In Vegas it still works but is only available for MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 encoding. I'm not sure if it ever was available for MP4

In my VMS17 Main Concept AVC is available by customisation under the MAGIX AVC/AAC MP4 templates.

@CubeAce Have a look in MMS2023 and maybe it's still available?

@terrypin

Hi Terry.

I take back what I said. I found the MP4 main concept available in Vegas Pro and it worked so in theory it should work in your copy of MEP 2016.

It works in Vegas Pro 18.

@ericlnz

The main concept codec has not been available to either MEP (MMS) or VPX since MEP 2022 or VPX 13 I think. Main Concept is now exclusively within the realm of Vegas Pro. ( If it still exists in Vegas Pro 20) Yet another sub division and widening of each product under the Magix banner of software to encourage users to 'upgrade' to another more expensive version due to a 'lost' function. This has been happening since Magix was bought out buy a German hedge fund (Capiton) and they installed their own head man to run things.

You can look up the timelines for yourself. Coincidence? I can't verify anything but I don't believe in coincidences of that nature.

Ray.

@terrypin

Hi Terry.

One thought. Because the newer versions of Magix Movie Studio or VPX no longer have access to the main concept codec, possibly because Magix is no longer paying for the codec in those versions, that retrospectively it has been removed or deactivated in the downloadable versions stored on the servers. So if you have recently re-installed the program it may have been deactivated due to lack of a licence.

You may have to raise a ticket on this.

Ray.

@CubeAce I'm not familiar with MEP/MS but as Main Concept appears as an option in Vegas under MAGIX AVC/AAC MP4 I'm surprised it is also not in Magix's own line of editors. Obviously Magix are paying some licencing fees to use MainConcept.

Originally I recall Main Concept appeared in Vegas render templates as MainConcept AVC/AAC. Then the new MAGIX AVC/AAC MP4 version came along replacing it. I assumed that was because Magix had designed a new render option for MP4.

@terrypin

Hi Terry

Nice to see you back.

Are you getting a zero byte sized file? If so check that Calculate video effects on the GPU is turned off

. . . . . Installation of the 'MainConcept MPEG4 codec' was not successful. The program package is either already installed or the installation was aborted. . . . .

Try temporarily turning off your Antivirus and run the install again.

HTH

John EB

@ericlnz

Hi Eric.

Originally I recall Main Concept appeared in Vegas render templates as MainConcept AVC/AAC. Then the new MAGIX AVC/AAC MP4 version came along replacing it. I assumed that was because Magix had designed a new render option for MP4.

Which is where I found it in the image above in Vegas Pro 18. Does that mean MainConcept is also no longer available in Vegas Pro 20?

Ray.

Hi Ray,

Impressed to see you're still burning the proverbial candle. My cri de coeur was shortly before midnight and I sure didn't expect to see any reply until this morning, not from Europe anyway! 

See also the more detailed reply I'm about to send John EB.

Terry
 

Hi John,

I've been occasionally dipping into the forum and so was optimistic I could rely on you champs to get me out of trouble! You're all so far ahead of me now that any further posts from me will be in asking rather than helping mode.

Are you getting a zero byte sized file?

Yes, every time.

If so check that Calculate video effects on the GPU is turned off

Yes, it was on, but same when it's turned off. (And it always has been enabled in the past, when the code wasn't AWOL or whatever the problem is.)

I also tried running MEP 2016 in Admin mode, in vain.

The video must be ready to view by tomorrow morning, Friday. So before I turned in after midnight I decided to try an HEVC export instead. I was prompted to download and install it (£3.99). I then exported with the settings shown below.

First attempt to upload my JPG failed. I'll try again but meanwhile here's a link instead:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqwxlo4bizjfm7e/HEVC-Settings-1.jpg?raw=1

Pleased to find it rendered OK, at least from a nervous first viewing over my muesli. Do those HEVC settings look OK? Is HEVC the consensus preferred choice these days, leaving aside issues like my immediate one? Should I anticipate any problems in streaming it to the lounge TV as usual, or burning a DVD or Blu-Ray? If all is OK on the HEVC front then I'll postpone my investigation into the cause for a few days.

1.1 GB seems rather large for a 20 minute video, don't you think? As I was sleeping (well, trying to) I don't know how long the rendering took. I recall there's a log I can check somewhere that will have recorded it?

MediaInfo detals:
-----------------
General
Complete name                            : D:\Videos+Projects\PROJECTS\Kennet-2022 Proj\Kennet-H-11.MP4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : iso4 (iso4/hvc1)
File size                                : 1.10 GiB
Duration                                 : 19 min 50 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 7 939 kb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2022-12-21 23:30:47
Tagged date                              : UTC 2022-12-21 23:30:47

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main@L4@Main
Codec ID                                 : hvc1
Codec ID/Info                            : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration                                 : 19 min 50 s
Bit rate                                 : 7 741 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : Component
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.149
Stream size                              : 1.07 GiB (98%)
Title                                    : ÃŒ
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2022-12-21 23:30:47
Tagged date                              : UTC 2022-12-21 23:30:47
Color range                              : Limited
mdhd_Duration                            : 1190000
Codec configuration box                  : hvcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 19 min 50 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 27.7 MiB (2%)
Title                                    : ÃŒ
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2022-12-21 23:30:47
Tagged date                              : UTC 2022-12-21 23:30:47
mdhd_Duration                            : 1190000
 

Am I using this new forum correctly? Is there no longer a Reply button to an individual post, or just this 'Write something' box?

