Adobe Forums: Premiere Elements 8, Problem Displaying MP4

Sebastian BeerCalculating status...

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Premiere Elements 8, Problem Displaying MP4

Oct 7, 2009 6:08 AM

I recently installed Premiere Elements 8 together with Photoshop Elements 8.

After this I also installed Quicktime from the homerpage of Apple. (Contrary to what PE told me I had no choice between different versions of Quicktime.)

Basically everything works fine however I have aproblem with my MP4-files which I took with my Sony T900.

I can view them perfectly in the organizer but not in Premiere Elements 8. While the sound is played correct instead of the pictures there is displayed a red square only. Viewing in Quicktime directly does work perfectly.

I would be very gratefur for any hint or comment.

Sebastian

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Steve Grisetti,

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Oct 7, 2009 6:30 AM

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Sebastian Beer,

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Oct 7, 2009 7:34 AM

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Thank you very much for your suggestion to my problem.

However I am quite surprised to hear that Premiere Elements 8 is not able to handle my MP4-files.
Before I decided to buy PE I made a test with PE version 7 which I downloaded from the Adobe homepage and installed as test-version on my computer.
As far as I remember I did not have the problem that I were unable to work with my MP4-files. And now, when remembering that test I am sure that I did not install Quicktime for the test with PE 7.

Is it possible that PE 7 has used another MP4-codec which has already been installed on my PC?

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Steve Grisetti,

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Oct 7, 2009 8:24 AM

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Well, as we always says, with millions of computer configurations out there, your mileage may vary. And if it works for you, it works. You may just have some codec installed that supports the clips.

But it most likely won't.

Premiere Elements will work with AVCHD MP4 files. It usually will not work with MP4s from non-standard video sources, including still cameras. Conversion is really the only way to ensure success every time.

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Sebastian Beer,

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Oct 22, 2009 1:58 AM

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Thank you very much for your kind help on my problem.

Meanwhile I did some further testing and this took me some time.
I have installed a complete new Windows system on my PC.
I installed Win 7 since I got a testing version right now.
I have intalled this just right coming out of the box with no further software except for a virus scanner.
I even did not install Quicktime.
Then I installed Premiere Elements 7.
I am perfectly able to view and edit the video files which I took with my still camera (Sony DSC T-900) with PE 7!

Now I am really confused:
Why am I able to work with my video files in PE 7 and not in PE 8?

Is this intended by Adobe or is this a bug?

How do I get an answer fom Adobe? I sent them an email describing my problem two weeks ago with no reaction up to now.

Sebastian Beer

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Steve Grisetti,

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Oct 22, 2009 6:26 AM

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Bill Hunt,

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Oct 22, 2009 12:53 PM

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Sebastian,

This pertains more to PrPro, than to PrE 8, but many have found that Apple'sH.264 does not play well. Many have gone to the Lead, or the MainConcept H.264 and have had far better results.

Also, some users have reported issues with Apple's QT Player 7.6.4 and some Adobe products. I have 7.5.5 and it seems very stable and there are no conflicts. [Going back a bit, the entire 7.4.x version group were death to most Adobe products, and it was not until 7.5.5 that Apple got this ironed out.] The Apple site used to have an archive of older versions of QT Player. Last time I looked, it was still there, but you had to navigate a bunch to get to it. That had changed from the old days, when the link was just to the left of the QT Player page.

Good luck,

Hunt

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tech_savvy,

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Oct 23, 2009 4:24 AM

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You can also check if the same file is playing well in the PRE embedded organizer. If it is playing fine there, then it might very well be a bug in PRE timeline.

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Sebastian Beer,

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Oct 23, 2009 4:49 AM

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Well, I have tried to use one of the third party H.264 coders that you have mentioned in your reply.
But I was unable to install it due to lack of Premiere Pro.
I understood that this coder was refusing to work with Premiere Elements.

Regarding Quicktime it makes no difference whether I have this installed or not.
And as I already pointed out, Premiere Elements 7 is working fine without any Quicktime.

Sebastian

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Sebastian Beer,

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Oct 23, 2009 4:53 AM

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The file is playing well in the organizer.
When I double-click on the file in the embedded organizer a small window is popping up trying to play the file. However, even here I do have the same displaying problem. (Sound is fine but the picture is only a red square.)

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Sjokomelk,

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Dec 22, 2009 6:31 AM

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Just wondering, I had the same issue, and I tried to rename the filename to .qt instead of .mp4 and that worked in the editor.

Since I got it to work I thought maybe it was worth a shot for you.

