Corel VideoStudio Express 2010 - cannot "see" h264 files ???

[andy15star]

Hi there,

My first post so be gentle!

I have a Samsung U10 and a Hitachi SD Camcorder. Both do h264 video files in Full 1920x1080HD format, and other settings too.

The software which came with these camcorders is pretty simple and only does simple cuts & transitions. I wanted a more rich and fully featured software to add better transitions, cuts and titles.

I went to PC World and told the guy i didn't want to pay too much, and he pointed out Corel VideoStudio Express 2010 at £19.99. So i bought it.

Got it home, installed it and all seemed to go well. However, VideoStudio refuses to "see" ANY of my h264 files, infact it doesn't "see" any files either of these camcorders have taken !!!. The h264 files from these camcorders are all viewable and playable in VLC, KMPlayer and WMPlayer, Media Impression, Intelli Studio, Cyberlink etc, so there's nothing wrong with the files !.

The only video files VideoStudio "sees" are the ones i had off my old camcorder and they are .mp4 format files.

Now it says on the VideoStudio box that it accepts input files in format AVI, MPEG-1, HDV, AVCHD, M2T, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, H.264, QT, WM, MOD (JVC MOD FILE), M2TS, TOD, BDMV, 3GPP and 3GPP2. So it should be able to read my HD files surely ???? or am i totally missing something here ??. I could understand that i must be doing something wrong if VideoStudio couldn't see ANY video files, but it can. It sees the mp4 video files in the same video folder as my h264 files, so why doesn't it also see those h264 files ??

If it really doesn't do h264 files then could i take it back to PCWorld and swap it for another software which does do this, or will they try to fob me off ??


Best regards,
Andy

[Baldrick]

What is the file extension for the files? Tried change to View all files when you open/import files?

And I would download a trial and test instead of buying software directly.

[andy15star]

Hi there, the extensions are all .AVI, and yeah if i click on view all files it brings up a load of jpeg's and the odd video file, but not the video files from either of my camcorders

[Baldrick]

Sounds strange. Try drag and drop the avi from the windows explorer into videostudio.

[andy15star]

Hi, already tried that!, VideoStudio won't let you drag and drop files, you have to let it "search" for them and pull them in from the searched results down to the bottom of the screen

Regards,
Andy

[yoda313]

You probably have to buy the premium or plus version of the software.

I know the Pinnacle Studio software has different levels. The basic versions don't do high def and certain formats. The higher levels do.

Also be aware some software won't work with certain videos. Its just the nature of the game.

Try format factory for whatever you're doing. Unless you're trying to edit the files directly format factory can convert to any format you want (almost anyway).

You can check out the tools section on the left side of the screen for freeware and low cost editing suites. As Baldrick suggested try before you buy. - and of course live and learn....

[andy15star]

Hi,

But it says on the box "Edit, burn and share your HD video clips", and on the side it says supports "H.264, AVI, MPEG" so it should work ??, and the guy at PC World said it definitely would work, i made a point that all my media files were HD format.

I've attached a quick copy of the packaging which clearly says it should work with HD Video files:

Regards,
Andy

[aedipuss]

copy the camera files to your hard drive. can you play them from there? what is the file extension? file.????

use mediainfo(free) on one and copy the paste the text here.

[pepegot1]

Try this site: http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewforum.php?f=1

[andy15star]

Hi there, yeah the files are already on my Hard Drive, in my "My Videos" folder. I can play them in any other player whether they are on the Hard Drive or on the SD Card, so there can't be any issues there. They are .AVI files, and when i put them into Media Impression they come up as the following:





(Infact now i look, the Samsung files are .MP4, and the Hitachi ones are .AVI. Both types aren't seen by VideoStudio !)

[andy15star]

Well i've now been on for 4 hours and still none the wiser. I think i'm going to take it back and either get a refund or swap it for some other software.

Just converted a sample file to AVI (MPEG4) using Xmedia Recoder and the files CAN then be seen in VideoStudio, so VideoStudio IS having issues with my H264 files !!. But i HATE having to recode them everytime so my next question is:

is there a decent free video program out there which will do these simple tasks:
1) Work with H264 format
2) Be able to cut/crop files
3) Scene transitions
4) Video Effects (not essential!)
5) Add titles
6) Be able to burn to DVD

Best Regards,
Andy

[andy15star]

..

[poisondeathray]

try re-wrapping into .m2ts container with tsmuxer, then import

[andy15star]

Hi there, thanks for the help there it's genuinely very much appreciated, but i shouldn't have to be doing all this, i wanted an easy to use program and solution and it's getting so tricky when i'm having to re-encode files before i use them with VideoStudio, it's just not practical with bigger files. I've re-encoded 2.5 minutes worth of files and it took 10 minutes.... i cannot be doing that everytime i have half an hours worth of footage.

VideoStudio is soooo sluggish on this PC too. Even with the re-encoded files it's just unworkable, it's going back !!

But just to reiterate my question a few lines back, does anyone know of a good free package which does:
1) Work with H264 format
2) Be able to cut/crop files
3) Scene transitions
4) Video Effects (not essential!)
5) Add titles
6) Be able to burn to DVD

Best Regards all!

Andy