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Neophyte question: Import AVI’s into SV8MM (non-pro)
Okay, I can’t afford to pick up the Sony Vegas Pro 8.0 release yet. My husband found SVMM8 on sale and bought it as a gift. What we didn’t know was that when the box said that it handles importation of AVI’s, it more or less lied.
I’ve been all over the net with this problem and seen others in the same kettle of fish. It’s not a codec issue (I have all the correct codecs), it’s a plug-in issue.
What I need to know is if there is a work-around besides re-encoding every AVI I want to import into SVMM8 into something hideous like WMV? Are there any plug-ins that exist that allow for the importation of AVI’s into SVMM8 and, if so, where can they be found? Your help is much appreciated in advance.
The word from the Sony knowledgebase is that they do not support DivX or XviD and recommend re-encoding into a different format. However, 99% of the AVI’s I’ve ever seen come in one of those two formats. That’s a lot of re-encoding and possible (probable) data loss.
On a test run, attempting to re-encode an AVI into a high-quality MPEG4 got me a corrupted file with two directories that had to be deleted from the hard drive because no program could get near them without crashing. I’m not even going to talk about how much data I lost… 🙁
Help?
One more thing: Sony wants $ for phone support of this software, and when I try to use their email support, the form breaks and the message will not send. I’m not really feeling in the mood to dish out money for a support plan for a program that I may not even be able to use. Should I have Pro? Likely. Maybe George Bush will buy me a copy for my birthday. ;P
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10 Replies
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Remember that “AVI” is a file type! It’s not a video format and can hold MANY different types of video formats from uncompressed to DV (standard that is captured from MiniDV cameras) to more esoteric formats like DivX and XVid.
Many people have gotten DivX/XVid clips to work in Vegas but it is not a supported format. In order to work in Vegas, you need to have the proper “VfW” codec installed that will support those formats. Or, as recommended, convert them into something Vegas does easily read.
However, I definitely would not convert them to WMV or some other highly compressed format. From whatever program you’re using to convert them, try converting to DV-AVI instead. That should work well for you. DV is about 13Gig/hour so it will be larger than your original files but Vegas loves working with DV.
Edward Troxel
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You are excellent, and you are right. I should have been clearer. AVI is a “container.” (Right? :> ) It bundles up the file types and… &tc, &tc, &tc.
Okay, clearing that up in my brain… (I’ve been working on the problem half the night and am suffering from Technical Retardation Syndrome.)
Tried to re-encode via VirtualDub but so far no luck. It doesn’t seem to support any file type (that I have found yet) that SV8 will accept. DV seems to be absent (or I’m just not familiar enough with VD yet).
Will work on finding a nice conversion program that does what I need and will get back to you on it. Thanks for the prompt response.
I swear, some day I will not be a newb.
Oh, one more thing. I keep getting told that it’s not a codec problem but a plug-in problem. *blank stare* GSpot has been used to verify that there exists the proper codecs, but since they’re XviD…….. well, that’s not going to work. 😀 I will look at your codec suggestion as well.
When I have a brain.
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One last note before I quit obsessing over the problem for the morning:
Tried three different DV-AVI encoding codecs. They’re showing up in VirtualDub (so I know they’re installed), but VD is balking every time I try to encode with a DV codec. 😐 I keep getting an error that the “source file” is not compatible. It’ll PLAY (what I assume is) the source file, but won’t re-encode it.
Just to be clear, baseball bats are NOT a solution to technical issues, right? I saw some really nice aluminum Louisville Sluggers in Wal-Mart…
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But aluminum will short out the circuits :>)Go for wood!
BTW you might want to look at the Program Super for converting the files if you go that direction and its free.
https://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html -
Note that even though the “proper codec is installed” – that doesn’t mean a “codec Vegas can use” is installed. There are different types of codecs. Vegas requires a “Video for Windows” codec. You may have a “DirectX” codec installed.
Edward Troxel
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I think the whole idea IS to short-circuit it, but… 😉
I tried Super and I botched something so badly that–er, well, nevermind. It ought to be obvious that I barely (at all?) know what I’m doing. I may give it another go and see how I fare.
*dryly* It did do a lovely job of encoding AVI to WMV.
🙂
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Forgive me please if I sound a little drunk. Threw out my back, and I’m on the XOMG muscle relaxant/Darvocet regimen. That’s what having blown disks and trying to clean the house will do for you.
Okay, so a little bit of an update. Have been messing around with Super (as suggested) and installing various codecs (I think I’m not quite up to 300 yet) and such-like.
A special aside: Vista Codec Pack, from everything I know, already comes with VFW codecs. Of course, I am high on pain killers, so you can take that with a grain of salt. I did install ffdshow which comes WITH the kitchen sink. ;> It improved my DV encoding but videos coming out of Super are still not playing inside of Windows Media Player 11. What that’s all about, I do not know. Even re-encoding them from Sony Vegas MM8.0 didn’t improve playability.
VFW codecs DO NOT allow for the importation of AVI’s into SVMM8.0. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but from everything I’ve been able to determine, that is the case. Tonight (if I can focus long enough) I’m going to try messing around with some 4CC settings and see if I can trick some software into dancing for me.
The good news, sort of: I can encode from Super into *wince* MPEG-2 with a MPEG-II video encoder and mp2 audio. SVMM8.0 WILL accept those files, but with a black border around the left and right edges.
I can encode via Super into AVI with MPEG-II + AC3 (mono)… but the audio hoses right up once it gets dumped into SVMM8.0.
Any file I’ve tried re-encoding from Super has lousy audio.
None of the files, whether re-encoded or not, will actually PLAY in Super. That’s something that’s been stumping me the whole time.
I’m guessing at this point I have a zillion conflicting codecs on my machine, but I don’t have a way of really knowing (since I’m not a guru) which files I need to scrub and which ones can stay.
In short, the nightmare continues, and I feel like I’m living on Elm Street…
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Update on the situation:
Well, I’ve spent the last few days pulling apart my OS and reinstalling. I think I remmeber an old adage… something about, “When there’s just too much crap on the hard drive, it’s time to get out the shovel.”
Okay, I made that up.
The good news is that I found a program that’s letting me test what will and what will NOT go into Sony Vegas MM8.0.
The bad news is: Not much will go into that sucker. ;D But I DO know know that there are formats I can use that will work in the software, even if they’re inferior encodings. :/
Lesson here? Buy the Pro version and skip the bargain bin sale.
Still haven’t found any way to directly import AVI’s into SVMM8. If anyone finds a plug-in (the problem ISN’T missing VFW codecs) that allows for the importation of AVI’s (esp. XviD and DivX), please let me know.
I hate to use WMV, but so far it’s the best and only alternative encoding I can get to function in SVMM8.
I have yet to get DV-AVI to work.
On the bright side, my hard drive is clean… *sob*
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Interesting thread! I’m also new to this and having the same problems. Did you ever get it resolved?
Is there a Primer to read about this anywhere?
Did you ever get Pro and did that solve everything?
Many thanks!
Steve Littler
Anchorage, AK -
The best solution I found was to convert any XviD/DIVX footage into another codec and then import. I would suggest using a mathematically lossless codec like Lagarith (what I’m using) if you have the hard drive space for whatever it is you’re editing. The file size will be large, but… it will preserve as much detail from the XviD file as possible.
Of course, starting with XviD sources is problematic to begin with because they’re already highly compressed and are “lossy” codecs. Whatever footage you get from XviD might need to be cleaned up a bit.
In any case… the best scenario is to start with source material and use a lossless codec for editing in SV. The difference in quality is shocking.
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