AVI compression + codec errors(After Effects/Premiere Pro)

Kenjd

Hi all,
I hope you guys here can help.
I am currently training in After Effects 6.5 and Premiere Pro 1.5. I bought myself a new digital camera to shoot some footage etc, its a Casio Exilim EX-Z4.
My camera records + downloads the movies in avi format.
But when i go to bring them into after effects it give me a "no such codec found error". the actual error number is 53::33. I know this version of AE supports avi's, it says so in the documentation.
Also if i bring any of these avi's into Premiere it says "compression error".
A friend of mine thought it was beceause I hadn't loaded all the files that came with the camera but as far as I know I have.
I'm running Windows XP and can view these movies no bother on my pc. I also installed Divx just in case. I have Quicktime, Windows Media player(of course) but i dont have Real player.
Any Help.
Have googled it but cant find any definate answers. Will I have to convert all my movies to an mpg format? Surely not.
Any help appreciated
Ken

Lump

Avi is a generic term, you need to find what codec you camera uses, and import or convert to that codec!

Kenjd

Cheers Lump
I scanned one of my avi files with Gspot and it says that the codec in the avi is
Motion JPEG including Huffman Tables/ mjpg and also ISFT: Software
Thanks
Ken

Geek Nose

Your camera's codecs aren't supported by Premiere or AFX.

You will need to re-encode your clips to uncompressed (or DV) AVI's, so they can be imported. It's a common codec problem with AVI's filmed on digital stills cameras, but there are plenty of workaround guides. This is exactly what you need to do:

http://isnandi.net/2005/08/20/converting-pentax-optio-s5n-m4s2-video-file-using-virtualdub

Kenjd

Thanks very much for your help guys!
Will get working on that when this silly season is over.
Happy Christmas

edanto

I have a similar problem to Kenjd, but I'd be grateful if anyone could help me wrap it up.

I'm working with Mpg2s that come from a Sony camcorder. They're encoded with the Embedded AC3 codec (doesn't mean much to me tbh). Premier Pro won't import them and their help says that I should convert them to AVIs, which are better to work with.

VirtualDub seems like just the job, but the one version I could find that seemed to support MPG2s (http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/stable/) doesn't support my AC3 audio. They said, if you need AC3 support, try this codec. ( http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/AC3ACM/ )

But that last link unpacks an .acm file, and I've no idea where I should put that file or what it's for.

Lump

AC3 is the audio codec, and is a fairly bitch codec to use in terms of programmes that are compatable. Use Gspot to find what video and audio codec is used then get a programme that will convert your file into a format that your editing software supports. Again, AVI is a generic term, so you need to find what codecs your software supports.

http://www.answers.com/topic/avi wrote:

AVI
(Audio Video Interleaved) A Windows multimedia video format from Microsoft. It interleaves standard waveform audio and digital video frames (bitmaps) to provide reduced animation at 15 fps at 160x120x8 resolution. Audio is 11,025Hz, 8-bit samples.

More info at http://www.auditmypc.com/acronym/AVI.asp also.

John

edanto

Lump wrote:

then get a programme that will convert your file into a format that your editing software supports.

That's exactly the bit that I'm stuck on!! Gspot told me that I have MPG2 video and AC3 audio. MPEG2 is a pretty common, so I expect that it's the audio component that makes Premier Pro reject the files. I tried Xilisoft and Apex converters to make AVIs, but both left me without an audio on the converted files.

Thanks for the tips and I'll keep looking on the web for more programmes to try.

Lump

I remember a programme, I'll try remember it and get back to you. I'm sure I asked on this board or the computer board about it, do a search for "AVI conversion" or similar.

John