Confused: H.264, MOV, Motion JPEG, MPEG4, AVI…

[John Rofrano]

[John Gregoriades] “… only which will work seamlessly with Vegas 8 or Vegas 9 or…. without any pre-conversion etc.?”

I’m afraid the answer is none! Vegas didn’t add support for these odd-ball camera formats until Vegas Pro 10. Any version prior to 10 will require you to convert it into format that is editable.

Personally, if you want to shoot video and edit it without problems… buy a video camera.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Gregoriades]

I am very sorry to hear the bad news…but is it true that the $60
Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 Suite will not work either???
(Pictures and video is not my life, it’s just a fun lifetime hobby. Traveling and also carrying around a ton of stuff are things of my past. One cam that can do it all is preferable, e.g. Canon SX10is see this 3 minute Vegas-creation:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC3ARITMKsc

John23GR

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[Mike Kujbida]

[John Gregoriades] “is it true that the $60
Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 Suite will not work either???”

Get some sample footage from each camera you’re considering, download the demo of Movie Studio and try it for yourself.

[John Rofrano]

No, I don’t believe that Movie Studio 10 has this capability. It was introduced in Vegas Pro 10.

Like I said, if you like taking video, buy a video camera. They also take still images. If you want to use video from a still image camera, then complain to the still image camera manufacturers to start using industry standard formats that can be edited easily. they are the ones causing the problem. They are the ones you should complain to. Vote with your wallet and they will listen.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Gregoriades]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Consumers are plagued with “proprietary” products all the time (a good example are the various batteries for cameras – not one is compatible physically and probably voltage & working amperage – wise with another.)
However: I tried Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 with the following (non Hi-def) video files, and it accepted them just fine:
xxxx.wmv “Windows Media Video File”
xxxx.MOV “Quick Time Movie”
xxxx.mp4 “MP4 Video File”
xxxx.AVI “AVI Video File”
(The quotes indicates what Vegas said they were.)
(These all came from three different “still” cameras: Two Canons and a Nokia cellphone.)
So to double-check, I guess my question, and your answer, pertained to the Hi-Def only?

John23GR

[John Rofrano]

[John Gregoriades] “However: I tried Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9 with the following (non Hi-def) video files, and it accepted them just fine:
xxxx.wmv “Windows Media Video File”
xxxx.MOV “Quick Time Movie”
xxxx.mp4 “MP4 Video File”
xxxx.AVI “AVI Video File””

Be careful that you don’t confuse file formats with video formats and codecs. QuickTime .MOV and Video for Windows .AVI are “containers” for video. They are not video formats themselves (i.e., they do not specify how to encode the video).

You can put AVC/H.264 into a QuickTime container, or AVI container, or MP4 container. It’s the same video format in each. The problem is that the MPEG4 specification (of which AVC/H.264 is a subset) is too broad for any one manufacturer to support. So standards like AVCHD were created to support an even smaller subset.

If you buy an AVCHD camera you are guaranteed that Vegas can edit the footage because AVCHD is an agreed to standard that Vegas supports. AVC/H.264 alone however, can have many profiles and levels. Some manufacturers don’t support them all. Some manufacturers don’t write the files properly. Other have a nasty habit of writing negative timecode (which is illegal) to the file. It’s all a big mess.

So the fact that Vegas can open a MOV file or AVI file is meaningless unless it’s the MOV or AVI file from your particular camera and it actually plays. But I appreciate your input that Vegas can indeed open these file formats, when they are written properly and contain a codec that is installed on your computer.

Even then, Vegas may open the file and display it perfectly, but it can’t play it faster then a few frames per second which is the case with a lot of these 5D/7D files until Vegas Pro 10 added support to play them back smoother.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Mccann]

FWIW: I owned a Canon 60D DSLR for a brief, few months. It generated H.264 with a .MOV file extension. The native files could be placed on the timeline in Movie Studio 10.0, but were very stuttery in the preview window. I downloaded the demo of Cineform NeoScene and generated .AVI ‘intermediate’ files. Worked well. I made a side-by-side demo (below). The native .MOV files rendered out, but, the issue remained that they (.MOV) were unuseable for editing/viewing within Movie Studio HD. I’m not a software/hardware techie by any stretch… These multiple ‘standards’ are quite maddening, and IMO, trying to gain understanding can be very daunting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiUH-cdpP_k

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[Scott Francis]

I do have to say, the footage captured from some of these DSLR’s is REALLY amazing looking…as far as the files they create, it is a pain in the butt. I have 5 HD camcorders that I use, but looking at a T2i as well, the footage is just awesome..

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[John Gregoriades]

Isn’t it frustrating? I recently edited a friend’s HD video, shot from a camcorder (can’t remember the brand/model, but it had a built-in memory chip; no tape, no disk, no HD) using Vegas 9. It rendered OK, but on the Vegas preview window it was very bad, stuttery and next to useless for editing.
p.s. that’s a pretty slick presentation, side by side.

John23GR

[John Gregoriades]

Thanks for expounding on the “mess.” Unfortunately the specs for the still cameras are not detailed enough to ensure what exactly is their “packaging.”
Here is a thought for Sony/Vegas: Why not turn it around and instead of hand-wringing, why not provide a list of say two dozen top still cameras whose video output works with Vegas (Sony first, of course!) and/or provide a list of these “converter software” that may make them compatible (without loss of quality) with the free software on top of the list, of course.
(Unless Sony/Vegas is “behind” on compatitibility, compared to competing products.)
In January I was in Florida, and to video an event this company had 4 or 5 “Red” brand videocams, two semipro Sony vidcams, and a couple of Nikon DSLRs with Zoom lenses. But most of us (like me) had a Canon SX10iS superzoom still cam (whose video worked fine with Vegas 9). Vegas needs to look after us, too.

John23GR