I got a cheap pocket video camera for the sake of readily available, spontaneous videoing. Everything's been ok considering the price, until I got to the step of dropping the video onto Vegas' timeline. I've only ever used dv footage 'til now, captured via firewire. This is H264 video codec, avi file; ADPCM audio codec. It's captured on camera to an SDHC card. I was hoping to drag and drop files to the timeline, but when I do, only the audio shows up. I can view the video no problem in Windows Media, so I know the video's there. I'm using Vegas 8c. I appreciate any insight, thanks.

Ok, I'm adding the answer to this in the "I have a problem, what do I do?" sticky at the top.

Thank you Ed.
I'll try the gSpot (lol). I'm afraid finding the particular codec may be as hard as finding the gSpot (lol). I would have thought that since Windows Media player can play the files, it meant that the codec resided somewhere on my computer already, and then consequently Vegas would already have access to the codec. I'm just thinking way back to the day when I couldn't play DVD's on my computer until I installed a DVD player that had the codec/licensing, and then all of a sudden all my media players could play DVD's. I'll follow up if I still have problems. Thanks again :-).

Ok Ed,
I found the gSpot. That was alot easier than I expected. I used the gSpot. I got what I was after... but it says the codec is installed... H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. How do I get Vegas to use it, wherever it is on my computer? Thank you for your help so far. I'm sorry to need more. Thanks.

Probably a "DirectX" codec is on your computer but not a "Video for Windows" codec. Some players use DirectX, some use VfW, and others can use both. Vegas uses VfW. It's not uncommon for media players to play files that Vegas can't read.

I just post in the sticky. I think you might find it helpful.

I really appreciate you guys chiming in to help.
I tried searching for an h.264/mpeg-4/AVC for windows. I downloaded and ran x.264. I updated my Super video file converter by eRightSoft (assuming the codec would be in there). I restarted the computer and vegas. I still can't see the video on the timeline. Since I don't know exactly what I'm looking for to install, I'm just shooting in the dark. Perhaps I can trouble you guys for a specific link to a codec (free?).
In the mean time, I did some trial and error re-encoding the video clip using Super. I got a working video/audio clip onto the timeline by re-encoding to an AVI, raw-uncompressed video with the audio unchanged from the original (streamed option). Of course that went from a 20.8 MB file to a 115.3 MB file :-(.
I've evolved (?) to 2 questions now:
*a link to a codec solution
*a recommended re-encoded file format that balances quality with size. These were only < 1min test clips. Can't imagine uncompressed avi for hour plus recordings!
Thanks again.

My suggestion right now... wait until next Monday, download Vegas Pro 10, and see if it will properly decode the file.

If you want to put a very small sample somewhere, I can try it in Vegas Pro 9 and see if it will open it. My son has a GoPro camera and Vegas Pro 9 opens those files just fine. They are MP4 files.

Sam,
here you go, you try it see if it work for you.

try again see if I can get it to upload. For reason the upload not showing up here. You can google that 2 two codec I listed in the sticky.

MJPEG and DivX should NOT be what he needs for H.264. MJPEG is already in 8.0c. DivX and XVid are not officially supported in Vegas - some have gotten it to work but others haven't. I'd seriously wait until Monday and try Vegas Pro 10.

Ed et al.,
I hope this link works for you. I'm using Windows SkyDrive to hold a short video clip if you care to take the time to see if you have a different result:
https://cid-1ab0d9affac8cd93.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?resid=1AB0D9AFFAC8CD93!122&authkey=UdqmIH7bO*Q%24
Thanks for your time.
Ed, I appreciate your intention of solving my problem by mentioning Vegas 10. Wishing for a free codec rather than a $19.99 download (if I could even find that) hints that maybe something less than a $199 upgrade from 8 to 10 is my goal as well, lol. But I do appreciate options. Maybe it will be time to move up to the modern times, but was hoping for a smaller, cheaper step :-). I may rethink my purchase if the $70 camcorder turns into >=$290 cost just for spontaneous video ability with a cheap camcorder.
Thanks for your comments so far. Sorry to be spending your expertise on casual video.

