Problems with .MOV and Sony Vegas 9

[John Rofrano]

So i’ve been looking up online for about 3 days for similar problems and most of them just resulted in downloading a codec or two and the problem fixed. Well i tried all of that and it still doesn’t work.

Not because it isn’t the correct solution, because it is. You just need to find the correct codec to solve this. (i.e., you’re close)

First let’s dispel the myths:

Myth 1: Some sites say that vegas doesn’t support .MOV at all

Not true, Vegas works perfectly fine with MOV files.

Myth 2: some say you just need a codec

You ALWAYS need a codec. Unless the video is uncompressed (not very likely) all video needs the proper codec installed to be decoded.

Myth 3: some say that it only supports some types of .MOV

There is no such thing as “some types of MOV”. A MOV is just a container within which you can store all types of video. It’s the codec used by the video that is important. Some codecs, however, and proprietary to Apply only and don’t exist on Windows.

Myth 4: I have windows 7 64 bit running sony vegas 9.0 32 bit (some sites say this may be the problem)

Again not true. This is not a problem at all. I run tons of 32-bit programs on my Windows 7 64-bit OS. they all run perfectly fine in 32-bit mode.

OK, now on to your problem:

Camera is Canon 1400SD IS Digital ELPH (records movies in .MOV)

Open the MOV file in the Quicktime player and use Ctrl+I to open the Inspector and see what codec is listed for the Video. This is the codec you’ll need to download and install. You can also use a free utility called GSpot that should not only tell you the codec but it will tell you if the codec is installed and try and process the video and show you any errors. It’s a very handy utility to have.

If this doesnt work out ima be forced to either
A) get a new video editing software (which means learning how to use it)

This doesn’t sound like fun and without having the proper codec on your computer, no video editing application is going to be able to open it. You really need to solve the codec issue.

B) Shoot all my videos in .MOV and then convert into like .AVI or something (while losing TONS of quality)

This is probably your best option if you can’t solve the codec issue. Professional videographers do this all the time. The acquisition format of new digital cameras is quite often a poor choice for editing and so we transcode our footage before editing with almost no loss in quality. I would recommend using AviDemux 2.5 to convert your video to AVI files using either MJPEG or Lagarith codec. MJPEG will be smaller file size and near lossless while Lagarith will be a larger filesize but totally lossless. Lagarith is a free codec that you can download.

C) get a new camera that records videos in a correct format

While this is the most costly idea, it is the best in terms of workflow. People just buy cameras thinking they can edit the footage not realizing that the camera they are buying shoots a non-standard format that can’t be easily edited. It is sad that camera manufacturers don’t care but they don’t. You the consumer have to be aware of what your needs are and purchase the proper camera. Always ask lots of questions before you buy.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask more questions (that’s how we learn) 😉

~jr

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

[Justin Moon]

Hey John, first of all, thank you so much for the information, i’m learning a little more every day.

So I opened it up in quicktime like you said and did CTRL+I and this is what i got:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

So I basically took all the text in the red box and added codec to the end of a google search and this is the site that i ended up at:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Is the codec that’s shown above the correct one? I’ve yet to download and actually try it because I’m busy atm and planning to try it later tonight.

Thanks for your help John

[John Rofrano]

Hi Justin, The key piece of information in that screen shot is: H.264, 1280×720. This tells us that it’s AVC/H.264. Try installing the x264vfw codec and see if that fixes the problem.

~jr

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

[Justin Moon]

Hey John, I downloaded the x264vfw codec that you posted as well as GSpot.

This is what I get when I open up the video with GSpot:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Also, on the 2nd box, doesnt it mean that i have the avc1 and h.264 codec installed? but GSpot says that the codec status is undetermined. Regardless of these things i tried to see if it still worked on sony vegas, it doesn’t. Perhaps there’s a different codec or something that i need??

Again, thank you John for your time

[John Rofrano]

Yea, I thought that some VFW codecs were showing up under Quicktime but now that I’m back home on my editing computer I see that they are not. 🙁

I did notice that you have Nero on your computer. From my personal experience, Nero has been known to mess up codecs and I would never allow it on one of my machines. I’m not saying that’s the problem but I have personally had codec problems that were solved by uninstalling Nero.

The fact that Quicktime can play the file means that you have the proper codec installed. You could contact Canon and see if they have any other codec recommendations. You could contact Sony and ask why Vegas can’t read these files when they can be played in Quicktime. Or you can convert them to another format before editing them in Vegas. Of course, you could always see if another NLE can edit them but that means you can’t use Vegas.

My vote would be to contact Sony and in the mean time, convert them to MJPEG or Photo-JPEG or some other format that Vegas can work with.

~jr

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

[Justin Moon]

Hmm, i did more looking around and i only have vegas 9.0, and some people were saying that vegas 9.0d (the latest version i think?) fixes the problem because apparently there were compatibility issues between the old vegas 9 versions and quicktime. Ima give that a try first, if that doesn’t work then i going to need to contact sony :\

[John Rofrano]

Yea, Vegas Pro 9.0e is the latest version. Let us know if that fixes things (sorry I forgot to ask if you were using the latest version).

~jr

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

[Paul Verantes]

I’m having the same problem too. Using Windows 7 32 bit and Sony Vegas 10. Was working fine for 1 week until after a render Sony Vegas started saying Quicktime wasn’t installed & subsequently won’t accept MOV files. Closed down Vegas, restarted the computer and tried opening any MOV with the Quicktime player but the stand alone player won’t run as well. Have uninstalled and reinstalled Quicktime multiple times with no success of getting the Quicktime player to work, let alone Vegas. H-E-L-P!!!!