Disappearing video clips

[Cindy Hberg]

Francois and George, Misery loves company — so you both are greatly appreciated! After my Pollyanna post; I made the great mistake of having dinner. When I came back, even more video clips had disappeared. It’s as if Vegas had taken notes from Hannibal L and went to cannibalizing my project. I’m back to “Back to the Future” and the disappearing images. I’ll try your proxy idea, Francois — and take a look at my backups, George. I appreciate the advice.

[Cindy Hberg]

Sheesh, a good one fifth of my clips just disappeared. I have a relatively new computer; it has not had problems with other apps. (As a producer, not a dedicated editor) I’ve edited with Media 100, Final Cut Pro, Premiere, and even Avid (back in the day); and have not experienced this type of random illogical melt down. I’m not sure I’m going to be sticking with Vegas. In addition, I’ve had a preposterous amount of freezing issues.

I’ll be up half the night; and who knows if I fix the disappearing media act — whether it will disappear again. Right now, I’m not feeling the Vegas love. But knowing you guys have tried to help, makes me a fan of Creative Cow. I don’t think this is a files issue — as other apps play my files. (Got most from Envato Elements). I like that Vegas is a one-time subscription; and its easy to archive projects. But this is beyond the pale.

[Graham Bernard]

Hi Cindy. Looking at your MediaInfo you’ve got Media that has Variable BitRate. Vegas Pro doesn’t like Variable BitRate it prefers Constant BitRate. You need to do some detective work. Render just one Event as Constant BitRate and Test that. How many Events are there? How many Single Media are you using? You may need to render externally ALL your Variable BitRate (VBR) Media to Constant Bit Rate (CBR).

Also, where or how did you come by this 4:2:2 footage? Did you shoot it? What camera? Or were you given it? Its CODEC, QT 2005.qt suggests it comes from an APPLE Platform? iMovie? Final Cut Pro?

We need more information about the origination history of this footage. The material is asking too much of VP.

* Grazie

Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX60HS Bridge

[Cindy Hberg]

Hi Graham — I got the video from Envato Elements. And Vegas can handle most of their MOV files but not all of them. I’m not sure there is a big difference between them though. If by rendering as a constant bit rate you mean picking a codec where I set the bit rate at 8 million, for example. I have tried that to no avail.

What is odd though is the disappearing media goes and then reappears, off in on, in no predictable pattern.

I have about 130 events in a six-minute video, where the average event lasts around 3 seconds. I’m not reusing events; so each comes from its own master footage.

If I were to render all my clips externally to make it constant bit rate — I haven’t done this before. But, I imagine I’d download an app for that. I suspect since this project is due to the client tomorrow, I might make it if I continue editing while it disappears, then wait for it to reappear (as thus far it has) — then render it before it goes bon voyage again?

I think the neater and ultimately better way — would be to re-render/convert all the footage, as you wisely mentioned. I only wish time were my friend right now.

[Graham Bernard]

[Cindy Hberg] ” I got the video from Envato Elements.”

Nice site! And there, right there is your issue: In terms of SPECIFICATIONS, I can’t see ANY reference to just what it is you can download. Obviously it HAS been QA for APPLE platforms. Do you see any references to PC platforms?

[Cindy Hberg] “And Vegas can handle most of their MOV files but not all of them.”

Looking at the variations then sure, that sounds about right. VP will do its best and then with others it wont – as you’ve discovered. ????

[Cindy Hberg] “I’m not sure there is a big difference between them though.”

Well, Vegas thinks so.

[Cindy Hberg] ” If by rendering as a constant bit rate you mean picking a codec where I set the bit rate at 8 million, for example.”

Well, you COULD try setting Project to MATCH your Media and see what it does then.

[Cindy Hberg] “What is odd though is the disappearing media goes and then reappears, off in on, in no predictable pattern.”

I suspect that this IS expected behaviour. VP is trying like hell to do the MATH. Sometimes it DECODES and then it gives up, and sits down.

[Cindy Hberg] “If I were to render all my clips externally to make it constant bit rate — I haven’t done this before. But, I imagine I’d download an app for that. I suspect since this project is due to the client tomorrow, I might make it if I continue editing while it disappears, then wait for it to reappear (as thus far it has) — then render it before it goes bon voyage again?”

Woah! You are not in a good place to start this going for reediness tomorrow. Your call.

[Cindy Hberg] “I think the neater and ultimately better way — would be to re-render/convert all the footage, as you wisely mentioned.”

