MEP2013Pro - Can I load and edit H.264 capture files

brucehusker wrote on 4/12/2013, 4:46 AM

Hi Gang...I'm thinking of buying an Avermedia capture box (C283S-AF) to capture programming off of my set top box. What I want to do is capture American football games, edit out the commercials, and burn the game to DVD. The specs say the unit hardware encodes to an AVI(codec H.264 & MP3). The unit captures to an external HD and I'm hoping I can hook up the external HD to my eding computer via USB and edit these files. My question is can MEP 2013Pro load and edit this type of file. I was all set to order this thing when I suddenly wondered if I could do anything with the files it creates. Does anyone know? I can't seem to find a reference to it in the manual. Thanks gang!

Regards...Bruce

Comments

brucehusker wrote on 4/13/2013, 9:56 AM

In an attempt to answer my own question, I downloaded an H.264 file from the net. It was a movie trailer from the movie "Oblivion". It loaded fine into MEP2013, so I'm going to go ahead with my purchase and hope for the best. I'll report my progress as I make it>

Regards...Bruce

Scenestealer wrote on 4/14/2013, 6:06 PM

Hi Bruce

AVI, H.264 and MP3 are both containers / codecs that MEP2013 handles well although I have'nt come across them in the same container so could not guarantee it would not have a problem with the AVI, but everything seems to tell me MEP should handle it. It will be interesting to see!

Peter

brucehusker wrote on 4/15/2013, 5:56 AM

Hi Peter...I am hopeful. The unit is supposed to arrive in a few days, so we'll know yet this week.

Regards...Bruce

brucehusker wrote on 4/18/2013, 4:41 AM

Hi Gang...Further update...The Avermedia unit arrived and I have it hooked up to my DVR. Captured my first file at 1080i, which resulted in a 15.76 gb file, 1920x1080 mpeg 4 AVC, 55.94 framerate with mp3 audio. MEP would load it, but every few seconds, the picture would go to black and then come back. It loads into Corel videoStudio Pro X5 and Cyberlink PowerDirector 7 without the black frames. I'm now trying a second capture at 720p. We'll see what that produces.

Regards...Bruce

Scenestealer wrote on 4/18/2013, 6:15 PM

Hi Bruce

have you tried "recreating the frametable" when you have the clip in the timeline.

Peter

brucehusker wrote on 4/19/2013, 5:19 AM

Hi Peter...Another update...I recaptured the movie using the 720p setting on my DVR, which resulted in a capture of 1280 x 720. However that files behavior in MEP 2013 Plus is the same as the 1080i capture I did previously, constant black frames followed by color frames followed by black frames throughout the duration of the file. I did a search in this forum on what method I might use to "recreate the frametable" once the file is on the timeline, but came up empty. I did notice in settings there is an "automatically create frametable on import" setting that is unchecked. Is this what you're referring too, or is there another way. I did change that setting, closed MEP down, restarted it and then loaded the 720 file in, but the result was the same. A check of the helpfile produces no clues. I would like MEP to be my "do all" tool, but if it proves unable to handle this type of file, I'll have to move on to some other editor that does. I do want to thank you so much for all your help!

Regards...Bruce

johnebaker wrote on 4/19/2013, 12:51 PM

Hi Bruce

Are you converting the AVI files using the Won Tube converter before importing them into MEP ?

What happens if you import the 'raw' AVI files into MEP?

John

brucehusker wrote on 4/19/2013, 5:01 PM

Hi John...I'm not using any type of converter. I've been loading the file that the Avermedia capture device creates, which is the H.264 file, which apparently is MPEG 4 with mp3 audio. I'll have to investigate the converters, but the Avermedia site warned that such software could lead to degradation. Stay tuned.

Regards...Bruce

Scenestealer wrote on 4/19/2013, 11:48 PM

Hi Bruce

The "Create (new) frametable" command is usually at the top of the Rt click menu but what you did should have achieved the same thing on import. Maybe the fact that it is in an AVI container that the program does not recognize it as an MPEG?

Getting a bit beyond my knowledge but maybe you need to Demux the audio with a program like TS Muxer or something?

johnebaker wrote on 4/20/2013, 3:44 AM

Hi Bruce

Just to clear up a little confusion on the file formats.

The spec for the Avermedia says it records in AVI format with the H.264 video and mp3 audio codecs.

AVI, MOV and MP4 are container file formats - they are not video formats - hence why I asked if you had converted the AVI to MP4.

As SS says sometimes AVI files do not have the internal video/audio formats correctly recognised.

I would try converting a recording into a 'true' video format - for HD I would try conversion to .mts (AVCHD)

Can you post a short video, recorded on the Avermedia, to Dropbox or somewhere so we can see if we can reproduce the problem?

HTH

John

brucehusker wrote on 4/20/2013, 11:01 AM

Hi John...I will try to upload a snippit of the Avermedia H.264 capture file sometime this weekend. (Babysitting Grandkids for the weekend right now) I did download WonTube and tried converting the original file, but the conversion was going to take 9 hours, and I can't see wasting all that time when VideoStudio will load, edit and export exactly what I need and I already have it. But I will get to that snippit and you can see what I'm talking about.. Thanks again for your input and help!

Regards...Bruce