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For those familiar with video editing software (paticularly Premeire 6.0) (1 Viewer)

CameronS

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Apr 26, 1998
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I usually edit DV from my Sony Digital 8 camera on Adobe Premiere 6.0 with no problem. I just recently bought a ATI All-in-Wonder and have been capturing VHS video from it.

When I try to edit the AVI files captured from the ATI card with Premiere, I get nothing but black video with a few error frames or noise bands when I preview or create the edited clip.

I'm hoping that this is just a case of me using a wrong setting, and I wanted to see if any of you guys know what the problem is, and how I can get around this.

Thanks for any help.
 

Jeff Kleist

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It's likely ATI has a setting set for Premiere, give it a shot. I remember some articles in Adobe's tech section about problems with All-In-Wonder cards
 

CameronS

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Thanks Jeff. I've been going through Adobe's knowledgebase with no luck so far.

I thought it might have something to do with the resoution of the ATI capture, but I am not sure. The files are .avi which is supposed to be compatible with Premiere, but I have tried several different ones, none of which work.

What makes it so hard is that the project I am working on now consists of mainly DV footage with VHS stuff cut in between. When I preview the timeline, once it gets to the VHS clip, the video is black.

There seems to be some kind of error because it is not always totally black video; there are a few frames of visible footage that are "rainbow like" and upside down. Sometimes there are noise bands.

So basically, I know very little about Premiere, and I am hoping the solution will be simple.

*crosses fingers*
 

Jeff Kleist

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Are you using DV to capture your footage, or is it a different codec? If this codec is MPEG (or related like Divx) Premiere will not play it back properly, it's full-frame editing only (meaning the entire frame is stored, not 4:3 :) )
Do the captures play back under other programs fine? Upside down and color bands sounds to me like a problem with the input. Are these commercial tapes? Macrovision maybe (Many new cards now puke on Macrovision)
 

Paul E. Fox II

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The "only getting black with some noise" sounds EXACTLY like a CODEC problem to me, but the problem will be locating the correct codec for that. I may be a proprietary thing with the capture device (your ATI Card).

Also, I've NEVER been able to get an .AVI file to work in Premiere. It seems to ONLY recognize .AVC files. I may be wrong, but that's what I've stumbed upon more than a few times.

I use Premiere 6.0 here at work with an old DPS Perception card and it took me a while to get the correct combination for this to work.

Macrovision could also be the problem as most of the VHS tapes have some sort of Copy Protection on them.
 

CameronS

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Paul,

I think you may be right. I just went back throught the steps to capture with the ATI, and there is a long list of codecs that I can choose from.

I captured these awhile ago, so I can't remember for sure, but I think I used "UYVY video format (native)".

These are not commercial videos, only ones taken from old VHS and VHS-C cameras, so Macrovision should not be a problem here. Also, when I do see rainbow or noise it is only maybe 2 or 3 frames. I can ony see them by going through the clip slowly.

Also, the clips play fine in Windows Media Player and through Premire, its just that when you edit the clip is when the problem occurs.

I think I will try to test a few of these other codecs to hopefully find a match. Is there anyway to know which one to use?
 

Jeff Kleist

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Hey, I said it was the codec :) How you've never gotten an AVI to work in premiere is beyond me Paul, are you using DiVX? Like I said DiVX won't work in Premiere.
Cameron, it does sound like you're using a proprietary ATI codec that Premiere doesn't like. What is your list of codecs available for use? Does your camera accept input from an exterior source? If so just do it that way.
If you have one, I'd suggest either DV or an MJPEG codec
 

CameronS

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Yes you did Jeff! Sorry, I missed that! When you asked, I knew I didn't use a MPEG codec, so I thought I was clear there.

Im trying a few others now.
 