I have realized that my earlier "success" with Super at re-encoding to a file that loads onto Vegas' timeline was only a small victory. Turns out it also resized it from 1920x1080 to 480x272. That's unacceptable to me. I don't see the option in Super to retain the 1920x1080 in a re-encode. If I set the dimensions manually under custom, I end up with a tiny file (kB) with no video at all.
Maybe I'm making the jump to digital HD prematurely. This is too complicated. How can they bundle cheap software with a cheap camcorder that will open, identify, re-encode, and create a DVD with the camera's files, but Vegas can't even load it on its timeline? sigh...
Thanks for you consideration.

Ok, I was wrong in my previous post (yes, I'll admit when I'm wrong and it happens way too frequently). It appears a DivX codec may be what's needed to read those files. But I can't swear installing the DivX codec will be the solution. It appears it can be found at Download the DivX Codec and DivX Player - DivX Movies (http://www.divxmovies.com/codec) but make sure you do NOT install a "codec pack".

Technically, it says it's an ITU H.26n which is an Intel codec. I would search specifically for that codec and I stand by my warning to NOT install a "codec pack". Maybe someone else can recommend a good place to download the needed coded.

Thank you, but...
I downloaded the div x stuff from the site linked.
No change for the Vegas timeline, though.
Thanks again for trying.

...I used the gSpot. I got what I was after... but it says the codec is installed... H.264/MPEG-4 AVC...
I don't think you've said in this thread just what this consumer camera is, what is it? Is there bundled software that comes with it for importing? If so, is there an mov import available? If so, QT does have an extensive set of h.264 codecs, and your video might work in Vegas via QT.

I'm not able to play the sample in WM Player, but VLC player does play and identifies it as h.264.

Thanks for taking the time to check out the download and to reply.
That's interesting to me that my WM player plays the files and yours doesn't. It's a good thing mine does, or else I would have assumed it was all the camera's fault. What's VLC that you referred to?
The video camera is a $70 Ativa flip-out type on sale this week at Office Depot, model #D33F.
The camera came bundled with ArcSoft MediaImpression. It has limited video processing function (though more than Vegas seems to be able to do with my files from this camera, lol). I can "Make Movie," allowing me to drop full clips sequentially onto a single timeline with auto fades between, and then either burn a disc or save as...
When I drop a lone, 1920x1080 clip onto the timeline, I can do save as... and there are Mpeg1, WMV and QT options to save to, but none of them retain the 1920x1080 resolution. 720x576 is the max it will go.
While we're on specs, I'll restate I'm in Vegas 8c.
I have Vista Premium, 32bit,
Windows Media 11.0.6002.18111.
Thanks again for your questions, hope the additional info helps. The idea of having the bundled software convert was a good one, but it didn't pan out.
Btw, I spoke to Ativa tech support today and they were unable to direct me to any specific codecs to help me out. The first page they referred me to was for DV codecs, last updated in 2003. The 2nd site they recommended on my subsequent call was freecodecs.com, which was not a particularly good place, but it may be a variation of that phrase instead.

That's too bad, that Ativa tech support is so clueless. Do they have a forum? Maybe someone has solved this one.

Um, their own import sw downconverts to standard def? That's crazy.

VLC is also known as the Videolan player, an open-source project that is a great alternative player. I got it first because I was tired of the way QT player behaves on windows, but, it's been very handy for all kinds of things. It does neat things, especially in playing uncommon codecs pretty effortlessly.

Oh, I almost forgot - it will also transcode.

VideoLAN - VLC: Free streaming and multimedia solutions for all OS! (http://www.videolan.org)

I downloaded/installed VLC. Nice player.
I tried to transcode to a mov file, but it didn't work for me. Only tried once, maybe I did something wrong in the settings. I got an audio/video file to drop onto the timeline, but video was black and audio was screwed up.
Maybe I need to reinstall Vegas?
Maybe I should load up a trial 9 and see if I get any different response.
Seth, did you happen to try to drop the file onto a Vegas timeline, besides trying it in WM player and VLC?
Thanks.

