Quicktime .MOV H.264 format.

I don't understand why it wouldn't play in the timeline when it does in the preview for the Trimmer and when you are viewing the file in explorer tab.

The video frames showup in the timeline and the audio does too when you change the extension to .MP4.

I guess I will have to use QuickTime Pro to convert the video to another format. I tested this but for some reason the converted file is lesser quality than the original.

>I tested this but for some reason the converted file is lesser quality than the original.

You need to save it in a lossless codec of the same resolution/frame rate/field-order. I would suggest Lagarith or Huffyuv and a Windows-based application to do the conversion (as opposed to FFmpeg-based apps which are not native Windows apps and don't use its libraries).

So far everything I convert it to does the same thing, it does not play in the preview and it does not output video, just the audio.

I checked the box at the store to make sure it would be able to work with Quicktime files, and it was printed on the box. Now that it has been opened I can't take it back to get a refund.

I will contact Support again and see what they can do.

thanks.

>So far everything I convert it to does the same thing

No Terry, you have not tried a lossless file. When you want to convert to another format for editing, you have to use a supported lossless codec. And I suggest Huffyuv or Lagarith as Cineform is not supported by other utilities. These formats are NOT losing quality over the original file, and they are more suitable for editing.

>I checked the box at the store to make sure it would be able to work with Quicktime files

You don't understand this then, read #3:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/01/22/confusion-and-video-editing/
Also read this
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/10/19/understanding-intermediate-and-delivery-video-formats/

>I will contact Support again and see what they can do.

They will do nothing. They can't do anything to help you on this, you will have to transcode the file to a supported LOSSLESS format yourself.

If you want me to help you out, I can. I can give detailing instructions on how to make this work. But I need a 3 second video from your camera to be able to construct my tutorial around it.

Ok, Cool

How do I send it to you?

you upload it on a server somewhere and you send me the url. You don't send these kinds of files via email.

Email sent through forum.


Thanks.

1. Install the Huffyuv 2.1.1 lossless codec from here: http://www.neuron2.net/www.math.berkeley.edu/benrg/huffyuv-2.1.1.zip You do that by uncompressing the contents of the zipped file on your Desktop, right-clicking on the huffyuv.inf file and selecting “Install”. After this is done, you can delete its files on the desktop.

2. Now install the PS3Video9 utility from here http://www.redkawa.com/videoconverters/ps3video9 . Navigate to C:\Program Files\Red Kawa\Video Converter\Tools\FFmpeg\ and copy away the ffmpeg.exe and pthreadGC2.dll files found there. Feel free to uninstall PS3Video9 now, we only needed two files from it. Now, move your .mov files on the same folder you have copied ffmpeg.exe & pthreadGC2.dll at, e.g. C:\ffmpeg\ or something.

3. Copy this text onto notepad.exe and call it digicam.bat by saving it on the same folder as everything else (make sure it has no .txt in its filename):
ffmpeg.exe -y -i "INPUT_CHANGE_ME_001.MOV" -threads 2 -vcodec huffyuv -pix_fmt yuv422p -aspect 4:3 -s 720x480 -r 30000/1001 -acodec pcm_s16le -sameq "OUTPUT_CHANGE_ME_001.AVI"
Edit with the text editor (e.g. notepad.exe) this .bat file and change the input name in capitals to the input file name of your first .mov file as appears in the Windows Explorer listing. You also change the output filename, for example, you type FILE0002.MOV for input file, and then you type this for output file: FILE0002.AVI. Then, you save the .bat file, and you double click the .bat file from within Explorer. A DOS prompt will open and will re-encode that h.264 .mov file to Huffuyv .avi. When that's done, re-edit the file with the second .mov filename and .avi filename, and so on and so on, until you re-encode all your .mov files to .avi.

4. When you are done doing that, move all the .avi files on another folder (warning: lossless codecs create huge filesizes, so don't start screaming when you see these 40x filesizes). Now, start a new project on Vegas, load these .avi files on it, and go to "project properties" of Vegas. There, select the NTSC 4:3 720x480 DV template (not the widescreen one), and make THREE changes on that template after it's selected:
a. Field order to none/progressive.
b. Aspect ratio to 1.0000.
c. Interlacing to NONE.
(you can save this modified template with a different name for future re-usage)

5. Then, start editing. Editing might be a bit slow with Huffyuv, but it's a good lossless format. When you are done, export either using the DVD mpeg2 template and AC3 template if you want to burn a DVD,. If you want to export for the web, select the WMV format and export in 720x480, aspect ratio 1.0000, progressive, 2000 kbps video bitrate, WMA 64kbps audio (no need for higher quality audio, digicam audio sucks anyway).

What digicam is this one btw? Model?

Cool, thanks for all that. I will be going through it in a few minutes.

The camera I picked up at sametime I picked up Vegas, is Aiptek A-HD 720P video camera.

I got it to do some video blogging and web video for project sites.

I will report back once I go through your detailed info. Thanks so much for doing this.

This was not a 720p camera btw, it was a standard 480p one. The resolution of the clip you sent me was 720x480. In order to be 720p it must be 1280x720.

yeah, I can choose 3 different resolutions.

HD (720P) 1280x720
D1 (DVD) 720x480
CIF (Web) 320x something...

I have been using the D1 (DVD) setting because it is nice size to put online. I will use either the D1 or the HD setting when I do a real video.

Change all references to 720x480 to 1280x720 when you will shoot as such then, including the ffmpeg line (and remove this from the ffmpeg line -aspect 4:3 ). And when you export at the end as WMV, export at 5000 kbps instead of the 2000 kbps suggested for 720x480.

OK, I did all the instructions.

I still do not see the video playing in the preview window when I play the video from the timeline.

Any other ideas?

Edit: I checked by outputting to WMV and the only thing that was playing was the audio.

I just checked several other file formats and videos created with other programs I have. None of them play in teh preview window or output video either.

All they do when you play from the timeline is play audio in the master audio mixer.

Something is not right, I would reset all properties to the default setting but I do not know how to do that.

I will try to uninstall and reinstall and see what happens.