Less AVI Based Codec Support in Premiere CS4?

[post-it]

..About DivX files being hit and miss, I understand that. But are you trying to say that not only is it hit and miss with different files, but it's hit and miss with the same file on different computers? I don't get how that's possible considering the programming is the same. It's not like once the code for processing the video can be working right and another time working wrong...

.. we are talking about, "video streaming" codec's

Xvid/divX - rm - viv - mpg - mov .. .. these are Streaming Codec's and are set-up for "Quick-Reading"
and not for Editing. ?? why? .. streaming sometimes repeats frames for a balanced playback;
normal video files are sequential. live video is sequential. DVD's are basically sequential.

Most video edits are relying on the movie being 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-... while streaming sometimes
looks more like 1-2-2-3-4-4-5-6-7-7-8-.. .. .. the amount of brightness and sometimes even
the amount of color enrichment often play a major roll in determining the streaming sequence.

just because it plays well does not mean that it is editable! ( MP3's proved that a long time ago! )

[Typhoon859]

..About DivX files being hit and miss, I understand that. But are you trying to say that not only is it hit and miss with different files, but it's hit and miss with the same file on different computers? I don't get how that's possible considering the programming is the same. It's not like once the code for processing the video can be working right and another time working wrong...

.. we are talking about, "video streaming" codec's

Xvid/divX - rm - viv - mpg - mov .. .. these are Streaming Codec's and are set-up for "Quick-Reading"
and not for Editing. ?? why? .. streaming sometimes repeats frames for a balanced playback;
normal video files are sequential. live video is sequential. DVD's are basically sequential.

Most video edits are relying on the movie being 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-... while streaming sometimes
looks more like 1-2-2-3-4-4-5-6-7-7-8-.. .. .. the amount of brightness and sometimes even
the amount of color enrichment often play a major roll in determining the streaming sequence.

just because it plays well does not mean that it is editable! ( MP3's proved that a long time ago! )

I understand why these type of files have problems. What I don't understand is why the ones that did work don't any more.

BTW, DVD-Video playback is the least stable thing I've seen. Although I know it probably isn't, if you know what I mean, maybe you can explain to me why it appears that way. AVI formats seem to be more stable although they're not and THAT I know why. I don''t why it's the other way around for MPEG-2 streams from DVDs. They're not even properly indexed..

[Qyot27]

About DivX files being hit and miss, I understand that. But are you trying to say that not only is it hit and miss with different files, but it's hit and miss with the same file on different computers? I don't get how that's possible considering the programming is the same. It's not like once the code for processing the video can be working right and another time working wrong.. It doesn't have any sort of intelligence. If that's what you're saying, I trust your experience since I'm not that all knowing about what's possible errors are possible with programming, but if so, you think you can explain why YOU THINK that could happen. Installation differences maybe? Unexplained inconsistencies bother me; it's what triggered the creation of this thread.

It's a mass of issues. Premiere still has to access VFW to decode the files, AFAIK. So if the particular VFW decoder you have installed is different (say, the normal DivX or XviD decoders vs. ffdshow or whatever), or even if it's the same decoder but a different version number, things can change, things can break, and it might not have anything at all to do with Premiere. The hit and miss with different files is mainly due to the use of the hacked-in B-frames of those codecs, and the P frames might screw with it too. If they were encoded with only keyframes (I frames) then it'd be no different than using MJPEG, but doing that is horribly inefficient for online distribution, at least if you want it to look good.

[Typhoon859]

About DivX files being hit and miss, I understand that. But are you trying to say that not only is it hit and miss with different files, but it's hit and miss with the same file on different computers? I don't get how that's possible considering the programming is the same. It's not like once the code for processing the video can be working right and another time working wrong.. It doesn't have any sort of intelligence. If that's what you're saying, I trust your experience since I'm not that all knowing about what's possible errors are possible with programming, but if so, you think you can explain why YOU THINK that could happen. Installation differences maybe? Unexplained inconsistencies bother me; it's what triggered the creation of this thread.

It's a mass of issues. Premiere still has to access VFW to decode the files, AFAIK. So if the particular VFW decoder you have installed is different (say, the normal DivX or XviD decoders vs. ffdshow or whatever), or even if it's the same decoder but a different version number, things can change, things can break, and it might not have anything at all to do with Premiere. The hit and miss with different files is mainly due to the use of the hacked-in B-frames of those codecs, and the P frames might screw with it too. If they were encoded with only keyframes (I frames) then it'd be no different than using MJPEG, but doing that is horribly inefficient for online distribution, at least if you want it to look good.

Is there a way I can figure out which decoder is being used for Premiere? I have the normal DivX and XVID decoders and FFDShow. For playback normally, FFDShow is always used.

[Zarxrax]

Adobe software also tends to install some of it's OWN decoders, so even if you have it set up to use ffdshow or whatever, simply by installing premiere, that might make it start decoding with adobe's decoders.

[Typhoon859]

Adobe software also tends to install some of it's OWN decoders, so even if you have it set up to use ffdshow or whatever, simply by installing premiere, that might make it start decoding with adobe's decoders.

Hmm.. Are there any known differences between the decoders Adobe installed in CS3 and CS4? It's easy to deal with the issue and the solution isn't problematic whatsoever. I don't see how it's unreasonable to ask the question, no matter the fact that DivX is unstable in editing programs and for good reason. I'm trying to figure out the difference that cause this negative change so that, if possible, it can be fixed/improved.

[Zarxrax]

I have no idea.

[Typhoon859]

I have no idea.

Lol. That's ok. Maybe someone else does. If not, I'm fine with leaving it at that.

[chui101]

Adobe software also tends to install some of it's OWN decoders, so even if you have it set up to use ffdshow or whatever, simply by installing premiere, that might make it start decoding with adobe's decoders.

+1. Adobe brings in MainConcept decoders. I find myself constantly have to re-register my CoreAVC and ffdshow codecs. If you use CCCP there's an option in the config to re-register it. Otherwise, just uninstall and reinstall ffdshow. (Or whatever your decoder of choice is.)

[Typhoon859]

Adobe software also tends to install some of it's OWN decoders, so even if you have it set up to use ffdshow or whatever, simply by installing premiere, that might make it start decoding with adobe's decoders.

+1. Adobe brings in MainConcept decoders. I find myself constantly have to re-register my CoreAVC and ffdshow codecs. If you use CCCP there's an option in the config to re-register it. Otherwise, just uninstall and reinstall ffdshow. (Or whatever your decoder of choice is.)

Alright. Thanks for that. I re-registered it and one of the files that didn't work at all before worked now. It, along with the other two, are still problematic, but I'm just going to accept it as it is.