Having trouble importing avi's (H264) in Vegas 12 64bits

[kaskaï]

Hi,

I'm running Sony Vegas Pro 12 64-bit. K-lite mega 32 bits is installed on my system as well as avisynth and Vdub 32 bits

First, I have tried to, directly import, the avi result's of a job of compression in Vdub with x264vfw. It failed.
Then, after some google searches, I installed ffdshow _tryouts 64 bits and ticked VFW option, as a 64 bit editors (like sony vegas) needs 64 bit codecs.

Great ! I was finally able to open my avi files.

Now I have a strange trouble; have a look at my screencast will be easier than explain the distortion of image and the colour shift to black&white (sorry for my bad english) :



Here you can compare both very close media info file's, corresponding to the capture picture:

http://cjoint.com/?CAAqlVQajit
http://cjoint.com/?CAAqNPp0xyE

Help, what's happening with this file ? (and all the clips, I'm now compressing with vdub) ?

THX

EDIT : hum, before compression, avi was a flv file ...



Even the avi result's of flv vdub compression cannot be properly "render" through avspmod :


I just can't understand how mpc-hc is able to play such a bad "damaged" video ...

Vegas is not responsible for my trouble

[poisondeathray]

Sometimes h.264 streams aren't decoded correctly in AVI container. You can try re-wrapping to MP4, or transport stream before importing (e.g. yamb, mymp4boxgui, tsmuxer)

Also, why are your project settings 1920x1080i29.97 , when the source files aer 854x480p25

[kaskaï]

Thanks poisondeathray,

I think I found the reason : directshowsource instead of dss2

It looks much better :

Also, why are your project settings 1920x1080i29.97 , when the source files aer 854x480p25

You're right, it makes no sense ; the point was for me to make Vegas import this avi; now I will tune the settings in vegas.

BTW, I read one of your post :

Sometimes you can re-wrap mkv into .m2ts or mp4 and it will work for import; but some encoding settings can make it imcompatible for vegas to decode

But if you know how to use avisynth, almost any file can be loaded into vegas with avisynth virtual file system (AVFS), including mkv, by frameserving (no large intermediate files)

I will keep this solution in mind and test AVFS with this flv video, avoiding the compression to avi.

[kaskaï]

Hi,

I want to feedback again, because I didn't manage to import at least my avi file; even if dds2 was better looking and rendering than directshowsource, the avi imported in Vegas was also severely distorted.

I decided to convert my flv file with Prism Video Converter http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html
I choosed the same codec x264vfw for compression with roughly the same settings.

I was really surprised to see that the avi was fully editable in Vegas with no strange faces:



I just can't believe that vdub is less performant than this anonymous converter. I hope I will find out a way to encode such flv in Vdub.

[poisondeathray]

If source file was flv, rewrap it to mp4 using ffmpeg (rewrapping no quality loss, when you re-encode it with a lossy format, quality is lost)

Or use a lossless codec in vdub if you re-encode (e.g. lagarith, ut video codec)

[kaskaï]

Hi,

thanks poisondeathray,

The aim of my thread was to avoid using other video converter, because vdub is the only converter/compresser I have ever used; maybe it's a mistake of me, because mp4 files seem to be more "vegas friendly"...
My investigation on the way to make avi files compressed with vdub editable in vegas is close to the end :

I noticed 3 strange behaviours of the video in vegas (even if frames are not distorted at all) :

- the length of audio track and video track are not the same (audio track looks as if cropped)
- the video in vegas is playing fine, but the audio stops after 10 seconds; the audio profile doesn't go to a flat line (i.e. track present but no detectable sound)
- moving cursor on the timeline is very slow



My solution is to select uncompressed video instead of x264vfw; doing this way, makes the video easily readable in vegas. I suppose the project will be longer to be rendered but may be not ...

[poisondeathray]

yes, uncompressed out of vdub is an option, but you can use losslessly compressed codecs as well e.g. lagarith, huffyuv, ut video codec

b-frames with AVI container can also be problematic. If you used x264 without b-frames it might improve compatibility

Note - when you re-wrap, you are not re-encoding or recompressing it. It's the original video & audio, just different container

- moving cursor on the timeline is very slow

Because you are using stronger compression, with Long GOP settings. It makes editing performance slower. All I frame settings will make it faster to edit (seeking performance faster, lower latency), faster to export . You can set x264 to use I frame only, set the GOP size to 1. Lagarith, ut, huffyuv are all I-frame (intra) codecs

[kaskaï]

Note - when you re-wrap, you are not re-encoding or recompressing it. It's the original video & audio, just different container

Okaaaay !!! I just have tested it and it's great ! I was a bit afraid of command line tool and the many options to set. But I've send this very simple command :

ffmpeg -i manif.flv -ar 44100 manif.mp4

This solution is really simple and that's is exactly what I need.



As I'm using x264vfw coming from k-lite, I'm not sure that I can set all the parameters as in masternobody version's; my version let me use only presets; no way to change GOP, I frame, b-frame ... But maybe, there is a way

Thanks poisondeathray

[poisondeathray]

Note - when you re-wrap, you are not re-encoding or recompressing it. It's the original video & audio, just different container

Okaaaay !!! I just have tested it and it's great ! I was a bit afraid of command line tool and the many options to set. But I've send this very simple command :

ffmpeg -i manif.flv -ar 44100 manif.mp4

This solution is really simple and that's is exactly what I need.

actually that's re-encoding it


you want something like this

ffmpeg -i input.flv -vcodec copy -acodec copy output.mp4

As I'm using x264vfw coming from k-lite, I'm not sure that I can set all the parameters as in masternobody version's; my version let me use only presets; no way to change GOP, I frame, b-frame ... But maybe, there is a way

You can with komisar's x264vfw
http://komisar.gin.by/

[kaskaï]

actually that's re-encoding it

That was my first impression; i feel a bit ashamed

Nevertheless, it goes of course much faster; Wahoo !

You can with komisar's x264vfw

Yes, masternobody is the publisher, isnt' he ?

Thank you, it was a real pleasure to learn with you.

Cheers,