I am playing with adding video to a score, running into issues with codecs not being read, jerky playback, stuttering. Does anybody have suggestions on what container to use (mov, avi, mpeg, wmv), codecs to use for video and audio, size and compression settings? What works best? I can not even get Sib 7 to load a .mov video which seems very odd given .mov is pretty much an industry standard for working with film video for scoring and editing. Any suggestions appreciated.
EDIT (SOLVED):
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I installed these 64 bit codecs and now all is good in Sibelius 7 64 bit, plays .mov files just fine (Using Windows Media Player 64 bit version of the player):
http://www.codecguide.com/klcp_64bit.htm
See my other post in this thread-- I had to also set the video player in Sib preferences to Windows Media Player, and I had to hack the Windows Registry (back it up before doing this!) to make the 64 bit version of the Windows Media Player the default (Normally, even on a 64 bit Windows operating system, the 32 bit version of Windows Media Player is the default); maybe this step is not needed if the K-Lite codecs are installed, I don't know because I first hacked the registry to make 64 bit WMP default, then I installed the K-Lite 64 bit codecs.
The .mov video plays really nice now in Sibelius 7 64 bit, even 720x480p video.
Also, though there are many ways to render a video (video and audio codecs), this one works fine for me for .mov Quicktime files:
video: mpeg4 codec 80% quality
audio: uLaw 2:1 codec, 44Khz, 16 bit
If you're on 64-bit Windows, I'd suggest using something that DirectShow supports directly and easily. I'm not sure what that would be, but I would guess AVI is a good bet.
> If you're on 64-bit Windows, I'd suggest using something that DirectShow supports directly and easily. I'm not sure what that would be, but I would guess AVI is a good bet.
>
I rendered the video as avi, mov, wmv, mpeg -- get jerky playback regardless, at 720x480p; only solution I found was to cut the size to 360x240 but even that is not the greatest, and i would think a 64 bit app should be able to handle 480p or even better.
I have a pretty powerful system doing this-- Windows 7 Ultimate 64, 16GB RAM, high speed SATA drives, nvidia graphics, six core AMD cpu.
I don't have these issues if I pull in a video into a sequencer like Cubase 6, 32 bit or 64 bit; get smooth video window playback even with many VSTs loaded. I was hoping for much better video performance from Sib 7 64 bit, for the purpose of film scoring.
I am at a loss to understand why Sibelius 7 64bit refuses to load and play .mov Quicktime video files.
The 64 bit version of Windows Media Player plays .mov video files just fine on my system, and I set the Preferences in Sibelius 7 to use WMP as the video 'engine'.
I hacked my Win 7 registry so now the 64 bit version of WMP is being used by default to play video files with WMP on my 64 bit Win 7 system; this is confirmed when I do a Ctrl Alt Del keypress and check my task manager and the WMP process and the location of WMP being used.
C:\Program Files
So if Sib 7 64 bit is using WMP as the video player engine, why can't Sib 7 64 bit play .mov video files?
I have to wonder if Sib 7 64 bit is somehow incorrectly programmed to use the 32 bit version of WMP instead of the operating system default version of WMP (which by default is 32 bit, located in C:\Program Files (x86). But when a user (me) hacks the registry to tell Windows to use the 64 bit version of WMP
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/making-windows-media-player-64-bit-default/bd4872b3-75e8-4d81-ae8a-df50798d5113 I would think Sib 7 64bit would just invoke the operating system default now, which should be the 64 bit WMP, that should then play .mov files, as both Sib 7 and WMP are both 64 bit.
Am I not understanding something?
I really purchased Sib 7 to have 64 bit ability to go beyond the 4GB RAM limitation, and with the end of goal of using Sib 7 for film scoring-- and .mov files are the industry standard used for film video files (editing, special effects, music scoring). While I could stick with .wmv video files, it just seems really odd that Sib 7 will not play .mov files through the WMV video player engine.
> I am at a loss to understand why Sibelius 7 64bit refuses to load and play .mov Quicktime video files.
...
Problem solved. :)
Installed these 64 bit codecs and now all is good in Sibelius 7 64 bit, plays .mov files just fine (Using Windows Media Player 64 bit version of the player):
http://www.codecguide.com/klcp_64bit.htm
How long is the video? I've found that movies start behaving badly when they go above 13 minutes or so - usually for longer films I split them into multiple videos and scores to minimize playback issues. Hope that helps.
> How long is the video? I've found that movies start behaving badly when they go above 13 minutes or so - usually for longer films I split them into multiple videos and scores to minimize playback issues. Hope that helps.
This is just a clip less than 2 minutes in length.
> Randall, are you using an ASIO audio interface in Audio Engine Options, or DirectSound?
