Need to convert raw .h264 stream to edit in Vegas Pro 9

[cintec]

I've tried dragging and dropping it into Vegas with no result. I'm pretty newb when it comes to formats, containers, codecs, etc and need some help. It was originally in an .mkv container which I then extracted. The audio is a .dts file (dolby surround I guess). What should I do with this .h264 and .dts file to be able to edit them both in Vegas Pro 9?

[guns1inger]

DTS is not Dolby Surround, it is a completely different surround encoding process.

I would convert the audio to AC3, which Vegas should be happy with, and repackage the whole lot into an MP4 container or MOV container to load into Vegas.

[poisondeathray]

You can re-wrap it into a transport stream (e.g. .m2ts) with tsmuxer . You may have to rename the raw video extension to .264 (if it already isn't)

Vegas doesn't have a native dts decoder (requires extra licensing fee$), so you can convert to pcm wav and import that audio separately on the timeline. You might use eac3to, or behappy, or megui, or avisynth + soundout for this other task

EDIT: I see guns is faster at the draw than me!

[edDV]

I haven't explored all the AVC import video modes supported but Vegas Pro v9 but you need to externally convert to one of them. DTS audio isn't supported. Choices are 6 PCM streams or AC-3.

[edDV]

Wow, three answers in parallel.

[guns1inger]

It's the quantum theory of parallel universes in practice.

[edDV]

BTW, Vegas v9 is causing an occcasional crash (lockup) in Win7RC grrrrr .

I hope the v9.1 update fixed this.

[cintec]

wow great response time. Thanks. I tried tsmuxer to mux it as .m2ts but I keep running into an error. It goes to about 9% and says "not enough buffer." Tried about 5 times. Going to try the audio now.

[cintec]

Here is some more info on the .h264 file.

720p-x264_Track1.h264
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
File size                        : 5.26 GiB

Video
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L5.1
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 5 frames
Bit rate                         : 6 182 Kbps
Width                            : 1 280 pixels
Height                           : 528 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 2.424
Frame rate                       : 23.976 fps
Resolution                       : 24 bits
Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
Scan type                        : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.382
Writing library                  : x264 core 60 r886M 1075536
Encoding settings                : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=6 / rdcmp=psy / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=1 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=8 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=6182 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=1.00 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=2:1.00/

[poisondeathray]

are you using the most recent build of tsmuxer?

other options:
1) yamb (mp4box) to put into .mp4

2) ffmpeg to mux into .mov or .mp4

3) avc2avi to mux into .avi (avi is not the best container for avc, but it should be ok for progressive material, but you may have some issues with b-frames and b-pyramid)

[cintec]

1.10.6 for tsmuxer

I've been just muxing the video stream with these and not adding audio yet. I don't know if that is causing the problems or not.

Tried yamb. The .m4p is created but is not playable. Not able to edit in Vegas.

Just tried avc2avi and the .avi is created but when playing in VLC it says "this avi is broken. Seeking will not be possible" and gives me the option of repairing the avi index which I did. But the movie is shortened by almost a half hour after doing the repair. If I choose not to repair it I can't seek and VLC doesn't know the total run-time. By the way the movie has no menu or chapters, so I don't know if that matters. And even though it's in an avi now it won't open in Vegas.

I'll try ffmpeg later as I've been up almost 24 hrs by now.

[edDV]

At a minimum, Vegas 8/9 will take in Sony's version of AVCHD.

[poisondeathray]

It's very possible that your file is damaged, because all the methods listed should work with vegas 8/9 (I've used them all at one point or another)

When you say not playable, what media players were you using to test? just vlc? or a directshow player? Test the methods listed in vdub (e.g. the avi method), because that uses vfw which vegas uses. It maybe that vegas is defaulting to the system installed vfw h.264 decoder, for which you could install this http://sourceforge.net/projects/x264vfw/

Tsmuxer should be able to read it in the .mkv container. Try using it from the .mkv (not demuxing first), because there maybe timecodes (e.g. if it's a vfr mkv), and it may work better

It's not necessary to add in the audio into the same container, since you are using vegas (just import the audio separately), but you can if you wish

The "last resort" type methods would be to use either a lossless intermediate (e.g lagarith, huffyuv), or frameserve with avisynth and avi wrapper like makeavis or vfapi

[minidv2dvd]

you might see if ts-doctor can fix any errors in the stream.

[cintec]

I'm using VLC and media player classic with the k-lite codec pack installed including ffdshow.


tsmuxer attempt - Directly from .mkv to .m2ts:

SmartLabs tsMuxeR.  Version 1.10.6  http://www.smlabs.net
Decoding H264 stream (track 1): Profile: High@5.1  Resolution: 1280:528p  Frame rate: 23.976
H.264 stream does not contain fps field. Muxing fps=23.976
H264 bitstream changed: insert nal unit delimiters
H264 bitstream changed: insert pict timing and buffering period SEI units
Decoding DTS stream (track 2): Bitrate: 1536Kbps  Sample Rate: 48KHz  Channels: 5.1
B-pyramid level 1 detected. Shift DTS to 2 frames
H264 bitstream changed: insert SPS/PPS units

It stops at 9% and errors: "Matroska parser: read error at pos 633339904"

Importing .avi made with avc2avi into Vdub:

"reconsructing missing index block"
"index missing or damaged, reconstructing via file scan"
"an error about keyframes and seeking being extremely slow"

Was importing the avi that I made with avc2avi into Vdub what you had in mind or something else?

Maybe I should just use the last resort method?

[poisondeathray]

With all the error messages you're getting, it strongly suggests something wrong / corruption in your video

When you play in mpc, does it play normally? skip to around the 9% mark to check

Importing a lossless intermediate should work, but if there are glitches, they will appear in your intermediate as well and the errors will be propogated in your steps farther down in your workflow

Can you index the raw avc stream with DGAVCIndex? Does it shout out any errors?

[cintec]

Ok, I played the .mkv with MPC and VLC and it actually does completely freeze at 11mins 11secs into the movie. Seeking past this point is a workaround..hmm. Is there a way to repair this? I tried the tsdoctor but it doesn't open .h264.

[poisondeathray]

Highly unlikely that any repair methods will work.

Tsdoctor will only work on transport streams (and doesn't even work that well). Seeing as how you can't even get it into a transport stream...

The only "workable" solution is probably cutting around that glitch point (and any others), and processing in segments

[cintec]

What would I use for cutting around that glitch as I believe that is the only one in the file.