adobe premiere and mpgs

[Force Flow]

Is there a way to open mpgs in adobe premiere 6.01?

[SonicVanguard]

Premiere handles mpg's without a problem - as long as the mpg uses a registered compressor.

Dave.

[reboot]

Hunt around for the mpeg4/VFAPI plugins for it.
If I remember, Adobe was charging huge $$$ for them.
Try this: http://www.mainconcept.com/adobempeg/downloads.html

[SonicVanguard]

There's also the mpegable mpeg4 codec: http://www.mpegable.com/start.htm

I should qualify my statement - Premiere has no problems with mpg files - but mpeg2 capabilities are dependent on you supplying the codecs. Since mpeg2 is a royalty-based source, Adobe's not going to pay for it. But buying the TMPGEnc Plus package will give you mpeg2 capabilities at a relatively low price.

Dave.

[Force Flow]

Reboot, that plug-in is for 6.5, not 6.0 :(

I was hoping to avoid buying a piece of software for this quickie project I'm working on.

What I'm trying to do is make a couple short avi clips play on a mac (I know...brrr). Are there any viewers available that would allow this?

Or... would a VCD work?

[reboot]

VCD, SVCD, whatever. It will play in Mac's DVD player program (I forget the name).
It's just a basic mpeg2.
Have TMPGEnc spit it out, and you could burn it as data. The Mac should be able to read it.
TMPGEnc has SVCD (mpeg2) capabilties for 30 days (demo). You can still use it to do VCD after that for free.
You could also try Sceneo, bbmpeg, QuEnc, Mencode-Me, or AVI2VCD. All free.

[SonicVanguard]

This is for a Mac? Why not use Quicktime - it's built-in to Premiere. And on top of that, it's a decent Sorenson codec (not the basic one that comes with Quicktime for WIndows), so the output should look very good.

Dave.

[Force Flow]

Well, the problem is, is that I can't import the avi files into premiere.

"Unable to open file.
File was recorded at an unsupported rate. The supported rates are 11kHz, 22kHz, 32kHz, 44kHz and 48kHz."

[reboot]

Open it in Virtualdub.
Select Video, Direct stream copy, Audio, no audio, and save it.
Reopen it in Virtualdub, select File, save wave, and save it.
You now have a demuxed avi.
See if Premiere will do anything with those.
If not, get Audacity, and turn the audio into an mp3.

[Force Flow]

I've tried tackling virtualdub a few times in the past and couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

btw, there's no audio with these clips, so that won't be an issue.

[edit]: I tried virtualdub, but it wouldn't open the video files.

Error

No video frames found in MPEG file.

[reboot]

Wait...you just said they were avi's, now you're telling me they're mpegs? Well, the problem is, is that I can't import the avi files into premiere ???
I'm also confused, Premiere says that it only supports certain recording rates, yet the numbers are for AUDIO bitrates, not video.
Try opening the file in Gspot. Also try opening it in http://avicodec.duby.info and find out exactly WHAT this file really is.

[Force Flow]

It has an avi extension.

File : 16.78 MB (0.0 B), duration: 0:01:08, type: MPG, 0 audio stream(s), quality: 88 %
Video : 64 MB, 8000 Kbps, 29.970 fps, 704*480 (16:9), MPG2 = MPEG 2 (SVCD/DVD), Supported

[SonicVanguard]

It's an AVI encoded with a MPG encoder?? No wonder VirtualDub spit it out.

I'm not sure what program will handle something like that. Premiere won't because there is no audio file (it expects there to be either an audio file or a header stating there isn't one), VD won't because VD only works with properly encoded files, I doubt TMPEnc will for the same reason...I'm somewhat at a loss.

This is right up Craig's alley, I'll ask him when I see him tomorrow.

Dave.

[reboot]

Very strange stuff, an avi in dvd format/bitrate, with no audio.
I would try opening it in vdubmod (not the normal VDub). You may be able to resave it using a divx codec.
Is it possible it's a wmv or mpg that's simply been renamed to avi? Have you got any idea of the source of these files?

[Force Flow]

Yes, I recorded them through my AIW card from an analog camera.

[reboot]

What video capturing software did you use? Was it Windows Media Encoder?
There's got to be a hint in there somewhere.
Read here: http://www.atitech.com/support/infobase/codecs.html

[SonicVanguard]

Ahhh...you used the ATI capture software and forgot to change the compressor I would guess. ATI and nVidia capture utilities are renouned for allowing something like this to happen.

I don't know if you have any ftp site availalbe to you, but at the studio we use Canopus ProCoder for problem video files - if you can somehow get that file to me, I might be able to do something with it.

Dave.

[reboot]

Yup. If I could get it throught Canopus Procoder, we could have a generic output file, in a format that anyone can read.
I have a few other tools that would work on it as well ;)
Can you maybe zip it, and put it on the web somewhere? Even if you had to span it over 2 or 3 files.
Another alternative is to arrange to meet on undernet in #pcmech and I can DCC it from you then.

[glc]

I believe he's behind a router - and can't initiate a DCC, only receive them.

[Force Flow]

I don't have anywhere to upload 40MB, but I could do a DCC transfer. I'm always on either as force2 or forceaway.

Anytime you're ready, I can be on.

[edit]: Hmm... forgot about that g.

Well, when you're ready, I'll have to disconnect my router and plug in directly for the transfer.

[SonicVanguard]

Hey Force Flow, you've got a PM.

Dave.

[Force Flow]

SonicVanguard took care of the transfer issue, thanks reboot :)

So, for next time, what should I set the capture codec to? MPEG-4?

[reboot]

For quality, and ease of authoring/burning, go straight to .mpg using mpeg2 if you can. For compact go to .avi with a divx (low motion mpeg4, set at highest bitrate) codec. You could even try XviD.

[Force Flow]

Thanks guys :)

[SonicVanguard]

No problem. I'll second what Reboot said - I'm not a big fan of DivX/XviD, but if you need the space, they're quite good. I'd also look into purchasing TMPGEnc+ to get a decent quality MPEG2 codec - Premiere 6 should recognize it. If it doesn't (for some strange reason), encode in Premiere using a high quality AVI codec and then use TMPGEnc+ to re-code to MPEG2.

Dave.

[reboot]

If you have an encoder already (TMPGEnc, Mainconcept, Canopus, CCE, Panasonic, et al) you should already be able to capture in mpeg format.
If you must cap in avi, please use at least divx 4, divx 5 and up preferred, just for quality. There are other great codecs around, huffyuv for example, that have EXCELLENT quality, but almost no compression, which can result in huge files.
If you have a spare 120 gig NTFS drive, then no problems :)

[Force Flow]

Space isn't *too* much of an issue. I'm mainly interested in good quality.

Thanks again for the info, guys :)

[SonicVanguard]

Now see there I'll disagree in regards to capturing with a high compression codec. Always capture in the best possible format you've got - for most people that's AVI (huffyuv is great) or low compression MPEG2. When you export your finalized video, compress to whatever floats your boat. But once a video is initially captured with a high compression codec like DivX or XviD, you've lost quality you'll never get back.

Dave.

[Force Flow]

Right. That's why I don't do much compression. I'd rather have the quality.