Black screen in timeline

younso wrote on 10/10/2025, 4:04 PM

I am using Vegas Pro 11 and 13. I add videos to a timeline but after a while an added video will get a black screen but the audio is still there. I have tried numerous of things without a complete a solution that holds over time (Preferences/Video/GPU processing = Off, OpenCL memory Size Filter = 4000). The mp4 videos come from an iphone 13Pro and an iphone 14 and I even have mp4 videos from a GoPro Hero 5 Black.

I was thinking that if I can manage to get a few videos together that work ie no black screen then perhaps I could render those to one video, do some more like that and then add these renderings to a new timeline and finally render them all together. The final result is supposed to be a render that I can add to DVD Architect and finally burn a Blu-Ray.

As long as my thoughts are feasible what settings should I have for all of these renderings? Usually I would have the render to 1080-50i (1920x1080) 25 Mbps.

Are there any better suggestions how to solve my problem with black screens?

My setup: Win10, AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-core processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 15 GB RAM

Comments

Gid wrote on 10/10/2025, 6:41 PM

@younso Your videos from the iphone 13Pro and the iphone 14 will probably be MP4 HEVC (H.265), Vegas Pro 11 and 13 won't be compatible with HEVC. Convert your files to MP4 AVC (H.264) with a converter like Shutter Encode before adding to the timeline.

There'll be a setting in the phone to record MP4 AVC (H.264) rather than MP4 AVC (H.265) - 'Most Compatible'

younso wrote on 10/11/2025, 2:06 AM

I checked my phones files as my phones are set for Most compatible

As I wrote I can add some of these files to a timeline and then suddenly one I add is completely black.

Gid wrote on 10/11/2025, 4:04 AM

@younso .MOV H.264 is a fairly recent addition to iPhones, I'm not sure how VP 11/13 would handle them.

As you have a range of files with different formats you'll need to work out if it's a particular one that gets the black screen.

3POINT wrote on 10/11/2025, 4:19 AM

@younso your files from iPhone and GoPro are progressive and not interlaced. Also the files from iPhone are variable framerate and do not match the constant framerate of the Gopro. Also resolutions do not match. I cannot remember that Vegas 11 or 13 was able to handle all this differences.

younso wrote on 10/11/2025, 4:27 AM

@younso .MOV H.264 is a fairly recent addition to iPhones, I'm not sure how VP 11/13 would handle them.

As you have a range of files with different formats you'll need to work out if it's a particular one that gets the black screen.

that's the problem, I can add say a couple of GoPro files and then suddenly all subsequent one have the problem. All of these files were taken on the same day and GoPro and have been treated identical by my computer.

younso wrote on 10/11/2025, 4:28 AM

@younso .MOV H.264 is a fairly recent addition to iPhones, I'm not sure how VP 11/13 would handle them.

As you have a range of files with different formats you'll need to work out if it's a particular one that gets the black screen.

that's the problem, I can add say a couple of GoPro files and then suddenly all subsequent one have the problem. All of these files were taken on the same day and GoPro and have been treated identical by my computer.

Ok, but if I am trying to create projects that either only contain Iphone files or only Go Pro files would that make things easier?