Where to get codecs for Premiere Elements?

Report · May 03, 2013

i just bought Premiere Elements 11 and would like to edit some video produced by a screen capture program. The capture program is called Bandicam, and according to the VLC video player, the video codec is "mpeg 1/2". The actual file type is AVI. When i try to import this file, Premiere Elements says that the file type is not supported, and the codec is missing. The thing is, I am able to use these same files in Windows Movie Maker without any problem. How do I get around this issue? Thanks in advance for any help!

Report · May 03, 2013

Weird software. I have Camtasia just for things like this and once we install the codec, the Camtasia-generated-file plays back just fine in Windows Media Player, and hence in Premiere Elements. With this one, even after installing the codec, I am not able to playback in Windows Media Player. I have tried it on my 64-bit Windows laptop as well. No luck.

Are you able to play it back in Windows Media Player?

Report · May 03, 2013

Yes, the avi fille plays just fine in both vlc and windows media player. It

is also able to be imported into Windows Live Movie Maker. The only program

that has a problem is premiere elements. So it looks like I just threw away

$100? Is it possible to get actual help from adobe or get a refund?

Report · May 03, 2013

You can certainly contact Adobe, or whoever you bought the software from, and ask for a refund, if that's a dealbreaker for you. (The program is primarily designed to work with camcorder video.)

AVIs can use any of thousands of codecs, and sometimes simpler programs like MovieMaker don't run deep but run very wide.

If you open one of your AVIs in a program like G Spot or Media Info, it will list the resolution, frame rate and audio and video codecs. Knowing them will help identify the program -- although you can probably say with certainty that they do not use the standard DV camcorder codecs.

Report · May 03, 2013

>capture program is called Bandicam

The first place to ask is the vendor of that program... to find out if they have an installable EDITING codec for Premiere Elements

As you have discovered, simple playback is not the same as editing

Report · May 03, 2013

A simple search for "premier" at the Bandicam website and user forum brought out this:

"Bandicam supports "MPEG-1, Motion JPEG, Xvid, YV12, RGB24" codec.

You don't have to convert the recorded video to edit in Adobe Premier Pro.

Click the 'Settings' button under the 'Video' tab of the Bandicam, and select 'Motion JPEG (MJPEG) video codec' and 'PCM audio codec'."

Looks to me that trying some other recording formats might work. If not, posting to that forum might well find another PrE user that has it figured out.

http://www.bandicam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=133&p=468&hilit=premier#p468

Bill

Report · May 03, 2013

Cubicleslave2

Very recently someone asked me the same question at a forum that I no longer visit. Was that you?

My recollection is that I gave the person asking the question the same reference that Bill just gave you and asked about source media properties involved.

Bill's suggestion is an excellent one, trying alternative Bandicam capture format. If that fails, try to convert the Bandicam output file to another format known to be compatible with Premiere Elements. If your system has a problem with MotionJPEG.avi, often installation of the Morgan MotionJPEG codec resolves that type of issue that is not being addressed by the installation of programs like QuickTime Player, Windows Media Player, and the like.

We will be watching for your progress and further details.

Thanks.

ATR

Report · May 06, 2013

Hi Romano,

That wasn't me, I've never asked this question in any other forum. But here is an update. i went to Bandicams website and searched for premiere elements, and it appears that they are fully aware of this problem. Their first solution is to switch to the motion JPEG codec, but they warn that this will result in lower quality. Instead, they suggest a 3rd party codec called Lagarith. This is supposed to give better quality and smaller file sizes. I tried it, and it yielded about 10x bigger files than the original mpeg-1 codec that I was using. it also resulted in frequent stuttering of the video, due to the high disk activity. So I ditched that solution and tried Bandicam's other suggestion, which is to convert the mpeg-1 avi to another format using a free program called "format factory". This conversion takes ages, but it works. So this is where I sit today. I've now encountered a difficulty with using premiere elements, but I think I should post in a new thread. Will do that later. By the way everyone, VLC told me the name of the codec in my problem file. Dont know if yall noticed that I mentioned it. The codec was named "mpeg 1/2". I suspect premiere might not like this name, either it should be "mpeg 1" or "mpeg 2", I think.

Thanks all for your help!

Report · May 06, 2013

Cubicleslave2 wrote:
..... So this is where I sit today. I've now encountered a difficulty with using premiere elements, but I think I should post in a new thread. Will do that later. ....

Seems to me the encountered difficulty is with Bandicam, not Premier Elements!

The screen capture subject comes up fairly often. Camtasia Studio seems to be the gold standard for those that produce online training tutorials. The last time the subject came up Screencast-O-Matic was mentioned. I did a quick test and it seemed to work very well.

There really should be an easy solution for you!

Bill

Report · May 06, 2013

Cubicleslave2

Thanks for the follow up with the details of what is working for you.

If you did use the Lagarith codec in Premiere Elements 11, did you find it as an available codec in Publish+Share/Computer/AVI/Microsoft AVI and export that as your .avi file? Details of the export would be interesting.

We will be watching for further developments.

Thanks.

