.avi codec

[AgaNagA]

I've been making digital copies of my old VHS tapes using a renkforce RF-GR2 av-grabber. It saves the video on a micro SD card in .avi format. 

The problem is Premiere doesn't suport .avi

Is there a codec that I can install so I can edit my videos without having to use handbrake, I have a lot of tapes that are longer then 2,5 hours and it takes handbrake over 9 hours just to convert 1 video. This is going to take me months to convert all of my videos

Here is a screencapture of a video I would love to be able to edit directly

 

Please help

 

[Ann Bens]

Premiere does support avi but not with the H.264 codec inside.

Sorry to say but if you want to use those files in Premiere you need to transcode them first to an editable format.

[AgaNagA]

Is there any other software that does support .avi with H.264 inside ?

[Averdahl]

Try to rename the file/s from .avi to .mp4 or .mts or .ts or .m2ts. This will force the MPEG Importer to handle the files instead of the AVI Importer.

[Phillip Harvey]

This type of file renaming to change the container might not work, but remuxing is potentially a good idea. VLC might be able to remux, but there is other remuxing software out there as well. TSMuxer comes to mind.

[AgaNagA]

But is there any other video edit software besides Premiere that can handle this type of avi file ?

[Peru Bob]

We are Adobe users generally, so you may have to try Google for the answer.

[Ann Bens]

Rerapping in vlc.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/avi-files-no-video-only-sound-problem/m-p/3360558?page=1

[AgaNagA]

Thank you for this, it's the next thing I wil try

[AgaNagA]

But sadly this doesn't work, it just opens and closes a window really fast

[AgaNagA]

I'm not that technical, I just want to do some simple edits. Can somebody help me out with my handbreake settings ? I'm transcoding a 2,5 hour video and as you can see this is taking for ever

 

 My goal is not losing too much quality

[Averdahl]

But did you even try to just rename one file and change the ending from .avi to .mp4, etc that i wrote earlier? This is the easiest thing to do in any file explorer and do not require a technical degree and the quality loss is zero.

Try that, import the file into Premiere Pro. You have nothing to loose just by trying and it is the least technical advanced thing to test to solve your issue.

I wrote:
Try to rename the file/s from .avi to .mp4 or .mts or .ts or .m2ts. This will force the MPEG Importer to handle the files instead of the AVI Importer.

[AgaNagA]

I've just tried this, .p4 .mts .ts .m2ts .mpeg .mp4 .mov
It doesn't work, I get the same error message I get with the .AVI

[Phillip Harvey]

You're exporting lossless, which is probably greatly increasing your encode time. You should also check the 'constant framerate' box. If the original video is constant then it might not matter, but the last thing you want is variable framerate 😉

You can also try: https://www.videohelp.com/software/tsMuxeR and see if it will accept the .AVI. If it does then you can just basically click a button to change the container rather than transcoding.

I found this one as well (haven't used it, but may be worth a try): https://www.videohelp.com/software/mkv-avi-to-mp4

[AgaNagA]

Thanks for the framerate tip, I'll check that next time

Tried to use tsMuxeR but the .AVI isn't supported. Also tried different settings but getting same error message

 

[Ann Bens]

My goal is not losing too much quality

You already lost a good deal of resolution by using the grabber.

Settings in Handbrake are incorrect.

Best is to use Philips suggestions (rerapping) or mine for VLC.

[AgaNagA]

You are not really helping me out here.

Like I said, I'm not that technical. What is wrong with the grabber ? Why are my Handbrake setting incorrect ? 
How do I rerap an .AVI file ? tsMuxeR doesn't support my kind of .AVI. Your VLC suggestion also doesn't work

[Ann Bens]

The grabber made the vhs tape 720x576 into 640x480 and changed the framerate to variable which means also a pain to edit in Premiere if you want to use the audio.

If you set Handbrake to lossless the file will be huge and will take a long time.

Framerate should be set to 25 and Constant Framerate, extention to mp4.

Try a short clip first.

[AgaNagA]

I've tried these settings on a shorter clip already. It took almost 2 hours for a 30 minute clip. It came out fine with no problems. 
Never expected that premiere wouldn't import these files so I grabbed like 75 tapes that now need simple edits, transcoding them all is going to take many hours at this rate.

For the quality of the VHS tapes I was told that the 'resolution' is interpeted as 352x480 and for mini-DV is 720x480

[Ann Bens]

H.264 in an avi container is a very uncommon format to edit. Its designed for watching only. Same goes for mkv and codec like xvid. Hence being not supported.

Mini dv 720x480 is NTSC (as in American tv format) and you live in PAL land which is 720x576.

Looking at the Mediainfo the tapes were caputured as 640x480.

A real converter would have given you PAL mini dv format and ready to edit.

Ik kan het niet mooier maken dan het is.

[AgaNagA]

Oke, I'm sending my video grabber back to the store and I'll buy another one, a 'real' converter.
I found a  Reflecta Video Capture for about the same price that does 720 x 576  with 25fps.

I'll be starting all over again lol

Tips zijn welkom 😉 

[Ann Bens]

You need to look at the wrapper and codec used.

Also look at this feature: Software burns edited files directly on DVD, VCD, SVCD (no additional HDD space needed)

You dont want that.

[Andy 1968]

If you use Windows your best bet is to use a Firewire based DV converter. In the video I use a Mac Mini but it is the same thing on a PC. Firewire DV converters are no longer made. You can buy them used for less that $100.00 on ebay. The DAC-100, ADVC 110 and ADS A/V Pyro all work.

https://youtu.be/vATw63nn3OQ

[AgaNagA]

Great video,
unfortunately I couldn't find one of those converters for a reasonable price, found the ADVC 110 for €345,- and a whole lot of other people looking for the same devices. 

I also found a video on youtube where somebody used an AV to HDMI upscaler and a game capture card. I'm going to try this out myself to see if I get some better quality.

I bought a DVD recorder on the market that has build in upscaler with HDMI-out, connect my VCR and HDMI-capture card and see what happens

[Andy 1968]

This method works but it is not as good as a Firewire DV converter. A lot of the cheap USB capture cards can also be a pain in the buttocks for several different reasons.

https://youtu.be/hroHcwOxoOI