Big trouble trying to import video.

[OldNick]

I am trying to import a video to write music for it.

However, I am getting very patchy results. Sometimes (mp4) the video will import and yet the Video View is a black screen. The next time I try (mov), I am told the video will not import ...and yet I have imported a .mov file once and it seemed OK. I have imported mp4 videos and they worked...no..._it_ worked once.

I have no idea what works and what does not, or if it's the length of the video, the package, the CoDec used to render it, etc. I do know that M2TS (AVC and AVCHD) files are always rejected, but avoiding rendering to those has had no consistent results.

All of these movies play fine in VLC and Media Player Classic.

I am running around in circles. Can anyone start to guide me here, please? If I am limited to just one format of video, that I can rely on, that is fine: this is only for display while I make the noise required.

 

[Matthew Sorrels]

Not only are your limited to what video formats Cakewalk will support, it has frame timing issues as well.  Doesn't seem to handle being frame accurate correctly (rewinding/looping often has the second playback start 1 frame late).  I've made a bunch of test videos with frame numbers burned into the video and the results aren't so great.  I gave up on getting CbB to do video, it's a lost cause.

As a rule Quicktime movies aren't going to work very well at all.  Some AVI codecs will work, but which ones depends on what you have installed on your computer since CbB uses Window's video for support.

[OldNick]

Thanks Matthew.

Good grief! You gave up! This is retrograde stuff! I have done audio for vids in the past with CW, with great success.

I will try AVI, just because I have always used CW/SONAR as my music maker.

I  am the sort of guy that will go for whatever works, but then I tend to turn away from what doesn't, even though I wish it would. That is even for other uses.

[Matthew Sorrels]

When doing 3D animation frames start to be really important, so that exact frame number accuracy kind of matters.  For normal video the little issues may not be a factor.  One thing that is very important when trying to use video with CbB/SONAR is to be sure and set the video timecode FPS correctly.   The sync module in the main toolbar has a drop down.  Or you can do it in the preferences under Project/Clock.

 

[OldNick]

HAH! Sorry for my humour. Not having a go at you,   but I am struggling to just _see_ a video, let alone worry about 3d!   When the time comes, I will take your comments into consideration.