Vegas only reading the audio of an AVI

[Oliver Darden]

I am trying to work with an .AVI file a client gave me. It's a short video of a screen recording captured by the software Camtasia.

When I try to open this file in Vegas or convert it to another file type for a mac user it will not open or convert. The file will also ONLY play in VLC player. If I try to use windows media player it just plays the audio, no video.

Any suggestions?

[Don Bloom]

AVI is like a candy bar wrapper and a blank one at that. You don't know whats inside until you open it. Obviously the codec inside is one that Vegas can't read so you need to get it but you don't know what it is so what to do. DL 'g-spot'. It's a great utility that will let you know what codec you need to be able to open the avi wrapper.
Don

[Edward Troxel]

In this case, you could just install Camtasia and see if that works for you. Or have them export it out of Camtasia to a different format.

[Seth Bloombaum]

If memory serves, all you need is the Camtasia player or codec package from techsmith.com. Vegas picks up the codec.

I've done several projects using camtasia captures on the Vegas timeline and the results exceeded expectations. This all works best if you very carefully determine your final playback pixel dimensions, then do the camtasia capture in those same dimensions, and set up a custom vegas project template for them. In other words, do all you can to avoid rescaling.

Don't forget to include an allowance for the player controls and window header/sides that will be needed for the final project playback environment.

[Oliver Darden]

I will try these options, thanks guys.