ATR

Report · Feb 08, 2014

But the odd thing is that http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/supported-file-formats-...1 explicitly included .avi Here's the quote which unless I'm wrong says so:

Video file formats - import

Format and filename extension

3GPP (.3gp, .3g2)

Adobe Shockwave Flash (.swf)

Audio Video Interleave (.avi)

AVCHD (.m2ts, .mts)

DV stream (.dv)

H.264 (.mp4, .m4v)

H.264-encoded QuickTime (.mov, .mp4, .m4v)

MOD (.mod)

MPEG-1 (.m1v, .mpeg, .mpe)

MPEG-2 (.m2v, .mp2, .mpg)

MPEG-2 Transport Stream (.m2t)

QuickTime (.mov)

TOD (.tod)

Video Object (DVD video) (.vob)

Windows Media (.wmv) *

Windows Media Advanced Systems Format (.asf) *

There it is, in b&w. So why wont it? Actually I use Any Video Converter software (and have done for a few years, as well as Any DVD Converter), not free of course but excellent value. I'm talking about downloading from the web, not of course transferring files from my DSLR camera.

Brian

Milton Keynes, UK

Report · Feb 08, 2014

Brian

Your link is not working. It is giving off "Sorry, this page is not available".

AVI is a wrapper format that wraps the video and audio compression of a file. Not all .avi are created equal. Numerous video compression types can be wrapped with it. Not all files wrapped with .avi are compatible and/or work well with Premiere Elements. To name a few .avi with different video compression that do not work well with Premiere Elements

Xvid with .avi wrapper

DivX with .avi wrapper

AVCHD with .avi wrapper

The Lagarith video codec that I referred to in my post in this thread is not included with the program. But it can be downloaded and installed, and it then does appear in the choices of video compression in the AVI section of the exports. Many prefer working with that added on video compression type rather than the what is.

The Xvid is notorious as a bad choice of Xvid.avi.

Some have reported import of the DivX codec and successful use of it in Premiere Elements as the video codec, but others have had problems with it.

The program has to support the video compression as well as the format that wraps it.

Hope that helps.

ATR

Report · Feb 08, 2014

Thanks very much, ATR. I never actually save or export edited videos as .avi, it’s that many of the files that I want to use already come in that format.

I must investigate further the Lagarith codec.

all best

Brian

++++++++++++++++

Report · Feb 08, 2014

Brian

Thanks for the reply.

Please let us know how we can help whenever needed.

ATR

Report · Feb 09, 2014

Thanks ATR, I'm writing this on my laptop which doesn't have PE11

installed -- my desktop has had an unrelated crash and needs repair of some

sort, so I wont have anything to report for a while, hopefully only a little

while.

all best

Brian

Report · Feb 08, 2014

Brian,

I agree with ATR 100%. While AVI is a supported format, there are so very many variables, regarding the CODEC inside the AVI, and many will just not work.

Think of the file's format (AVI in this case) like the foil around a stick of gum, with the paper wrapper removed. You know that you have a stick of gum, but is it Spearmint, Clove, Double-mint, or Juicy Fruit? They all look the same in their foil wrapper. It's what's inside that wrapper, that matters with a video file. The same is true for other formats too, like MOV, MPEG, etc.

In very general terms, PrE can handle AVI files, but with all the variations, that is only in general. ATR cites some of the most difficult variations - that, specifically, will likely not edit in PrE, even with the proper CODEC installed.

Good luck, and hope that helps explains why some AVI files work perfectly, but some never will.

Hunt

Report · Feb 08, 2014

It does, Bill, thank you. I must have read about the ‘foil wrapper’ and .avi before because distant bells are ringing, but I forgot.

all best

Brian

+++++++++++++++++

Report · Feb 08, 2014

Brian

Just an add on...

In view of my reply, what specific .avi files are you now working with that might be causing you problems in your version of Premiere Elements?

Video Compression

Audio Compression

Frame Size

Frame Rate

Interlaced or progressive

Pixel Aspect Ratio

and apparently with a .avi file extension.

With that information, we can fine tune our reply even further.

Thanks.

ATR

Report · Feb 08, 2014

ATR, best answer I can give you right now is that I shall keep a careful

note of what happens next time I get an .avi file to work on. Once I've

converted and edited a file, I don't keep the originals so if I tried to

reply properly I'd only be guessing.

I'll keep your email in the 'pending' folder.

Thanks again

Brian

+++++++++++++++++++

Report · May 03, 2013

How do i install codecs on the Premiere CS6 ?

Report · May 03, 2013

Try the Premier Pro forum.

Good luck!

Bill

Report · May 03, 2013

>How do i install codecs on the Premiere CS6

You should probably start by asking in that forum http://forums.adobe.com/community/premiere

When you go to the correct forum, you should start with the information requested below, so people will know what codec you need, and why

Information FAQ http://forums.adobe.com/message/4200840

Report · May 10, 2014

I have used Premiere Elements 11 for a few years and never had any problems with codecs, it ran .avi files fine, but then my hard drive started sending failure eminent warnings so I saved everything I could (for some reason I was never able to save a backup with my old system), I got a new hard drive, loaded a clean new Windows 7 install and built my system from there.

