File Not Supported

[drachor]

Let me preface by saying I am new to Premiere Elements

I have some video I am trying to bring into Premiere elements 7. They are on a dvd. I can watch the video on the windows media player but I have a hard time getting it into my project in premiere elements.

I have tried many times but always get the error message, "This type of file is not supported, or the required codec is not installed." Frankly, I do not know what a "codec" is.

Now I see on this last try after the above error message came up the video did show up in premiere elements. But the problem is the sound is not even with the video. That is it is behind.

The videos on this DVD are 28 1/2 minutes and thus are pretty big. They actually have a .vob suffix.

Can anybody give any advice. Am I using the wrong setting when I use the media downloader?

Any comments will be appreciated.

[ATR]

Drachor,

From your details, it sounds like you are following the preferred route for ripping the VOBs fri\om the DVD-VIDEO, namely
a. putting your DVD in the DVD Drive Tray
b. Opening Premiere Elements 7 and using Get Media for the DVD category to bring up the Media Downloader. Have you used the "Advanced Dialog" of the Media Downloader so that you can select a few VOBs at a time rather than all at once?
c. In the Advanced Dialog of the Media Downloader, you check off the VOBs that you want to bring into the program and then select OK.
d. After you click that OK, it is very important to wait for the "conforming" to be completed (watch blue bar at bottom right of interface for that progress, I think that is where it is in 7).

If you say that you have been there and done all that, then we need to talk about system resources and other matters.

Most people have good results going this route. But, there are those would have quality issues and other issues with this route. Then you will need to consider converting the VOBs to DV AVI before bringing them into Premiere Elements (with program such as MPEG Streamclip).

Few things for you to explore:
1. Rip a few VOBs from DVD at a time rather than all at once.
2. Once the VOBs are on the Timeline, then Render the Timeline by pressing the Enter key. The red line above the Timeline should turn green at the completion of this process. Now play the video and see and hear what that looks and sounds like. This Rendering of the Timeline can be time very consuming. More details on that later.
3. You could also try taking your VOBs on the Timeline and converting them to DV AVI via File/Export/Movie using the default settings. Then use the DV AVI version in your project.
4. You could also try converting your VOBs to DV AVI using the MPEG Streamclip program (freeware) and then bringing the DV AVI version in Premiere Elements. More details on that later.

Please review the comments, and we will see where we go from there.

ATR

[drachor]

When I am taken to the Media Downloader and chose the dvd drive 3 "icons" show up. I allowed only one to be "checked" and it seemd to come in. I repeated this time with a different one checked and it seemed to come in. Strangley when I checked only the small one (in terms of file size, all the icons are the same size of course) I got the same error message. Tried it a few times with the same results. Just so you know the two larger icons are around 100mb each.

So I went back to the main window and dragged the icon that showed there and played it but the sound is still way off the video. Discouraging, it is after midnight and I guess I will go to bed and try again tomorrow.

[ATR]

I will be back later today, but for now:

1. Are these homemade DVDs that have their content in DVD-VIDEO format on a DVD disc? Are there any protection issues involved in the DVD's content?

2. What project preset are you using for Premiere Elements 7 for this project? Do you have any information about the audio of the content of the DVD-VIDEO format on the DVD disc? I am assuming that it is Dolby Digital Stereo 2 ch.

3. I am not sure what you mean by "the audio is behind it". If you are in the Timeline View, the video and audio are linked, with the video on Video Track 1 and the audio directly underneath it on Audio Track 1. Instead, are you saying that is the arrangement, but the sound and video are not synchronized on playback?

To be continued........

ATR

[drachor]

1. Are these homemade DVDs that have their content in DVD-VIDEO format on a DVD disc? Are there any protection issues involved in the DVD's content?

No these came from a satellite TV station. They are programs featuring my wife. Last night I said the two larger icons were around 100 MB each that should have been around 1 Gig each. The crazy thing is that when I first installed Premiere Elements I captured (if that is the right word) video from these disks in the just playing around stage. At least that is how I remember it.

2. What project preset are you using for Premiere Elements 7 for this project? Do you have any information about the audio of the content of the DVD-VIDEO format on the DVD disc? I am assuming that it is Dolby Digital Stereo 2 ch.

NTSC Standard 48 - I guess I don't know enough about audio to answer that part of your question.

