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3G2 Files don't play properly
alexcomp [Avatar]
Newbie Location: Alabama Joined: Aug 29, 2011 17:08 Messages: 18 Offline
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I have the LG Dare cell phone which creates video in the 3G2 format. The specification say that I should be able to work with this format in my power director 9/64. Such is not the case.

I am able to import the folder into a project – I can see the opening frame – I can play the clip in the preview window but the sound will not play.

If I drag the clip to the timeline, the first frame of the clip will be visible on the timeline but the preview window is black even though the slider seems to be escaping on the timeline. This is puzzling.

Can anyone help me to understand? It also seems that the three G2 format is somewhat quirky as Windows media player will play the video but not the audio. I can however play the video and the audio through QuickTime. I guess there is a workaround which I may have used in the past and that is to convert three G2 to some other format. Seems unnecessarily cumbersome.

Thank you for your assistance
Carl312
Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline
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Quote: I have the LG Dare cell phone which creates video in the 3G2 format. The specification say that I should be able to work with this format in my power director 9/64. Such is not the case.

I am able to import the folder into a project – I can see the opening frame – I can play the clip in the preview window but the sound will not play.

If I drag the clip to the timeline, the first frame of the clip will be visible on the timeline but the preview window is black even though the slider seems to be escaping on the timeline. This is puzzling.

Can anyone help me to understand? It also seems that the three G2 format is somewhat quirky as Windows media player will play the video but not the audio. I can however play the video and the audio through QuickTime. I guess there is a workaround which I may have used in the past and that is to convert three G2 to some other format. Seems unnecessarily cumbersome.

Thank you for your assistance

Maybe you should post a 5 to 10 second sample video from your LG phone, that way editors in this forum can test your footage to see if it is the phone's format that is the problem or if it is something on your computer.

The reason you can not play that video is not having the correct codec to play the file. Apparently Quicktime does have the correct codec.

As to a file converter, there are several on the internet for download, you would just have to find one that works with your LG phone's video.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

alexcomp [Avatar]
Newbie Location: Alabama Joined: Aug 29, 2011 17:08 Messages: 18 Offline
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I have a suitable clip. How do I upload it?
Carl312
Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline
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Quote: I have a suitable clip. How do I upload it?

Click on the Post Reply button, not the Quick Reply button.

You will see a Blue Attachments button below the large text box. Click that button, takes you to a text box and a browse button to attach your file from your computer.

Then click Submit and wait for the upload to finish.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

alexcomp [Avatar]
Newbie Location: Alabama Joined: Aug 29, 2011 17:08 Messages: 18 Offline
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Here it is...
 Filename
1205011411.3g2
[Disk]
 Description
Small 3g2 file will not play
 Filesize
5919 Kbytes
 Downloaded:
320 time(s)
Carl312
Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline
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I downloaded your 3g2 video.

It does not work in Power Director 9 because of its format.
The video part has a frame rate of 14.969 fps. That is out of range for PowerDirector.

The audio part is:
Bit rate : 12.8 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Sampling rate : 8 000 Hz

That sampling rate is way too low for Powerdirector.

Attached is the properties of that video as seen by PowerDirector.

Explains alot.

All is not lost however, I was able to convert that 3g2 video to a proper 640x480 Zune WMV in Media Espresso.
After conversion the video and audio works in Power director on the timeline.

If there are any setting in your LG phone to output a correct format video, you would not have to convert.
In the mean time you will have to convert your LG phone's video to work in PD.

[Thumb - Properties for 3g2 file in PD9.jpg]
 Filename
Properties for 3g2 file in PD9.jpg
[Disk]
 Description
Properties of video file.
 Filesize
19 Kbytes
 Downloaded:
169 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 06. 2011 14:57

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

alexcomp [Avatar]
Newbie Location: Alabama Joined: Aug 29, 2011 17:08 Messages: 18 Offline
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I'll check my phone settings but I doubt there will be flexibility. I downloaded "Free 3gp Video Converter" from dvdvideosoft and it worked perfectly. Converted to mp4 and it played well.

Be nice if it could go straight in but I don't use the phone much anyway. Thank you so much for your clarifications!
Cranston
Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Aug 17, 2007 02:26 Messages: 1667 Offline
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Hi alexcomp,

I downloaded your file to test it, and my results were a bit different.

Your clip opened fine in my PD9, on my 32bit desktop system.
And once in the timeline, I was able to Trim - Split – Add a couple of transitions and effects - Produce to Mp4 - Etc.
All without any video or audio issues.
(BTW, it also plays fine in my WindowsMedia Player, as well as QT player)

However when I tested on my 64bit system, even though at first, playing the clip from the library was fine, once in the timeline, the video went missing (black screen), and only the audio worked.
(I even tried Adrian’s VRM hack, changing the value from 7 to 9, but that didn’t cure it.)

I’m not a tech guy, but do find it very curious that even though both rigs have the same codec packs and same current QT, that your clip performs fine in the 32bit environment, yet glitches in the 64bit environment.
The 32bit XP Pro desktop has a AMD/ATI HD 6750 card, and the 64bit i7 laptop has an Intel HD3000 card. But I hope someone is not going to say that HD3000 isn’t capable of handling SD video.

I’d be really curious to hear what some of our resident tech pros would have to say about what the possible issue could be between the 32bit system’s successful handling of your clip, and the 64bit system glitching and displaying only black, once in the timeline.

In the meantime, the conversion route seems your most viable workaround I guess.

Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Same thing here, CP... except I don't have the luxury of a 32-bit PC running PD9.

But the same thing occurred with alexcomp's 3G2 clip. Black screen & media source error. No audio.

No extra information - just confirming.

Although - when I changed the file extension from .3g2 to .mp4 the clip played fine in PD9, with no black screen or error message... but still no audio. The file (with its .mp4 extension played correctly in MPC-HC.

Very shaky graveyard!

Cheers - Tony

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 07. 2011 03:36


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alexcomp [Avatar]
Newbie Location: Alabama Joined: Aug 29, 2011 17:08 Messages: 18 Offline
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I agree – I'm going to have to work on my handheld cell phone technique. Not to mention the fact that the wind noise is quite pronounced even though I don't recall that the wind was all that vigorous.
Carl312
Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline
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Quote: I agree – I'm going to have to work on my handheld cell phone technique. Not to mention the fact that the wind noise is quite pronounced even though I don't recall that the wind was all that vigorous.

Wind noise is something you can not do much about with the built-in microphone.
Only if you have an external mic with a wind filter can you do much about wind noise.

Hand holding a light weight camera of any type takes practice. Most people do not realize how much we shake until you see a video made with a camera you are holding.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

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