Problem with Adobe After Effects

[seven_deuce offsuit]

I rendered a project in After Effects and imported it to Vegas, but the video isn't showing. I tried viewing on Windows and it works fine. For some reason, when I trying previewing the footage on Vegas, it won't show. Can anyone help? I rendered another project on After Effects and it worked fine on Vegas, but this one just doesn't want to work.

[guns1inger]

Details ?

What format did you render to ?

[seven_deuce offsuit]

I rendered it to MPEG-2.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

As for the details this is what I did: I imported an image (JPEG) I wanted to work on, added a few special effects (I used some presets that were available in Adobe Bridge for text animation), saved the project so I could render it, rendered it to MPEG-2 and got video that was not viewable in Vegas. That's all I remember doing, and I don't see what the problem is.

Also, when I rendered in avi I was able to view it on Vegas, but I don't know why MPEG-2 is not giving me these results.

[guns1inger]

For best results in Begas, render to DV AVI instead. Vegas is, first and foremost, a DV editor. It should load mpeg-2 (depending on the extension, you might have to browse for all files) but performance will be less than you would get for DV or lossless compression.

The other reason not to use mpeg-2 as an intermediate format is that it does not withstand multiple compression very well. It is a more lossy compression than DV, so you through away a lot of information when you first encode to mpeg-2, then even more when you process it further and encode again out of Vegas.

Mpeg-2 was designed for playback. It should be th elast format you encode to, not one you use along the way.

[Cunhambebe]

I definitely agree with guns1inger... MPEG2 is a final format (of course you can edit) but it is a lossy file.
You can try to render you project in After Effects as a Targa Sequence (Targa 32). Don't know why Vegas refuses to show the MPEG2 video file. Did you register its MainConcept plug-in? Is your Vegas a trial version?

[seven_deuce offsuit]

I have the full version and it's not a trial. I know I can edit MPEG-2 with Vegas because I have before (I forgot it was a lossy format, I guess I'll try editing avi), but the MPEG-2 file I got from After Effects is showing me nothing on Vegas.

On another note, would converting an MPEG-2 file to an AVI file lose quality? I know compression does, but what about conversion?

[seven_deuce offsuit]

Since we're talking about rendering, what format should I render to for DVD authorizing? Compiling a DVD compresses files, so what format would be best? Also, when a file is compressed when making a DVD, what format does it compress it to? Sorry if this is off topic, but I really need to know this stuff. I'm trying to make a DVD.

[guns1inger]

For DVD you must encode as mpeg 1 or mepg 2. See What is DVD - top left corner of this site. DV is also lossy, compressing video at a factor if around 5:1 over uncompressed video. It can also, depending on the vendor, handle multiple re-encoding much better than mpeg can. However you want to avoid this as much as possible.

Cunhambebe's advice is in fact the best - render to a series of still images in an uncompressed or lossless compression format. TARGA is good, and can also hold an alpha channel, which can be important in effects work. You also have the advantage that if something happend mid render, you can resume where you left off instead of having to start again.

However if the clips are short and there is no compositing happening, DV will suffice.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

For DVD you must encode as mpeg 1 or mepg 2. See What is DVD - top left corner of this site. DV is also lossy, compressing video at a factor if around 5:1 over uncompressed video. It can also, depending on the vendor, handle multiple re-encoding much better than mpeg can. However you want to avoid this as much as possible.

Cunhambebe's advice is in fact the best - render to a series of still images in an uncompressed or lossless compression format. TARGA is good, and can also hold an alpha channel, which can be important in effects work. You also have the advantage that if something happend mid render, you can resume where you left off instead of having to start again.

However if the clips are short and there is no compositing happening, DV will suffice.

So ultimately you cannot preserve quality to its finest after editing when making a DVD because MPEG is lossy?

The Targa sequence is a good idea, however. The only problem I have with this is the unreasonable amount of space it takes. I found that editing AVI which I found was also a lossless format takes less space than a Targa sequence. Then again, AVI too takes up too much space. That's the reason I capture video to MPEG to edit even though I may lose quality along the way. I've never tried capturing video with Vegas (I never found out how or what I'm doing wrong) and the program I use only captures in MPEG, but Vegas captures in DV by default right? I may have to consider editing this type of file with Vegas because as you said earlier, Vegas is optimized for DV editing.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

Ok, I just had the wrong chords plugged in. That solves my capturing problem.

[edDV]

For DVD you must encode as mpeg 1 or mepg 2. See What is DVD - top left corner of this site. DV is also lossy, compressing video at a factor if around 5:1 over uncompressed video. It can also, depending on the vendor, handle multiple re-encoding much better than mpeg can. However you want to avoid this as much as possible.