3. I am not sure what you mean by "the audio is behind it". If you are in the Timeline View, the video and audio are linked, with the video on Video Track 1 and the audio directly underneath it on Audio Track 1. Instead, are you saying that is the arrangement, but the sound and video are not synchronized on playback?

That is right they are not synchronized on playback.

Thank You

[ATR]

Let us try working on one of the VOBs that you get to the Timeline, but the video and audio are not synchronized.

With your VOB on the Timeline (Video Track 1/Audio Track 1), you should be seeing a thin red line the runs across the top of the Timeline. Hit the Enter key of your main keyboard and wait. Depending of the size of that VOB, it can be time consuming. After that "Rendering of the Timeline" is completed, the thin red line above the Timeline will turn green. Then playback your Timeline content and see if that took care of the synchronization problem.

Rendering the Timeline just gives you a better preview of the end product, it does not change the quality of the end product. You could omit this Rendering, just continue to Burn to Disc for the DVD-VIDEO and then judge the end product for audio synchronization. But you are still investing burn time which can be considered time consuming if it does not resolve the sound issue.

I do not know if it would be any quicker, probably,....with your VOB on the Timeline (Video Track 1/Audio Track 1), go to the File Menu/Export/Movie and use the default settings to convert (save) the VOB to DV AVI. You will get 2 copies of the DV AVI, one in the save location that you designate, the other in the Media Panel of Premiere Elements. Then you could,
a. Open a new project and with Premiere Elements Get Media/Files & Folders, bring in the DV AVI from its saved location.
or
b. Clear the VOB from the Timeline and drag the DV AVI version from the Media to the Timeline.

The above have worked for me under similar situations. If these do not help in your situation, we will talk about using MPEG Streamclip to do the VOB to DV AVI conversion.

ATR

[drachor]

As I stated before there are three icons when I use the media downloader it show 3 icons representing vobs. The 1st is 54 kbs. The 2nd is 1023 MB and the 3rd is 926MB. I unchecked the 3rd and was able to succesfully download and use the resultant video. I don't believe I did anything different. This gave me video that equaled the entire 1st program (TV program) and a bit into the 2nd.

I have tryed several times to download only the third vob both with the small one checked and with the small one unchecked. The voice and video still don't synchronize. I have also rendered and exported to
DV AVI as you suggested. No luck.

Maybe its time to use this MPEG Streamclip you have mentioned.

[ATR]

First a question: On this .VOB that is resisting processing, what is the file name? I know that it ends with .VOB, but what does it say before that, anything different than the .VOBs that worked?

More details on MPEG Streamclip

How can I convert VOBs and MPEGs to DV-AVIs?


http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bb8822c


I have used MPEG Streamclip 1.2 Windows/QuickTime Alternative 1.81 (the free route), and it works great, BUT...

In this process, there is a MPEG-2 playback component that is required. If you go the free route, the MPEG-2 playback component is included in the QuickTime Alternative 1.81. BUT, you cannot install QuickTime Alternative if you have the regular QuickTime installed. So, to get the free route to work, you will need to uninstall the regular QuickTime. Uninstalling the regular QuickTime I found to be near impossible, but I finally did it.

The non free route is to leave your QuickTime installed, download MPEG Streamclip, and buy and install "MPEG-2 Playback Component" from Apple for about $20 (US dollars).

Let us know how this all turns out. I will keep thinking about this to determine if there is anything that I missed along the way.

ATR



(http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bb8822c)





(http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bb8822c)

[drachor]

ATR, I went the free route for the MPEG Streamclip. I converted the file to AVI. I watched and listened as the video looked good and the sound was in sync. However after a certain amount of time the sound just quit. No sound for the rest of the video.

So, I exported the aiff file (sound) and made it a part of my project. Of course I deleted the original sound file. Everything was working fine until I made my first clip on the video. Now the sound is definitely not in sync with the video. Well I undid my clip so the two are back in snyc. Now I just need to figure out how to clip the video and sound file together.

[ATR]

If you want to link the video and audio, hold down the Shift Key and highlight (select) the video and audio. Then right click the highlighted video and click on "Link Audio and Video" in the pop up menu.

Alternatively, after highlighting the video and audio, you could go to the Clip Menu at the top of the interface, click on it, and then select "Link Audio and Video" from the options in the drop down list.

If you need to unlink audio and video, you could also use these routes.

