It's a fragmentation issue? Even if the frame is alien frame is from the SAME file just not at the same point in time (I capture my tapes in their entirity as a single file). Also why would shutting down Vegas and reloading it fix the problem? Thanks.

I'm not sure but I thought I saw a recent post about this that implied the frame was coming from temp files or prerenders or something. In that case the problem ought to be fixed if you have prefs set to not save the prerenders.

Just guessing here.

Rob Mack

Thanks for the input but unfortunatly it doesn't apply to me- I don't prerender anything...only ram renders.

RAM renders or temp files might also fit the bill.

First thing to determine is whether the blip is in the media file. I'd bet it isn't

If not then this is a frame from another source. Since Vegas only seems to render or cache timeline coordinates I'd guess the blip comes from something that used to be at that spot. And since both RAM previews and the background cached renders that happen during playback only render enough frames to make things play, it's quite possible that these are frames left over from those sources.

I don't know how to clear them though. Maybe a RAM preview over that spot would do it?

Rob Mack

I had a problem with a frame blip from another file that appeared after rendering. I ended up having to move the clip a few times to get it to render properly.

Marc

If this is the infamous "flash frame" phenomenon, it's beeen around since Vegas 3.0 and has nothing to do with the OS. SF/Sony Tech has never been able to reproduce it. I have never been able to see it on the timeline no matter how far I stretch it out and a rerender often makes it disappear.
What is really annoying is that if the video is 2 hours or more, that's how long you have to sit there watching it without turning your head away once the next time you rerender it to see if the flash frames are gone.
Maybe that and the "blank frame" phenomenon will disappear with the release of Vegas 9.0.

John

Offer: If you have a project that, after rendering, results in this "alien frame" problem more than once, I will trade you a box copy of any Sony software product if you:

Save the .veg and the source media (untrimmed, just copied) to a drive and send it to me. I'll return the drive right away after copying the project and media to a local drive here. I'll throw in some other goodies as well.

Send drive, contact info and other notes (what you are rendering as, systems specs, anything that you think might help us repro etc) to:

Vegas Engineering
c/o DH
1617 Sherman Ave
Madison WI, 53704

Wow from the sounds of it I'm *not* crazy and this could be a legit problem. I really appreciate your willingness to get to the bottom of this phenomenon. I don't believe they are "flash" frames....flash frames are left over chunks from edits that might have left a sliver (single frame behind). Like I said this was a project I was working on that was a single large file. The frame I saw was from the *same* file, but much earlier in the timeline. That frame had never resided in the section I saw it on the timeline.

I'll be sure to try and ram render, if not render to new track to see if this alien frame carries over. I'm going to be working on that project tonight for several hours...you'll be the first ones to know if I can isolate it and capture it in a render. Though I'm not convinced I can- like I explained- seems like it dissapears everytime I shut down and reload vegas. I'll have to try other things as well, such as physically moving the media a few frames to see if that snaps it back to the way it should be making the alien frame dissapear.

Now I'm actually hoping it will do it again for me- I'd love a shiny new boxed copy of Vegas+DVD. Thanks SonyEMP!

Generous offer. Sending the hard drive is a good idea. I haven't had one for awhile, but in answer to GmElliot.....in fact that's where they come from....other places in the video.

I believe the last Sony Tech recommendation made several months ago was to set the Dynamic Ram Preview Max to "0" instead of the default "16". I have had it set to that ever since and so far I haven't had a flash frame, but I have gone this long without them before.

When I got one a year ago I sent the veg file to SonyDennis, but since it doesn't exist in the veg file, he couldn't find it. The "flash frame" came from the credit roll at the end of the video.

It's nice to know that they are sincere about wanting to find the source of the problem.

GmElliot: Did you have generated media such as a credit roll in yours as well?

John

No- no credit rolls or generated media. Just two very long files I used Exalibur to multicam edit. The flash frame showed up after the multi-cam tool was used. However I had this problem in project that had nothing to do with multicam editing.

The frame I recently saw was from the same file, not the same project elsewhere- the same exact AVI...just about 5 minutes earlier. There were no effects, no transitions, just cuts. No renders either- no prerenders, no ram renders, no renders to new track.

It's a bit bizzare because once it's there it's so repeatable. I can watch the same section 1,000 times and the frame will show up everytime. I can ignore it...go back after like another hour of editing to check on that section and it will still be there. The second I shut Vegas down and load it back up with the same project the odd frame is miraculously gone. Because of this I don't think I'll be able to reproduce it sending a drive to Sony or not.

You may be on to something- it may have something to do with ram...though I don't remember doing any renders on the recent project it showed up in. Plus I don't know how hardware specific it is beings the same problem happened in Vegas 4 on a completely different machine. Both machines have different processors (AMD, and Pentium) and both have completly different ram (DDR333, PC3200).

why not send a screen capture or a video capture of the screen using camtasia or some other suitable software to show the phenomenum...)