Can’t load AVI files in Vegas 10 – Using Windows 7

[Patrick Vandergeten]

Dear Miss,

I am very glad to read that it is still possible to convert old Canopus DV files to a more universal codec. As I have tons of video made in DV, I had several diseases now while I tried to play them on a new pc after a long time. I am using Windows Mediapleyr to play video quickly, I am editing in Sony Movie Studio PLatinum. It is not only a catastroph for the family videos, as you can imagine, but as I was making video for art projects (amonsgt others) since the late 70’s !! 🙂 I digitalised many many hours of material in DV using Canopus (Raptor and then Let’s Edit).

So please, your solution offered here create makes me ask:

– can the Canopus DV File Converter,(from 2001) work on Win10?

– Is that compatible with the codecs and other things installed by Sony Platinum (or other video editing software?)

– Is converting Canopus DV AVI tot Windows Avi the best option, as now there is Mp4, ADVHC, … ?

– I opened a Canopus Avi file into Format Factory and this software was able to read it and convert it, but is it a good idea to use that software to convert from AVI (Canopus) to AVI (Windows I suppose?)

– Will I have to pass the nex hundreds of evenings and nights by converting all my old Canopus DV ? 🙁
Or will I have to pass the Canopus codec from generation to generation (pc’s, children, grand children… 😉

I will be very grateful to you for any kind of help, even partially or little or much…

Kind regards,
Patrick, Belgium

[Diane Sosnoski]

Hello Patrick,

I’m not a techie and my computer and editing knowledge is only sufficient to allow me to do what I want to do.
That said, I will answer your questions as best I can.
I don’t know if Canopus DV File Converter would work on Windows 10.
The File Converter is only installed on my old Windows XP PC with Vegas 10 Pro.
My current editing PC is Windows 10 and I’m editing with Vegas 13 Pro.
If I need to access an old video file already uploaded with the Canopus codec and saved on the XP PC hard drive, I convert it with the file converter still installed on the XP PC, put the converted AVI file on a flash drive, transfer it to my Windows 10 PC and edit it on Vegas 13.

Sorry I can’t be of more help. I know it’s hard dealing with legacy material. I have many Hi-8 tapes that I can no longer convert as my Hi-8 camera died and the tapes I tried to convert before that happened were too old and have turned to static. So heart breaking!

Good luck with your endeavors and let me know if I can provide any other information you think I may have missed

[David Martin]

You’ve hit on a major sticking point in the drive to digital media as opposed to film emulsion. We can still watch film made in the beginning of the 20th century. Think of all the digital formats that have come and gone just in the last 20 years.

Even if electronic archival methods are proven to be adequate for extended periods (ever had a hard drive failure?) , how is the obsolescence problem handled? It seems every year we encounter a “new, improved” video format.

This problem extends (even more importantly) to data storage. Nearly every piece of information needed to keep our society — a world society — is now dependent upon digital media and the systems necessary to find and retrieve that data.

Fortunately I’m not the one who has to figure this all out. Now, if I can just dig out that Beta player I stored somewhere…

[Patrick Vandergeten]

Dear Diane,

I replyed you allready directly. I repeat here to respect the forum spirit.

The older Canopus Codec Pack (6.01) is 32 bit. I installed it under Win10 pc. Some older Canopus edited files started to be playable or convertable by for example Freemake but this was not the final solution.
Then I tried this one:
– Grass Valley Code pack Grass Valley Codec Pack (v7.31.2939) for Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 (64-bit) Released: 2014-07-24

Closing my ears for the ‘boommm’ sound that I was prepared for to come out of the Win10 PC, but… it works! :-))
You’ll find it under: https://www.grassvalley.com/support/downloads/products?product=general
I still am looking for the best video converter, in particular one that respects the high quality of Canopus/Grass Valley.

For the restoring of old videotapes, as I told you about this guy in Belgium who doe that as hobby, but where the official TV channels come to for restoring old documents: his name is Frank Tytgat, e-mail: videorestore2@yahoo.com. You never knoww, maybe he knwos other people in the world that can do the same job or maybe he an do the job for you by sending tapes + usb stick or so by post….

Kind regards,
Patrick

[Patrick Vandergeten]

Absolutely right! The evolution of technology goes fast (that is not bad at all) and is oftenly so imprevisibleso that ther is a chance that we develop an attitude of living in the present, without thinking about tomorrow, kind of fastfood mentality. Consume today and don’t think about tomorrow. Luckily I see many positive changes in the society, people who live and act in a long time perspective to be not completely depressed by this video-tragedy. 😉
A long discussion, not for his forum, I presume.

[Patrick Vandergeten]

Absolutely right! The evolution of technology goes fast (that is not bad at all) and is oftenly so imprevisibleso that ther is a chance that we develop an attitude of living in the present, without thinking about tomorrow, kind of fastfood mentality. Consume today and don’t think about tomorrow. Luckily I see many positive changes in the society, people who live and act in a long time perspective to be not completely depressed by this video-tragedy. 😉
A long discussion, not for this forum, I presume.

[Diane Sosnoski]

Thank you for this good information Patrick!