Cannot see .XviD avi files inside Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, am I missing a codec?

February 29, 2008 12:24 PM

Cannot preview .XviD avi files inside Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, am I missing a codec?

Hello all,

I'm trying to edit some video files I downloaded that are compressed with .Xvid. I basically try to load them inside Premiere Pro CS3 and its all black with no audio. Then I have to convert the file via TMPGEnc to windows media format which takes about an hour or so (for 25 mins worth of footage) and only then am I really able to see real footage. I am wondering if there is a faster way of doing this? Am I missing a codec for Premiere?

posted by cheero to computers & internet (15 comments total)

This may be a really stupid question, but have you installed the xvid codec from xvid.com?
posted by kbanas at 12:37 PM on February 29, 2008

Erm, I mean xvid.org.
posted by kbanas at 12:37 PM on February 29, 2008

Yes I have, I watch it inside VLC player just fine. It just won't preview in Premiere for some odd reaosn.
posted by cheero at 12:39 PM on February 29, 2008

*reason.

(dammit).
posted by cheero at 12:40 PM on February 29, 2008

"I watch it inside VLC player just fine."

VLC uses its own codecs, it doesn't use the codecs installed on the system. Playing something with VLC is not a valid test of what system codecs are or are not installed.
posted by majick at 12:51 PM on February 29, 2008

I could be mistaken, but I believe VLC brings its own built in codecs, so VLC isn't a good test if the codec is on your system. Can you play it through Windows Media Player? Or better yet have you run it through G Spot?
posted by sharkfu at 12:51 PM on February 29, 2008

Being able to view it in VLC is not an actual indication that the xvid codec is actually installed, as the file could still be decoded via something like ffdshow, and not xvid.
posted by yeoz at 12:51 PM on February 29, 2008

you can download G Spot here.
posted by sharkfu at 12:52 PM on February 29, 2008

If you can't get the codecs to work in Premiere, you could always try using VLC to convert the files to another format that Premiere can play, might be faster than TMPGEnc.
posted by zachlipton at 1:02 PM on February 29, 2008

Try using this to change the codec info for the file from XVID to DIVX. I often get the same problem in Sony Vegas despite all codecs being installed.
posted by merocet at 1:51 PM on February 29, 2008

Your best bet is to install the FFDShow filters. That should let you play any MPEG4 stream.
posted by dosterm at 1:55 PM on February 29, 2008

I've installed FFDShow filters, still all black in Premiere.
posted by cheero at 7:23 PM on February 29, 2008

You might re-encode to mjpeg instead. Not DV, because that would probably introduce interlacing. Either of these is easier to decode & edit.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:13 PM on February 29, 2008

My 'puter can't handle Premiere CS3. I'm stuck at Pro 1.5. But I can tell you that whenever I try to edit anything other than straight up-and-down DV, I usually run into problems. Some video will import just fine but shows up as solid black in the timeline. Some video plays, but with jerks and other random bugginess. Investigating, I was told by several supposedly knowledgeable folks that Premiere just wasn't designed to edit already compressed video and that I'd have to decompress (i.e. convert it to DV) first.

Though I haven't worked with it extensively, quicktime seems to be the exception that proves the rule From what I've seen, it behaves splendidly.
posted by Clay201 at 9:24 PM on February 29, 2008

2nding the solution of converting your files in Motion Jpeg. I don't know Premiere that well but when you use a nle which ships with an intermediate codec such as Final Cut or Avid they will automatically convert your files into an editing friendly format.
Careful though this will take much more space on your hardrive and the process might be long depending on your hardware firepower.
posted by SageLeVoid at 9:46 PM on February 29, 2008