Xvid don't work with premiere

[dieu_tout_puissant]

It seems videos with a xvid or divx FourCC doesn't work with adobe premiere when the xvid codec is installed. When loading a video, it plays right in the preview window of the clip, but not in the preview window of the project. I've already seen many threads on this bug, but it's always here.
When removing the xvid codec and installing another decoder (divx), it works fine. Yes, it's a solution. But wouldn't it be better if this bug was solved by the programmers?
Could someone say me where I should post this message if I want some of the programmers of Xvid to read it? Thanks in advance.


Tested with:
XviD-1.0.2-29082004
XviD-1.1.-127-06112004
adobe premiere 7.0
adobe premiere 1.5

[sysKin]

Originally posted by dieu_tout_puissant
It seems videos with a xvid or divx FourCC doesn't work with adobe premiere when the xvid codec is installed. When loading a video, it plays right in the preview window of the clip, but not in the preview window of the project. I've already seen many threads on this bug, but it's always here.
When removing the xvid codec and installing another decoder (divx), it works fine. Yes, it's a solution. But wouldn't it be better if this bug was solved by the programmers?
Could someone say me where I should post this message if I want some of the programmers of Xvid to read it? Thanks in advance.
Complaining "in the presence of" xvid developers will not help you any more than complaining alone.
It's a bug in premiere, obviously. As much as it would be nice to work around it, we don't even have premiere. You'll have to fix it yourself, or at least tell me exact details of what's going on (if it's VfW or directshow, for starters). Sorry, I just can't help you any better.
If I could do it myself I'd do it for 1.0 final.

Radek

[birdy]

@sysKin,

Could you please open an xvid file (avi) in GordianKnot (if you have Gknot!) and see why it dosn't work>?

This is too bad as I work alot with Gknot and this bug is since Xvid RC1.
If you try with any xvid before RC1 there is no such problem.
I am sorry if I don't have the knoledg to give u more detail of why this happens :(

[Koepi]

birdy:

your problem is unrelated to the premiere issue. Head over to the gordan knot forum and search for "XviD1". There are issues with older versions of gordan knot - which aren't xvid bugs, these got solved in more recent versions (or at least you find workarounds).

Thank you.

Koepi

[dieu_tout_puissant]

This is not a premiere bug.
Why would it work perfectly with the divx decoder if this wasn't the case?
The problem is vfw. When I remove the decoder part of xvid (Xvid MPG4 video decoder) with codecsniper, the bug is still there. But when I remove the coder part, everything works fine.
And this gives exactly the same result with Gordian Knott.
Maybe solving this bug in GK will also solve it with premiere. So you should try with GK if you don't have premiere.

[Zarxrax]

Premiere is at fault. Codecs such as xvid are designed for distribution, NOT for editing. On top of that, premiere's support for VFW is some of the shittiest I have ever seen in any software. It's obvious that Adobe only care's about DV editing with this product, as it can't even EXPORT properly to most VFW codecs.
If you absolutely must use a VFW codec, use an I-frame only codec such as huffyuv.

I recommend Premiere 6.5, as its VFW support was FAR supperior to Premiere Pro's. But still don't expect to edit xvid's in it.

[dieu_tout_puissant]

I already use huffyuv, it just seems you don't understand my problem.
What can I do if i want to use an xvid video to create another video with premiere?

[Zarxrax]

I do understand your problem, you did not read what I wrote. Perhaps this will be clearer:
XVID IS NOT DESIGNED FOR EDITING. ADOBE PREMIERE IS NOT DESIGNED TO EDIT CODECS LIKE XVID. ADOBE PREMIERE WILL NOT EVEN EXPORT TO XVID PROPERLY.

[Blue_MiSfit]

If you want to edit an XviD video in premiere what you need to do is reompress the video (use virtualdub) into huffyuv or another lossless codec that premiere will work with, and then open that in premiere.

If you want audio to work, decompress that into PCM (wav) too... I dont think mp3/vorbis/whatever works in premiere either :)

[sysKin]

Originally posted by dieu_tout_puissant
This is not a premiere bug.
Why would it work perfectly with the divx decoder if this wasn't the case?
As far as I remember it didn't work in divx either. Some months after divx release, DXN finally found a solution and then it worked.
DXN can buy premiere and investigate, I can't. I don't think they will share their workaround...

Originally posted by Zarxrax
Codecs such as xvid are designed for distribution, NOT for editing.
I don't really think it's a good excuse ;)
I admit it should work, even if it requires hacks. I just need to know the hacks.

Radek

[Zarxrax]

Originally posted by sysKin
As far as I remember it didn't work in divx either. Some months after divx release, DXN finally found a solution and then it worked.
DXN can buy premiere and investigate, I can't. I don't think they will share their workaround...

