This is my first posting and would be grateful for advice on the following problem.

I recently had several reels of 8mm cine film transfered 'professionally' as two dv.avi files, 957mb and 289mb, supplied on a dvd disc.

The files will playback ok on a dvd player but my problem is that the video on both files will not import into Premiere 6.5 it only imports the sound track, which ironically has no sound as the magnetic stripe on the cine films were not recorded.

I can successfully import into premiere, avi files that I have captured from an analogue camcorder also analogue tape captured and digitised with my Digital8 camcorder, with equal success.

As an experiment, I imported the 289mb file from the dvd disc into NeroVision Express and not only was the import successfull, but the programme detected scene changes which split the avi file into manageable chunks. However, thats about as useful as the programme gets. The file also imports into, dare I say it Windows Moviemaker ( this was just an experiment you understand)

I really would appreciate any help or assistance anyone can offer.

Incidentally, the 'proffessional' studio that did the transfer said that it would have been a serious extra cost when I asked them why the cine films were not provided as single individual files but lumped together. Hence the large files.

I'm not entierely sure but your files may be in ".vob" format which is the standard file format used for encoded DVD's

This software may help... http://www.erightsoft.org/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe

It has helped me transfer .VOB files to AVI's and they all seem to work in Premiere Pro fine

Hi Chris,
Thanks for your response to my post. I downloaded and installed the software you suggested and converted the 250mb dv avi (without the audio part for as I mentioned there was no soundtrack on my cine films). This resulted in a 9.5gb .avi file. Whilst the converted file now seems to import into Premiere, as video properties can now be viewed, I fear the file may be too large as when I attempt to move the file to the timeline, Premiere freezes. I confess that I'm no proffesional, in that while I have used the software extensively in editing several home produced video, when things become 'technical' I'm a little bit out of my depth. For example how would I now cut the 9.5gb file into more manageable segments in the hope that Premiere will accept these? Your assistance and patience, with this novice, is much appreciated.

Premiere 6.5 is old software now and it may not playback some video formats as well as the more up to date versions, how old is your computer and could you list its spec?

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My system was upgraded 18 months ago but is due for another, particularly ram which until now was just about enough.

Windows XP Pro/AMD Athlon(TM)XP2000+1.67mhz/512RAM/NVIDIA GeForce MX440/60gb Int/40gbInt/500gb Seagate Ext

Just out of intrest.... Which hard-drive are you storing the 9.5GB AVI file coming from is it coming from the one of the Internal hard-disks or the External HD?

The external drive Chris

In anticipation of the possible reason for your last question Chris, that the slower speed of the external hard drive connected via usb2 could be affecting the import into Premiere, I transfered the 9.5GB file from the external hard drive onto the 60GB internal hard drive, that has an unused capacity of 50GB, but without any success.

I really do not know the answer to this problem, I have 30/40GB rushes which I transfer from an external hard drive which is USB2 and they work perfectly fine without any crashes or corruptions of any kind.

The two video files you originally had on the dvd were not dv.avi as you say they played alright on a dvd player. They were .vob (mpeg) files and you first tried to import them into Premiere 6.5, can't remember whether or not that version of Premiere could import mpeg files successfully or not, more than likely not. Not all video conversion software does exactly 'what it says on the tin'. Even if it says it can convert from a version of mpeg, the NLE you are importing it into may throw a tantrum.

There seems to be a problem with Premiere, both old and new versions with bringing in mpeg files, as you say you either get just the audio track or very jumpy playback or in your case the app freezes. Whether this is due to the file format or the method you are using to transfer your files (using an EHD - I wouldn't use that system myself - just keep EHD's for storage and backup). What is the total capacity of both your IHD's?, I think Premiere needs a larger scratch disk than 60GB, as this has come up before on the forum and when the forum user increased the scratch disk capacity - the problem they had with Premiere disappeared. Now, I'm not saying that will sort out your problem.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...