 processor
16 GB Kinston RAM
(1) SATA 6 for C drive
(1) SATA 3 for media storage
64 Bit Windows 7
EVGA GTX 650 Video Card

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 3/8/2013, 8:44 PM
Thanks for posting your system specs.

What are your source media properties? (be specific, use MediaInfo).
Where are they located? (Primary drive, external drive, camera card, where?).
IF camera card, where is it? (In the camera with a USB cable, or in your computer?).
How are they being imported? (Windows Explorer, Vegas Device Explorer, camera software, how?).
What version of Quicktime is installed on your system? (It is a Vegas system requirement).

There is a learning curve associated with Sony Media Software. New users' success with the software is directly related to their willingness to undertake that learning process. Media import times and preview performance, given the correct Project settings, should vary little between Movie Studio and Vegas Pro.
Lovelight wrote on 3/9/2013, 12:30 AM
Try file import, then wait for at least 10 minutes without touching anything. File import is much more successful than dragging media in Vegas.
Zondedo wrote on 3/9/2013, 6:40 AM
Thanks for your objective reply,

Here are some answers


What are your source media properties? (be specific, use MediaInfo).
Std def 29.97 NTSC, Aspect 1.1852, files are a combination of .wmv and .avi
Where are they located? (Primary drive, external drive, camera card, where?).
Internal SATA drive (Not the primary drive)
IF camera card, where is it? (In the camera with a USB cable, or in your computer?). No Camera Card used - files are on internal drive D
How are they being imported? (Windows Explorer, Vegas Device Explorer,camera software, how?). Vegas Device Explorer
What version of Quicktime is installed on your system? (It is a Vegas system requirement). Quicktime Version 7.7.3
videoITguy wrote on 3/9/2013, 10:49 AM
You are indicating files are type .wmf and .avi -BUT THESE type of files did not come out a camera !!! Are there camera files that came from the camera!

oky so then you are not processing camera files at all? WMF would be poor quality format to edit, do not recommend. AVI files are really AVI containers - need to know the codec, the audio type within the container..and how large each file is on average, and how many files you are dragging to timeline at one time.
musicvid10 wrote on 3/9/2013, 10:55 AM
WMF is not a video format, but an older still image format.
If the OP had used MediaInfo as requested, a lot of these questions would be cleared up.
videoITguy wrote on 3/9/2013, 1:52 PM
oh yes, my bad, I wonder if the OP meant to type .wmv as I was thinking. Of course if he is trying to import .wmf graphics files, that could be a problem! As I recall, this format has variations, just like .png or .jpg have as pics files. Wmf graphics are more related to a format like adobe .ai than .. pics files - but they can be pictures.
rmack350 wrote on 3/9/2013, 2:02 PM
In the mean time while you get a copy of MediaInfo, as a rule of thumb if vegas can play the audio but not the video of a file that's a sure sign that you don't have a video codec installed that Vegas can use. Historically this was really common with DIVX encoded media.

Rob
NormanPCN wrote on 3/10/2013, 12:34 PM
This is curious because Vegas does not really do anything to files on import. It only creates a thumbnail for the project media window.

What type of file?
I can import dozens of GoPro MP4 files nearly instantaneously.
Same for placing on the timeline. Instantaneous. Vegas does do anything not except thumbnails, and create peaks for audio.

What is your video thumbnail video preference? It defaults to head, middle, tail, and that is what mine is set to.

Since you report slow playback you could have some unusual codec used for the video files and that codec is slow or interfaces with Vegas badly. That would make Vegas slow to thumbnail also I would assume.

Again I can playback my GoPro MP4s trivially. 1080p60 30Mbps H.264 MP4 is the biggest files I have edited.
Zondedo wrote on 3/10/2013, 2:58 PM
My bad on the file extension. I am not using still images and should have written .wmv not .wmf.

I am using a Canon standard resolution video camera which creates native .mod files. Sony decided not to make their software compatible with this format so I have been using NCH Prism file converter software to get around this.

With some experimentation, I've learned that it doesn't matter which output format I convert to, all of them cause import issues. Today I tried to import .avi files from my i phone which created a codec error. I just installed Vegas Pro 12, how could this happen? What version of Quicktime do I need? How can I get the correct codec(s)?

Thanks for your help!!!
videoITguy wrote on 3/10/2013, 3:46 PM
Not familiar with your cam, but from what you state it is merely creating proprietary files. That is way too bad. Because with a proprietary format source, you are dependent on a proprietary converter to get to some other file type. Again not familiar with your choice of convertor, but IT could be the source of your problem.

1) If possible try to convert files to an .avi type with codecs that offer some kind of compression. Uncrompressed will be too large. Make sure you have codec for sound that is a common universal one.

2) If you are stuck with a proprietary format and convertor, you may have to try get what you can out of the convertor and convert with some other more open source system such as VLC before massaging with SCS software. SCS is meant to work with common file formats.

3) Stay away from .wmv and avoid converting through Quicktime alterations.
MarkWWW wrote on 3/10/2013, 4:04 PM
Vegas will handle .MOD files just fine, in my experience. You simply need to rename them to .MPG and Vegas will accept them without problems. No need to convert them at all.

I suspect that the problems you are experiencing are entirely because you are converting the files to a fornat that Vegas really doesn't like. Revert to the (renamed) originals and I expect you will find things behave much better.

Mark
Zondedo wrote on 3/10/2013, 6:58 PM
Thanks for the input but as I noted in the previous post, even an .avi file from an iphone creates a codec error.

Also, its important to note that before I decided to use the Prism format converter, I renamed the .MOD files to .MPG just as you say. With this method, I could only get around 15 clips successfully imported

It's interesting that a .MOD file is considered proprietary. My NERO software and windows media player plays it perfectly.

Would other software programs interfere with SV12?
vkmast wrote on 3/10/2013, 7:15 PM
One way to import .mod files (SD) into Vegas is using Import media > All files (*.*). Change PAR in Properties if needed.
Zondedo wrote on 3/10/2013, 8:27 PM
VKmast....U are the man! For now, it seems that everything is working fine when I import using the all files (*.*) option. I was able to import all the video clips in the native .MOD format with no problem. Wish I would have seen that option before. When you open that window, that option is hidden on the top.
DeadRadioStar wrote on 3/10/2013, 8:44 PM
Also have a look here: Importing MOD files