AVI and Adobe Premier 5.1c

I have Adobe Premier 5.1c and am trying to “clean up” an .avi movie made with my Canon PowerShot A70. My problem arises when I try to load the .avi clip into Premier and a get:

Unable to open that file.
File uses an unsupported compression format.

I downloaded Nimo Codec pack 8 and that hasn’t helped. Neither was Canon able to help me (...but sir, it is an .avi file...) nor was Adobe (I’m sorry, Premier 5.1 is no longer supported). If anyone knows what codec I need and could let me know, I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Open your AVI with word pad and look for the Alpha numeric 4 letters afer the word vid(s). It will be your codec. (or so a google search told me....)

Hi Dave,

Im having the same problem myself -cannot open avi files from a Canon A70 in most Editing packages!
Have you found a solution yet?
I would really welcome any suggestions!

Cheers

Mr T

From what I’ve seen asked and and answered a better message board for your editing questions would be www.computervideo.net
This is a dedicated video editing site, many are in the business and in the know, premiere and many other editing packages are often the topic as well as your hardware problems.

Try opening it in VirtualDub (available free from http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/) and saving it as an avi from there. You should find that converts it into a compatible format.

I solved this problem by installing the correct codec on my P.C. The Canon A70 uses an MJPEG compression on its .avi files (discovered using the method explained by Greg on this thread). I then did a search for this codec and found a few sites- www.morgan-multimedia.com, www.pegasusimaging.com.
Hope this helps.

I have a canon a80 and was having the exact same problem importing its avi files into premier.I found this on another message board and it works a treat
here is how you import the compressed .AVI’s with Adobe Premiere
v5.1 and 6

- Create New Project
- Open the Import File window (control-i)
- Select (but do not open) the file you want to import
- Change the file type at the bottom to: QuickTime (mov)
it will appear that there is no file to select but it should import

wow, Kaneb you are Strong man, thanks a million. Works perfectly with the A70.

Having a similar problem with the AVI files from my Canon S200, I found that the codec from www.morgan-multimedia.com has worked well to allow me to view and edit them with everything I have tested so far. Another method to see the codec used in a file, is to right click on the file name, go to Properties, then Details, and you shold be able to see the codec in use.

tkanks a lot Kaneb, you are my new Gandalf !

Hey poeple —
I was just having the same problem. But than, I remembered; GSpot. Do a google search for GSpot Codec Applience. It will read files for you, and give you all sorts of information on their codec, and whatnot.

Thanks Everyone

Kaneb. another thumbs up. you are a star

Nice trick Kaneb.
It works also for importing movie captured by Windows movie maker as (dv avi files), just put .mpg instead of .avi.

I tried kaneb’s solution with Premiere Pro and it unfortunately doesn’t work. (dang!) Anyone have a similar short cut solution. I have a number of video’s from my Canon A80 I would love to import but am currently unable to do so. Any advice is welcome. Thanks

i have adobe premier also and had trouble importing the video clips from my canon s400... even with Kaneb’s quick fix.
as a result, i downloaded and installed the mjpeg codec from morgan multimedia (http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/technicalsV3.htm) and didn’t have any problems thereafter. so far so good.

Kaneb’s solution works for my ixus 3 as well!!!
tnx

Kaneb you rock.

Kaneb you rock dude!!!

I’ve got the Powershot A30. I can import my avi’s when I set the file type to MPEG.
And for your info... I was using Adobe Premier 6.0

I too have Adobe Premiere Pro and Kaneb’s trick didn’t work for me. But I am able to import the MJPG avi file that I took w/ my Canon G3 w/out installing the morgan-multimedia or other codec.

All I did was change the extension of the file from .avi to .mpg and imported as I would any other file.

taitai’s solutiuon works for me. Canon S230.