Anyway, here's my second attempt to upload that JPG:

That failed too. (I'm using Chrome.)

Does that mean MainConcept is also no longer available in Vegas Pro 20?

@CubeAce I don't have VP20 but a check in Vegas posts shows it is still there.

@terrypin @johnebaker @ericlnz

Hi.

First of all Eric, thank you for the updated information.

Hi Terry, John.

At my end it doesn't matter whether the GPU is active of not for the main concept. I don't know if this is down to a difference between Vegas and Magix or not. I was impressed with the conversion quality at the lower bit rates giving an almost identical output at almost half the bit rate of the original. I didn't play around with the supplied settings.

Personally I'm, not over enamoured with HEVC and tend to stick to the magix MP4 encoder but to get a quality output the files do have to be larger than the original. By how much would depend on the user I guess and what they perceive as being good quality. Personally I don't think your conversion looks that large Terry but I use my files for YouTube and not replaying on a TV screen that often. When I do a conversion for the TV I am not worried about it being re-encoded again on upload.

Here is my metadata for a file to play on my TV which would not accept an HEVC encoded file.

General
Complete name                            : J:\2022\Harry Potter World Warner Bros Studios\Edited Video\Advert Jack at Harry Potter World 2022 TV Master.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/avc1)
File size                                : 19.7 GiB
Duration                                 : 13 min 58 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 202 Mb/s
Encoded date                             : UTC 2022-12-14 11:55:43
Tagged date                              : UTC 2022-12-14 11:55:43

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L5.2
Format settings                          : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP                     : N=1
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 13 min 58 s
Bit rate                                 : 202 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.974
Stream size                              : 19.7 GiB (100%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2022-12-14 11:55:43
Tagged date                              : UTC 2022-12-14 11:55:43
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 13 min 58 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 19.5 MiB (0%)
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : UTC 2022-12-14 11:55:43
Tagged date                              : UTC 2022-12-14 11:55:43

Despite the size it plays well from a USB stick.

My candle is not just burning at both ends but nearly meeting in the middle. I give insomnia a bad name.

The forum is very hit and miss for uploading anything. Some hours it works at my end and other hours it doesn't. The web browser in use makes no difference at my end.

In your image it says User defined. What did you change in the settings?

Ray.

The forum is very hit and miss for uploading anything. Some hours it works at my end and other hours it doesn't. The web browser in use makes no difference at my end.

In your image it says User defined. What did you change in the settings?

Thanks Ray, not just me then.

Didn't knowingly change anything. 'User defined' was already there, so presumably I made some change ages (years?) ago, perhaps in 'Advanced'. No time to investigate further right now, as you may see from my post a few minutes ago.

@terrypin, @CubeAce

Hi Terry, Ray

Does your TV play HEVC files or are you 'casting' the video to the TV from the PC?

IMHO the MainConcept does not offer any better perceived quality over the Magix MP4 h.264 codec, other than it having more configurable options which, from one point of view, it make it easier to mess up the export..

. . . . User defined. What did you change in the settings? . . . .

You don't have to make any changes, just clicking the Advanced button followed by OK changes the name to 'User defined' .

. . . . 1.1 GB seems rather large for a 20 minute video, don't you think?  . . . .

No, that is about right HEVC using the default export settings as you appear to have is ~ 56 Mb/min.

John EB

Does your TV play HEVC files or are you 'casting' the video to the TV from the PC?

Not using Casting. And just confirmed that happily the TV does play my test HEVC mp4 video, from the Panasonic's VIERRA thing, under Video > Folders.

The outstanding puzzle is why I cannot put it in its appropriate subfolder of \Videos\Projects\ as I've always done before, which now causes that DLNA error I described in the parallel thread.

It's as if there is some special property/setting/permission I've lost from my PC \Video folders, unlike \Pictures and \Music. Clutching at straws, could it conceivably be some limitation imposed by my broadband contract? No time to pursue that now, but at least I will be able to stream it with the proposed work-around.

@johnebaker

IMHO the MainConcept does not offer any better perceived quality over the Magix MP4 h.264 codec, other than it having more configurable options which, from one point of view, it make it easier to mess up the export..

Hi John.

I don't disagree and I could never (not that I tried that hard) get a decent render from MainConcept within MEP when I did try it. However, just trying it out in Vegas Pro 18 on the base settings I had a near indistinguishable copy at a much lower bit rate than the original file. Just over half the bit rate. Something I haven't been able to achieve with the Magix codec using MEP or VPX. Not that disc space is an issue and I don't mind what size files I produce and Vegas in general is slower and more clunky in use on my machine than MEP or VPX (which I didn't think was even possible) so only used for things that are not easy or accurate to do in MEP or VPX.

@terrypin

Glad you have at least a working solution Terry. Could the problem just be a folder sharing permission thing within Windows?

Ray.

Thanks Ray.

Summary:

This 'AWOL MainConcept codec' problem was worked around using the HVEC option instead. And the 'No Panasonic streaming when using Video > Folder' problem was solved as described in my other recent thread:

https://www.magix.info/us/forum/ot-streaming-show-stopper--1311273/

So I now have my 22 minute, 1.2 GB video:

- on the PC (streaming successfully to the Panasonic TV).

- on a DVD.

- on a USB stick, playing successfully on the TV.

It played to its first audience (of four) by my deadline of Christmas Eve.

--------------------

Hope you got a few extra hours sleep recently as a festive season bonus?

Best wishes for the imminent New Year to you and my other friends here.

Terry