Well, lesson learnt. We’ve all been there. I’ve learnt to take into account ALL my parameters before editing. That’s from QA the Media right through to delivery. And yes, before I bring any of my footage into VP I test it to death to make sure, and then and only then get busy with Clients=Paid Work

[Cindy Hberg] “I only wish time were my friend right now.”

Never ever is. But we can tame and wrangle Time into being an obedient animal! We just need to be canny. – Speak with the Client? But that’s up to you.

* Grazie

Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX60HS Bridge

[Cindy Hberg]

Hi Graham — I responded to this last night, but don’t see my response here. So, I’ll try again. Thank you for your thoughts. I set my project to match my media (but Vegas is still being belligerent). And after rendering all the clips that had disappeared into an mp4 (non MOV) format — now many other clips are disappearing.

This is my fourth week of working on this same project with mostly the same clips, clips that have played fine all along. It would be a big time saver if Vegas rejected them up front so one solved the problem early or looked elsewhere early, didn’t waste one’s time, or spend an all-nighter trying to solve the issue, one to find oneself sitting in front of the computer with a client meeting in 3 hours and more clips gasping their last by the minute.

Arghh!

[George Dean]

Cindy, I’m not clear what disappearing means? Are the clips gone from your Project Media bin? Or, they can not be seen in the Preview window?

If your clip require Quicktime to import them, there is a limit to how many .mov files can be successfully handled before strange things start happening. That limit for many is in around 40-50.

I know you are under the clock, so this might not help, but I would run the source media through ER Media Tool Kit (AudioSpot)and convert them to something like an mp4. Then replace your source media in your project with these new converted files.

There is no reason Vegas should have problems processing 150 clips in a 10 minute project, and your project is smaller.

Best Regards……George

[Francois Pénzes]

Hi Cindy

Just to add to George’s comment, if ever you get a 5 minutes break it would be nice to know how it went with your project and if anything we suggested worked. It may help someone down the road to avoid what you went thru.

Cheers !

PC Win 10 Pro 64-bit 16gb Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz
Cameras: Canon XF305 + Canon XH-A1
Blackmagic HyperDeck Studio Mini
Vegas Pro 16, User since Vegas 3.0

\’\’When the cutting stops, the editing begins…\’\’

[Cindy Hberg]

Hi George and Francois,

Thank you for your advice and for your generosity with your time! I have the utmost respect for you both. I will certainly look into ER Media Tool kit for the future.

As regards to how the story ended, and I appreciate your asking because, like you stated — it could help others. A burning question in my mind all along was: what changed after 3 1/2 weeks of smooth sailing that turned the last 48 hours into a Night Gallery episode. Then something I’d read on a random blog about four months ago struck me. I’d read (and I’m not geek enough – yet- to get the words exactly right, so please bear with me) — but I’d read that unlike some other editing software that processes video on processor cores, Vegas mostly uses the RAM in my computer and perhaps only one of the cores in my processor, even if the processor has multiple cores to offer it. (Again, I need to polish up on gaining geek proficiency). When the disappearing video issue began, I still had a decent amount of RAM available. But I had downloaded Adobe Illustrator recently.

So I took hope, while slouching in my chair: after an all-nighter reading blogs on freezing video and rebuilding my video over and over again only to find the video disappearing once more. And I thought, like I had during various Polyanna moments throughout the night, maybe there’s a solution. I could uninstall Illustrator (love Illustrator, BTW). But if uninstalling it didn’t work, I suspected with some two hours to go; it was not even possible to finish a semblance of the video in time. And I was also scheming on how to steal away enough time to brush my teeth and go to the clients office in something other than pajamas. I hit the uninstall button and waited…

And this time, the proverbial clouds parted. Video clips that I’d so carefully placed and moved around were suddenly visible in all of the some 30 backups that I’d feverishly saved. And the video clips that had been fine for the last two and three weeks (before disappearing) were back now and stayed around. George McFly must have finally sucker punched Biff.

There were five clips that never showed back up. But that was way better than having huge chunks missing all over the project. Not knowing about ER Media Tool kit then, I was still able, by taking your advice on re-rendering, to solve that issue. So in Vegas, I imported the five clips into a new project, then rendered them as one massive clip using a somewhat lossless codec (as far as I could tell). Then I took the big clip into Vegas, split it up and replaced the invisible video with it. The project came out well. I even made it to the meeting on time with teeth that were actually brushed, and (as a plus) wearing day clothes.

Thank you both for making a successful client meeting possible. I would have had a meltdown last night had it not been for your advise and commiseration. You guys rock!

[Cindy Hberg]

Sheesh Graham! I intended to thank you and George and Francois. Please know I’m operating with a severely sleep deprived mind at the moment. You were incredibly helpful. Thank you so much!!