A X B at start and end of video!

charles-mcguyer wrote on 8/20/2013, 6:28 PM
This is not my day for video. I have no idea what I've done. All of my green screens no longer work (just a green screen ) although the settings are the same and the plugin is still present . I have an A X B (see screenshot - URL below) at the start of the video and at the end. What have I done? Thanks.

http://chasms.com/95B/modal.htm

Sony Vegas Pro 12

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 8/20/2013, 7:35 PM
What do you mean by "My green screens no longer work"? Have you applied the Chroma Keyer to your videos and set the key color to match your backgrounds?

Also, is there video or photos on a lower video track that you're using to replace the keyed out color?
charles-mcguyer wrote on 8/20/2013, 7:44 PM
Steve, yes, everything was working fine. I fully understand how the green screen works. I've accidentally clicked something and now the green screens don't work. I installed Vegas Pro 12 on my laptop and my backup works fine as well as the file that I was working on. Did you look at the screenshot?

At one point I had two different clips in the monitor, side by side. That's gone now.

I uninstalled and reinstalled and still have the A X B (see screenshot). I have no idea what I've done.

Addendum: I have two tracks that are combined, with up/down arrows in between the two tracks (see screenshot). It says track 3 but used to be 3 & 4. I'm thinking this may be compositing mode but how do you turn this off, I've clicked everything (if that is actually what it is) and nothing works. Thanks again.
rs170a wrote on 8/20/2013, 8:17 PM
From a reply by Forum Admin:
You're in Expanded Edit Mode. You enter Expanded Edit Mode by double-clicking on an edit. Hit Esc (or double-click on the edit again) to exit and return to your previous window layout.

Mike
charles-mcguyer wrote on 8/20/2013, 8:39 PM
Mike, I'm looking at the Help file on Expanded Edit Mode. I've followed the directions and I'm still the same as in the screenshot I posted. What can I do to reset Vegas Pro to original settings? I've uninstalled and reinstalled and that didn't work? Thanks for your reply.

And I've reset to default window layout (3 times) and that did no good.
rs170a wrote on 8/20/2013, 9:00 PM
chasmcg22, another forum search turned up this suggestion:
Right click on track number area (left side of screen) and uncheck "expand track layers".
If that doesn't work, do a forum search on "Expanded Edit Mode" as there have been a few posts about folks getting caught by it.

Mike
charles-mcguyer wrote on 8/20/2013, 9:07 PM
Mike, thanks again. I uninstalled again. Then went to the registry and deleted all references to Sony Vegas Pro, reinstalled and it's working correctly now. I have no idea what I did to get into this mess. Hopefully I won't run into it again. Will keep your notes. :-)
Chienworks wrote on 8/20/2013, 9:14 PM
No need to reinstall or edit the registry. What you saw in your screen shot was also 'working correctly'. As Mike mentioned, if you right-mouse-button click in an empty spot in the header area of any track a pop-up menu appears and one of the choices on that menu is "Expand track layers". This is the mode you were in. All it does is put every other clip on a track in the upper "A" layer and the remaining ones on the lower "B" layer, so that you can see the entirety of each event even when they overlap.

As it happens, all previous NLEs showed the A & B layers (actually separate tracks) and this was the standard view that editors were used to. In order to do a crossfade it was necessary to select the two events and then add the fade/transition type in a meta-track between the two tracks. Vegas was the first program to overlap events on a single track and do away with all that extra work. However, some folks were so used to the A & B view that Vegas still provides it when desired.

For future reference, if you ever have another case in which Vegas is really messed and you can't fix it, there's no need to uninstall and reinstall. Simply hold down the Ctrl & Shift keys when you start it and everything gets reset back to the original "factory installed" defaults. Doing this also avoids using up your license activations, which can happen if you reinstall too many times.
charles-mcguyer wrote on 8/21/2013, 5:15 AM
Chienworks, thanks for the reply. I will keep the ctrl-shift keys as a reset reminder. Needed that before I reinstalled but I get a little impatient at times.

That's curious about the reinstallation and license activations. I don't do it as much as I used to but I'm an experimenter and often need to reinstall my OS for technical purposes therefore needing to reinstall software. I wouldn't think that Sony would restrict a person from reinstalling software a limited number of times.

For instance I'm running Windows 8.1 Preview and will need to reinstall everything when the final version arrives in October. Exactly how many times do I get reinstall my Sony Vegas Pro 12? Looks like they wouldn't care if being installed on the same machine. They are able to see the machine being installed. Also, I'm thinking of buying a new machine. If so there will be another reinstallation of Sony Vegas Pro. Thanks for any information on this matter.
Chienworks wrote on 8/21/2013, 6:04 AM
It's probably a closely guarded Sony secret, but in the early days i think the number of "free" activations was around 8 to 10. Now it seems closer to 4. As far as the "same machine" goes, it doesn't matter when doing a complete OS reinstall. The new OS install will generate new machine IDs so it will look like a completely different computer anyway.

It's easy to take care of. If you get the dreaded -41 error you simply call customer service and explain you're doing a system reinstall and they'll reset your activation count for you. Still though, there's no reason to do a reinstall just to fix a UI error.