How Can I Add Codecs to Pinnacle Studio 12?

[slalomchip]

I have video in AVI format captured by a 4-channel DVR. The Codec is H.264 and according to GSpot, the DivX H264 decoder decodes it. The AVI plays fine in Windows Media Player and also in Media player Classic. Pinnacle Studo 12 recognizes the codec as h264, but will not show the video (black screen). Pinnacle Sudio12 comes with a H264 decoeder aptly named "H264Codec.ax". I tried copying the K-Lite DivX decoder (divxdech264.ax) to the "Filters" folder within the Pinnacle Shared Files folder (where all of the other codecs reside), but no change. I renamed the DivX H264 Codec to the pinnacled named codec ("H264codec.ax"), but that didn't work either.

Any suggestions how I can edit the AVI file in Pinnacle?

[Mr. Aldi]

I had exactly the same problem. Also Adobe Première was unable to decompress the video stream. Have searched for HOURS with Gspot etc etc.

As Pinnacle has its own decoders it became clear that there was a problem with the source file. It was encoded with latest x264vfw (of course tried many uninstalls and installs). I selected H264 as FourCC. When I use AVC1 (or avc1, doesn't matter), Painnacle is able to decode the video stream.

It makes not much difference in file size or actual technique of compressing, on binary level it does a bit, but still, very stupid

[aedipuss]

i'd try installing ffdshow and haali media splitter.

[Mr. Aldi]

When using pinnacle to decode a file, no installation of any codec or splitter is necessary. So when Pinnacle can't decode something, it's the source file or painnacle just doesn't have the codec available...

[jagabo]

Many programs can't read h.264 in AVI. Try remuxing to MP4, MKV, or TS.

[slalomchip]

Thanks. I found that AVS4YOU could read and convert the files just fine. Although AVS4YOU isn't as feature rich as Pinnacle Studios, it did what I needed and even did it simpler. AVS4YOU also appears to be very stable (hundreds of video cuts, deletes, and splices out of about 20 hours of video into a single video file), which is something I've found lacking in Pinnacle Studios. AVS4YOU is also cheap and contains several different software packages for the price.

Thanks for the reposnses!

[jagabo]

Pinnacle studio has always been one of the most unstable video editors.