Hm... I'm not having any luck with VLC's transcoding either. D*** open-source software. But, it is a very handy player...

I only have Vegas Pro8 on this laptop, won't have access to my editing machine with Pro 9 till tomorrow. It only sees the audio track of the original .avi.

On that. If anyone can get VLC to transcode anything, please show us how.
It would be so handy when you have a file that nothing else will play except VLC, to be able to render it uncompressed or anything simple that everything else will read.
Ive tried so many ways to make it work and always end up with weird file that nothing opens.

I only have Vegas Pro8 on this laptop, won't have access to my editing machine with Pro 9 till tomorrow. It only sees the audio track of the original .avi.

Ok, I hope you have a chance to try it on V9 today. I'm kind of glad to hear you had the same symptom with your 8. At least that's a hint that maybe it's not my Vegas or machine.
Thanks Seth.

To add insult to injury, I've discovered that Windows Movie Maker accepts the video from this camera, whereas Vegas does not. sigh...

Now on my editing machine:
Clip behaves same on Pro9e as it did on Pro8c, audio track only.

Clip opens properly in Windows Media player, which identifies the decoder as CoreAVC.

Sorry I don't have any other suggestions.

Vegas' "Knowledge Base" AVI file is missing the video and/or audio stream (http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=706&p_created=1023426000&p_sid=tMxV9-bk&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD03MzksNzM5JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj1 _YW55fiZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1)
comments that to solve avi issues in Vegas where the audio or video is not included in the timeline, use Windows Movie Maker to convert the file to DV-AVI. However, the resolution choice is limited to 720x480 with this format. I see they also have Windows Media HD 1080p as an option, but this is only 1440x1080, rather than 1920x1080.

Now on my editing machine:
Clip behaves same on Pro9e as it did on Pro8c, audio track only.

Clip opens properly in Windows Media player, which identifies the decoder as CoreAVC.

Sorry I don't have any other suggestion.

Thank you, Seth. You posted right as I was downloading the 9e trial version. My experience is the same, in that only the audio shows up on the timeline. Sadly disappointing to me. How can bundled Arcsoft and Windows Moviemaker be more file friendly than $695 Vegas?

Just sharing experiences as I come across them...
I installed/ran VirtualDub. When I tried to load up one of the camera's 1920x1080 video files into VDub, I got this error message:
"VDub requires a Video for Windows (VFW) compatible codec to decompress video. DirectShow codecs, such as those used by Windows media Player, are not suitable."
This, of course, reminds me of Ed's earlier inputs, but I still haven't found where to get these precious, specific codecs :-).

At least WMM transcode to WM9 1440x1080 can work. It's probably a reasonable choice for the short term, you could get some projects done, and they would look good!

But, I do agree with you, 1920x1080 native in Vegas is what you want for the long term.

As Edward pointed out above, it may be that Vegas Pro 10, to be released Monday, may do the trick. In another thread, there's a discussion of a less-hyped feature to v10, which is improved handling of h.264 on the timeline. h.264 is a close sibling of MPEG-4 and AVC, I hope it does the trick for your files.

Another failure.
I installed and ran Cineform's trial of Neoscene, and it doesn't even show the files in the browser as optional to encode.

Here's the problem. Vegas cannot "see" the video because there is no VFW-based H264 codec installed. Vegas restrict foreign codecs for avi files to VFW.

If you can play your clip in Windows media player - there's a solution. You have a DirectShow decoder installed, and we can use it.


Obviously, you need to transcode the avi file to use a different VFW format, one that Vegas recognizes. Use VirtualDub. No - VirtualDub cannot open the clip itself - it too is restricted to VFW codecs when opening AVI files. But there is another way...

