How to get video going in Cubase 9.5?

[jancivil]

It is.
It is not free, like X-Encode which Steinberg recommends for teh Windows user to make videos work in the new engine.

The [vidplayvst] demo looks pretty restricted and the FAQ page contains some non-sequiturs, such as the answer to the question of Importing Audio has no information on that question, instead it says to render 'at the same rate of playback'. There is nothing there which would encourage me to pay for it.

[BERFAB]

It is.
It is not free, like X-Encode which Steinberg recommends for teh Windows user to make videos work in the new engine.

The demo looks pretty restricted and the FAQ page contains some non-sequiturs, such as the answer to the question of Importing Audio has no information on that question, instead it says to render 'at the same rate of playback'. There is nothing there which would encourage me to pay for it.

OK jancivil--I just re-read all your posts. I think I'm getting closer to enlightenment. The problem from my end is that you've entered the conversation about 3 levels higher than my competence. But I think I now kind of understand. If I may:

Up until version 9.0, Cubase used QT which was a free (or freely available) app, not created, owned or controlled by Steinberg. Upon installation, Cubase would seek out and have QT essentially install itself simultaneously, and automatically integrate, so that using video in Cubase would appear seamless to the uninformed end-user (me).

Now, since QT is no longer supported by its creator, Cubase has opened up its video to be compatible with other third party video apps, none of which is supplied by Steinberg, and thus not installed when upgrading to version 9.5.

So, it would appear that I have to obtain my own app and install it so that it integrates with Cubase. You say that Steinberg recommends a program called X-Encode to essentially do what QT used to do. I believe you indicate that X-Encode is also free, so that would be a good entry point to get going with video in Cubase 9.5.

I will pause there and ask if I am close to being correct in these observations. If I am, I would then ask if there are any step by step instructions somewhere for installing, and then integrating X-Encode into Cubase 9.5.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Cheers
-B

[jancivil]

Y'all's welcome.

So, it would appear that I have to obtain my own app and install it so that it integrates with Cubase.

I didn't read this carefully enough. The app installed, you'll need to load the vids in there and "re-encode" which means render the video with the correct settings. This is something FCPX and DaVinci Resolve do with their basic settings apparently. I do very little in either.

Killing 'Replace Audio in Video' rilly sux for me as I want 24-bit 'PCM' in mine so youtube compressing the file is compressing a full res audio (technically 23-bits in a vid). So I had to get DaVinci Resolve which will render the video with that, FCPX makes an AAC audio and IME the audio is already crap in the app on playback, so...
DaVinci Resolve is free. They have a version you can pay for but the diff is project export/compatibility for collaboration with the serious hardware and all this.

[bill45]

Thanks Jancivil

[BERFAB]

So I won't ever be able to just drag MP4 and MOV and MPEG files into Cubase 9.5 like I do with the previous versions? I have to encode them first? How is this an improvement?

[jancivil]

I think that returning may be less likely than what I need from 'em. I'm only guessing.

There is a survey they have for feedback going out. Have you seen the link? You could sound off there.
I did. I also hate what they did to Offline Processing.

[Grumbleweed]

As a Cubase newbie I loaded a video I had made in Movie Maker and it accepted it, and then it took ages creating thumbnails. I had a little play around moving the audio and then went to export and could not find an export option!
I then tried loading the original version in Sonar Platnum and it loaded fine, immediately opened the video in its own window and it let me export.... but what it exported wouldn't play on my pc (which could be my fault).
I gave up and stuck with what Movie Maker had done!

Grum.

[lfm]

So I won't ever be able to just drag MP4 and MOV and MPEG files into Cubase 9.5 like I do with the previous versions? I have to encode them first? How is this an improvement?

I think he talked about re-encode to put new audio into video file - but could have read it wrong. And some things are different in windows 7 compared to windows 10. In first release you could not extract audio track from video in Windows 7, that may be fixed now.

