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Sony Vegas won't import MP4

The-Lion

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Hi,

I mux my h264 files into a MP4 container so I can import them into Sony Vegas. One file plays fine in Media Player Classic (with K-Lite codec pack) but stays black in Sony Vegas, though it displays one thumbnail. When I re-encode it in TMPGEnc it opens fine.

However I got one problem, when I re-encode it with a bitrate of 11000 Kbps (original has 10,7 Mbps) Max 35000 Kbps at 1920x800 the blacks look really compressed.
 

geminigod

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There was just another thread talking about exactly this. Read through the relevant forums and you will find guides and answers.

Aside from anything else with your workflow that might be giving you problems, h264/mp4/avc/mpeg4/h263/xvid/divx/etc, etc. anything mp4 related is not a good format to be editing in. You should try to find a way to convert the source material to something editing friendly that also preserves quality such as some kind of lossless AVI codec, or a DV codec, or even MPEG2 would have a better chance of working. It is also highly advisable to keep your audio and video demuxed and imported as separate files for editing.
 

The-Lion

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The problem is disc space, I'm working in 1080p and I tried the lossless avi codec but the files became to large, and I have six films to work on at the same time.

I read that h264 isn't a good format to be editing in, why not? So far it goes really well! And I keep my video and audio separated, I only mux my h264 files into an MP4 container because otherwise Sony Vegas can't open it!
 

geminigod

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If you are editing from a mp4 source for your video and audio, they are not demuxed (i.e. separated) but its fine. If its working for you, more power to you, as this article states, when you start having problems and quality isn't what you would like, you will know why.

I am starting to push using DV codecs. They are lightly compressed for those with hard drive space concerns but still very highly compatible and editable.

http://www.foolishpassion.org/vidding-tips/codecs.html

I read that h264 isn't a good format to be editing in, why not?

I saw a great website recently that breaks it all down nicely. (Man, I really need to start bookmarking good educational sites when I stumble upon them.) Essentially because of the way that compression is achieved with these lossy formats, it becomes a bit of a software programing nightmare to make it so that the editor can properly manipulate the video. There are different types of frames in compressed video and very few of those frames actually contain the entire content of what you see on screen (i.e. a complete still image). The result is that sometimes an editor won't want to cut where you want it to cut or if it does you will wind up with some blotchy surrounding frames. Filters can get even more tricky. Software crashing is common. The same issues exist to a lesser extent with mpeg2 but it has been around longer and is more simplistic so software handles it a little bit better. I can say for certain that you should not edit in Vegas as mp4. Not sure where adobe stands on this with the most recent version. Adobe seems to be a little more cutting edge on the software development side of things.
 

The-Lion

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I haven't had any of the above described problems. But I haven't rendered my project for a test watch yet. So we'll see.

And again to clarify, I have my video muxed in a MP4 container, the audio is just lossless wav
 

geminigod

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The-Lion said:
I have my video muxed in a MP4 container, the audio is just lossless wav

Gotcha. cool. Best of luck with your edit!
 
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