[Kevin Mccarthy]

You should not have to buy Quicktime Pro to get the playback ability for Mp4.

You really do need to tell us what camera, and what settings you are using to go much further with this thread. Otherwise, we are all simply guessing at what the true problem may be, and we are only able to suggest general, generic ideas. It would also help to describe your computer and it’s components (mother board, processor speed, video card, RAM etc.

[Kevin Mccarthy]

I have just started working with Mp4 files when I bought a Kodak ZI8 camera. Vegas Pro8 would not handle them well. I could download video files but no audio. Vegas Pro9 does edit Mp4 files, but I had to update Quicktime to get any stability.

Vegas Pro9 is a great program so you might want to step up to it.

[Kevin Mccarthy]

I have just started editing H.264 after buying a Kodak ZI8 and have found that preview issues can be resolved by changing the preview settings. If it stops in draft, I change it to draft/half and preview comes back. It may stop again and I change it back to draft or auto and bingo, preview returns. The next time I change it back to draft or draft/half, preview returns etc.etc.

It seems to me we may need an update to solve these issues. How ’bout it Sony?

[Kevin Mccarthy]

It is not so much problems as patience. My experience was with a Kodak ZI8 which captures in H.264 and AAC LR audio.
I had an issue of not seeing the audio in Vegas Pro9.b

I updated Vegas Pro9 to “.c” and also had to update Quicktime. After that Audio and video worked fine. I have an older computer and drop my preview level to draft/half to avoid some of the jerkiness, but it is smooth enough to easily edit.

The rendered master is beautiful and no problems with sync. BTW, that ZI8 is really a piece of work for $150!!!

[Kevin Mccarthy]

Thanks John!

You guys are great..10 minutes and I got my answer.

By the way, I solved my issues with the Kodak ZI8 lack of audio/sync problems. Vegas Pro 9.0C seems to handle everything pretty well. I have to set the preview at draft 1/4 to edit but renders look great.
Cheers and thanks again

Kevin

[Kevin Mccarthy]

I did the conversion as described.

I am out of the studio and tried to play on Vegas Pro8 on my laptop and got the same result…no audio and the video sucked!

I will update to ver 9 in the morning and let you know

[Kevin Mccarthy]

I have also tried exporting the file from quicktime pro as an AVI and an Mp4. A 30 sec file took almost two minutes to render. Each showed considerable video degradation and neither would play back smoothly enough to be editable, especially the Mp4.

[Kevin Mccarthy]

I got to my studio today and found that a ZI* file will open with audio in Vegas Pro 9 but the audio is seriously out of sync.

I synced the audio and tried rendering to various other easier to use file types at 29.97 and 30fps and all are very jerky and audio is once more out of sync. Any thoughts?

[Kevin Mccarthy]

I got an E-mail response from Kodak today telling me that the ZI8 records in H.264 MOV and that the audio was AAC LC files. Beyond that, they said I might be able to find another editing program on the internet. Not very helpfull!

I don’t want to re-name..re-sync every file I shoot with this otherwise very nice little camera. But my purpose in buying it was to make it easier to shoot simple video and get it onto our travel website quickly. The Arcsoft program that came with the camera won’t even allow titling etc. It is totally unaceptable.

Any other suggestions for making this work with Vegas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Kevin Mccarthy]

Haven’t tried firewire monitors because of the problems you mentioned. I’m using dual monitor CRTs