Sony Vegas 9
I have banged my head against a wall over the audio problems with XVID encoding in Vegas for quite some time. If you came across this article by the way of a search, you’ve probably read other articles about audio encoding issues with DIVX and XVID in Vegas. You might have even tried a suggestion or two. Perhaps you have even installed the LAME MP3 codec. Let me save you some time, and tell you that high bitrate MP3 audio is simply not supported in Vegas.
Why not just use another video codec? AVC is pretty widely supported after all. The reason is simple. XVID (or DIVX) with MP3 audio, is possibly the most efficient codec(s) for the AVI container ever developed. Among other reasons, I have a Samsung bigscreen that will play these files directly. A great solution for quick customer demos.
There is a workaround. It’s not ideal, but at least it wont cost you any more money. First of all, you’ll need to grab a copy of VirtualDub. If you’re not familiar with this tool, you should be. Simply render your video in vegas with as an AVI video with the XVID codec. Choose PCM lossless for the audio codec. In the video menu, choose “Direct Stream Copy”. In the audio menu, choose full processing mode, and then choose compression. Choose “Lame MP3″ as the codec (you did install this earlier didn’t you?), and choose your preferred bitrate. Then choose “save as AVI from the file menu. That’s it!
In spite of this limitation, I’d still not trade Vegas for any other NLE.
Update… see the comment post by jellad.tarek. He’s apparently found a way to get the Lame codec to work correctly with Vegas.
Update2….Jeff Details a different solution in his comment on 1-8-12
13 Responses to “Sony Vegas and XVID (or DIVX) enconding with MP3 audio”
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Seems like a lot of work. Why are you using mp3, are you importing audio tracks?
I’m not importing audio into Vegas itself. The audio in this example comes from the video clip. MP3 is one of the standard audio codecs used by both DIVX and XVID. You can however output an XVID video with uncompressed audio. This undermines the whole point, as the resulting file size is quite large.
The point of this process is to end up with the smallest file size, and the highest audio quality.
But why doesn’t Sony support such a popular combination of codecs?
Ironically, Vegas supports more video and audio codecs on the timeline than just about any NLE. I suspect the answer is that in this case, it was probably had to do with rights to the mp3 format.
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hello
you talk about the LAME ACM encoder?
So I tried it, however, I got the “An error occured when opening the codec” error box
why?????
thanks
This was the reason for my post. Vegas (at least as of version 9) apparently can’t use the Lame codec. It has only very limited mp3 support. This is why you have to render the audio as lossless, and use virtualdub to recombine them.
I look everywhere on the web to solve the problem of error: “An error occurred When Opening the codec” blade mp3 sony vegas … but found nothing.
so … I try to provide my own solution.
After some tests, finally it works ….
This solution is based on a slight modification of the file “LameACM.inf”, deleting and adding other needed files.
Steps to follow:
1) uninstall all the video codes installed on the machine (using the Control Panel).
2) deleting from your system32 folder this files (if they exist of course):
– LameACM.acm
– Lame_acm.xml
– L3codeca.acm
– L3codecp.acm.
3) reboot
4) install “lameACM-3.98″ that I modified (http://www.4shared.com/file/LlNhhX2l/gooood_lameACM-398__from_tunis.html) :
– Right click on “LameACM.inf” and “install”.
– Restart if necessary (if the program requires it).
– Double click on “l3codecp.reg and answere yes…yes.
5) reboot the machine.
6) end of installation
7) tries to use “lame mp3″ sony vegas 9.0
bye the error: “An error occurred When Opening the codec
Great work Jellad! I know I, and quite a few others out there have had to deal with this issue. I really appreciate you taking the time to post your result for the benefit of others.
Thanks!
Tried this on Win 7.. no luck.. :/
Sony Vegas will recognise mp3 as an audio codec with Divx/Xvid encoding.
There are lots of threads on the Net from people trying to get mp3 to encode, but this definitely works. Actually this is not a Vegas fault, it occurs because the Registry does not point to the correct encoder file. I had been struggling to find an answer for a long time.
First, go to http://blog.komeil.com/2008/06/enabling-fraunhofer-mp3-codec-vista.html
There is a fix file which changes 2 registry entries.
Download but do not run it yet.
If you do not already have it, download and install the free Fraunhofer codec. Just do a Google search, there are lots of links.
Now look in Windows System32 folder (and Wow64 folder if running 64 bit).
If you have l3codecp.acm in the folder(s) then just run the fix file. (The ‘p’ at the end indicates the professional version).
If you only have l3codeca.acm (‘a’ indicates the non professional version) in the system folder(s), then do not despair. Windows Media Player 11 uses it. Do a search on your PC for l3codecp.acm. Once found copy it to the system folder(s) above, and run the fix file.
You should now be able to select mp3 as an audio encoding option in Vegas, and pick your audio preferences.
In case the fix file disappears here are instructions taken from the Blog for the Registry alterations:-
Registry Changes Required for the Activation of Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec (Professional)
1.In HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\drivers.desc remove the whole name and data for “C:\Windows\System32\l3codeca.acm”, then create a REG_SZ named “l3codecp.acm” with a value of “Fraunhofer IIS MPEG Layer-3 Codec (professional)”.
2.In HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 change the value for “msacm.l3acm” from “C:\Windows\System32\l3codeca.acm” to “l3codecp.acm”.
Thanks for the info Jeff! I’ve not yet tried this myself, but will do so when time allows.
Dear readers, do proceed with caution on something like this. I suggest creating a system restore point before modifying the registry.
This has been tried on XP and Windows 7, and works. If anyone is having the associated Vegas problem of no audio track appearing in the Time-Line re. editing DivX/Xvid files, installing the lates K-Lite Codecs cures that, and does not interfere with the mp3 encoding tip above.