Please let me know if you are OK with the above.

ATR

[pjc013]

I have also just converted to Premier Elements 7 and have been receiving this message. I suspect it may be related to file size limits however I have not been able to establish whether album limits exist.

I use a Canon Powershot TX1 for capture which uses motion JPEG compression @ 1280 x 720p to create massive AVI file sizes. An 8 Gig SDHC card will capture less than half an hour of footage.

I seem to receive the message when about 6 or 7Gig worth of data has been loaded into an album and receive the message for any files I try to get after that (even though the same files will load perfectly into a new album).

I only have about 17 Gig available on my scratch disc and can't increase it without getting another Hard Drive.

I wondered if anyone else has had a similar issue, and if so, would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

Paul.

[drachor]

Paul,

I assume you read the whole thread and saw the MPEG Streamclip solution mentioned there. That is definetely a good tool to have around.

That being said, I have found that on some occasions one can just click OK (Or whatever) on the "file not supported" errror message and then be sure to wait until the file is fully rendered. There is a not so noticeable indicator at the bottom right corner of the window. Anyway, I have found that sometimes even after the error message comes up, and I wait until the file is fully processsed the file works fine. In fact I suspect that perhaps on some occasions I was trying to drag the file onto the scene line before it was fully processed and that is when I the error message came up. Hope this helps.

Dan

[ATR]

Paul

We are starting with your digital camera, Canon Powershot TX1, whose movie specs include recording 1280 x 720, 30 fps, format AVI Motion JPEG.

If this were a missing codec issue, you might want to use the free download of Gspot to try to determine what codec is missing.
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/quick_start.html

Although your recorded files have a file extension of AVI, that does not make them the same as DV AVI, the native format of the Premiere Elements Timeline. Not all AVI are created equal. AVI is the wrapper which can have various compressions (like DV, Motion JPEG, etc). As has been pointed out previously, some video/audio formats need to be converted to DV AVI before being brought into the Premiere Elements Timeline. The workaround is often the use of the free program MPEG Streamclip.
http://www.squared5.com/
I would need to check further to find out if MPEG Streamclip works with 1280 x 720 AVI Motion JPEG.
More importantly, what is the end product going to be: export to DVD-VIDEO or export to a HD file for computer playback?

You cannot “true capture” this video to Premiere Elements as you could with video from a miniDV camcorder/Firewire connection. What you are doing to transfer your video out of the Canon is not clear to me.
1. Are you using the software (Zoom Browser EX) to transfer (via USB) the video from the camera to a hard drive location? Then trying to get that into Premiere Elements/Get Media/Files & Folders?

Or
2. With a camera/computer USB connection, are you using Premiere Elements 7 Get Media (Digital Camera setting/Media Downloader) to get the video into Premiere Elements/Timeline? If you are doing this, then try using approach in "1".

3. Where does “loaded into an album” and "album" enter into this mix?
Best describe exactly what you are doing.

First, let us explore how you are getting the video out of the camera.

ATR

[pjc013]

Thanks for your responses ATR and drachor.

Firstly, I'll answer some questions:-
1. More importantly, what is the end product going to be: export to DVD-VIDEO or export to a HD file for computer playback? They're just simple home movies that I export to DVD. I was using Ulead Video Studio 8 that came pre-loaded with my current PC. This software worked fine for my purpose except they would only create 720 x 576p final renderings. That's why I purchased Premiere Elements - to get higher resolution DVD's.

2. What you are doing to transfer your video out of the Canon is not clear to me.
1. Are you using the software (Zoom Browser EX) to transfer (via USB) the video from the camera to a hard drive location? Then trying to get that into Premiere Elements/Get Media/Files & Folders? Yes that's exactly what I'm doing, and it would work well if I wasn't running into this error message.

3. Where does “loaded into an album” and "album" enter into this mix?
Best describe exactly what you are doing. I use the term album to describe the group of clips created after you use get media / files and folders. The screen says "Filter by: [Select Album]" (screen shot attached). I might select 8 Gig worth of clips created by my TX1 and attempt to import them all at the same time. It seems to accept around 6 - 7 Gig and then I receive a popup window listing all the remaining files and saying for each of them that "this type of file is not supported, or the required codec is not installed". I can then start a new project and those files will import without any issues. I have tried creating a new project and dragging files to the sceneline from different albums however each new project creates an album so I am faced with the same issue. This means I could only create a DVD with around 20minutes of footage.

