VSProX3 MOV support is broken. Solved by MOV->MP4 conversion

[Goble]

Hello,

I have this great new toy "Kodak Zi8" compact HD digital camcorder. However, it uses the infamous (as far Corel is concerned) MOV QuickTime file format for HD videos.

I have older ULead VideoStudio 8.x app but it cannot handle HD videos. I liked the VS 8.x authoring capabilities, so decided to try evaluation version of Corel VStudio Pro X3 to see if it can handle MOV files from Kodak camcorder. Well, it turn out that VSProX3 cannot handle MOV files properly. VS crashes after rendering few percents, authoring is also choppy and preview video is jerky even when workstation should be OK to handle FullHD videos (Core2Duo machine with NVidia GPU).

At first I tested with the latest Quicktime for Windows (I have WinXPPro) 7.6.6 version. VS crashed all the time during rendering. It could handle only very short few minute movies (this leads me to believe that there is some memory leak problems in how VS uses QT files). After googling around someone on this forums suggested that VS works with QT 7.6.0 version. I downgraded to QT 7.6.0 and indeed this time VS didn't crash. However, preview and authoring was still choppy.

Then I downloaded "Pinnacle Studio 14" eval version to see how it goes. Much better. It could handle MOV files out of the box and authoring was smooth on the very same workstation. However, even when Pinnacle Studio and Corel VideoStudio both have very similar look-and-feel, I liked VStudio more (used to it in ULead 8 version).

Couple posts on this forum suggested to re-render MOV files to MPEG format (see http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 56&start=0 posts). Not good because it would explode the disk usage and quality would decrease, not to mention the time it takes. However, Kodak Zi8 uses standard h264/aac video-audio content in MOV envelope, so started to look for another solution without loosing quality.

VS seemed to work just fine with MP4 h264 files, so solution was to remux Kodak MOV files to MP4 format without transcoding the content. I used FFMPEG openSource tool to remux the files. Here's how it goes

- Download Windows version of FFMPEG.EXE from http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/ web site. I used "2010-06-14 static 32 bit" version, but probably by the time you read this there is already newever version available (not necessarly bug-free version because author of that site has created nice autobuild environment to get the latest Linux/Unbix source to cross-compile it for Windows).

- Unzip the downloaded 7z archive file (http://www.7-zip.org tool if you cannot unpack it otherwise)

- Run MOV files through following command line to get MP4 files without loosing quality (and it goes fast because no re-transcoding, just remuxing the envelope)

Code: Select all

   FFMPEG.EXE -y -i inputFileNameHere.MOV -acodec copy -vcodec copy outputFileName.MP4

Now use this MP4 file in VStudioProX3 and it works wonderfully. Smooth preview and authoring, rendering no longer crashes. I'm sure this should work with other highdef MOV files also and not just with Kodak Zi8 videos assuming MOV file contains h264/aac video. Of course FFMPEG could be used to transcode video or audio to different format also, but you just have to find correct cmd line options for acodec and vcodec options.

Hopefully someone else finds this trick useful. Thanks goes to FFMPEG team for developing such a great video/audio file tool and the author of Arrozcru web site for cross-compiling Linux/Unix originating FFMPEG sources on Windows platform.

As a reference, Kodak takes 1080p/30, 720p/30, 720p/60 videos. Here's "MediaInfo" from 720p/60 filmed test video. The remaining problem with VStudioProX3 is to find out how it could render 720p/60 HD videos, because it doesnt allow me to choose more than 30fps for 720p videos. However, that's a topic for another discussion in another thread.

Code: Select all

Video:
  Format                             : AVC - Advanced Video Codec
  Format profile                   : Main@L4.2
  Format settings, CABAC         : Yes
  Format settings, ReFrames        : 4 frames
  Bit rate mode                    : Variable
  Width/Height                    : 1280 pixels / 720 pixels
  Display aspect ratio             : 16/9
  Frame rate mode                  : Variable
  Frame rate                       : 59.941 fps
  Minimum frame rate               : 59.920 fps
  Maximum frame rate               : 59.960 fps
  Original frame rate              : 59.940 fps
  Colorimetry                      : 4:2:0
  Scan type                        : Progressive
  Title                            : Ambarella AVC / Ambarella AVC

Audio:
  Format                           : AAC  - Advanced Audio Codec
  Format version                   : Version 4
  Format profile                   : LC
  Format settings, SBR             : No
  Bit rate mode                    : Constant
  Bit rate                         : 128 Kbps
  Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
  Channel positions                : L R
  Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
  Resolution                       : 16 bits
  Title                            : Ambarella AAC / Ambarella AAC

[tlb]

Thanks! I was having the same exact problem. I have been using VideoStudio 9 for a long time, but now that I got a new camera that takes .MOV video, I ran into the same crashing problem. So I also decided to try the new VSProX3 and still ended up crashing.

