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I am trying to convert some old VHS tapes to digital format, edit them in Premiere Elements 7 and then burn to a DVD. I have transferred the tapes to avi format and when I try to get them into Premiere Elements, I get the full audio clip but no video. I tried to import the same clip into Windows Movie Maker and both video and audio came in all right. I told my wife this was going to be simple but it appears that I have some things to learn. Can anyone help me?

Art

Welcome to Muvipix.

Can you list the exact steps you took to convert the VHS tapes and what hardware was used?

I'm with Peru on this one. Your problem is most likely codec-related. But we can't know until we know how or what device you used to capture your VHS video digitally. (AVIs can use any of thousands of codecs to store their video and audio.)

The best solution would be to open one of your video clips in G spot or Media Info and list on this forum the resolution, frame rate and, above all, the audio and video codecs it lists.
http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

Thanks so much for the quick response to my problem. I used Debut Professional v 2.14 by NCH Software and Hauppauge WinTV 418 video capture.

I downloaded one of my clips into G Spot as Steve suggested and the resolution is 720 x 480 and the frame rate is 29.970.

The information under video codec says: Codec H 264 Name H 264/MPEG-4 AVC.

The information under audio codec says: Codec 0X0055 MPEG -1 Layer 3
Info 44100Hz 128 kb/s tot, Joint Stereo.

I hope this is the information you require. There is more on the G Spot site and will be glad to type it out for you, if needed.

Again, I thank you for your help.

Art

Yes, that is a difficult video codec for version 7 to work with. The Hauppage unit and Premiere Elements are rarely a happy marriage. And version 7 is definitely in the pre-AVC age (or at least the age when video editors didn't handle AVC well).

What are your Project Settings, as listed under the Edit menu?

You may want to download the free trial of version 13 of Premiere Elements and see if it handles that video codec better than version 7.

The Project Settings under the Edit menu are as follows:

General - Video 720 hor 480 vert
Display Format 30 fps Drop- Frame Timecode


Capture - DV Capture

Video Rendering - Maximum Bit Depth - unchecked
File Format, Compressor, Color Depth - all greyed out
Optimize Stills - checked

Default timeline - Video 3 tracks
Stereo 3 tracks

I am currently downloading the free trial version of Premiere Elements 13 and will let you know how it works for me.

Thank you.

Art

The Premiere Elements 13 version handles my clips just fine. It is a little different from Version 7.

Thank you so much for your help.

Art

Yes, it's VERY different! Version 7 is from the days when people edited tape-based digital video. There was virtually no support then for AVC or MP4 video.

The video that Hauppage captured uses the AVC/MP4 codec (despite being an AVI).

There are analog capture devices that save your video in a format Premiere Elements 7 can work with. The Grass Valley/Canopus AVDC is the most affordable and popular.

And I'd recommend either doing your analog captures with that device or upgrading your software to version 11, 12 or 13 (all of which should be able to handle your AVC video).

Otherwise you're just going to be constantly frustrated by trying to make this bad marriage of device and software work.

Again, Steve, I wish to thank you for your help and advice. It is quite evident that I should have consulted you first before I started my little project but I think I will be able to carry on from here.

Art

Glad we could help, Art!