Cunhambebe's advice is in fact the best - render to a series of still images in an uncompressed or lossless compression format. TARGA is good, and can also hold an alpha channel, which can be important in effects work. You also have the advantage that if something happend mid render, you can resume where you left off instead of having to start again.

However if the clips are short and there is no compositing happening, DV will suffice.

So ultimately you cannot preserve quality to its finest after editing when making a DVD because MPEG is lossy?

The Targa sequence is a good idea, however. The only problem I have with this is the unreasonable amount of space it takes. I found that editing AVI which I found was also a lossless format takes less space than a Targa sequence. Then again, AVI too takes up too much space. That's the reason I capture video to MPEG to edit even though I may lose quality along the way. I've never tried capturing video with Vegas (I never found out how or what I'm doing wrong) and the program I use only captures in MPEG, but Vegas captures in DV by default right? I may have to consider editing this type of file with Vegas because as you said earlier, Vegas is optimized for DV editing.

Hold on, you have run up against the disk space vs image quality tradeoff. Which do you want?

If you want quality, you avoid lossy compression until the last step.

If your concern is disk space then you must accept lossy compression.

Best you restate what you are trying to do and the equipment available to you. We can help you optimize your process.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

If I had to choose, I'd have to go with quality. And with that I'm trying to capture in a more manageable format, AVI DV (since Vegas is optimized for DV), but now I'm faced with another problem. When I use Vegas's capture application, I always get the same error:

Sony Video Capture

Exception 0xC0000005 (access violation) READ:0x4 IP:0x442883
In Module 'VidCap60.EXE' at Address 0x400000 + 0x42883
Thread: GUI ID=0x1524 Stack=0x12C000-0x130000
Registers:
EAX=015c4108 CS=001b EIP=00442883 EFLGS=00250246
EBX=015c3bc8 SS=0023 ESP=0012cf88 EBP=0012d3f4
ECX=00000000 DS=0023 ESI=015c3990 FS=003b
EDX=001f4f50 ES=0023 EDI=015c4108 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
00442883: 8B 51 04 89 54 24 48 8B .Q..T: 47 30 8B 48 08 8B 55 08 G0.H..U.
Stack Dump:
0012CF88: 00000000
0012CF8C: 00187CC8 00140000 + 47CC8
0012CF90: 77D4BF58 77D40000 + BF58 (USER32.dll)
0012CF94: 0012D0AC 00030000 + FD0AC
0012CF98: 77D70467 77D40000 + 30467 (USER32.dll)
0012CF9C: 001EBFF8 00140000 + ABFF8
0012CFA0: FFFFFFFF
0012CFA4: 00000000
0012CFA8: 00000000
0012CFAC: 00000000
0012CFB0: 00000001
0012CFB4: 00000000
0012CFB8: 00000000
0012CFBC: 00000000
0012CFC0: 015C3BC8 015C0000 + 3BC8
0012CFC4: 00010011 00010000 + 11
> 0012CFD0: 5AD71AF6 5AD70000 + 1AF6 (uxtheme.dll)
> 0012CFEC: 77D488A6 77D40000 + 88A6 (USER32.dll)
> 0012CFFC: 004A4600 00400000 + A4600 (VidCap60.EXE)
0012D000: 00000000
0012D004: 00000000
> 0012D008: 773F62FB 773D0000 + 262FB (COMCTL32.dll)
0012D00C: 00000000
> 0012D01C: 77D4B3D2 77D40000 + B3D2 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D020: 77D48734 77D40000 + 8734 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D02C: 77D48734 77D40000 + 8734 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D040: 773F62FB 773D0000 + 262FB (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D050: 773F62FB 773D0000 + 262FB (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D058: 77D48BD9 77D40000 + 8BD9 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D064: 77D4885A 77D40000 + 885A (USER32.dll)
> 0012D06C: 77D4882A 77D40000 + 882A (USER32.dll)
> 0012D084: 77D4EB3E 77D40000 + EB3E (USER32.dll)
> 0012D09C: 00E50A9A 00DE0000 + 70A9A (nview.dll)
0012D0A0: 01EF094D 01EB0000 + 4094D
0012D0A4: 00000000
0012D0A8: 00000000
0012D0AC: 0012D0FC 00030000 + FD0FC
> 0012D0CC: 77D4EAF2 77D40000 + EAF2 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D0E8: 77D862B6 77D40000 + 462B6 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D0F8: 00E507E0 00DE0000 + 707E0 (nview.dll)
0012D0FC: 00000000
0012D100: 00000000
0012D104: 00000000
0012D108: 0000000E
> 0012D114: 77D6B848 77D40000 + 2B848 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D124: 77D6B858 77D40000 + 2B858 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D13C: 7C90EAE3 7C900000 + EAE3 (ntdll.dll)
> 0012D154: 00E507E0 00DE0000 + 707E0 (nview.dll)
> 0012D158: 77D86258 77D40000 + 46258 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D15C: 77D494BE 77D40000 + 94BE (USER32.dll)
> 0012D160: 77D4D4E4 77D40000 + D4E4 (USER32.dll)
0012D164: 00020920 00020000 + 920
> 0012D198: 77D54911 77D40000 + 14911 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D1C4: 773F6184 773D0000 + 26184 (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D1DC: 00E507E0 00DE0000 + 707E0 (nview.dll)
0012D1E0: 00000001
0012D1E4: 00000000
0012D1E8: 5B011B75
0012D1EC: 00000014
> 0012D1F8: 77D4B50C 77D40000 + B50C (USER32.dll)
> 0012D218: 77D4C487 77D40000 + C487 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D21C: 77D4C493 77D40000 + C493 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D244: 77D4B629 77D40000 + B629 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D248: 773F63D4 773D0000 + 263D4 (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D258: 773F62FB 773D0000 + 262FB (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D25C: 773F63E2 773D0000 + 263E2 (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D2A0: 773F62FB 773D0000 + 262FB (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D2C4: 77D48734 77D40000 + 8734 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D2D8: 773F62FB 773D0000 + 262FB (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D2E8: 773F62FB 773D0000 + 262FB (COMCTL32.dll)
> 0012D2F0: 77D48BD9 77D40000 + 8BD9 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D2FC: 77D4885A 77D40000 + 885A (USER32.dll)
> 0012D304: 77D4882A 77D40000 + 882A (USER32.dll)
> 0012D310: 77D4BF58 77D40000 + BF58 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D31C: 77D4EB3E 77D40000 + EB3E (USER32.dll)
> 0012D32C: 77D4BF58 77D40000 + BF58 (USER32.dll)
> 0012D334: 00E50A9A 00DE0000 + 70A9A (nview.dll)
- - -
0012FFF0: 00000000
0012FFF4: 00000000
0012FFF8: 005C424A 00400000 + 1C424A (VidCap60.EXE)
0012FFFC: 00000000

