Problem with MPEG Streamclip

[theleaveswant]

Hello everyone! I've been searching and searching for a solution to this problem without much success, and I hope that somebody here has a more useful answer.

My old laptop (a Toshiba Satellite running XP) died a few weeks ago, and I chose its replacement specifically for use as a vidding computer, but so far I've been unable to start my Festivids project because MPEG Streamclip, which worked fine on my old computer, will not work on the new one. It will open fine, and it can find and recognize Quicktime Alternative, and it goes through the motions of loading different types of files (.vob, .avi), but won't play them back. Like, the playback controls (play/pause button, slider bar etc.) will not appear on the screen. I can get the timestamp to progress by playing with other buttons and keyboard commands, but with .vobs there is no video and no audio (but when I pause "playback" the screen changes to the frame I paused on, and stays frozen there when I "resume" until I pause again, when it changes to the new freezeframe) and with the .avi I tried there was audio and a white screen (another problem that I will try to fix only if I can fix the other problems, because it's not worth it otherwise) but still no slider bar. I've been trying to find a fix or even an explanation for this problem, but so far nothing I've found seems at all relevant or useful. I've tried other programs for clipping before but none of them have opened .vobs directly and most I found awkward and unpleasant to use. Right now I'm trying to convert the .vobs into other formats using Streamclip and Virtualdub to see if I can get SOMETHING to load right, but I think this might be a fundamental incompatibility between Streamclip and Windows 7? If anyone has any other suggestions or explanations I'd love to hear them.

If I can't find a way to get Streamclip working, what are my options? As I said, I haven't liked the other clipping programs I've tried and I'd prefer to go straight from .vobs to high quality .avi clips. Do Corel Videostudio or any other Windows 7-compatible editing programs allow you to open and clip from .vobs in-program? And whether they do or don't, which program would you recommend for someone who is sick of Windows Movie Maker and ready for something better, but too broke to take chances on things that won't work?

Comments

[eruthros]

Have you tried different versions of mpeg streamclip? I found that the stable-release version started to have problems like that for me, but the beta version would work fine. (If they're not linked obviously on the site, I think I have both versions I've used here.)

[theleaveswant]

I did try them both, and they both seemed to be having the same problem on the new computer? I can try the beta again. Now I've managed to load all the .vobs (whole movie) in MPEG Streamclip and save them together as one enormous .avi, which loads and seems to play in Streamclip well enough to clip from (audio and video both present and responsive to keyboard shortcuts), but there's still no slider bar? IDEK. I'm also downloading the trial version of VideoStudio, so I'll see what I can accomplish with that.

[eruthros]

Oh oh! I have another question - have you installed the 3ivx codec on your new laptop? It's an MPEG video component, and if you don't have one it can also cause vob problems. They just updated to a new version, which I haven't used, so I don't know if the new version is having problems or anything. (If you haven't installed it and don't own it, or if you want to roll yours back, drop me a line at eruthros at gmail )

[theleaveswant]

I have not installed it, so I'm guessing I don't have it. Is it not free?

[eruthros]

Nope, it's about $20 IIRC.

ETA: I think there are some other codec alternatives, all of them also requiring money (mpeg playback codec? something like that?) but 3ivx is the one I use so it's the only one I know anything about.

[theleaveswant]

Oh, I think I know what you're talking about. There's an MPEG-2 codec that's not built into Streamclip or Quicktime, but using a specific version of Quicktime Alternative is supposed to fix that problem for Windows users but Mac users have to buy a working codec from Apple? And I have the supposed-to-be-correct version of that installed, but it might not be working with something else. Or is this something different?

[eruthros]

I think that we're talking about the same thing, except I was thinking of it the other way around! There's an MPEG-4 codec that's not built into windows - we can get the MPEG-2 with Quicktime Alternative, but the MPEG-4 is also necessary for vob playback. But Mac users don't need it, for some reason - possibly it comes with the mpeg playback codec they have to install for mpeg-2?

Regardless of how, exactly, the tech is teching, though, when I first installed mpeg streamclip I installed quicktime alternative, and it worked on all file types except vobs, and I fixed that by installing 3ivx. I don't know why! I just googled and that's what the internet told me to do :)

[theleaveswant]

Interesting! I have not come across that particular piece of advice, and I'm pretty sure I didn't have to buy anything to make it work on the old computer, but notebook gremlins be finicky.

[actiaslunaris]

Corel VideoStudio will let you open, trim, and alter .vobs if you change their extensions to .mpg.

[theleaveswant]

Excellent, good to know!

[littleheaven]

Sony Vegas Movie Studio will edit with .vob files. I've made almost all of my 15 vids that way. You just have to change "all media files" to "all files" when you browse to your clips folder, and then everything will show up and you can import and edit as normal.

I did run into problems when editing files that were region coded for areas other than that which my computer was set to, because it seems that editing files that were being simultaneously region-decoded with AnyDVD was just a step too far. In that instance I seem to remember I used Virtual Dub to convert the source to lossless avi using the Lagarith or HuffyUV codes. Massive files, but they played nice with Vegas.