Your suggestion really helped me. I ran my .MOV videos through the FFMPEG tool. It's great that you don't lose quality and it's quick. So then I was able to do my editing and previewing of the movie and it was working great. It never crashed again. So thank you so much for that!

I still have a problem though and wondered if you could help, since you were in the same boat as I was. When I render with the following properties, it completes the render. When I replay it in VS, it looks and sounds great. However when I try to play it outside of VS, say with Windows Media Player, there is no sound. Any suggestions?

NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo

[tlb]

I solved the no sound issue. I downloaded AC3Filter, and it is working now.

[johnsrichards]

To convert .MOV to .MP4 files I have been trying WinFF http://winff.org/html_new/ It has standard presets for conversion, and an easy to use interface for batch conversion of video. It allows users to make their own custom presets. Kodak Zi8 .MOV files do not work well with Corel Video Studio Pro X3 (They seem to work better with the December 2010 updates for Video Studio Pro X3). Kodak Zi8 .MOV videos used to cause earlier versions of Corel Video Studio Pro X3 to crash. However it may be best practice to convert Kodak Zi8 .MOV files to MP4 before you edit. The updates Corel released in December 2010 help, and Zi8 .MOV files seem to edit OK, but I have had audio vanish after a few video edit/cuts. It does seem that the best method is to convert Zi8 .MOV files to .MP4. Current standard winff presets seem to work fine. However some increase file size, while others decrease file size. Ideally conversion does not change the .MOV file size and just converts a file with the original settings into an .MP4 file. Does anyone have the full range of presets that convert all the Kodak Zi8 .MOV formats to .MP4 that may be imported to winff? Does anyone have comments... or better still a tip jar, I can fill in exchange for a complete set of presets I can use in winff to convert all .MOV formats to .MP4? I am sure with more time I can configure all the presets needed for a 1 to 1 conversion for all Zi8 .MOV file formats... but if anyone wants to jumpin please let me know! Note that Kodak's next version of this camera the Zi10 Playtouch and now uses .MP4, and no longer uses .MOV. Of course you'd think Kodak would provide a 1 to 1 conversion utility but I have not found it yet. Hope these notes also help.

[meeronc]

Thanks Goble for his analysis. I was having playback issues with .Mov files produced by my Kodak Playsport. VSProX3 played individual clips correctly, but stuttered its way through in the "Project" playback mode. According to the video file properties, VSProX3 reported that the file was encoded with Ambarella AVC. I'm not a video expert, but found this to be concerning -- could the playback issues be caused by VSProX3 not interpreting the file correctly?

Goble's analysis along with feedback from other forum members lead me to do something simple -- I renamed the file from .MOV to .MP4. I imported the renamed file and examined the file properties in VSPro3 and discovered that it now considers it to be a plain H.264 encoded file -- this seemed to make sense. And most importantly, the stuttering during playback disappeared -- all is well.

I'm sure that using ffmpeg as Goble suggested would work, but wanted to pass along a solution that worked for me.

Thanks everyone.

[meeronc]

Thanks again to Goble.....

Just used FFMPEG successfully to resolve my .mov stuttering problem in VSProX3.

Additionally, I was able to use WinFF to batch process .mov files using the command line parameters that Goble suggested. All you have to do (in WinFF) is create a "Preset" with the following (modified) command line: -y -acodec copy -vcodec copy
Additionally, you need to specify the output extension of mp4 in the preset dialog box.

Since WinFF acts as the GUI for FFMPEG, the modified command line doesn't need the -i input switch or output parameter

Have fun!

[paulakrantz]

now I always choose free video converter, such as handbrake, VideoSolo Free Video Converter, both of them is free. The conversion from MOV to MP4 is fluent.