Please help me import some WMVs into Adobe Premiere.

November 9, 2011 2:27 PM

Can you help me import these WMVs into Adobe Premiere? I'm about at the limit of my knowledge here.

First of all, let me nip this in the bud right now... yes, I am fully aware that WMV is not an acceptable format for editing. I have no choice, that's what we have from the client and I cannot get any other format or source video. WMV is all I have to work with. It happens.

My system info: MacBook Pro, OS 10.6, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.

Since the Mac version of Premiere does not import WMVs, I can't just import them into the project. I've tried using FFMPEGX, Handbrake, MPEG Streamclip, and even VLC to convert these damn files, and no matter what formats I try, either Premiere will not recognize them as supported files, or it only imports the audio, or it tries to import them and then says it's an incorrect or unsupported format. I'm starting to think there's something screwed up with the WMVs themselves and they are not convertable.

Here's the codec info according to GSpot:
CONTAINER
File Type: ASF (.WMA/.WMV)
Mime Type: video/x-ms-asf
File Length Correct
Sys Bitrate: 349 kb/s

USER DATA/METADATA
Aud:Windows Media Audio V9 Standard
Aud:32 kbps, 22 kHz, 16 bit, Stereo (CBR)
Vid:Windows Media Video V9
Vid:320 x 240, 29.96 fps, 282 kbps (CBR)

AUDIO
Codec 0x0161 (WMA v2)

VIDEO
Codec WMV3
Name WMP v9 (VC-1 Simple/Main)
Status: Undetermined

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If you can offer an alternative solution, here's what I'm trying to do. These videos are product demos. The client wants the video to pause at certain points in the clip so a caption can be displayed on the freeze frame for a few seconds, then the text disappears and the action resumes. There are 3 to 5 captions per video, and about 20 videos to do. They will all be put on YouTube when complete. I looked briefly into the editing options provided by YouTube but was not able to find a tool that would give me the option to generate a freeze frame. If you know more about these options and can show me one that would work, I'm fine with doing it that way.

I can supply a sample video by email or Dropbox if necessary. They are very small, most no more than 1 or 2 MB.

posted by starvingartist to Technology (4 answers total)

Response by poster: Update: a friend pointed me to an online conversion site called Zamzar, where you upload files, choose your conversion parameters and provide an email address for later file retrieval. Seems kind of jinky to me but I tried it anyway, and the resulting MOV file did successfully import into Premiere. I'll still take suggestions, though, in case I can get any better quality at all through other options.
posted by starvingartist at 2:50 PM on November 9, 2011

Video Help lists video editors and encoders for WMV, including some for Mac. From the list, I found Avidemux. If you have problems with the files, their wiki has a comment on how to change the container of the video.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:58 PM on November 9, 2011

Flip4Mac is microsoft's official playback engine on OSX; you might want to try that (either free or paid version.) Under SL or Lion, you can record the screen; but you should be able to use Flip4Mac to get direct access to the video in Premiere Pro. At very least, you should download their free playback codec.
posted by filmgeek at 4:10 PM on November 9, 2011

I know this isn't what you're looking for, but YouTube can do timed annotations that appear and pause the video for a certain length. That's probably unprofessional for what you're seeking to accomplish, though. Not to mention they won't work everywhere.
posted by tatma at 6:09 PM on November 9, 2011