Using .AVI in Premiere Pro.

[TRCihad]

Hello,

First of all I want to point out that it's about a MacBook Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.

This is the problem:

I am an anime editor. I download videos of anime and edit them with my MacBook Pro. Back when i had windows, it was easy: i just installed the needed .avi codecs ( div/xvid) and i could use the .avi files ( wich the clips of the anime i download is) and i was good to go.

Since i have a macbook pro, i can't edit the clips i want with premiere: I installed all the xvid and divx codecs i could find wich allowed me to play the files in quicktime, and also i can edit them with After Effects. But whenever i try to import files in Premiere, it says: ' Unsupported compression in file.'

I've been looking for a solution for 2 days, i would highly appreciate if someone could find a solution.

Regards

( Sorry for my bad english, I am not from the UK / USA. )

[the_wine_snob · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the forum.

CODEC's, the building-blocks of AV files are odd things. Some will work for playability, some for Export and some for editing. This ARTICLE will give you some background.

I have never been able to Import properly and edit any Xvid, or DivX files on my PC's, and I have those CODEC's properly installed. Some other NLE's can edit with them, like CyberLink's PowerDirector, but PrPro (and PrE) cannot. Something is always wrong with the Imported file.

I always convert that material to DV-AVI (in my case), and those then edit fine, though the quality hit from the extreme compression is noticeable.

If you can play these files fine on the Mac in QT, then I strongly suggest that you invest US$30 in the Pro version (just an unlock key), and use QT Pro to Export to MOV format, of Importing into PrPro.

Good luck,

Hunt

[TRCihad]

Thanks for the quick reply!

So your advise would be to convert the files I have ( wich are .avi ) to another format like .mov ? I already thought about that but since I have a lot of clips of them like 20 seconds each it will take me a long time. Also what I have understand of your reply is that there is always a ' problem ' editing xvid/divx ? Sorry if i might have misread something, like i said before i am not an english-expert

[the_wine_snob]

[Sorry, but this reply got posted twice. See below.]

Message was edited by: Bill Hunt - deleted text, as reply got posted twice?

[the_wine_snob]

You did not misread. I have yet to see PrPro (or PrE) work perfectly with Xvid/DivX material. The main issues are Video, but no Audio, Audio, but no Video, or horribly and dynamically OOS Audio. With the Video issues, one often gets one still frame from the beginning, and then no more images, though the Audio might continue to play.

On the PC, I use a conversion program, DigitalMedia Converter, that is shareware, but I think only for the PC, and it does batch conversion. I load it up with Xvid/DivX files and alter my settings to get SD 720 x 480 29.97 FPS DV-AVI Type II files with 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV Audio. I hit Convert, and get a cup of coffee. When done, so is the conversion.

Unfortunately, I do not know of such for the Mac, but others probably will. I do know that QT Pro should be able to do the conversion to MOV, through Export, but with no batch function, that I know of.

Good luck,

Hunt

PS - as I mentioned, some other NLE's are much more capable at editing Xvid/DivX files, than any Adobe program is. However, PrPro will Export to DivX (Xvid has always failed, or even crashed the program, so I do not bother with that) just fine, but from DV-AVI Type II source footage. Xvid/DivX are delivery-only CODEC's, and are not meant to be edited. The material has been greatly compressed, and is in a GOP structure, neither of which is helpful, when going to edit.

[TRCihad]

Urgh, looks like i was trying to reach the impossible all this time. Audio is actually no problem because i just put mp3 audio behind the clips i edit. it was actually just the videoclips themselves. And as you just said: whenever I edited on PC with Sony Vegas (xvid/divx) i noticed that frames started to move and other glitch type of things started to show up. Guess i'll need to get my clips in another way.

I highly appreciate your help.

[the_wine_snob]

If you do convert, and use PrPro, I strongly recommend also converting the MP3's to PCM/WAV (Audition, or the free Audacity can easily do this), as MP3's can be highly problematic. I always convert those to PCM/WAV 48KHz 16-bit and have had zero issues with any.

Good luck,

Hunt