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Can not open .vf files–error
I was editing a project and it was going along swimmingly, and then I suddenly received an error while I was in the middle of moving a clip from the trimmer to the timeline (my first ever with Vegas) and the programme just closed itself down. I tried restarting my computer, but I am now unable to load the project I was working on. The project file (36.vf) was last saved the previous evening, long before I ever got this error. I also tried to open the save I’d made BEFORE that (35.vf), and it won’t open, either. 19% 0 (7 of 7).
When I try to open 36.vf (the latest file), Vegas keeps erroring out the same way: The project seems to load, I can see all of my clips on the timeline, and I get the tips window, and then I see that the Vegas status bar (at the top) says “0% (6 of 7),” and then I get the window that tells me there is an error and the programme needs to close and would I like to report it to Microsoft.
When I try to open 35.vf (older file), it’s about the same except the status bar says “0% (7 of 7).” The bottom status bar, in green, stops at 19% on 35.vf, while I never see it at all on 36.vf.
It just doesn’t make any sense to me at all that the projects that were doing fine 12 hours ago are now suddenly having these errors and can’t even be opened. The note in the status bar makes me think the error is related to a particular clip, but I don’t know which one, and can’t get into the project anyway to find and deactivate the offending clip.
Any ideas?
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6 Replies
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i once had a similar problem – i simply renamed my video files one by one till the project loaded and asked for ‘missing’ media. pita.
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Thanks for your response.
Well, in the meantime while I’ve been waiting for an answer, I did go in and start removing the video files one at a time to see if I could fix it myself. For a little bit, I thought I had it: There was this one clip that seemed to be causing the problem. So I got rid of that clip altogether, and I got rid of the part of it that had been on the timeline. I still can’t get my saves 35 and 36 to open. But I was able to get my save 34 to open (even though all three of them had this file and 34 wouldn’t open before I deleted that file).
I thought I was okay because I could just work from 34 and re-do what I had done before, and I’ve done a lot of extra work since then, so i don’t even want saves 35 and 36 anymore. But it’s so odd! I’ve been saving my project files every time I make a change, then closing the file and seeing if I can open it again (because I’m feeling very paranoid about losing all my work at this point). Sometimes the project will open and sometimes it won’t. The weird thing is, I’m working with the same video files for all of the projects that won’t open as for all the projects that will!
For instance, I’ll add a clip to the time line, make an adjustment, save. Close the programme, try to open the save. The save doesn’t open–there’s an error. So I re-open the previous save. I do the EXACT SAME THING I just did–same clip, same effect, etc.–save it to a new name, close the programme. I open the new save–and it works! It just makes no sense at all. If what I’m doing is the problem, then neither save should open, right?
I’m on Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Version 8.0d (Build 139), if that helps any. I’ve been working with this programme since March with no trouble up until now, and my source files are pretty much all the same types of AVIs.
Right now I’m working very slowly, meticulously documenting every change and often having to re-do my work because a project decides not to open anymore. I never know when it’s going to do that, because when I’m working with the clip directly, there’s never any problem. It’s only after I close down and try to re-open. Keeping the project open until I’m finished isn’t really practical because I’m soon going to be away from this computer for three weeks, and I won’t finish before I leave.
I certainly hope someone on here has some ideas of what to try to get it to stop doing this.
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ah, platinum. i thought it was pro, never mind, still the same crap…..
you say ‘pretty much the same style avi’s’. exactly what variations do you have?
i learnt a long time ago to feed vegas what it likes (even knowing it’s supposed flexibility). if i have ‘odd’ formats to deal with i always convert to ‘standard’ format before importing.
leslie
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Hi. Thanks for your response.
I’m not exactly sure what kind of information about the AVIs you’re looking for. Can you tell me what you mean/what is the difference between ‘odd’ AVI and ‘standard’ AVI? Or, when you say, ‘feed Vegas what it likes,’ could you specify that? Should I be converting my files to a particular compression or something before I try using them in Vegas to avoid these kinds of problems?
I have just run some of the older (and maybe ‘odder’) AVI files through VirtualDub, changing the compression from XVID to MPEG4, and changing the frame rate from 23.976 to 23. That seems to have made a world of difference. My newer saved projects aren’t erroring out at the moment, and they seem to be loading and moving more quickly than they were before even when they did load.
But the odd thing is, I only made this change to about 4 clips, and I’m working with dozens of clips, all AVI. All of my other AVIs are XVID and 23.976fps, too, and Vegas has no problem with those. Really, running them through VD like that shouldn’t have made any difference, but for some reason, it has. I was just messing around to kill some time and see if I could stumble on a solution (and I guess I did!). I just wish I could understand what exactly the problem actually is/was so that I can avoid or fix it more easily in the future.
That is, assuming it’s really fixed and this isn’t just a fluke! 🙂
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Ugh. I take it all back. It only worked temporarily. As soon as I started to use the newly made files, Vegas started erroring out all over the place again. I do think I’ve narrowed the problem down to four different files. I just don’t know what’s wrong with them or how to find out what the problem is. What information should I provide about the files? Here’s a sample:
608 x 336
Audio bit rate 192kbps (some have audio, some don’t; still have trouble either way)
Frame rate 23fps
Data rate 98kbps, 102kbps, 142kbps, and 144kbps (they’re each different)
Video sample size 24 bit
Video compression XVID (changing to MPEG4 doesn’t help)Is something screwy there?
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well i’m in PAL land, so i can’t really say much about frame rates, etc., but it would appear you’re working with none standard avi’s (non-standard in as much as they are not straight from camera dv – which vegas digests happily).
my only suggestion is to convert the files, one by one if necessary to dv compliant format. there’s a quite a few conversion programs out there, ranging from freebies, eg super, through to canopus procoder 3. i use the latter on any files i get that are not from a camera (you never know where they’ve been ;-}) and haven’t had any problems since….
leslie
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