Question about ffdshow and Vegas Pro 11?

[Stephen Mann]

I have ffdshow codecs installed and it doesn’t interfere with Vegas 11.

As a side note – NEVER install a CODEC pack on your Vegas computer.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Carlos Silva]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for answering.

a) Just to clarify for me, ffdshow isn’t a codec pack (K-Lite Mega Codec), is it?

b) I am using ffdshow to record screen through Camtasia Recorder in AVI format using H.264. After recording in Camtasia, I tried open the AVI/H.264 in Vegas and “an error occurred while opening a codec”. Do you know if there is any codec/configuration with ffdshow that could be open by Vegas properly?

Best,
Cadu

[John Rofrano]

[Carlos Silva] “So, I won’t use ffdshow in any Vegas context, but I need to have it installed in my computer. In this not-using-together case, could ffdshow cause any problem to Vegas just because it is installed in my computer?”

I believe the answer “yes it can”. I don’t use ffdshow but it works silently in the background so you might not be aware of when you are using it and when you are not which means that you may be using it unintentionally depending on how you have it configured. I would just be careful that you don’t have it take over for a codec that Vegas already provides.

[Carlos Silva] “I am using ffdshow to record screen through Camtasia Recorder in AVI format using H.264. “

Why are you doing this? The Camtasia codec is far superior to any other codec for screen captures and way better than H.264 which is better used as a delivery format not as an acquisition format. You’ll get much higher quality using the Camtasia codec.

[Carlos Silva] “I tried open the AVI/H.264 in Vegas and “an error occurred while opening a codec”. Do you know if there is any codec/configuration with ffdshow that could be open by Vegas properly?”

I’m guessing that Vegas isn’t expecting H.264 in an AVI container because it doesn’t belong there. You might want to uninstall ffdshow and install the x264vfw codec instead which supports h.264 in an AVI container that Vegas can use.

~jr

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

[Carlos Silva]

Hi John,

Thanks for answering.

[John Rofrano] “Why are you doing this? The Camtasia codec is far superior to any other codec for screen captures and way better than H.264 which is better used as a delivery format not as an acquisition format. You’ll get much higher quality using the Camtasia codec.”

The problem with Camtasia codec is that the record video is oversized in comparison to XVid for instance. And sometimes I just want to capture the screen with good resolution, better compression and small size. So, Camtasia codec doens’t seem to be the better choice. However, I couldn’t work with XVid or Dvix with Camtasia Recorder, which always crashes. So, the only great result I could achieve was with ffdshow (using H.264 and XVid too). Then, at first, ffdshow solved all my problems when capturing screen.

However, after your post, I proceed with some tests with Camtasia. I set the record format to .AVI and the default codec (TechSmith Screen Capture Codec) to record with(a)faster compression and after with (b) better compression. The size was the same basically.

Anyway, I could see that Vegas was able to import the .AVI (TechSmith Screen Capture Codec). I tried to render in Vegas using .AVI (1080-60 iYUV). The output was bad (doubled the vide) and the player crashed when began to play. After that i tried to render using .WMV (8 Mbps HD 1080-30p Video) and the output didn’t crash, but the width was shrink (distorted).

#=> Do you know if Vegas has a good compatibility with Camtasia codec? In which way I could handle it better?

[John Rofrano] ” You might want to uninstall ffdshow and install the x264vfw codec instead which supports h.264 in an AVI container that Vegas can use.”

I proceed with your suggestion and also installed x264vfw. I set Camtasia to .AVI with x264vfw codec (default settings where Output mode = VFW and VFW FourCC = H264). Camtasia begun to record great, but when I stop the record, a pop-up window appeared showing “creating video file – 0%”. It still 0% along much time. When I canceled the operation, Camtasia froze. So, I couldn’t record using .AVI + x264vfw codec.

#=> Do you know if additional configuration need to be done in x264vfw codec (inside Camtasia) to it work properly? What should be the expected way of it work when recording screen?

Best,
Cadu

[Carlos Silva]

Hi,

About my latter post, I could found out answers. Maybe it is useful to others:

a) About screen capture using AVI/XVid in Camtasia, it is important to be aware with the “profile @ level” when configuring XVid. It is recommend to set to “unrestricted”. After that Camtasia will record great. In youtube there is a tutorial to other software (Camstudio), but the configurations are the same to Camtasia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3UH9Td8JU

b) About screen capture using x264vfw, there is other useful tutorial. With the same configurations Camtasia was able to capture screen as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Fma2V3vE8

HELP=> Both XVid and x264vfw are in an .AVI container. Vegas Pro 11 was able to import/read XVid, but to x264vfw Vegas presents an error=>
“Warning: An error occurred while opening one or more files. An error occurred while opening a codec”.

Should I expect Vegas be able of importing/reading x264vfw (from Camtasia screen capture in .AVI)? What could be going wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Cadu

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[John Rofrano]

It’s important to understand that some formats are designed for acquisition/capture and some are designed for delivery. You are trying to capture to a highly compressed delivery format which is why you’re having problems. The reason that the video on YouTube is using the free Xvid codec is because they are using the free CamStudio and they don’t have the expensive high quality TechSmith Camtasia codec to use. You, on the other hand, have bought Camtasia and are not using the high quality codec you paid for. This is why I say it doesn’t make sense. Why buy Camtasia if you aren’t using their codec and you are not using their editor?

If you plan to edit your video you should NOT be using Xvid, or DivX, or x264vfw. These are delivery formats that are very lossy, highly compressed, and very difficult to edit and will loose a lot of quality after editing and rendering. Also Vegas doesn’t support editing DivX or Xvid. You’ll have a lot of problems with it. You can use them for your final delivery but you should be editing the Camtasia codec files to maintain the highest quality possible (unless you’re not concerned with quality).

~jr

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

[Carlos Silva]

Thanks for explanation! I am new on this stuff and it is getting clear “step by step”. Do you recommend any book for dummies, or even other full featured to improve knowledge about video editing?
Best, Cadu

[John Rofrano]

[Carlos Silva] ” Do you recommend any book for dummies, or even other full featured to improve knowledge about video editing?”

There is a new book coming out which I contributed to that you might find useful:

Vegas Pro 11 Editing Workshop

Hopefully it will be available soon. There are lots of training videos at the VASST website on Vegas. In the interest of full disclosure, I work at VASST. 😉

~jr

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

[Carlos Silva]

Thank you once more!

[Petr Novák]

I have same problem… I am using x264vfw ultrafast profile (zero latency + fast decode) for real-time encoding during playing Battlefield 3… And I d like to import it to Vegas and edit.

I am getting this in Vegas Pro 11 x64
An error occured while opening one or more files.

An error occured while opening a codec.