Premiere Codec Missing?

[Toshi.des]

So I'm trying to import footage that a friend gave me into Premiere but it says: Codec Missing or Unavailable.

I used MediaInfo to hopefully get some more information and I think the Codec is xdvf or XDCAM but don't know how to get that for Premiere.

Here's the MediaInfo


My premiere version is 5.5.2

Help would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I was trying to convert with Virtual Dub but it doesn't seem to support .mov.

[mirkosp]

Since you are using CS5.5, it likely isn't able to open it directly because you only have a 32bit decoder for this (you need 64bit decoders in order to open encoded files in CS5 and higher).
My suggestion would be to convert it to a lossless format, such as utvideo, with virtualdub, through an avisynth script.
If you don't have it, grab QTSource and place the dll inside the zip in your avisynth plugins folder.
Next, write the following line of code in an avisynth script:

Code: Select all

QTInput("your file.mov")

and open the avisynth script in virtualdub.

[Toshi.des]

All I get is a green screen when I do this.

Here's what I did:

Put the dll in my plugins folder:


Put in the code:


And voila, green screen:
http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/552/75847346.jpg

On another site someone told me this:

Yeah this happens when FCP uses the log and transfer to import XDCAM footage

Which, while I'm not sure, I believe is true since my friend got it from someone who uses Final Cut Pro. He recommended MPEG Stream to convert it but it doesn't recognize the footage either .

[mirkosp]

Try converting it regardless of the green screen in vdub and then check the encoded utvideo file.

[Toshi.des]

Comes out green

[mirkosp]

Well, then I guess that QuickTime is missing a XDCAM EX decoder (which shouldn't be surprising after all...).
Grab this, and you should be able to use it directly to convert the file.
Since I don't have any xdcam ex files at hand, if you could upload your file somewhere so I can guide you further it would be better, otherwise you can try to do it on your own. Sadly that sofware lacks support for many formats and you wouldn't be able to directly transcode it to a lossless format, however, you might just be able to do File > Export > MXF for NLE (which should be just a remux and not a re-encode), as according to this it should be supported starting premiere pro cs3.

[Toshi.des]

smallest clip I could find since I can't even compress them at the moment lol.

http://solarcell9.com/video/index.html

just right click and save as

[mirkosp]

So it appears that the XDCAM Browser wasn't able to open it.
QTInput does indeed just give green junk.
Amusingly enough, though, FFVideoSource was able to load it (I had checked the list of supported formats and didn't see xdcam and called it a day, at first). I didn't think it would support it. DSS2 and DirectShowSource also worked, so it seems I do have a directshow decoder for this, too.
At that point I just tried opening the mov in mpc-hc and check which filter was doing the decoding under Play > Filter.
MPEG-2 Video Decoder. Which means XDCAM EX is just a fancy name with a fancy fourcc for MPEG-2. Wikipedia seems to confirm. I should have just checked first. Hell, the mediainfo said it too.
So you know what?

The best solution should be to open DGIndex and drag and drop the mov there. Then use the good ol' MPEG2Source to open the d2v. If that doesn't work, then just use FFVideoSource.

[Toshi.des]

Is DGIndex really a better approach or will FFVideoSource do the same thing?

I haven't used DGIndex before and FFVideoSource("C:\Users\Desktop\Desktop\t5 2012-05-30 03_48_36 (id).mov") exported a usable avi file for premiere. Is DGIndex better quality?

Also just curious how would I get audio, tried FFVideoSource("C:\Users\Desktop\Desktop\t5 2012-05-30 03_48_36 (id).mov", audio=true) but that just came up with an error.

[mirkosp]

Well, DGIndex is the suggested solution for MPEG-2 because it's specifically thought for it, as it does a specific index, it will be surely frame accurate. The sample file you linked it, however, had an error midway through the stream, so I wasn't able to properly index it in its entirety . Either way, FFVideoSource is mighty fine too, since you're just transcoding it directly, and thus the avi you can save from vdub will be fine for editing. I'm more talking out of what I'm used to for MPEG-2 than anything, so feel free to use FFVideoSource.

Either way, if you want the audio too, then just use:

Code: Select all

FFCopyrightInfringement("C:\Users\Desktop\Desktop\t5 2012-05-30 03_48_36 (id).mov")

And you'll be able to do file > save as wav from vdub (or you can just have it muxed as pcm when encoding the avi). Feel free to do whichever suits to your taste. The audio has yet another fancy fourcc for a simple pcm, so you won't have any loss.