You should provide information about used footage.

For example, just recently similar issue for cineform encoded footage was discussed here.

In addition, newer VP17 version is available. It's a good idea to check if the issue still exists in the version.

I am not seeing my issue described here in the changelog:
https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/vegas-pro-17-update-2-build-353--117761/

About the videos I used... would it be more useful if I just uploaded the project file (.veg) instead? Then you could look (somehow?...) with an editor that detects whatever we instructed Vegas to do, even if you don't have the videos (media) with you?

Or I could describe what each video reads for MediaINFO... but I don't think that will help.

For example, the footage affected in my last save had this info:

https://pastebin.com/Wg3Ep0Vv

This is CLIP 2. But CLIP 1 and CLIP 3 are from this 4K file:

https://pastebin.com/L80UNnUe

Totally different. CLIP 4 is this way: https://pastebin.com/rRRQumyC

But all of them had very specific edits, with only portions of the whole thing used in each specific moment. For example, from the 4K I took a couple of seconds for CLIP 1. CLIP 2 lasts 30 seconds. There are, however, dozens of clips in this project.

However CLIP 2 is one of the affected by this bug, since the final seconds are plagued with a black screen.

The only thing I did with each clip (including the 4K) was to reduce volume, yet instead of doing this for all, I did it manually by reducing GAIN. I didn't change anything else, like Opacity.

Don't know if that will help, this is the last project file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4edptjj47btlb6q/project.veg?dl=0

A number of years ago this happened in Vegas 10a-10d when importing Blackmagic M-JPEG AVI video & was finally (mostly) resolved in the last 10e release. (Others have had ongoing problems with the Cineform codec...) Back then a couple of solutions were to make cuts near the problem section or change the Opacity to 99% (affected section) which did not change the look of the final renders... and then check & double-check to make sure the rendered footage is OK. This is one reason I do not used early releases for paid work. In fact, I just switched from V15 to V16 around the time V17 was released with the 2 for 1 deal (Buy V16 at the discounted price & get V17 for "free" when it is released...)

That said..., the great thing about VV is that we can have older versions co-existing with newer versions on the same machine. If in doubt, do the bulk of the editing on the last version & only swap it over to the new version if you want to take advantage of a new feature, like faster GPU rendering, better stablization, etc. I did this when GPU rendering was first introduced (V11-V13 era...) I edited the project in V10 & then rendered it in V12. Also, some of my 32-bit sound effects were only available in V10 32-bit, so I did my sound track with noise reduction filters in V10e 32 for the longest time & then added the finished sound track to newer versions of Vegas for the final render...

I have some bad news... it's a confirmed bug and still affects 17.0 build 353 (you might want to change the thread title). I tried removing the affected clip and re-adding to my project, and also inserting an event FX to see if things would change... they have not. Also affecting again another clip I deleted from my project and tried adding again.

Since it's a free clip I am uploading below... but this only one of them.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wrrh8csgn9n3po8/CLIPAFFECTED.mp4?dl=0

MediaINFO: https://pastebin.com/rQ0aSKwf

This is really unfortunate, because I can't complete this without the affected footage. Once again, I have never instructed Sony Vegas to insert a black screen in a random moment of my project.

I can't change Opacity to 99% in the affected section because when I preview the project the whole thing is perfect. Should I split the video into 3 or 4 parts, render each one separately and then combine them together and save as a single video? This is the only solution left.

1 hour later, after rendering the whole thing, it's when I see the errors. I am not going to waste many hours trying to correct something I can't even see. That's right, this bug causes some moments of said clips to become totally black and the preview doesn't show ANYTHING to me. The preview is OK!

EDIT: I just tried to split this into multiple projects. And I failed. Apparently the bug is caused by these different MP4 clips which are incompatible with Vegas. The only footage not affected is from the 4K. All the others somehow become affected when we try to save all of them together.

I noticed that you are using footage with different framerate. Could you show your project settings (screenshot attached to the post please, no external links) and what is the status of Vegas quantize to frames option?

Have you tried to disable GPU acceleration in VP (both in VP preferences and in encode)? Yes, I know that everything will be much slower, however in some cases this might allow you to finish render without artifacts/black frame.

Another option would be try to re-wrap/re-encode your sources and replace them in project (backup your stuff first).

I noticed that you are using footage with different framerate

If the source footage is a different framerate than the target video you can select all clips across the timeline and "disable resample" which helps with a variety of problems...

Another option would be try to re-wrap/re-encode your sources and replace them in project (backup your stuff first).

I did this when V10 was rendering random black frames. I rendered all of my M-JPEG AVI as uncompressed AVI with the same name in a different directory. I then moved the original files to a different directory & put the uncompressed files in the working directory. When Vegas loaded the project, it loaded the uncompressed AVI and the black frame issues went away...

I noticed that you are using footage with different framerate. Could you show your project settings (screenshot attached to the post please, no external links) and what is the status of Vegas quantize to frames option?

Have you tried to disable GPU acceleration in VP (both in VP preferences and in encode)? Yes, I know that everything will be much slower, however in some cases this might allow you to finish render without artifacts/black frame.

Another option would be try to re-wrap/re-encode your sources and replace them in project (backup your stuff first).