I have no idea what it means, but I thought someone here might be able to translate what the problem is. Also, just like the problem I have with After Effects, I get video, but video that is not viewable on Vegas. G-Spot says that the video codec is MJPG but I don't know if that's the problem. And I don't think Vegas is suppose to be capturing in that format. I'm suppose to be getting AVI DV, but I'm not.

[guns1inger]

Lets go back a step. What type of camera and what type of connection are you using ?

A miniDV camera stores DV on tape. The 'capture' process is basically a file transfer from the tape into an AVI container for windows. MJPG sounds more like a still camera with movie mode, rather than a DV camera.

Also, are you using Firewire (iLink, IEEE1394 etc) to connect the camera to the PC, or USB ?

[edDV]

Vegas can import MJPEG. Please provide camera details and image size.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

I'm using a miniDV camera with a USB cable to transfer. After reading the directions on Vegas, it says that I need OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 installed on my computer before running Video Capture. I did a quick search on my computer to see if I had it installed and I had something called OHCI1394 so I don't know if that's what they were talking about. Next, I used my camera's USB chord to connect to the camera into the computer so I could start transfering. As a result I get that error I stated above and become left with a MJPG video.

[guns1inger]

OHCI139 and IEEE1394 are basically the same thing - firewire. It has a different connector to USB, and will allow full frame DV transfer from tape or live feed from your camera. USB is usually reserved for transfering lower resolution (and sometimes lower framerate) web/email ready footage. Firewire is what you should be using if you want to use DV in most cases.

[edDV]

I'm using a miniDV camera with a USB cable to transfer. After reading the directions on Vegas, it says that I need OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 installed on my computer before running Video Capture. I did a quick search on my computer to see if I had it installed and I had something called OHCI1394 so I don't know if that's what they were talking about. Next, I used my camera's USB chord to connect to the camera into the computer so I could start transfering. As a result I get that error I stated above and become left with a MJPG video.

Not the right way to transfer video from a MiniDV camcorder. You should be using a IEEE-1394 cable like this one to get a full quality DV format transfer. They are cheap.



The USB port transfer is for webstreams and is usually MPeg1 CIF progressive 320x240 but could be MJPEG on some camcorders. DV format is 720x480/576 interlaced. Video stream bitrate is 25 Mb/s. Additional PCM audio, metadata and transmission overhead bring the total stream around 30-34 Mb/s.

You can transfer DV with the Vegas capture program but you might find free WinDV easier to use.

[seven_deuce offsuit]

So the USB chord was problem then. As for that cable, they're called just IEEE-1394 cables right? Yeah, I've been transfering with a USB chord for a while now and always wondered why I've been getting such noisey and grainy resolution. I'm probably going to have to go to Radioshack today and get one.

[edDV]

Walmart will probably be cheaper
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3756912