I tried the same thing, using premiere elements 7 and it worked there, then tried premiere elements 8 and got the red box as described. After just testing with some extensions, the .qt extension seemed to make Premiere Elements 8 read the file correctly.

Anyway hope it works for you as it did the trick for me.

I had quicktime player 7.6.5 installed.

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Steve Grisetti,

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Dec 22, 2009 7:26 AM

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Have we established yet whether these MP4s are coming from an AVCHD camcorder or from another type of camera (a still camera, Flip or pocket camcorder) that shoots in a non-AVCHD MP4 format?

These are very different formats and different rules apply.

Premiere Elements and the Organzer are not likely to be able to support video from taht Sony t900 in its native format, as I discussed in my original post.

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Sebastian Beer,

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Dec 22, 2009 7:54 AM

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Sjokomelk,

Thank you very much for your input on my problem.
I immediately tried your solution and I am more than happy to report that it works 100%!

Now I must say that I am astonished that Adobe is thinking about this issue (I opened a case on the internet) since 8 weeks now and is unable to provide me with any suggestion. I also called them directly without any result.

Since I will now be able to work on my vidoe files I will further wait patient on a reply from Adobe. I will report here about what will happen further.

Once more Thank you very much for your input and the solution to my problem!

Sebastian

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Sebastian Beer,

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Dec 22, 2009 8:04 AM

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Steve,

Thank you for your input.

I understand that you are convinced that video-files taken with my still camera cannot be edited with Premiere Elements 8.0.
However, it definetly is possible by the great trick of renaming the file to *.qt.
I am able to edit my video files, now.

I am feeling disappointed that Adobe until now is unable to provide my with a feedback on my problem.
Anyhow the forum has been of high value for me.

Sebastian

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Bill Hunt,

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Dec 22, 2009 8:48 AM

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Sebastian,

Glad to hear that you got it running for you.

Now, just to recap for others, and myself, the fix was to take your MP4 files, and rename them from [File Name].MP4 to [File Name].qt. Is that correct?

Thanks for your response,

Hunt

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Sjokomelk,

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Dec 22, 2009 8:56 AM

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I'm glad to hear that it worked

Hunt,

You got it right.

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Bill Hunt,

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Jan 24, 2010 10:04 AM

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Great, and thanks for reporting. With some of the tangents in the thread, I just wanted to make sure I had followed along and picked up on the fix.

Until this thread, I had not even heard of the QT file extension. That's already two things that I've learned this morning.

Thanks for the clarification and also for having the fix for Sebastian.

Appreciated,

Hunt

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Sebastian Beer,

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Jan 24, 2010 9:12 AM

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Dear All,

Thank you very much for your kind input on my problem.

Just now I received an answer from Adobe. (After 3.5 months waiting!)
They confirm that it is a bug and they suggest two alternative solutions:
In case that you have Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0:
Copy the file "ImporterMpeg.prm" from "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0\\Plug-ins\de_DE"
to "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0\\Plug-ins\Common"
In case you do now have PE 7.0:
Rename the .MP4-files to .qt or .mov

I tried the first solution and it works for me.

Best regards,

Sebastian Beer

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Bill Hunt,

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Jan 24, 2010 10:05 AM

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Great news! It is a shame that Adobe took so long to report, but they probably had to do some lab testing on their end. Thanks for reporting and furnishing the "cures."

Good luck,

Hunt

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jayman0369,

Feb 8, 2010 12:23 PM

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Sebastian:

I've followed your thread on this, and boy am I happy that someone has found a solution... I'm at work right now,
but I will try it when I get home... you see, I just bought PE 8 this week for my son and told him (after all of my prior
research) that we WOULD NOT have to continue spending time with video converters anymore.. well, to my
surprise, we installed PE8 this past weekend and tried importing our first MP4 file (generated from a "GOPro Hero"
action cam) and we were shocked to see that PE8 wouldn't read it! So I had to explain to my son (he's 12) that there
has to be some quick solution out there, as I could NOT believe that PE8, just released, would not support MP4!
Anyway, I noticed that your long awaited response from Adobe suggested one of the fixes as reinserting the Plug In
file from PE7 into the PE8 program folder... I'm wondering if you would be willing to email me that plugin from PE7
since I did not previously have PE7... my email is: ski102205@yahoo.com

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, and also make things easier for my son as he is getting really good
at creating skateboarding/snowboarding movies, but is looking forward to being able to just import his MP4's without
many extra steps and work-arounds...

Thanks so much!

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Premiere Elements 8, Problem Displaying MP4

Oct 7, 2009 6:08 AM

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