How to import WebM / vp9 / vp09 / vp8 format

[aldel]

There are a lot of posts about this, many with suboptimal answers, so I'm going to post what I've learned, and add links to here from all the other posts I've seen.

You don't need to convert the file to a different codec to import. That would obviously degrade quality, as well as being an extra step.

Some people have noted that WebM formats are designed for content delivery, not editing, and using them for editing may be inefficient. The best solution for this is proxying, not converting to a different format before importing. (Of course if the video was originally recorded in some other format, and converted to WebM, it is better to get the original files if possible.)

The free WebM plugin from Fnord supports importing (decoding), not just exporting, although they don't mention this in its description. You can install the plugin from the Creative Cloud desktop app or by downloading it from the Fnord site.

Once installed, the plugin will automatically be used whenever you try to import a file with the .webm extension. If a file has a different extension but uses one of the WebM codecs (vp8 or vp9), you'll still get an error message about an unsupported codec.

The file must use either the vp8 or the vp9 video codec, AND either the Ogg Vorbis or the newer Opus audio codec. If the file uses a different audio codec, the plugin will give an error message.

I've seen files with extension ".ts.mp4" that contain video in vp9 and audio in AAC (from Android phones, or downloaded from Google hosting). To import this you do need to convert something. My solution is to use ffmpeg to convert the audio to Opus while copying the video stream (NOT decoding and re-encoding the video, which would degrade quality). Command line:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.ts.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a libopus -b:a 510k outputfile.webm

This will degrade the audio quality a bit, although it uses the maximum bit rate for Opus, which is very good quality. If you want absolute best quality in both video and audio, you should be able to create a separate audio file with just the AAC stream, import that along with the video, and sync them up. The ffmpeg command for this would be something like:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.ts.mp4 -c:a copy outputaudiofile.aac

(Not sure .aac is really the correct file extension for that, but it seems to work in Premiere.)

[Mdentonetc]

This link is empty now.  The only thing in this URL is a PDF that explains the plugin, but there is no plugin.  There is a link to the GitHub page, but that just has a Photoshop Plugin and then a link to this same PDF.  This is no longer a valid solution.

[aldel]

Sorry for the broken link. Looks like you can now get the Fnord plugin from their front page: https://www.fnord.com/

(I don't see a way to edit my original post)

[Mdentonetc]

Thank you aldel.  I have tested on my system with Media Encoder and it works.  

I'm still frustrated that Adobe is ignoring this issue, but I appreciate people in the community like you and Brendan at Fnord fixing this in the meantime.

[R Neil Haugen]

It Isn't that "Adobe" is ignoring these codecs. They have clearly stated views on adoption or adding support for codecs and other things. Which is, simply stated, when they see enough usage for that item across their user base, to raise that issue on their priorities list, it gets raised.

Their internal data clearly doesn't support redirected dev efforts into these codecs at this time. As other things on the always massive list of work needed rate higher priorities.

That priorities list is always subject to change. Keep pushing, because as soon as this gets high enough, it will get done. Just understand you need to help move this up that list. Perhaps encouraging others to post also can help.

I understand the frustration,  as several things dear to me don't rate high enough to get done either.

Frustrated as I am, though, I do understand they have very supportable reasons for their choices.

I often don't like the choices, but as an adult, I do understand the difference between my "druthers" and reality.

[MyerPj]

Use Shutter Encoder to convert the files (before editing) and also conform to constant frame rate. Maybe try ProRes LT or even ProRes PROXY format within Shutter Encoder for easy to edit formats with 'better' files size. DonationWare but certainly worth it and there are regular updates. https://www.shutterencoder.com/en/

[R Neil Haugen]

Transcoding should not reduce image quality through several generations if you use an appropriate "digital intermediate" codec like ProRes 422. Which might also be overkill for many VP9 files.

And also as MyerPj notes, make sure you t-code to a CFR, constant frame rate file, as some VP9 is VFR which is a lousy format for editing. Premiere will have to make frames from whole cloth somehow, to get an exact and correct number of frames every second.