Flip Update fubars editing

[bulldozer]

I had been using Videostudio X2 to edit .mp4 videos generated off of a high def flip camera. VS X4 offered more features then flip's basic editor.

Last week an update cam through for the flip camera now I can no longer edit the video files.

[Accolades]

How does your update for yaour camera make it a VS problem?

Remove update for camera or re-install old update ?

[DVDDoug]

Some variations of the more-compressed, "more-advanced", formats (like MPEG-4) can be trouble with some software. You may have to use with the software that came with your camera, or try-out "the competition."

Was this an update to the camera (firmware), or an update to the camera's editing software on your computer?

If the software on your computer got messed-up, you can try re-installing Video Studio. I'm not sure if it will help, but it's worth a try.

Also, if there are any format option settings on the camera you can try changing the format. (This won't help with your current project.)

...I can no longer edit the video files.

Can you get them into Video Studio at all? If you can load the files, but Video Studio crashes when you edit, you can try saving in a less-compressed format before editing. If that works, you can re-open the new file and edit it. (You can convert it back to MPEG-4 when you're done, if that's the final-format you want.)

Another work-around is to convert your files to a different format (i.e. MPEG-2) with SUPER (FREE!!!) before editing.


Note - It's generally a bad idea to convert between two lossy formats, because you can potentially loose quality. (Almost all video compression formats are lossy.) However, sometimes there is no choice, and if you are making a regular DVD, the video must be converted to MPEG-2 at some point anyway.

[johnrr6]

I have the same problem. The Flip Camcorder said there was an update to it's software and I said yes. Flip updates the software on the desktop AND the camcorder so the software is instantly available no matter where you go. I don't think firmware was updated at the same time....

But the bottom lineis that the Flip .MP4 files will no longer import into VS X2

Message comes up "Unable to open File. File Leading Error. [17101:1:42"

I tried just changing the file extension from .mp4 to .avi-----but no luck.

I guess I could convert these files to get them to work. What do you guys think would be the best conversion with the least loss for this Pure Digital MinoHD Flip .MP4 file format????

[johnrr6]

I used DVDDoug's suggestion and downloaded SUPER (although it seems like they have made it difficult to do so and you get confused with everyone elses pay for product being advertised on the page)----don't let that dissuade you though.

Anyway----got it downloaded and installed and am impressed by the depth of this freeware product.

It lets you anaylyze the existing fles you want to convert-----so I looked over the specs of the Flip Camcorder video file which is in h264/AVC format with AAC...

Then I setup a conversion profile to convert it at almost exactly the same spec----- only to put it in a .avi "container".

The files convert in seconds (so there must not need to be a whole lot of "converting" to be done---which makes senss if the formats are virtually identical.)

Quality seems identical and VideoStudio X2 imports and opens the newly created files just fine.

SUPER also has a batch file conversion capability but I haven't figured that out yet.

Here's a pic of the settings I used:

[Ron P.]

Super does do a good job at converting files. I've even ran a video file through Super, not converting it to another format, but just using the same as the source. I changed nothing about it, and the video file (an MPEG-4), after running through Super loaded into VS, whereas the source would not. So I'm guessing Super just cleaned it up so VS could read it..

[johnrr6]

I tried just doing MP4 to MP4.....

But I must have been setting something wrong as I kept getting a "source Error" and the program would freeze.

If I understand video codec stuff (which seems to be more like a black art than science LOL)...anyway----I belive just adding the .avi container doesn't really do much to the actual file itself----but it sure made it load easily into VS X2.

I REALLY love the way SUPER has the ability to analyze the source file and tell you a EVERYTHING about the source, bit rate, aspect, size, pixel size, encoder, audio encoder, audio rate-----you name it!!!

Now all I have to do is figure out batch file conversion!

What a fabulous free program-----I'm going to donate some bucks to the author!

[JohnM]

Using Super, I found the best way was to check the two "Stream Copy" boxes. This has the advantage that it doesn't re-encode the content (so no degradation) and by repackaging the payload it works in VS X2 for me. To be clear, I am shooting with the newer stainless steel Mino HD camcorder, and been having the problem described above.