Just to be sure, I checked every version of Vegas Pro, Davinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro. None of them can import MKV without conversion, so your crying seems a bit misplaced. Not such a con job after all. Tell your recording hardware to save its videos in a different format or rewrap the videos into a new format after saving.

Well said fr0sty!

Nah... I've had it with Vegas. Its render options have dried up completely (apart from the very unexciting prorez option). It complains about everything and its support is non-existent. Meanwhile, there's a team of people blaming users for its shortcomings. THere are so many errors that if it's true that MKV ( such an obscure format lol) support has always been an issue, that it just blends into the rest, rather than standing out as an aberration. Back in the day, I would have thought,' Error? This can't be true!', now though, errors and lack of working features are par for the course and to be expected.

A Pro Editor can handle what you throw at it , not complain like a broken piece of vapourware about commonly used formats. Pro?... don't make me laugh.

I remember a time when Maya didn't import png... that changed. Painter didn't render that format either... that changed. Software has to exist in the real world, not a perfect fantasy.

Dried up? It has the same codecs it always has had since day 1... I've been using this software for almost 20 years now. Nothing has changed other than dolby digital 5.1 output (a decades old obsolete format anyway, and there are ways to add it back in), only formats have been added. Vegas supports far more formats than most NLEs do, that is one of the reasons we use it. Other NLEs will force you to transcode to intermediates in order to use many formats. So far not a single one of your complaints has held water, it seems like you are making things up out of thin air.

Is Vegas perfect? No. I've lost customers to its render bugs in the past, but Magix support worked with me and fixed them quickly (contrary to your claims of no support). That said, Vegas 16 (which launched a full year after 15, as is common for software version updates in the NLE world) is the most stable version I've ever used.

Speaking of laughing, there isn't a "pro editor" out there that you can find that will import your video without "complaining like a broken piece of vaporware". Not Vegas, not Premiere, not Final Cut, not Avid, not Resolve, nor Edius...

so disappointed, i ask them this feature months ago and they didn't put in even in vp16

I'm not aware of any MKV supporting NLE either. The more pro they are usually the more limited they are regarding the native support of video formats and instead rely on solutions to transcode before such stuff is used in the timeline. Though I wouldn't mind to see MKV support in Vegas Pro. This container offers some nice features over MP4, Quicktime, MXF.

Vegas has never been able to import MKV? Being that it isn't a pro format, I wouldn't count on it either.

 

It's been said here, & I haven't confirmed it's true, that the MKV version of YouTube videos is the highest quality due to using VP9, instead of h.264. So if sourcing video from YT & wanted best quality you'd always be downloading the mkv versions & always having this annoyance of vegas not supporting them.

Why not support mkv, is the question i'd be asking. It surely doesn't require much work.

"It surely doesn't require much work."

I wish  had a nickel for each time I've heard that statement.

Chuzz, we like your suggestion and we would like you to be part of the solution.

In order for MKV to coexist alongside .mpg, .mp4, etc., commercially licensed containers in Vegas, you will have to pull off both of the following.

1. Convince Matroska to abandon its open license distribution and obtain a commercial patent like .mpg and .mp4; and,

2. Apply for and receive commercial licensure from MPEG-LA, along with licensure agreements for any codecs to be used inside the container.

How much more would you be willing to pay for this convenience in your next Vegas upgrade?

Do let us know how you make out.

In order for MKV to coexist alongside .mpg, .mp4, etc., commercially licensed containers in Vegas, you will have to pull off both of the following.

1. Convince Matroska to abandon its open license distribution and obtain a commercial patent like .mpg and .mp4; and,

2. Apply for and receive commercial licensure from MPEG-LA, along with licensure agreements for any codecs to be used inside the container.

 

This is from Matroska legal page

Matroska is an open and free technology. Anyone can use it or modify it for their own needs without paying any license or patents.

