Trouble with .m2t files exported from PE7

[Gerlinde]

I captured HD video from my Canon HV30 using PE7. I did some edits on this footage, mainly creating short clips to assemble later in a different project. I shared them with the mpeg HD 1440x1080i preset and they have the extension .m2t. I also used these clips to try out my other video editors, Magix MEP16 and Pinnacle Studio14. They played in both applications.

After I finished this video in PE7 I exported again as mpeg HD 1440x1080i (.m2t). As I played it back later, I noticed several red frames where there were none before.

Although MEP16 can't import these clips now anymore, which it did a couple of days earlier.
I ran the files through GSpot and this is what it says:



No info on the codec and no frame rate and size?
I don't even know were to begin to figure this out. Also one more odd thing, my external drive had a different drive letter today. I had assigned it the letter F and it was E now.

[George Tyndall]

Here you go, compliments of RJ, who solved the same problem for me:

You could try deleting the ImporterFastMPEG.prm file. That's the file that indexes MPEG files when you add them to a project for the first time. People who have JVC .MOD files have reported success in getting rid of distortions and other weird stuff by deleting that file. It's in this folder:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0\Plug-ins\en_US

If you rename the file instead of deleting it, you need to append an extension onto the file name like this:

ImporterFastMPEG.prm.rjj

Not sure about this, but you may need to delete any existing index files associated with the MPEG's you use in your project:

...\Media Cache Files\My ProjectHD3.MACC\*.mpgindex

[Gerlinde]

Thanks George, I knew there was someone who had seen this before! I will give your suggestion a try and see if that fixes the red frame problem.

If you look at a .m2t file in Gspot, does it give you any more information than I see?

And do you think removing the ImporterFastMPEG.prm file will fix the problem that MEP16 does not import those files any more?

[Gerlinde]

OK George, I tried your suggestion and it worked. But now PE shows a red line over the timeline, even with clips it just captured. When I press enter to render, to get rid of the red line, it renders for a while and then stops with an error message.

Exporting from the timeline seems to work. I don't know if this is now imposing a new set of problems.

Interestingly, MEP16 can open .m2t files again. But the one file it rejected before, needs some processing before it finally opens and it says something about ImporterFastmpeg.

[RJ Johnston]

Work on GSpot was stopped a while ago and doesn't include support for some video types.

Try MediaInfo: http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

[Gerlinde]

So Robert, you are saying that it is normal for GSpot not to show more information on the files?

May I also ask you, since you were the original poster of the red frame fix, do you know, what the downside is removing the plug-in? Does the red line over the timeline negatively affect processing time of the footage?

Would it be better to keep the plug-in and move it only to the desktop when working with .m2t files? The red frame problem obviously only shows up when working with previously exported clips in a new project? At least that is my experience so far.

[RJ Johnston]

It's normal for GSPOT to not show all the info for certain codecs and containers. That is why I switched to Media Info.

That plug-in is suppose to speed up processing of MPEG files. You can move it or rename it when you need to process problem video types, such as those .m2t or .MOD files, and then change back for other video types. In Premiere Elements 8, that plug-in doesn't even exist. I don't have any statistics on processing times with and without the plugin. Don't know how negatively it affects processing. I picked up the idea of eliminating the plugin from someone else on the Adobe forum.

[Gerlinde]

Thanks, RJ. I came to the conclusion to keep the plugin for normal processing and move it to the desktop when re-importing .m2t files. Although, I can't provide any statistics either, I think it slows things down, when the plugin is not present.

[RJ Johnston]

I found that playing back hi-def video on a very slow computer that without the plugin, the preview monitor refreshed about once every 10 seconds. With the plugin, the preview monitor refreshed about twice each second. That was for hi-def video.

I'm guessing that the plugin is used to create a cross-reference on the display order and the physical order of the frames in the video file, as they may not be the same.