To satisfy my curiousity, are you able to import more than 8 Gig using Get Media?

Thanks again, your assistance is most appreciated.

Paul

[ATR]

Paul,

Part 1. Computer Resources

First, let us start with your last question:
“To satisfy my curiosity, are you able to import more than 8 Gig using Get Media?”

I have not found a maximum amount listed for Premiere Elements (See quote below.) Although I have not found any published fixed maximum file size that Premiere Elements will accept, I suspect that the cause of your issue is Organizer’s maximum size restricted by the amount of installed/available RAM in your computer. Did you ever say just how much installed/available RAM and free hard drive space your computer has?

Check out the following to see if you come to the same conclusion. In reading the following, remember that Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements share a common database and the following is not referring specifically to "video".


Maximum image size limits in Photoshop 5.0 and 6.0
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402760
Note the contrast between “Maximum Image Size Limit in the Editor” and “Maximum Image Size Limit in the Organizer”. Whereas the Editor of Photoshop Elements limits the maximum dimensions of an image to 30,000 pixels by 30,000 pixels, the Organizer in Photoshop Elements limits the maximum dimensions of an image on the amount of RAM installed in your computer.

Found elsewhere were some tips:
“When you're shopping for a computer to do DV editing, make sure you get enough drive space for your needs. In addition to the drive space for applications and other files, allocate 1 GB for every five minutes of DV footage you want to capture at a time.
The maximum size for a single file isn't determined by Premiere Elements but by your operating system, capture device, and the file system used by your hard disk. Hard disks formatted using FAT32 limit files to 4 GB each. Disks formatted using NTFS don't limit file sizes. But you probably want to limit the length of a single clip for organizational purposes (after all, a 4 GB DV file would be 20 minutes long).”

Part 2 Reason for going from Ulead Video Studio to Premiere Elements 7

“This software worked fine for my purpose except they would only create 720 x 576p final renderings. That’s why I purchased Premiere Elements – to get higher resolution DVD’s.”

From the dimensions that you gave, I am assuming that you are in a PAL area. I have never used the Ulead product, but did you mean 720 x 576i for your DVD-VIDEO? Premiere Elements 7 supports PAL DV Standard or Widescreen 720 x 576i (burn to DVD disc as DVD-VIDEO). When you talk about “….to get higher resolution DVD’s.”, do you mean BluRay disc? (Standard DVD disc 4.7 GB/120 min; DVD DL disc 8.5 GB/240 min; BluRay with greater yet disc capacity) Do you have a Blu-Ray burner and player?

Part 3

I am now on the same page with you with regard to this “album” business. I still think that this goes back to the Organizer and a limitation dependent on installed/available RAM. In Premiere Elements 7, you cannot avoid starting in the Organizer Interface whether you use File Menu/Get Media from/PC Files and Folder or whether you use the Organizer/Get Media/Files and Folder interface to the right of the interface. More questions:
(a) How many clips = “8 Gig worth of clips”….the all at one time bunch. Just what is the size range for the individual clips that make up the “8 Gig worth of clips”?
(b) What happens if you open a project, bring in just 4 GB of clip(s), Get Media/Files and Folders, and later repeat that with another 4 GB of clip(s) in the same project?

There is also a place where you say “….dragging files to the sceneline from …..”. I would strongly recommend that you work in the Timeline, not the Sceneline View.

I am not sure if I grasp what you mean by your conclusion at the end of the statements:
“I can then start a new project then start a new project and those files will import without any issues. I have tried creating a new project and dragging files to the sceneline from different albums however each new project creates an album so I am faced with the same issue. This means I could only create a DVD with around 20 minutes of footage.”
In the “Filter by:” area,
“Select Album” shows all media in the Organizer
If instead you use the “Filter by:” drop down list and select a Project Name that contributed to the Organizer thumbnails, you are shown that specific selection.
So, I am not clear on “DVD with around 20 minutes of footage”. That sounds like disc capacity issue. On the other hand, are you saying that you cannot get (drag) 20 minutes worth of footage from the Organizer to the Sceneline or Timeline at the present time, aside from the issue of just getting large files into the Organizer.


Check out the comments and let me know if any of this helped and/or where I went off track.

ATR