And More: How To Stop the "Trails" and "Corruption" in Sony Vegas When Importing an Xvid Codec Recorded File (Tutorial with Example Video)

[The title sounds like a spell of some sort.. BEWARE THE TRAILS OF CORRUPTION]

As part of the 'And More' of this blog, I would like to present a Tip that will help anyone that may be experiencing the 'trails' or 'corruption' effect that appears when importing an Xvid-recorded video into the Sony Vegas line of products.

This effect can occur no matter what game recording software you are using (Dxtory, Bandicam [as an External Codec], MSI Afterburner, etc.**), if it is configured to record with the Xvid codec downloaded from the Xvid.org website. An example of the corruption (and the associated setting that can fix it) can be seen in this short video:

The first portion is an Xvid Codec recording with the Motion Search Precision setting ON (which is the default setting if you are using the "Real-time" Quality Preset to record with, for instance).
The second portion is the same Xvid Codec recording, but with the Motion Search Precision setting OFF (Set to "None" (0)).

That is all that need be changed to fix this problem with importing Xvid recordings into Vegas, all other settings can remain how you prefer. One more example of what can be fixed/corrected (a still frame from a 'corrupted' video) is shown here:

To change the required setting in the Xvid Codec interface:

• After selecting Xvid MPEG-4 Codec as your recording codec [in whatever game recording software you prefer], click on the Configure button to open the Xvid Configuration window. Then, under the More section, Quality Preset, click the "more..." button past the pull-down menubar and it will Question you with the choice to Copy the values that cannot be changed to a "User Defined" setting. Clicking "Yes" will copy the Real-time Preset settings to the pull-down selection called "User Defined" and then you can change the preset settings within.

Click to see Full Size

• In the Motion Precision category on the first tab (Motion), next to Motion Search Precision, click on the pull-down menubar and click on "0 - None", to turn off Motion Searching when recording using the Xvid Codec.

Click to see Full Size

That's it. Sony Vegas Movie Studio and Sony Vegas Pro should both now be able to import your Xvid format recordings, no matter what game recording program you are using (Dxtory, Bandicam [as an External Codec], MSI Afterburner, etc**).


** Users of Bandicam will find that a built-in/optimized version of Xvid is already included within the program codec menu and provides good capture ability/quality, it just does not have the codec-native configuration interface (to change settings) and this version will not natively import into Vegas, as of this version.
If you are using Bandicam as your game recording application and you wish to record with the built-in/optimized version of Xvid and import your recordings into Vegas, simply download the Xvid codec from the Xvid.org website. Then, Bandicam's version of the codec can be opened within the Sony Vegas line of products. The problem presented above in the article does not occur when using Bandicam's built-in/optimized version of Xvid††

†† It should be noted, that this issue of "corruption" or "trails" or "glitchy-ness" does not occur in all Video Editing Applications. While most NLE editors (Vegas, Premiere, Lightworks, etc) will experience this, many 'Pro-sumer' grade video editing programs, do not. I have personally tested editors such as Corel's VideoStudio Pro, CyberLink's PowerDirector and even Microsoft's Movie Maker - and none of these editors display the issue mentioned herein.
If a user desires to stick with Xvid as their recording codec (indeed a speedy and potentially semi-high quality codec), then perhaps utilizing one of these other editors, should be considered.



Have fun recording and See You In The Games!