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1. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
Harm Millaard May 12, 2011 1:31 AM (in response to literally_figurative)I think Colin mentioned FFMpeg a couple of times recently and from what I remember, it is a safe and trusted codec. Look here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3645412#3645412
What camera did you use?
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2. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
literally_figurative May 12, 2011 1:34 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)I didn't shoot the footage nor can be told anything until later concerning the footage. This tends to be the case a lot, dealing with people not knowing fully what they shot at.
As an aside, I tend to just make a project, import footage then delete the sequence and drag the footage onto the new sequence item. Is this a frowned upon practice?
I'll search for FFNMpeg on the forums. What do you use, yourself?
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3. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
Harm Millaard May 12, 2011 2:01 AM (in response to literally_figurative)As an aside, I tend to just make a project, import footage then delete the sequence and drag the footage onto the new sequence item. Is this a frowned upon practice?
Not at all. It is a very wise approach, especially if you do not always know the mode that was used during shooting.
I'm in the luucky situation that I only use DV, HDV, AVCHD and XDCAM-EX or XDCAM material and I always know the shooting mode. That also means that I have to trust experts like Colin if they endorse or even suggest codecs like FFMpeg.
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4. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
Colin Brougham May 12, 2011 5:20 AM (in response to literally_figurative)Strictly speaking, FFmpeg isn't a codec, but a command-line application that lets you record and convert video and audio using many decoders, encoders, muxers and other utilities. It's a great tool to have in the toolbox when you get a bizarro file like this. It's not a plug-and-play solution, though--it requires a fair bit of monkeying around with the command-line to get it to do what you want, and even then, it's not a magic bullet.
That all said, I think FFmpeg can help here. Judging by the MediaInfo report, FFmpeg was used to encode the video and do the muxing--but why anyone would put MPEG-2 video and MP3 audio into an AVI container is beyond me. That's pretty non-standard stuff, right there.
I'm going to suggest a branch of the FFmpeg project called FFmbc, which is more geared toward professional formats. Despite the bizarre implementation here, the 1920x1080 @ 35Mbps MPEG-2 video suggests that this is actually XDCAM EX footage. Try this:
- Get ffmbc - FFMedia Broadcast . This is a customized build of FFmpeg that is more geared toward broadcast formats and applications. The latest "official" release (0.5) will work.
- Open the archive and find the "ffmbc.exe" file in the "bin" folder. Drop it into the folder with the AVIs--or if you know how to set up a custom path, you could do that too.
- Create a new text file called something like "avi2mxf.bat" making sure that you can see file extensions; you need to have the .BAT extension. Make this file in the same folder as the AVIs and FFmbc.
- Paste the following into the batch file:
@ECHO OFF for %%a in (*.avi) do ffmbc -i "%%a" -vcodec copy -acodec pcm_s16le -f mxf -y "%%~na".mxf - Save it--again making sure it has a .BAT extension--and then double-click it to run it. It will copy the MPEG-2 video stream and convert the audio to uncompressed PCM, then rewrap it as MXF files that will import into Premiere.
I don't have a way to test this, at least for this particular flavor of file you have, so give it a go and report back.
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5. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
literally_figurative May 12, 2011 9:37 AM (in response to Colin Brougham)I appreciate this a lot, but I managed to find out that what I was given was something converted. So I managed to get an .MOV that was more or less from the camera directly. I say more or less since it had clearly been in a NLE as there was some text in the video but it worked.
So I guess this may serve as a lesson to anyone that might encounter the same issue as myself, insist on getting the file directly and not some converted thing.
Colin, would you suggest I still install ffmpeg as part of my toolkit or should I go without? Also what fiddling needs doing? Would I not be able to install and then files will work in premiere? Your effort is appreciated.
Sent from my BlackBerry® device from Digicel
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6. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
Colin Brougham May 12, 2011 10:08 AM (in response to literally_figurative)So I guess this may serve as a lesson to anyone that might encounter the same issue as myself, insist on getting the file directly and not some converted thing.
Always the best bet; often a pipe dream
I still install ffmpeg as part of my toolkit or should I go without? Also what fiddling needs doing? Would I not be able to install and then files will work in premiere?
Again, FFmpeg isn't a installed codec--it's a combination of several tools for dealing with video and audio files in a number of different, really powerful ways. You might be thinking of FFDshow, which is based on the FFmpeg project and functions as a DirectShow encoding and decoding module. That has been known to cause many, many problems with Premiere--I'm speaking from personal experience on that. FFmpeg and FFDshow are related, but they're very, very different. You can safely have FFmpeg on your system--it's a simple EXE file that doesn't need to be installed at all--and once you find out some of the things you can do with it, you'll really appreciate having it around. As a real world example, YouTube uses a customized build of FFmpeg to convert everything that is uploaded; obviously, don't take that as a measure of what it's capable of, but rather, how ubiquitous it is.
There's a lot of really geeky stuff out there about using FFmpeg for useful purposes, but it's hard to dissect. I'm hoping to put together a site where I'll collect some good applications of it and the multitude of other great freeware or open source tools available for video production.
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7. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
mindotus May 16, 2011 6:16 PM (in response to literally_figurative)Glad to see http://min.us in action ! John here, cofounder. If you have any suggestions or feedback do let us know!
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8. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
literally_figurative May 16, 2011 6:18 PM (in response to mindotus)Ha, I'm just a fan of the product. I do have some feedback, actually. Where should I go?
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9. Re: Need ffmpeg Codec, What Should I Do?
mindotus May 17, 2011 12:37 PM (in response to literally_figurative)