ASIO. I have a Soundblaster Titanium X-Fi audio card so I need to use its ASIO driver to get the low latency for midi controller (keyboard) input. [I need to head out for work, will check back late afternoon]
I am discovering some quirks about Sib 7 and video. For one thing, Quicktime .mov video refuses to play in Sib 7 (x64), complains of codec issues; however, the .mov videos plays just fine in standalone Quicktime player, or VLC player (my favorite, I wish AVID would allow VLC to be an option for playback besides Quicktime and Windows Mediaplayer, VLC is opensource, free, and the most robust of all players for dealing with codec issues). For curiosity I booted up Sib 7 (x32) and guess what-- the .mov video works fine in 32 bit mode Sib 7 (and of course in Sib 6 which was always 32 bit). This seems to be a bug in Sib 7 x64, perhaps it can be dealt with for an upgrade in the near future?
I can get video to work in Sib 7 x64, though nowhere near as smooth as with a sequencer (I have Cubase 5)-- I drop the size to something like 360x240 (half of DVD resolution) and get manageable playback smoothness using .wmv, however if I use Sib 7 x32 then 720x480p video including .mov video works pretty good.
Quicktime .mov is an industry norm for sharing video files for video editing, special effects, and music scoring, so i sorely hope Sib 7 x64 can be upgraded to allow .mov video file usage for music scoring with the video player window in Sib 7.
> Have you installed 64-bit codecs for the .mov videos?
> Windows does not natively support .mov videos.
>
The .mov videos play just fine in Windows 7 x64 in the standalone Quicktime video player or standalone Windows Media Player-- thus 64 bit codecs for the .mov videos logically can not be the issue. Unless there are x64 bit versions of Quicktime and Media Player that need to be installed; I guess I assumed that Quicktime and Media Player on my system are 64 bit, perhaps they are not, perhaps Sibelius 7 64bit needs special 64 bit versions of QT and MP?
If the .mov video plays just fine in standalone QT or MP, why, since Sibelius 7 uses either QT or MP as the engine to play such videos, wouldn't the videos play in Sibelius 7? The codecs needed to play said videos must be present on my system or they would not play with standalone QT or MP.
> I guess I assumed that Quicktime and Media Player on my
> system are 64 bit, perhaps they are not, perhaps Sibelius 7 64bit
> needs special 64 bit versions of QT and MP?
Quicktime for Windows is 32-bit only, as are its codecs for .mov format.
I think you are on to something, that WMP is 32 bit by default, and QT is only 32 bit. Sib 7 x64 might be needing a 64 bit player for .mov, not sure. Still, it really seems that Sibelius 64-bit is deficient in not being able to play .mov files (industry standard), there really needs to be a workaround, the PDF guide or whatever for Sib 7 should discuss this, and any solution.
> There is a "QuickTime Alternative" for 64-bit, which you might try searching the web for.
>
> Can you send the video file to me somehow, via Sendspace or Dropbox or YouSendIt or similar?
>
I am ftp uploading a number of clips, same 'scene', various sizes and codec renderings. When I have them online I will let you know here, and by email (with a password to access the video clips). Then you can see what I see, now mov works in 32 bit but not 64 bit Sib 7. wmv works okay in 64 bit Sib 7 although there is often an odd 'wormhole' (stutter) effect for the first second of video playback, not sure what is causing that (only in Sibelius, not in a standalone player, so it is not in the actual video file itself).
To clarify (and I suspect you now know this). There is no way of playing QuickTime files from a 64-bit application on Windows *unless* you have installed a 3rd party codec. If you use Windows media player or a web browser on a 64-bit system then they actually use a trick where they start up a 32-bit process and play the video in that.
Apple haven't released a 64-bit quicktime codec for Windows and so this makes the format a poor choice if you want portability.
Somehow Cubase 5 64-bit plays .mov video files beautifully, smooth, even with a boatload of VST instruments loaded up on tracks in the sequencer. Maybe Cubase uses its own video player, don't know, but if 64bit Cubase can play .mov files smooth, there oughta be a way fro 64bit Sibelius to do the same, maybe Avid could develop its own internal video player?
> I can't get sound from VLC Player or other audio program while using Sibelius.
That will be because Sibelius has been configured to output audio to a single-client interface (such as ASIO or WASAPI).
To mitigate this issue, in Sibelius's dialogue "Audio Engine Options" you can check the box "Release device when Sibelius is in the background".
To avoid the problem altogether, in Sibelius's dialogue "Audio Engine Options", choose an "Interface" to the desired physical audio device which is of type "(DS)".
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Sibelius 2019.7/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 2018.7, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.