I'm not quite sure about that syskin. As far as using divx files in Premiere, they definately don't work normally... a quick search on the DXN forums will confirm that. As far as exporting divx files from premiere, i found a small guide on their site which involves fiddling with some settings in premiere: http://www.divx.com/divx/divxpro/guides/premiere.php
I assume that it would work the same way with xvid, as I doubt they have any sort of hacks in the codec to make it export. Either way, it would be preferrable to do the encoding in virtualdub.

Originally posted by sysKin
I don't really think it's a good excuse ;)
I admit it should work, even if it requires hacks. I just need to know the hacks.

Radek

The main problem is that editing software is designed to work with I-frames. Wrapping the files in avisynth scripts and using the avisynth import pluggin lets you get the files in perfectly fine, but its basically impossible to work with still, ESPECIALLY in Premiere Pro. You see, Premiere Pro is designed for real-time editing, and its assumed that you are using something that consists entirely of I-frames. Thus, it does not render preview files when you make edits like older versions of Premiere did. So what happens, is you throw down a file full of delta frames, and make a few edits, and then try to preview what you just did. Premiere tries to play it in realtime, but it CANT, and so all you see is a frame here and there. Basically you can't tell what you have even done until you export, making it worthless for editing this sort of thing.

[eidenk]

I've had a similar issue with Xvid in Lumiere Video Studio with most build of Xvid unable to decompress the video inside the application (red cross on a black frame instead of the video stream). It works fine though with one particular build : Xvid.ax of 30 march 2003. I'dd add that it decompresses perfectly well videos that have been compressed with more recent builds.

You may try this in Premiere.

Or you may try to decompress Xvid with FFdshow, DivX or 3ivX if you've got any of them installed instead of using Xvid itself (just bring up their control panel and choose the relevant option) and see if it works inside Premiere.

Maybe this info is of interest to the devellopers and the bug in most Xvid.axes rather than in Premiere.

[birdy]

I remember had same problem with premiere long ago and I used VFAPI and it worked perfect. I think it should still work!
Frameserve it with VFAPI to premiere and see if it works!

[dieu_tout_puissant]

No, it's far more simple to deinstall the xvid codec and install divx.
What I would want is this bug to be solved in the source code of the xvid codec.

I precise that, even if xvid is installed, I always use the divx codec to decode the videos (as I can see it in media player classic's filters panel).
But, even if adobe should use the divx codec to decompress the files, the bug is still here. That's only when I remove xvid that it works.
And remember this bug also occures with the videos that have a FourCC like DX50 or DIVX.

Maybe this bug is not really localized in the decompressor system but in the way xvid comunicates with the vfw system.

[Sharktooth]

I think you should not use mpeg4 (either divx or xvid or whatever) at all in premiere due to the nature of that software...

[Zarxrax]

Originally posted by Sharktooth
I think you should not use mpeg4 (either divx or xvid or whatever) at all in premiere due to the nature of that software...

Glad to see that someone else finally agrees with me! Go search the Adobe support forums. There are a TON of questions asking why divx doesn't work. "I can't import divx videos in premier", "when I export to divx it looks like crap", etc. The answer to these questions is always DON'T USE DIVX. Premiere does not support divx! Maybe divx happens to work for you in premiere, and xvid doesn't. Change 1 setting in your divx encode and you would probably find that divx wouldn't work anymore either.
Years ago in the days of Divx 3.11 I would try editing it in Premiere. For a while, I edited it without much problem. I would always see people post saying that they couldn't edit divx videos, but it worked fine for me. I wondered what they were doing wrong. Then all of a sudden, my divx 3.11 files stopped working in Premiere. I tried changing my encoding settings... I encoded every frame as a keyframe and then put them in premiere. It worked again for a while. Then one day, it stopped working again. Some people can edit divx in Premiere. Some can't. Some people can edit Xvid in Premiere. Some can't. IT'S JUST THAT VOLATILE! There is no problem with the codecs! The problem is with Premiere--it was never designed to handle codecs like this!

[Sharktooth]

Exactly, premiere and other editing softwares does not support mpeg4 features.
So the correct way to work is using frame serving or lossless codecs, write the file then use virtualdub or other softwares to reencode the finished job in MPEG4.

And however xvid is free and dieu_tout_puissant, you cant say I WANT coz you're not paying for something.

[dieu_tout_puissant]

English is not my main language you know, I don't have enough ability with your language to play with words.
I could have said "I would like", but if I must read 3 times what I write I would never post anything on an english forum.

[Sharktooth]

ok, that's not my native language too.
btw you should not use codecs that works with multiple frame types in editing apps or at least you should force those codecs to only use Key frames or you will get in serious troubles.
If you want to edit already encoded material then frameserve it to premiere thru avisynth or vfapi.

[Zarxrax]

Although if you are editing more than 1 file, you should definately use avisynth instead of vfapi. When you have multiple vfapi files opened at once, they can start reading from each other and things won't turn out how you intended!