When I got to the Premiere Elements 11 and used it I noticed it came up with the "no codec for .avi" message that I had never seen before and would not play the same .avi movies that I had played with it hundreds of times before.

I was a little baffled so I went back and installed my old Premiere Elements 8 that I used to use and same codec message came up.

I remembered that I had some other video players installed on my old system so I went back and installed the old players one by one.

1. Cyberlink PowerDVD from the original Dell install didn't fix the codec problem.....

2. I had the "REAL" player on my old system so I installed it next and it didn't fix the codec problem....(The new "REAL" player live is a little to aggressive for me so I uninstalled it when it didn't fix my problem)

3. I had Quicktime installed so I installed it again and BINGO, my Premiere Elements 11 now plays .avi files like it used to.

I won't guarantee it will work for everyone but the basic Quicktime player is free so it won't hurt to try it (And it definitely worked for me)

Report · May 10, 2014

nitrostreet

It is a known fact that QuickTime installation on your computer along with Premiere Elements (any version) is one of the Adobe System Requirements.

Edit video | Adobe Premiere Elements 12 - Tech specs

Consequently I would ask you to give us some further insights into the observations that you just posted.

a. Before and after the QuickTime uninstall/reinstall, did your Premiere Elements 11 have QuickTime presets listed in the Publish+Share/Computer/QuickTime area? (I am assuming that you could open Premiere Elements 11 but it just would not accept .avi files. Was it accepting any video formats other than .avi?)

b. What version of QuickTime did you have installed when you decided to uninstall it? And, what version of QuickTime did you use for the reinstall?

c. What type of .avi files were involved in your situation...MotionJPEG.avi, DV.avi, or other?

d. You wrote

When I got to the Premiere Elements 11 and used it I noticed it came up with the "no codec for .avi" message that I had never seen before and would not play the same .avi movies that I had played with it hundreds of times before.

Did this happen at import or export or both. What player are you referring to...for the import, Edit area monitor or other?

Depending on your fine tuning of the details, are you suggesting that after changes in your system (hard drive failure and other repairs), that the QuickTime install was compromised and that a uninstall/reinstall of QuickTime was necessary to correct the ".avi" situation? What was going on with your Windows Media Player while all this was going on?

What was the specific message that you received from Premiere Elements 11 after the computer repairs...actually "no codec for .avi" or just a generic "not supported or codec needed" message?

Both Premiere Elements and QuickTime require Administrator use? Were your permissions adjusted anywhere along the line?

Your further details on your posted observations will be appreciated especially since you seem to be associating a QuickTime involvement with .avi failures.

Thanks.

ATR

Report · May 10, 2014

ATR,

After I posted this I did some more looking in the PE11 help and saw in one of the subjects this sentence: "Some video files are encoded with codecs (DivX, Xvid, 3ivx, and so on) that are not installed by default with Windows or Apple QuickTime" which tells me that Adobe apparently expects everyone to know that they're supposed to have Quicktime installed....seems like Adobe should include Quicktime in their installation if it is needed to make PE11 work right.

For your questions:

{a. Before and after the QuickTime uninstall/reinstall, did your Premiere Elements 11 have QuickTime presets listed in the Publish+Share/Computer/QuickTime area? (I am assuming that you could open Premiere Elements 11 but it just would not accept .avi files. Was it accepting any video formats other than .avi?)}

I don't know what was in the Publish+Share before, but Quicktime is there now with many different presets. What I was doing when I got the "codec missing" was going to: Add Media>Files and Folders>(the .avi file). It did play .wmv files but I didn't try any other files.

{b. What version of QuickTime did you have installed when you decided to uninstall it? And, what version of QuickTime did you use for the reinstall?}

Keep in mind that I did not uninstall Quicktime, I replaced the hard drive and did a clean install of Windows so this computer was like it never had Quicktime on it when the PE11 codecs weren't working. I don't know what version of Quicktime I had before but the version I have now is Version 7.7.5

{c. What type of .avi files were involved in your situation...MotionJPEG.avi, DV.avi, or other?}

I really don't know the exact type of .avi files, they were shot on a Canon Powershot S3 IS

{d. You wrote

When I got to the Premiere Elements 11 and used it I noticed it came up with the "no codec for .avi" message that I had never seen before and would not play the same .avi movies that I had played with it hundreds of times before.

Did this happen at import or export or both. What player are you referring to...for the import, Edit area monitor or other?}

It happened every time I tried import with the: Add Media>Files and Folders>(the .avi file) it would not even load the file, it would just come up with the codec missing box (I'm not sure of the exact wording of the error box) then all you could do was hit OK and the box would close.

The .AVI files would all play in the Windows Media Player with no problems.

I also have a second Laptop with Windows Vista that I use out in the garage that I had PE11 loaded onto that I thought I had used (the PE11) before, but tonight I went over and tried to use it and it also came up with the "codec missing" box. I searched the computer to see if it had Quicktime and it did not. I simply went online to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ and downloaded the Quicktime player there, went back and reopened PE11 on that computer and the .avi files play on it now, too. (I didn't have to change any settings or anything on either PE11 or Quicktime)