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  • MPEG-4 Visual Codec for CS4

    Posted by Richard Grace on February 3, 2010 at 8:32 am

    Hi folks,

    I am new to this forum. I have been using CS4 Premiere Pro for a couple of months with AVCHD from my new Panasonic HD camera and getting on well.

    I then tried to edit some of my older footage from an Ispan DV Camcorder that I bought in SIngapore in 2005. It records onto Sd card but in MPEG-4 Visual format at 30 frames a second.

    When I load a clip it seems okay at first, but when I go to play it, only the first frame works – the rest are black. It is the same for all clips from this camera.

    I have these clips working on another machine in Premiere elements 7 but I had to download a codec but I cannot remember what is was called or where it is stored.

    Any help will be greatly appreciated.

    piccadillypunter

    Mike Velte replied 16 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Mike Velte

    February 3, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    Download the free app Gspot, open your video in it and it should tell you what codec you need.

  • Richard Grace

    February 3, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    Thanks for that. I have now done this and downloaded v2.70a which tells me the correct codec is already installed.

    I think it is too, because the clips play on Windows Media Centre correctly. When I import them to Premiere Pro CS4 there is no problem but the clip begins to play ( a light flicker on most clips) the sound is fine, but the video goes black. If I push on anyway and include it in a timeline it pops in okay, then when I play it the result is the same. If I push on further and transfer to Encore it accepts its and burns a DVD but the result shows only the opening frame of each clip which is continually repeated for the duration of the clip but the sound is okay. I hope that makes sense to you.

    The machine is an Intel i7 3.07GHz quad processor with 8gb memory running WIndows 7 64 bit

    piccadillypunter

  • Mike Velte

    February 4, 2010 at 11:27 am

    What is the codec info? Is the video from a camera or has it been recompressed?

  • Richard Grace

    February 4, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    Hi,

    The clips come directly from an SD-card which is the recording medium for an ISpan DDV-720 Digital Video Camcorder. Mediainfo shows the data about a clip.

    Richard Grace

    February 4, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    oops – that did not show the emmbedded clip – try again

    piccadillypunter

  • Mike Velte

    February 4, 2010 at 1:52 pm

    I see said the blind man…the codec is XVID and wont work in Premiere, along with DIVX. You will need to try a converter to convert it to H264, but before you buy anything make sure Premiere will play nicely with that.

  • Richard Grace

    February 5, 2010 at 6:35 am

    Thanks Mike,
    Why did you suggest H264 ? I can read these clips on another machine with Ulead and I have clipped them together in relevant batches but what is the best format to output in? I think it may be the 30fps converting to 25 but I tried Mpeg2 with fairly good results, and I used DVD Video format straight onto a DVD for some. In the latter case particularly I noticed that sometimes it seems to get patchy, almost as if you were moving the camera erratically rather than smoothly. Now of course, maybe that is exactly what was happening, but it may also be the conversion. Is H264 better thatn MPEG2 or mpeg4 for that matter – what do you suggest is best?

    piccadillypunter

  • Mike Velte

    February 5, 2010 at 11:08 am

    H264 is the latest and greatest codec for most applications. It takes about half the bitrate of Mpeg 2 to achieve similar results.

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