I have several cameras and on occassion, I want to edit the video from them into one longer video file. I did this once before when I downloaded the video from the cloud because I did not have SD cards in my cameras. This worked out OK.
Now that I have SD cards in my cameras, I cannot edit the video. I am using Vegas Pro video editing software. In both cases the video is in MP4 format. The editor accepted the video from the clould but does not accept the video from the SD cards.
First youāll want to use a video stitching application to join the 1 minute clips together to make them easier to work with, then you probably just need to get a plugin for Vegas to handle MP4. Surprised it doesnāt handle it natively.
Donāt attempt to edit them on the SD card, that will be very slow, download them onto the computer first.
How long are the videos? The normal process would be to press the ārecordā button in the Wyze app (whether live stream or reviewing an SD card), then edit that resulting clip on your device if necessary. The app will make most recordings much more friendly.
I appreciate the response but you are over thinking the issue. The video clips on the SD card are the typical 1 minute long. I do not attempt to edit them from the SD card. All the files are transfered to my computer where I (want to) use Vegas Pro to edit the files. I could use a stitching application to combine them but the editor can do that.
My problem is not the logistics of managing the files or the optimum way to edit them. My problem is that the H.264 format that was stored in the Wyze cloud is not the same as the H.264 format that is on the SD card. The former loads into the editor just fine. The latter does not.
Not surprising that the cloud clips are different from the SD card clips, totally different systems. You may need to look at Vegas support/forums to find out what plugin or setting you need to change to be able to edit the ones on the SD card.
You do have the option of ārecordingā the clip from the camera to your phone first which should re-format it to whatever your phone defaults to, but there will be a bit of quality lost doing that (not a huge amount though, the main issue is it tends to result in a much larger file than what is on the SD card).
First off, it is very cheesy that one would have to ālaunderā the SD files through the phone and then transfer the files to the PC. How Mikey Mouse is that!
Clearly the difference between the MP4 files on the cloud and the MP4 files on the SD card are different and for no apparent reason.
Video Vegas doesnāt get off scott free either. I have an old version of Vegas, v12. It works just fine for me but did not import the SD version of the MP4 files at all. I got the trial version of v22 and got half way there. The video comes in but the audio does not.
I am not happy about this. The players all work fine but to get the video files to be acceptable to the editor, I have to go through a transfer process that tripples the file size.
Personally if I need to provide evidence to the police etc I take out the SD card and use the file itself. Usually I just give them untouched files (for obvious reasons, chain of evidence type thing). I canāt recall if Iāve ever tried to edit them but I know Iāve uploaded them to a private Youtube just fine, both audio and video came through. I have edited ones that I used the easier ārecordā process for in several apps just fine too, in that case just out of laziness and they werenāt needed for anything important.
Codecs and containers (H.264 within MP4, and Iām guessing the audio may be MP3 but never looked) get updated from time to time. Most likely just a matter of determining what plugin/addon you need for Vegas. I havenāt used it so not familiar. My car dash cams (over 10 years old at this point) use AVI files encoded with ffdshow, I have to install that codec before I can view anything off them.
If the video is working fine then maybe just need to add LAME encoder or some other audio codec. Donāt think this is something you can blame on Wyze too much, I recall for a long time if you wanted to even view an iPhone picture or video on windows you had to install HEVC or something like that. Seems like nobody is ever fully in synch, even now that everything seems to use MP4, thereās something like 10+ different types of encoding that can be contained within the wrapper, and then the audio is a different piece.
Before I go any farther, I just want to thank everyone that has taken the time to offer some help.
Although Wyze doesnāe make it straightforward to manage the files and they could have selected more widely used codecs, I am leaning towards the opinion that the primary causes for these issues lies with Vegas.
I found the page that lists all the formats that all of the versions of Vegas are compatable with.
As you can see, my ancient Vegas Pro 12 doesnāt even support MPEG-4. Since the trial for Vegas 22 does, the video comes in fine.
I used VLC to determine the audio codec. It is PCM ALAW, what ever that is. The supported audio codecs do not show any PCM codecs. That is probably why the audio does not come in. I donāt know what it will take to add that in if it is even possible.
I do think I have a workable solution though. I checked into MP4Tools (thanks for that great suggestion) and that joiner is great! I can join all the files I want into one large file. The resulting file is not larger than the sum of the pieces and they can all be added at once. Then I can use VLC to convert just the audio from that combined file into an MP3 file. Now I just have to add one video file and one audio file into the editor and I am good to go. No filtering through the phone.
I tried it on a sample of seven clips and it all worked great.
If Iām not mistaken A-LAW is what ffmpeg uses, and it should be able to convert it to MP3, or maybe there is an ffmpeg plugin for Vegas?
I run a streaming audio server that does not need much quality and it uses ffmpeg as it is a good combination of small size and decent quality without a lot of the garbling that high MPEG compression can have.
I have a short follow up after doing some more digging. VLC shows the audio codec as PCM ALAW. Vegas 22 shows it as ADPCM.
So once again, Appleās pigheaded attitude strikes again. ADPCM is the audio format for Appleās Quicktime media. I presume this format was easily and cheaply available to Wyze and so that is why it is used instead of at least a half dozen other as good or better and more widely used options. I am sure that Vegas did not want to fork over the randsom Apple required to use their little-used format and there you have it.
Unless Wyze uses a different codec for the SD files, the option I laid out above seems to be the best.
Perhaps Vegas is just mis-interpreting it? Iād be surprised if Wyze wanted to pay any sort of licensing fee to Apple, especially for a pretty antiquated protocol.