Normal drag-n-drop into a video track I think works.
I've done with MP4 encoded with H264 codec at least with 9.0, have not tried yet with 9.5. I never had quicktime software installed or used video encoded with quicktime.

If encoded with quicktime codec it might not work on windows at least. Since Quicktime software was recommended to be uninstalled for security reasons, and don't know if there are any other codecs that do quicktime decoding.

Consider to get a video editor - Premiere Elements or PowerDirector or similar. You can re-encode many formats in those editors if needed, just for preview into Cubase. Even to save cpu a smaller video frame size and quality might be worth doing that.

Then taking audio from Cubase made with preview file there - over to video editor. And make the new video file you will not have to re-encode the video itself if untouched. PowerDirector show with a green line over timeline if clip is untouched, and red line if it will be re-encoded due to used effects and similar.

If using Cubase just for previewing video you can just as well use VidPlayVST plugin, unless you really need thumbnails. The VST use far less cpu than Cubase video engine, at least when I tested in last july with 9.0 and it arrived. I find VidPlayVst perfect for me, and never looked back at Cubase videotrack yet. But don't do longer than 5-30 minute stuff.

Since VidPlayVst identify as a synth - you just a midi C note somewhere where you want video playback to start, if not from very beginning. I usually have 10 seconds blank at start of project for various purposes, so I do that. When that is done I create a marker track and put markers for various scenes to quickly move around and name scenes. VidPlayVST sync with that and works nicely. Choose time linear as timebase for marker track, then you can alter tempo in Cubase without those are moving around. Then I create other marker tracks with musical timebase that I activate to jump between specific music sections for recording etc.

[jancivil]

So I won't ever be able to just drag MP4 and MOV and MPEG files into Cubase 9.5 like I do with the previous versions? I have to encode them first? How is this an improvement?

I think he talked about re-encode to put new audio into video file - but could have read it wrong. And some things are different in windows 7 compared to windows 10. In first release you could not extract audio track from video in Windows 7, that may be fixed now.

Normal drag-n-drop into a video track I think works.

No. BERFAB said he had phone and screen capture vids that do not load from File/Import/Video File.
I made a screen capture vid that would not load from File/Import/Video File.
Drag-and-drop is not a different function than Import Video File.
I tested drag-and-drop just now. This is Cubase 9.5.2. Of course there is no difference, nothing happens.
I guarantee that if I took the screen capture vid into FCPX or DaVinci Resolve and render it with the settings I have, it will import into Cubase 9.5 or Nuendo 8.1.

For me, the problem is Replace Audio in Video which is another aspect of videoengine vs the way Cubendo worked with Quicktime. I'm SOL, I have to use DaVinci Resolve to get a video I care anything about uploading to Youtube.
Because I use Youtube to share the music and they compress the file with their codec(s), I stick full PCM in the thing. But the thread is BERFAB cannot get the raw phone or capture vids into Cubase 9.5

[jancivil]

If encoded with quicktime codec it might not work on windows at least. Since Quicktime software was recommended to be uninstalled for security reasons, and don't know if there are any other codecs that do quicktime decoding.

There is nothing in my exchange with BERFAB regarding encoding with Quicktime. I used it for a capture and did not re-encode because that is what has to be replicated to be certain of this bug, I mean feature.

Consider to get a video editor - Premiere Elements or PowerDirector or similar. You can re-encode many formats in those editors if needed, just for preview into Cubase. Even to save cpu a smaller video frame size and quality might be worth doing that.

Well, BERFAB does not like the idea of expensive third-party software for his or her purposes and said so.
I found a freeware that Steinberg recommends for Windows users to address the issue, BERFAB's issue.
The support page is detailed and the things it says do not do with an encoding job, once it gets into the weeds is very power-user oriented.
So my confidence that this will work is 100%.

VidPlayVst...

Costs money and isn't needed.

[lfm]

But the thread is BERFAB cannot get the raw phone or capture vids into Cubase 9.5

Ok, thanks, I was too lazy not reading through it all again - just taking that statement - my bad.

