Sonar X3 Studio - Import Video Problems - Help please?

Hi guys,
 
I'm using Sonar X3 Studio on a windows 8 laptop. I'm currently having problems importing a video file into Sonar.
 
I have scored some short films already, using Sonar and importing AVI movie files into the software has been so far relatively hassle-free. However, a current project that I'm trying to get to work on is proving problematic. I know that Sonar only accepts AVI files so I tried converting the files the film-maker sent me, but I only had a freeware program which cut off the film after 5 mins. I asked him to send me a copy of the film as an AVI file, which he did, but when I try to import it into Sonar, the program crashes and exits. I don't have this problem with other AVI files. I've tried downloading a number of different file converters to try converting the film files to an AVI that will work on my system, but all attempts so far have ended in the same result - one way ore another the file will not load and the program crashes.
 
Has this happened to anyone else? And does anyone know how to solve this?
 
Any help much appreciated.
 
Gideon

robert_e_bone
You are on the right track, I think, to convert the video into some format that Sonar works better with.  I haven't done video work in several years now, but hopefully others here will chime in with some conversion format suggestions.

I hope so. Sonar says that the format it requires is AVI, and the file I was attempting to load is an AVI so I have no idea why it isn't working.
 

robert_e_bone
There are 2 video engines available now in Sonar, as I understand it, and maybe it will work better for this project to switch Sonar to use the other one - to see if that helps.

How do I do that?