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MP4 video from Hauppauge HD PVR 2 does not work properly in Premiere CS6
Sorry about the vague title, I couldn’t find proper words to summarize my problem.
I am working with a bunch of Hauppauge HD PVR 2 footage recorded in MP4 format. I had been recording them for quite a while until I discovered that the HD PVR 2 is infamous for its awful MP4 exports.
The videos themselves plays back fine in media players such as WMP or VLC, however when I import them into Premiere, many of the files comes up with a seemingly completely random frame rate such as 19,21 fps. The odd thing is that not all videos does this, some actually come up as 29,97. All clips seem to have their audio intact and in perfect shape in Premiere.
I’ve browsed around the internet and I’ve found a few “fixes” to the problem, none of which worked. The only fix that came close was opening the broken clips in QuickTime and chosing to save a reference file. The frame rate does indeed become stable at 29,97, but the video cuts short. For example, the abovementioned 19,21 fps clip is 3h27m long. When I saved it as a QT reference clip and imported it to Premiere, it was 2h12m. It makes sense considering it had a constant frame rate of 29,97 fps, however this method shaves off ~20 minutes of the end of the footage.
I browsed some more and found that you can convert MP4 to other video formats, and I’ve tried using avidemux for this purpose, however I’m a total greenhorn when it comes to video formats and codecs and I honestly think I’m astray. I tried a conversion, but it shaved off even more minutes.
This is most likely due to a software bug at Hauppauge’s end, especially with their old software (haven’t had a chance to try the new one). However, I would like to keep my footage and actually put them to use. I have literally days worth of footage, and having to discard them would be a huge shame.
Hopefully anyone has any ideas on how I can solve this. Thanks!
Amateur video editor since 2003
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4 Replies
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I think the consensus on this issue and similar (mostly from camera phones) is that it implements a variation of h.264 that is variable framerate. Variable framerate footage isn’t considered fit to edit as it’s very CPU expensive to decode.
I would attempt a conversion in any program that plays it correctly like Quicktime Pro or VLC and then see where that leads you rather than creating a reference movie.
https://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-165256.html as to the mechanism of how VFR works.
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We had the same issues a couple years ago with the Hauppauge card in a win machine.
Sometimes the clips would come in with no audio, sync was a major hassle.Converting/exporting it first with the software that comes with it help a lot.
In the end we gave up on the Hauppauge card.Chris
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Apologies for the lack of follow up on my own thread. I eventually caved and dropped the MP4 clips. I could not find a single way to make these clips usable in Premiere. Until I do, they will have to “dust” down on my hard drive.
Luckily the new software from Hauppauge uses ts and it works flawlessly in Premiere.
Thanks for the reply guys!
Amateur video editor since 2003
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I had the same problem and seemed to figure out/get help to solve this.
1) duplicate the problem footage in premiere by right clicking then clicking “duplicate”.
2) if you notice, the audio of the messed up clip is correct. we want to use this, so input the messed up clip into your timeline. after it is in, hold “alt” then select your video portion in your timeline. delete this and leave only the audio. move this audio only portion down one step into the “audio 2” portion of the timeline for now.
3) now, right click the duplicated clip from step 1 above. find “interpret footage” and make it 29.97 (or whatever FR you were trying to record in in the first place). now input this altered footage into the timeline. if you notice, the audio in this altered footage is now too fast, this is why we did step 2.
4) finally, hold “alt” and select the AUDIO portion of the altered footage in the timeline and delete it. move the audio from the messed up clip (which should be in audio 2 right below) and place it under the altered video footage that you just deleted the audio from.
Everything should be perfectly aligned now. I’ve noticed minimal errors aside from the occasional stutter when editing (doesnt show up in the exported final product), and lack of cooperation with twixtor (additional software for super-slow-mo editing)
hope this resurrects your footage man. let me know if this works for you as it did for me! (i’m using cs 5.5 btw)
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