What I read about from various devices, GoPro, Smartphones etc videos - something about variable framerate or something. Adobe Premiere Elements forum is one.

They have to do conversion for those framerate reasons as well - to a fixed framerate - to use in any video editor.

Do we know codec itself is problem - or framerate variable creating the problem?

I've used AnyVideoConverter to do many things, sometimes extracting audio, sometimes making videos readable on more devices.

http://www.any-video-converter.com/prod ... ideo_free/

Loads of formats from iPhone etc.

[lfm]

There is nothing in my exchange with BERFAB regarding encoding with Quicktime. I used it for a capture and did not re-encode because that is what has to be replicated to be certain of this bug, I mean feature.

But he mentioned it working with earlier Cubase versions that had quicktime installed, or?

Well, BERFAB does not like the idea of expensive third-party software for his or her purposes and said so.
I found a freeware that Steinberg recommends for Windows users to address the issue, BERFAB's issue.
The support page is detailed and the things it says do not do with an encoding job, once it gets into the weeds is very power-user oriented.
So my confidence that this will work is 100%.

I don't find $70 expensive in relation to what Cubase cost.
Those are the levels of those editors I mentioned.
I paid €55 for PowerDirector 15 when I got that.

Costs money and isn't needed.

That depends if you prefer to run the same project at 36% cpu or just 16% - that was the difference for me running VidPlayVst(16%) instead of Cubase new engine(36%).

$15 - it's not serious cost for what it offers.

Also solves issues many people at Steinberg forum had not being able to do two video tracks. One guy got an updated video for score he was writing - and could solve that running VidPlayVst in Cubase. So scenes were longer/shorter and he had to redo many things in what i already thought was done.

So buying Nuendo to do multiple video tracks - is a huge investment in comparison.

[jancivil]

BTW and Note Well: Quicktime-encoded is not really a thing. It encodes for the formats in use as this and another container type, eg .mov, .mp4 which contains a type of resolution, Apple ProRes, H.264 etc. Youtube is going to turn it into an .mp4 and in a lot of my cases this is a dramatically smaller file than my render. Youtube likes H.264 and at 1080p it's certainly not horrible.

But the real poop is at the link I posted earlier, Steinberg Support on encoding for the videoengine.

[jancivil]

There is nothing in my exchange with BERFAB regarding encoding with Quicktime. I used it for a capture and did not re-encode because that is what has to be replicated to be certain of this bug, I mean feature.

But he mentioned it working with earlier Cubase versions that had quicktime installed, or?

Quicktime has no more relevance to BERFAB or a Windows-user per se, because videoengine.
It's normal for me but its capture is not doing the thing which has to happen for videoengine; which replicates this feature BERFAB ran into a wall with.

Costs money and isn't needed.

That depends...

So buying Nuendo to do multiple video tracks - is a huge investment in comparison.

This seems rather off the track of the thread. It isn't needed to re-encode the things BERFAB has. I don't think the context was missing there.

[lfm]

BTW and Note Well: Quicktime-encoded is not really a thing. It encodes for the formats in use as this and another container type, eg .mov, .mp4 which contains a type of resolution, Apple ProRes, H.264 etc. Youtube is going to turn it into an .mp4 and in a lot of my cases this is a dramatically smaller file than my render. Youtube likes H.264 and at 1080p it's certainly not horrible.

But the real poop is at the link I posted earlier, Steinberg Support on encoding for the videoengine.

A "thing" or not - Premiere Elements did still not support quicktime encoded stuff, while still most other codecs were ok. Like mine from cameras, sometime MP4 or MOV - with H264 inside were ok. So just small reservations not needing quicktime software installed anymore.

Powerdirector also removed requirement for quicktime being installed. I could use MOV and MP4 directly from camera as they were.

The Corel products did not remove that quicktime software requirement - 18 months ago - when I check Pinnacle and Movie Studio. Drag-n-drop a MOV file, like mentioned above, it did not support without quicktime installed.

Just a remark - many that removed need for quicktime software on windows - have still some reservations for various formats.