What is a universal format all editing programs can use

[Illusionist]

Is there a format mpg2, wmv, avi, xvid, mp4 Etc..... that all editors can use, such as VirtualDub, Sony Vegas Etc? It's alway's like one editor can open a format, while another cannot. Need universal format.

For example, vitualdub/Sony Vegas cannot open mp4 files, while all video convertor can. But all video convertor has poor functionality. Sony Vegas can open wmv/asf files, while virtualbub 1.9 cannot, but Vdub 1.6 can. Am I missing something here ?

I try to encode 1920x1080 files, with decent compression. I use all video convertor Xvid, which works really well, fairly fast, I try to do the same in VirtuabDub, encoding takes extremely long 4/5 fps,. Sony vegas does not work well with mp4 files, so I am alway's encoding twice, with all video convertor then sony vegas.

Any assistance appreciated

[_Al_]

Work with lossles avi video or uncompressed avi through whatever you need to do and then do final render.

Convertors, encoders are not editors, you can use them as a last step to get final video, but videoeditor usually can do that too quite well.

[Illusionist]

Hi Al thanx for reply, uncompressed uses up way to much hdd. I have 1TB, just for vids. Sony Vegas 8 pro is my primary, works well on all formats cept Xvid/mp4,. I use Debut video capture, don't see uncompressed.

Converting 5:30 vid now on Any convertor, complete in 16 mins,. Same file Vdub 44 min.

[_Al_]

I use Vegas 8.0c also and I have ffdshow installed , Vegas reads mp4 through ffdshow, some MOV videos (H.264 inside) I run through MP4Cam2avi (no recompression) and Vegas loads it. Some files with problems, but luckily only testing files never for what I really needed.

Never tried DivX maybe it'll read through ffdshow as well. But those files should be only processed in Vegas and then final render.
If you move files within aplications lossless or uncompressed is the only way otherwise you degrade quality of video. So called smart rendering (export without changing quality - no recompression) doesn't usually work with mp4,DivX, wmv - final formats, but works only with camcorder formats, within Vegas HDV, XDCAM, some mpeg2, DV.

Check latest https://www.videohelp.com/tools/SolveigMM-AVI-Trimmer maybe it will cut some of your videos without recompression .

[sanlyn]

Is there a format mpg2, wmv, avi, xvid, mp4 Etc..... that all editors can use, such as VirtualDub, Sony Vegas Etc? It's alway's like one editor can open a format, while another cannot. Need universal format.

For example, vitualdub/Sony Vegas cannot open mp4 files, while all video convertor can. But all video convertor has poor functionality. Sony Vegas can open wmv/asf files, while virtualbub 1.9 cannot, but Vdub 1.6 can. Am I missing something here ?

I try to encode 1920x1080 files, with decent compression. I use all video convertor Xvid, which works really well, fairly fast, I try to do the same in VirtuabDub, encoding takes extremely long 4/5 fps,. Sony vegas does not work well with mp4 files, so I am alway's encoding twice, with all video convertor then sony vegas.

Any assistance appreciated

I read your original question, but perhaps you should read it yourself. You asked about "all editors", but then you start talking about "converters", then about "encoders". If you are trying to use Vegas as an AVI-to-AVI editor, you just spent a lot of money for something that many editors can do for less cost, and many more editors can do for free. If you're talking about an editor that can work frame-specific editing without re-rendering/re-encoding most of your compressed-format MPEG/MP4/mKv/etc. videos (which you should be avoiding in the first place), Vegas is not what I'd suggest.

[hello_hello]

Rather than type a lot of instructions, have a look at the guide I posted here: http://doom10.org/index.php?topic=325.0

The purpose of the guide is to explain how to get AutoGK to convert file types it doesn't natively support (such as MKV and MP4) to Xvid/AVI. AutoGK only natively supports DVD/mpeg2 video and AVIs. The guide explains how to create a little AVI which uses AVIsynth to frame serve the original video, so any program which can open AVIs can be used. The small AVI created can also be edited in the same way you'd edit the original video using a program such as VirtualDub, and then resaved to be re-encoded (using direct stream copy when saving).

While the guide is aimed at AutoGK users, I assume you're experienced enough to work out how a similar process can be applied when using other encoding/editing software.

There's other ways to go about achieving a similar thing. Rather than use avstoavi to create an AVI for frameserving (which the guide suggests), ffdshow installs a utility called MakeAVIS which does something similar, or there's AVFS which goes about it in another way: http://www.turtlewar.org/avfs/

Anyway, if you read the guide, the process should become more clear. I use it to enable AutoGK to convert MKVs and MP4s on a regular basis. Don't expect the conversion process to always be spectacularly fast though as the frame serving process may be a bit of a bottleneck. Converting 720p video this way using AutoGK is quite acceptable using my quad core, while 1080p conversions are somewhat slow, however it's generally because the CPU isn't being utilized efficiently. To get around it (kind of), I often run two instances of AutoGK and get them to re-encode two videos simultaneously.

PS As the guide assumes you're converting with AutoGK, it assumes AVIsynth is also installed (as AutoGK installs it). Naturally as AVIsynth does the frame serving, it needs to be installed for the process in the guide to work.
When converting HD to SD, to convert the colors correctly the process uses an AVIsynth plugin called ColorMatrix.dll. It's located in the AutoGK installation folder. If you're not using AutoGK and wish to convert the colors correctly, then you'll have to download ColorMatrix.dll manually and modify the color conversion template accordingly. Google should find it easily enough. If you're not converting from HD to SD, then color conversion is not required.

[Illusionist]

Thanks everyone for replies, will surely check out info

[jagabo]

DV AVI is about as universal as you can get.

[usually_quiet]

There are formats with wide support, but none are truly universal. For the most part, people either use multiple editors, which between them support every video and audio format they work with, or they use one editor and convert audio and/or video to a compatible lossless format as needed to maintain as much of the original quality as possible. ...but since lossless won't work for you, if I had to pick just one compressed video format, it would be MPEG-2 in a .mpg container. DV AVI has wider support but only supports SD resolutions. MPEG-2 supports both HD and SD resolutions.

Although not every editor supports MPEG-2 (Virtualdub doesn't without a plugin http://home.comcast.net/~fcchandler/Plugins/MPEG2/index.html), many do, and some do smart rendering, where only the GOPs adjacent to the cuts are re-encoded. However, MPEG-2 compression is lossy, files will be much larger than for MPEG-4 formats (MPEG-2 is less compressed), and there will be additional quality loss after re-encoding to a different end video format.