Lightworks Supported File Formats - Import Unsupported Media to Lightworks

What video formats are compatible with Lightworks?

"If you don't mind, can someone please tell me what file types can be imported into Lightworks? I read the list, and I'm not quite tech savvy, so can someone put it in simpler terms for me? I'm trying to import videos, but they don't work. It says "Codec not supported" for everything. Quicktime .mov files, .avi files, .flv files. is there anything that will work without fail? Thanks for your help! I did download the codec pack, but it still doesnt work/i dont know how to get lightworks to use it. I use a Windows 7 PC."

Lightworks supported file formats

As the fastest, most accessible and focused NLE in the industry, Lightworks has the widest support available for formats currently available in a professional NLE. MXF, Quicktime and AVI containers, with every professional format you can think of: ProRes, Avid DNxHD, AVC-Intra, DVCPRO HD, RED R3D, DPX, H.264, XDCAM EX / HD 422, etc. Following is the full list of import formats for Lightworks Pro and Free version:
- DVCAM / DVCPRO 25, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD
- Uncompressed SD 8 bit and 10 bit, Uncompressed HD 8 bit and 10 bit
- MPEG-2 I-Frame SD, MPEG-2 I-Frame HD, MPEG-2 Long GOP
- IMX 30, 40, 50
- AVCHD (M2T, M2TS, MPEG4, H.264)
- Avid DNxHD - all variants, including Thin Raster**
- AVC-Intra 50, AVC-Intra 100
- XDCAM EX (native MP4 support), XDCAM HD, XDCAM HD 50 422
- Apple Pro Res
- RED R3D
- DPX 8 bit, 10 bit, 16 bit
- Image Sequence (BMP, DPX, JPEG, PNG, TGA, Compressed TGA, TIFF)
- Broadcast Wave Format with drop and non-drop frame timecode options
- Cinema DNG

And the compatible editing frame for Lightworks is 23.976, true 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, or 60 fps.

Import and edit unsupported file formats with Lightworks

If the video footage you try to load into Lightworks are not included in Lightworks supported formats listed above, you will receive a "Codec not supported" message. To fix this codec incompatible issue, you can download Pavtube Video Converter, which can comprehensively convert virtually any digital file formats including AVI, WMV, MKV, MP4, MOV, H.265/HEVC, AVCHD, MXF, XAVC/XAVC S, etc into Lightworks editable file formats listed above. To get better output video and audio quality, you can flexibly adjust the output profile parameters such as video codec, bit rate, frame rate, resolution and audio codec, bit rate, sample rate and channels, etc.

Enhance MP4 with built-in editing package tool

Before loading output video into Lightworks for some professional post editing workflow, you can do some simple video editing tasks with the program's built-in video editing functions. You can flip or rotate video, trim or cut video files to remove unwanted parts or segments, crop video to remove the unwanted black bars or area, add image/video/transparent text watermark to video, apply special rendering effect to video, flip or rotate video angel, remove/replace audio in video, add external srt/ass/ssa subtitles to video, split large video into small clips by file size, count or length or merge separate video into one file.

For Mac users, please download Pavtube Video Converter for Mac to fix Lightworks video editing issue on Mac OS X El Capitan or macOS Sierra.

Step by Step to Transcode Unsupported Video Files to Lightworks

Step 1: Load video source into the program.

Install and launch the program on your computer, click "File" > "Add Video/Audio" or "Add from Folder" to load unsupported files into the program.

Import unsupported files into the program

Step 2: Choose output file format.

Click "Format", from its drop-down option, choose one of Lightworks supported "H.264 HD Video(*.mp4)" under "HD Video" main category.

Output Lightworks supported editing formats

Step 3: Adjust output profile parameters.

Click "Settings" to open "Profile Settings" window, here you can flexibly adjust the frame rate and other profile settings such as video codec, bit rate, frame rate, resolution and audio codec, bit rate, sample rate and channels, etc to make them adapt with Lightworks.

Adjust output profile parameters

Step 3: Edit video.

Check an item to active the "Video Editor" function, then click the pencil like icon on the top tool bar to open the "Video Editor" window, you can trim video length, crop video black bars, add watermark, apply sepcial rendering effect, remove/replace audio in video, etc.

Edit video

Step 4: Begin video to Lightworks conversion process.

After all settings is completed, hit right-bottom "Convert" button to begin the conversion from unsupported video to Lightworks supported editing format conversion process.

When the conversion is completed, you can click "Open Output Folder" button to get the output files effortlessly, and now you will have no problems to import and edit any video files with Lightworks.

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