Use AviSynth to create a frameserver. AviSynth can open the file and expose it to VirtualDub.

Open NotePad - create a one line script file with the content:

DirectShowSource("yourfilename.avi")


...and save it as yourfilename.avs. That's right, just that one line, that's all that's needed.


Now run VirtualDub (use 32bit version as AviSynth can't talk to 64bit version). Open "yourfile.name.avs" in VirtualDub and Presto! - there it is. AviSynth used the DirectShow codec and bridged it over to VirtualDub.


You can now use VirtualDub to change the compression - and then save as AVI file. The two best possible choices are CineForm and Lagarith. since you're using a "cheap pocket video" camera, I'd suggest that you save your bucks and go with Lagarith, it's free and it's lossless to boot. CineForm has it's advantages over Lagarith - but the differences don't merit it in your case.

The new AVI file you created in VirtualDub will work gangbusters in Vegas.


Recap - you need VirtualDub, AviSynth, and thr Lagarith codec. All are free and downloadable from the net. This is a simple little toolchain that everyone should have available - and most folks here are well aware VirtualDub.



---
Although some folks might gripe about Sony's lack of support for DirectShow codecs - I'd have to say that I don't blame them. The problem with DirectShow is that you are *not* required to use known interfaces (pins) in your codec. It's a mess.

Thank you very much, Gene.
Am trying out these steps now...

You can now use VirtualDub to change the compression - and then save as AVI file. The two best possible choices are CineForm and Lagarith. since you're using a "cheap pocket video" camera, I'd suggest that you save your bucks and go with Lagarith, it's free and it's lossless to boot. CineForm has it's advantages over Lagarith - but the differences don't merit it in your case.


DISREGARD> I'm stuck on this step. Sorry for getting stuck, but how can I use VDub to change the compression? I saw and tried the "save as AVI" option, which resulted in a jump from 20.8MB to a 3.6GB file, but was offered no opportunity that route to use Lagarith. I've missed which other menu option I should choose. <DISREGARD

Thanks for getting me this far! VDub does open the files now.
Progress is good, but in this experimental/learning stage, I can imagine this being VERY tedius in the case of dozens of clips that need to be processed in a full blown project.
For home stuff, this is welcome though.
Thanks again!

EDIT UPDATE> Ok, I found the option to set the compression: Video/Compression, then File/Save as AVI. I had Cineform as a compression option too, as well as Lagarith, perhaps because the trial NeoScene I've downloaded? Sure would be nice if the codec hung around after the trial ran out! Also had Cinepak, DivX 6.9.2, Helix 1420 YUV Codec, Intel IYUV codec, and Microsoft Video 1.

I tried the Cineform and Lagarith compressions. Both were wonderfully 1920x1080. That was nice to see. The Cineform was 319.9 MB, the Lagarith 916.6 MB. On the timeline, the Cineform performed much smoother at full frame rate, set to Preview/Auto. With the same setting, Lagarith dropped to as low as 5 fps.
I'm curious about the results for the other compression options. I'm afraid I've never understood the 4:2:2, or YUV stuff. I may be getting in WAY over my head.

So...
as far as taking some video, and dropping onto Vegas' timeline, THANK YOU! I guess I'll be keeping the camera, and making good use of it. Got some video of the daughter taking riding lessons. Nice to be able to collect some more memories spontaneously. Thank you very much for everyone's help.

I'm glad to have helped. I would've expected a little better peformance out of Lagarith, but who knows.?

Cineform is a fine codec. If you're going to be doing a lot of trancoding, it just might be worth it to purchase - I beleive the NeoScene version at $99 should do the trick for you. For the most part, you can leave the CineForm codec to it's default settings.

Happy Editing!

FYI...
I get the following error in Vegas Pro 10 trial, when i try to add the camera's files to the timeline (without VDubbing them):

Warning: An error ocurred while opening one or more files. An error occurred while opening a codec.

No improvement on this front.