Help – I Can’t Edit Video From My Flip-Style Camera – WVU #93

Posted by Dave on Jul 23, 2010 | 10 comments

A common problem people run into with their Flip-style cameras is that when they go to edit their videos, they won’t have any audio or video. In this video I share a fast, free and easy solution.

Resources
Handbrake

10 Comments

michael krisa

Hey Dave,

Just tried using handbrake on some video I shot using the Kodak Zi8 set at 1080p following
the settings your outlined.

Pulled the converted clip into Sony Movie Studio 9 and have good audio BUT the video is choppy
and unusable.

Any suggestions??

Thanks,
michael

Reply
pete

Converting every video? That sounds like a hassle.

Sony have released a patch to solve the problem at http://www.bit.ly/7sCJIs

This patch also means you can now import the MOV video file from your Kodak Zi8 directly into Sony Movie Studio without the need to encode it first.

Pete

Reply
- michael krisa
  
  Pete,
  
  If i had kids I’d rename them all after you!!!
  
  Thanks for the tip.
  
  michael
  
  Reply
- Hani Mourra
  
  @Pete
  
  I tend to agree with you on this one Pete. Converting each file becomes a bit of a hassle…I only use it as a last resort when nothing else works. I definitely agree with Dave that Handbrake is a great tool for this.
  
  If you are looking for another good (and free) solution, try installing FFDShow video codecs (http://www.ffdshow.info/), rebooting your PC, and trying your video editing software. This has worked well with my older Vado HD camera which I initially had trouble editing the video clips from until now.
  
  Cheers,
  Hani
  
  Reply
michael krisa

Hey Pete,

I take it all back … just installed the plug-in and now there is no audio track.

Looks like I’ll have to update to Movie Studio 10 which does handle .mov

Thanks anyway,
michael

Reply
Dave

@Michael – Remember, you’re working with full HD video, so unless you have a multi-core processor, 8+GB RAM and a decent video card (like one with CUDA), you will not get real-time playback with HD video in any video editing software.

@Pete listed one of the workarounds that I mentioned at “floating around” on the Internet. There are others as well, like changing file extensions from .mov to .mp4, installing different versions of QuickTime, etc. But as you found, they don’t work for everyone.

The newest versions of Vegas seem to handle footage from Flip-style cameras fine…but if not…the only surefire option is to transcode your videos into a format supported by your video editing software.

Reply
michael krisa

Thanks Dave … I had this pc custom built for video about 7 months ago yet every now again the video gods toss something like the zi8 issue my way to keep me humble and constantly learning.

Great to have you and members of your video community in my corner!!

All Good Wishes,
michael

Reply
Carl

Dave I have similar problems with .MOD files (standard format on JVC cameras) I looked for converting software but all of them messed everything up and could not convert properly, but handbrake does the trick very well..

So, thanks for the heads up

Carl

Reply
Tony Page

I was just struggling a little with this myself, Dave. What’s the best editing codec to use for HD .mov files to minimise loss of quality during the editing process (I’m using Zi8/Premiere Pro)? Maybe I’m getting confused here, but I thought mp4 was better as a final output format, and had drawbacks for editing.

Tony Page

Reply
michael krisa

I just downloaded the free trail version of Sony Movie Studio 10

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/moviestudiope

It works like a champ allowing me to pull the .mov files directly from my Zi8.

Previewing the clips even in draft/auto mode is still sort of clunky but the rendered video
comes out flawless.

michael

Reply

Help – I Can’t Edit Video From My Flip-Style Camera – WVU #93

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