CameronS

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Well, I kept looking through the Adobe Knowledge base, and I found this list under a topic that was irrelevant to my question:
The following is a list of the full name of several common codecs as they appear in Premiere's Movie Analysis window:
- 'cvid', Cinepak Codec by Radius [32]
- 'MJPG', [name of capture card] MJPEG
- 'mpeg', [name of capture card] MPEG-I
- 'CRAM', Microsoft Video 1[32]
- 'RLE ', Microsoft RLE[32]
- 'IV32', Intel Indeo® Video R3.2[32]
- 'IV41', Intel Indeo® Video Interactive[32]
- 'YVU9', Intel Indeo® Video Raw R1.1[32]
- none
My ATI card also used a few of these codecs, so I chose "YVU9" just because it was the first one on the list.
Guess what? It worked!! (I am so relieved *sigh*)
BTW, I have never been able to get anything besides AVI files to work on Premiere.
Jeff and Paul, thanks for the help and getting the thought processes going! :)
 

Paul E. Fox II

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Cameron...
I would start with one of the windows Codecs...but again, I'm not sure you're gonna be able to use .AVI files. Just for my own information, I just grabbed an .AVI to see what would happen. I could load it in a time-line and see it when it was paused/still, but could not get it to playback nativly.
You MAY be able to convert the .AVI files to .AVC format (which WILL play...I'm nearly positive) or to another format that will work.
Do you get a "load project settings" screen when you open Premiere with different settings? You may be able to find something in there that will help. I'll keep looking around but when you figure it out, post it in here if you don't mind:)!
EDIT: Added stuff!
Just for grins, I started Premier and loaded the "Multimedia Video for Windows" project setting. This time, when I dropped an .AVI file in the timeline, it worked fine. Now, if you're already doing this...then we're back to square one and still probably gonna be looking for the correct CODEC.
I did look on the Adobe support site, and there are evidently problems with cards on their unsupported list and I'd be willing to be that your ATI card is on that list.
Just for kicks...when you capture the file, can you then play it back in the Windows Media Player? If it works there, then it should work ANYWHERE!
 

CameronS

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Allright, let me try one of the Windows codecs. I will load it to the timeline and then "Export Movie" to see what happens.
 

CameronS

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Paul,
Here is what I have been doing:
-I capture using a setting on the ATI card that will result in a .avi file. (I thought .avi was one of the only file types that Premiere would use)
-Then I have to choose the resolution, codec, etc.
-I capture, and then it saves the .avi file.
These are the few codecs that I tried:
UYVY video format (native)
This was the original one that I used. Premiere could play the file with no problem, but when it was on the timeline, the clip always had the little "X" in the top corner. I assume this is something that has to be "previewed" so I hit Enter. This results in the black video I originally explained.
Microsoft H.263 Video Codec
This one didn't even allow me to capture anything. I got an error message and then had to restart the program.
Microsoft RLE
This one captured, but Premiere would not play this video at all. Everything was black, regarless of it being on the timeline or not.
YVU9 video format
This seemed to be the best solution so far. I captured the video to a .avi file, Premiere played it fine. I put it on the timeline, it previewd with no problems. Then, I Exported the timeline to "Movie" and created the final .avi file. Now, it's ready to print to tape!
I didn't know that Premiere was so weird about codecs.
Paul, are you saying that you can never edit a .avi file with Premiere? If so, where are your files coming from?
 

CameronS

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Doing a little more research, it seems that the YVU9 codec that worked so good for me is an ATI exclusive, and the video it produces wont play on other computers.

Not that it matters. It seems that there should be another "generic" type codec that would work on all computers and with Premiere, but I'm not that worried about it right now. Hopefully this codec will be the solution for me.
 

Wayne Bundrick

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Use YVU9 to capture your video, edit it in Premiere, and when you're done editing, export the finished video using something other than YVU9 that will work on other computers.
 

Paul E. Fox II

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Cameron,

No, I never EVER use the .avi files in Premiere. My system is optimized for the DPS Perception Capture card I have installed and like what you've discovered, .avi files don't seem to get along well in Premiere in this configuration.

I end up using a file with the .avc extension OR the Proprietary DPS files. If I HAVE to use .avi files, I have to take them into After Effects, do what I want with them, the render them out into the aforementioned Proprietary DPS CODEC to use them.

As for that, you could do the same OR just hook your VCR to the output of your capture card and make a VHS Tape of them OR if you need them to be DATA file for use in a PC, you could then export THAT as a full lenth .AVI or .MOV (Quicktime Movie)...whatever. You'll just have to play around with it a bit.
 

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