Reencoding all videos is out of question because I probably did hundreds of edits in this entire project... why does it matter if the framerate is different when you are clearly instructing Vegas to take every kind of video and change it so it can be modified just like everything else?

If it matters that clip 1 is in 30 fps and clip 2 is in 15, 24, 25, 29.97 or even 60 fps then we might as well throw the towel and recognize once and for all this program is totally useless. I thought it was capable of handling all sorts of videos when placed together.

I don't understand what you mean by project settings and "quantize to frames". This is how I am rendering this whole thing:



My video card is AMD Radeon R7 265... and this is the only thing I found about GPU acceleration:



Now disabled, as you instructed. Should I turn off Optimize GPU display performance?



Also, about disable resample, that option is unavailable, it's greyed out after I select the entire project.

What sort of reencode do you suggest? Clearly Vegas is messing with me since it's only a) affecting these MP4 files saved from Youtube, it didn't affect any 4K footage, and b) it's doing that at random moments.

I tried for the last time saving this whole thing but now changing each MP4 clip opacity to 97%. It wouldn't hurt to change the opacity for EVERY SINGLE footage (except the 4K) to make sure it was OK. That didn't work since at least one clip had this bug.

The developers of this program have some serious fixing to do, I always used Vegas and in the past NEVER had a similar issue. NEVER.

Thanks for information about encoder and VP options you provided.

Have you rendered your project when GPU acceleration was Off in VP Preferences | Video that is on your 5th screenshot?

You missed the last bit: project preferences (Alt + Enter).
Resampling is very important as you have footage with different framerates in your project. It should be Enabled or Smart in project preferences.

Have you disabled resample per fragment? (RMB | Properties)

"Quantize to frames" - in Menu: Options | Quantize to frames.

Vegas using different decoders to different footage. Some decoders known as having issues so while re-wrapping/re-encoding you are working around the issues as in this case another decoder will be used.

If your black frames are always on the some fragments only -- I'd check what decoder is used there (RMB over the problematic fragment on timelime | Properties | General).

You mentioned problematic clip. Do you see the issue with the clip if you create a new project, drop the clip on timeline and render?

I tried to load your profile and found out that you are using Sapphire plugins. Could you make a copy of project and remove the pluigns to check?

 

This is how alt + enter is configured. Resample mode was configured as SMART RESAMPLE.

Quantize to frames was enabled ALL THE TIME.

What did I change now:

1) Quantize to frames NOW DISABLED.
2) Alt + ENTER: changed FIELD ORDER to "None, progressive scan"
3) Alt + ENTER, changed FULL RESOLUTION RENDERING QUALITY to "Best"
4) Alt + ENTER, changed RESAMPLE MODE to "Disable Resample"
5) OPTIONS, PREFERENCES, VIDEO - changed GPU acceleration of video processing to DISABLED
6) OPTIONS, PREVIEW DEVICE - changed OPTIMIZE GPU DISPLAY PERFORMANCE to DISABLED

I'll try rendering again and later I'll return to this thread to divulge the results.

> Quantize to frames NOW DISABLED.

NO. Keep it enabled!

> Alt + ENTER, changed RESAMPLE MODE to "Disable Resample"

NO! It MUST NOT BE DISABLED in your case!

> Quantize to frames NOW DISABLED.

NO. Keep it enabled!

> Alt + ENTER, changed RESAMPLE MODE to "Disable Resample"

NO! It MUST NOT BE DISABLED in your case!

What? I thought you told me to Disable Resample for the entire project.

I managed to do this now. This is how it's done (had to Google it to find out, since I said before it was greyed out):

*****
Click the first clip and shift+click the last one to select all the clips in your project.
Right-click anywhere and select Switches - Disable Resample.
*********

We need to click with the left button of the mouse in the first clip, then shit + click also with the left button in the last clip, and then in settings we will be able to disable for the ENTIRE PROJECT. But we need to do this by selecting the VIDEO track of the project, which I hadn't done before, I guess I was selecting the whole thing in the wrong way.

So... I did with these 6 changes and failed again. As of now I am trying with Disable Resample for all clips and the first 4 changes, except for these two which are now RE-ENABLED:

5) OPTIONS, PREFERENCES, VIDEO - changed GPU acceleration of video processing to DISABLED
6) OPTIONS, PREVIEW DEVICE - changed OPTIMIZE GPU DISPLAY PERFORMANCE to DISABLED

After I changed all these 6 the problem of black frames affected even a clip that hadn't included before.

Another thing I noticed is that the MP4 clips from Youtube are in 25 fps while the 4K clips are in 24 fps.

Later I'll post if this worked or not. I only read your warning after I started this last attempt.

It worked! That was exactly what was wrong with this project: Disable Resample needed to be enabled FOR ALL CLIPS. Now I checked and there's no sign of any black frames on the final render file.

I have not told you to disable resample. I suggested you to check it as many people always disabling resample without thinking of consequences.

I explained that as you have medias with different framerates in your project, resample must not be disabled (on project level or media level).

Glad you fixed the issue. Feel free to mark answer as solution if you like :)

What problems does disabling resample create? I have done it when output fps is different than source fps & results were fine...

Unfortunately this issue has returned. And since I tried with and without resamble enabled, and all the rest enabled/disabled, I have no idea what specific setting has caused this. What I can tell is that it's always some Youtube converted video that has these black frames on render.