Importing .m2v into Premiere Pro 2.0 = 1/2 length video file (?)

[androidm]

Hello.

I'm editing a movie that I bought, for my own amusement not for commercial purposes or for distribution, and I'm having a problem with Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 which I havn't been able to find a good solution for:

1) Rip the video chapters that I want to my hard drive with DVD Shrink 3.1

2) Demux the resulting .vob files using VOBEdit 0.6.0.0 into .m2v and .ac3

3) Convert the .ac3 into .wav (48000Hz, 16-bit, Stereo) with PX3 Convert 1.0.0.1

4) Create a new project in Premiere (DV - 24P, Widscreen, 48kHz)

5) Import the .m2v and .wav files.

Upon which I find that the video's length, in time, is 1/2 of what it should be. I have checked that the frame rate of the .m2v and the project are the same; 23.976.

When I open the .m2v with the Zoom player it shows up as the correct length. I can even play the .m2v and .wav at the same time (in Zoom and WinAmp) and they match up. So the file appears to be correct.

I've tried converting the .m2v to an .avi using Vob Sub Mod (Huffyuv codec), and importing that .avi instead of the .m2v. When I do that I get it a video inside of Premiere that is the right length, but that's not a suitable solution as it also increased the video file size by about x20! To the point that my hard drive is full, making it a bit difficult to do much editing. :(

Does anyone know what might be causing this and have a way to fix it so that I can use the .m2v in Premiere?

Thank you.

-[a]-

[daamon]

Does anyone know what might be causing this...

Yes - Premiere isn't designed to edit video in the MPEG format (which it is, with a file ending .m2v). It is primarily designed to work with DV AVI and uncompressed AVI (the latter you got from your Huffyuv conversion)

...and have a way to fix it so that I can use the .m2v in Premiere?

Instead of using the Huffyuv codec, use the Panasonic DV Codec with VirtualDubMod to create a DV AVI. It will be about 3 - 5x bigger than the original but will edit beautifully.

[androidm]

Instead of using the Huffyuv codec, use the Panasonic DV Codec with VirtualDubMod to create a DV AVI. It will be about 3 - 5x bigger than the original but will edit beautifully.

I'll give that a try. Thank you.. and thank you for clearing up my confusion over this issue! ^_^

-[a]-

[androidm]

I've experimented with the Panasonic DV Codec that was recommended but I've found that it can only output 720x480 at 0.9 pixel ratio, which badly distorts my 720x480 1.2 pixel ratio original. There are no 'options' for this codec, so I can't tweak it's output in any way and using the "resize" filter in Vob Sub Mod doesn't seem to help much, if at all; if I set it to anything other than 720x480 it gives me an error message.

I noticed that the huffyuv codec, while producing a file that's too many gigs in size to be useful, doesn't suffer this limitation. Is there, perhaps, another codec out there that might be more suitable?

-[a]-

[guns1inger]

Lagarith is also lossless, but usually compresses better than huffyuv. I get over 2 hours of PAL resolution VHS conversion in under 60 gb.

That said, DV is a fixed resolution, which is the same for both 16:9 and 4:3. For NTSC this is 720 x 480 - the same as your DVD. The only issue that you have if you save out of virtualdub using the Panasonic DV codec is that it does not get the correct Aspect Ratio set - that is, the AR flag is not set to 16:9. I don't know of any software that does set the AR flag in DV files, but you should be able to tell Premiere that the source file is 16:9, regardless.

[androidm]

you should be able to tell Premiere that the source file is 16:9, regardless.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction! ^_^

After importing the footage I right-clicked on it and selected "Interpret Footage..." in the menu where I selected "Pixel Aspect Ratio", "Conform to D1/DV NTSC Widscreen 16:9 (1.2)" and voila! It works!

Thank you again. :)

-[a]-