For commercial use (reading, writing, extending) we ask that you contact us to make sure we can verify Matroska is used correctly. We do ask that if you derive value from using Matroska that you are invited to sponsor us to promote the use and evolution of Matroska further.

So it's free for commercial use. VP9, like mkv is open source and royalty free. So it wouldn't cost anything to open mkv files from youtube.

But as musicvid stated, MKV is only a container. Various codecs can be contained and Magix pays an MPEG license as well as probably others out of your cost of the product.

Yes I understand, I was just making the case for reading mkv files from youtube, which might be the only commercially distributed form of mkv containing media.

Bob, your quote from Matrodka is correct to my understanding.

Now, your legal opinion from MPEG-LA? That's the patent holding entity Vegas is beholden to, not the open-source developers.

The fact that many converters download VP9 from Youtube as MKV is irrelevant. It's about agreements, but not theirs.

I"ll take your word that it's not possible legally, . I know for a long time certain browsers would not load vp9 content for legal reasons. I don't know what changed there. You are right that downloaders may convert files but it does seem they are using MKV. The reason I say this is because if you look at the list of available files to download it lists WEBM with opus codec. That's the usual VP9 video with opus audio you'll normally see on Youtube, the mp4 files also check out & you'll notice that the MKV contains vp9 video with aac audio which is not like any of the others. But i'm a bit out of depth here.

It would be nice if this ' just worked'.

After all opening and converting in a free player like VLC is basic stuff.

I don't think users should be criticised for wanting this functionality and I certainly don't need a nerd fight over this issue.

I just need to waste less time and effort over a petty issue like playback of this very common video file.

You can keep discussing containers/formats/codecs whatever, to your heart's content. I'll keep working after I press 'end task' on the Vegas VST Server again.

Chuzz I think the other gentleman is saying it's illegal for vegas to open mkv files because Vegas is not open source. I'm not a law person, but if true, we aren't getting mkv compatibility because it would be against the law. Also you don't want to convert, you're just creating a lower quality file, you want to swap containers. I think another gentleman earlier linked to something that will do that.

Cheers and thanks to Fr0sty for that, I understand you are trying to be helpful-more so than Magix.

Apologies too for getting so antagonised, I just can't see why Magix has to be so limp about finding a solution.

I think my impatience is reasonably understandable though eh?

Of course, I had already converted /remuxed whatever the correct jargon might be, good tip about the quality and switching containers, I'll check if the process I used did the right thing and make sure I've got the best quality file I can get...

Anyway... The point I'm making is that Vegas doesn't need to make a roadblock to frustrate users if all it takes is a little ingenuity.

If we can use a free utility and then import, then why doesn't Magix?

Instead of throwing its digital arms in the air, it could run a routine that opens an ' open source' utility ( make it themselves if they have to , could it be a python script or something?), that remuxes ( or whatever), then imports the viable file into vegas, without making the user scratch their head and doing all the legwork.

Interestingly enough this is the issue I had just last night. I had a bunch of mkv files from our old home videos we turned digital and realized I couldn't work with any of them. I tried converting with VLC but the audio quality got worse and so did the video. It was choppier or something. Ended up using OBS to screen capture the video, then added that bit into Vegas. WAY too much work. Very disappointing that mkv files can't just be dropped in and used. Same with webm I believe. I run into a lot of these so it sucks the time I lose.

so anyone clearly me last time that vegas will never support mkv files so that i can lose hope again

Interestingly enough this is the issue I had just last night. I had a bunch of mkv files from our old home videos we turned digital and realized I couldn't work with any of them. I tried converting with VLC but the audio quality got worse and so did the video. It was choppier or something. Ended up using OBS to screen capture the video, then added that bit into Vegas. WAY too much work. Very disappointing that mkv files can't just be dropped in and used. Same with webm I believe. I run into a lot of these so it sucks the time I lose.

Possibly Handbrake would convert them and do a better job?

so anyone clearly me last time that vegas will never support mkv files so that i can lose hope again

Never? Things can change.