What my title is trying to imply is that all the footage I captured and edited using my trial version of Edius Pro 3 is now unwatchable in any program I try to use.

MY trial ran out a few days ago and I'm now left with ERROR DOWNLOADING CODEC messages or really shaky video playback of the files that I rendered.

Is the problem that I simply don't have the codec anymore?

If so I'll be mightily pi**ed off that I can no longer watch the footage.

I didn't like Edius enough to buy it but they've put me in an awkward position.

Is this normal?

Will this solve your problem?
http://www.canopus.com/support/downloads/products.php

"Canopus DV Codec (Playback only)


The Canopus DV codec will allow machines to play AVI files that use the Canopus DV codec. It will not allow you to render or create AVI files with the Canopus DV codec. Playback performance depends on CPU speed.

Note: Do not install this codec on a machine with a Canopus editing product or ProCoder installed."

To get at it you need to register on the Canipus support site and go to Product Related Utilities > General Utilities > downloads and select Canopus DV codec.

Is this HD material?

Is this HD material?

HDV from a Z1. Does that mean the DV codec might not be appropriate?

My PC is top-notch.

x2 AMD 4400+
2 Gig RAM

It's a perfect computer. I can't understand this. Why is it bad to install the DV codec if I have a Canopus product or ProCoder?

ProCoder came with the trial version so I suppose I just have to remove them and then download the codec, right? Provided the codec will work with HDV footage...

EDIT: The codec did not solve the problem. Captured files are unviewable and rendered files are jerky.

EDIT Vol. 2: I've just realized that the .m2t files that I captured with Edius are still playable. Is that because they are just native HDV files unaffected by Edius? And that the .avi files are the ones encoded by Edius?

The Canopus DV codec makes an .avi file.

Glad to hear your .mt2 files play OK.

The Canopus DV codec makes an .avi file.

Glad to hear your .mt2 files play OK.

I only had a couple of m2t files though. I'm still missing a lot of footage.

I'm a little in the dark as to the difference between m2t and Canopus avi or Cineform avi or whatever other codec is used. Why is a non-encoded mpeg so much smaller in size than a Cineform or Caopus avi?

It leads me to assume that m2t files are lesser in quality. Should I always capture in m2t to avoid problems like this?

It sounds like you rendered out some AVI files using the Canopus HQ codec, which you likely won't be able to use in other applications. If you can figure out a way to reactivate the trial software you could reload your projects and render out to standard M2T format, which would then be readable in other programs.

As an observation, you shouldn't be counting on trial software for anything without understanding where that leaves you once the trial period expires. I know that's not very helpful now, but something to keep in mind in the future.