Working with .MOD video files??

CVM wrote on 5/5/2009, 8:20 AM
Everyone,

I am trying to import video from a small Canon video camera that records onto an SD memory card. There is NO firewire port so VidCap doesn't recognize any camera there.

When I open the SD card folder using the Vista standard window opener, I see .MOI and .MOD files. If I open those files (.MOD are the video files, .MOI are something else) they do not play properly in Media Player - they are squished left to right and are not widescreen (how they were shot).

I used the crappy software that came with the camera to capture, edit, and export the video to DVD... and it looked horrible. Does anyone know how I can 'normally' capture this SD card video into Vegas 8.0?

Thanks,

Dave

Comments

CVM wrote on 5/5/2009, 8:36 AM
I may have figured out a way... lemme know if there is a better way... I simply imported the .mod files into Vegas like I do a file that is already on my computer (like a JPEG) and then unchecked 'Maintain aspect ratio' under Switches (if I don't do this, the file is imported squished).

Thoughts?
bStro wrote on 5/5/2009, 8:56 AM
Vegas projects are 4:3 by default. Did you set your project to widescreen? If not, your footage probably isn't "squished" -- it's just letterboxed. And if that's the case, you certainly don't want to uncheck Maintain Aspect Ratio -- that stretches your widescreen footage to 4:3

As for the best way to get the footage into Vegas, does the "crappy software" have an option to convert to a more convenient format -- AVI or MPEG, perhaps? (AVI is easier to work with, but I imagine that the MOD format more closely resembles MPEG, if not being just an MPEG with Canon-specific headers).

Rob
eVoke wrote on 5/5/2009, 9:02 AM
Interesting that Canon with the .MOD file format. That was proprietary format on my old JVC Everio HDD camcorder.
JackW wrote on 5/5/2009, 10:47 AM
Wikipedia has some interesting information regarding the .mod file format . Until this posting I thought it was a format used only by JVC.

I believe there are some freeware programs that will convert this format to .avi and other formats. Take a look here, for example.

Jack
logiquem wrote on 5/5/2009, 11:00 AM
Try to just rename the files with .mpg extension...

IT works in my exp.

Bastien
reberclark wrote on 5/5/2009, 11:31 AM
Rename the files with an .MPG extension. Set vegas project properties to a widescreen project (NTSC Widescreen). THEN right click on the file in Vegas, select properties, and set aspect ratio to 1.222 Widescreen. Works for me with my Canon FS100.
Andy E wrote on 5/5/2009, 10:04 PM
Does anyone know how I can 'normally' capture this SD card video into Vegas 8.0?

There's a tool called SDCopy that may help. It does batch copy from source to target folder, renaming from MOD to MPG and also sets the WS flag in the header. It can also be called from the command-line.

An alternative I've used is DVDPatcher for setting the WS flag (other stuff as well) but this seems better.

Download from here:

http://zyvid.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=280.0;id=153

Support forum here:

http://zyvid.com/smf/index.php?topic=280.0