Agreed, this is most probably a case where the computer isn't fast enough to preview the crossfade in real time. Vegas has a function to force a "pre-rendering" of a section of the video project in order to see it in real time. I don't know if Movie Studio/VideoFactory has this same function, but it's easy to try it. Highlight a short section of the project starting just before the crossfade begins and ending just after the crossfade finishes. Press Shift-B to create a dynamic prerender. If this works, you should see the preview window slowly draw each frame. Once it's done, you can view this section in real time by doing a normal play.

If this function isn't available in Movie Studio/VideoFactory you can still achieve a similar test by highlighting as above, then rendering just that section to a new file. When doing the Make Movie procedure, check the box labeled "Render selection region only." Generally this will only take a very short time. You can then watch this section in Media Player or preview it from the explorer window.

Thanks for the replies but don't believe it's the computer. When I select on the small portion of the transition itself the jump still occurs. Remember it's not a complete jump, but rather like MS takes a portion out of sync to play into the fade. Once the fade is complete the video is where it should be at the beginning of the event. I'm probably not explaining this well enough. I'm creating the crossfade by dragging the event edges. Is there another way to initiate the crossfade? BTW: The completed version of my last project had the same problem. Wife said she couldn't tell, but it's pretty obvious what is happening to me. :) Using a 3ghz with 1gig ram, using XP and Radeo 9800 pro set up so lag hasn't been a problem so far.

Did you say you're creating the cross-fade by "dragging the event edges?"

You do mean that you're sliding the entire clip down the timeline until it slides over the last part of the clip before it, right? (An automatic crossfade)

Dragging the edges of the clip -- in other words, laying the clip on the timeline and then stretching its beginning back over the clip before it rather than actually moving the entire clip to overlap -- could have some undesirable effects.

Just want to be clear on the process you're using, pbailey, so we can eliminate the possible causes.

Also, selecting a small section by itself does not prerender it. That is an extra manual operation beyond just selecting it.

How do I turn OFF this automatic cross fade?
I.e. I want to "butt" the two clips together with no fade. If I do this on free hand I get either a crossfade or a black section between the videos if I don't align them perfectly.

Rather than turning auto-crossfades off, it might be better to turn snaps on. If you look under options they're both in there.

Ian G.

Grisetti, yes, I have been grabbing the edge of a slide and dragging until slightly overlapping either the previous or subsequent slide. When I use one of the transition effects such as barndoor, etc., it seems to work smoothly so I'm thinking I'm not doing something right. Should I drag the slide until it completely overlaps the other?

I'm having a hard time understanding the difference between "slightly" and "competely" in the context of your message. What do you mean by completely that is different from what you have been doing?

If you can make a transition work on the overlap then you are overlapping properly. The exact same overlap without a transition applied will be a simple crossfade.

My concern was more that pbailey was "stretching" the clip by pulling on the edges rather than moving the entire clip down the timeline to partially cover the preceding clip and create the crossfade.

The results of simply pulling the edges over will either a) reveal action prior to where he/she wants the clip to begin or b) cause the clip to repeat itself by being stretched beyond its true length.

Neither of those will cause quite what pbailey is describing, but they can cause undesired effects.

Actually, now that I've re-read pbailey's original post, that is EXACTLY what is happening!

The reason you are seeing the end of the clip followed by the beginning of the clip is because, when you make the clip longer by pulling on the beginning, you actually cause it to create a loop by showing you the end! (In other words, if you stretched a short clip down the timeline, it would repeat over and over again.)

Rather than putting the clip in place and then pulling on the beginning to create the crossfade, slide the entire clip back and forth until it overlaps the previous clip and creates the crossfade. True, it will mean the first part of the clip will play in the midst of the fade, but that's really how a crossfade works!

Hope that solves your problem.

Yeah, i constantly have that problem when a client brings in footage they've shot to be edited. For some reason they always think they're doing me a favor by starting the camera rolling exactly at the beginning of the action they want. Back in the analog days i'd sometimes have to send a client home empty handed and tell them i just couldn't do anything with their material. Now with digital lack of preroll isn't fatal anymore, but i've had many times when a client asks for a transition into the action and there's no footage to use for the transition. If you want the transition to start two seconds before the action, then you have to have two seconds of footage before the action. Kinda one of those laws of physics sorta things. ;)

Thanks a million. That is exactly what I'm doing.....grabbing the edge and dragging until slightly overlapping. I knew it was me just couldn't figure it out. Thanks again.

I know this is an old post, but I was trying to find out about my problem and this seem to be the closest to my problem.

I am new to VMS. I am having problems with some of my crossfades. The preview appears choppy/jerky. I tried the pre-rendering and it shows the same. I even made the mpeg and it was the same way.

I did do some stretching of the video segments on the timeline. From reading this post it does something different than Ulead MSP. I do not know if the segments in question were stretched or not.

I slid the segments so they no longer overlap, thereby getting rid of the crossfade. It plays fine now.

Do I have to re-create the segments to be sure they have not been "stretched" or is there another way?

Growler, if you're talking about streching to change speed, right-mouse-button click on the clip on the timeline, choose properties. Set the playback rate to 1.000. This will undo any stretching you may have done.

If you're talking about dragging the ends of the clips out far enough to cause a loop, look carefully at the top edge of the clip and you may see little white triangles. These denote the physical beginning and end of the clip. If you see them, drag the edge back to the triangle to make sure you're starting/ending at the start/end of the clip.

Hi Chienworks,

Thanks for the speedy reply. I looked again at the footage. There are no triangles at the top. To understand what you were referring to I placed a small clip int he timeline. I stretched it to the left and saw the triangle at the top in the middle of the clip. I think this is what you are referring to. There are none of these on the other clips in the timeline. There are smal white triangles at the lower left corner of the clips.

These are at a playback rate of 1.000.

Maybe stretching was not my problem after all, but I do have issues at some of my crossfades. Do you have any other ideas on what could cause the choppy playback?

stretching can cause choppy playback - if you stretch it too far. also if you grab the edge of a clip and slide it (without holding the control button . . . which if held will stretch or squeeze) you are going to add a loop which can look choppy, but it is simply VMS "adding some stuff" to fill the gap. when you do this you will see a notch on the top edge of the clip. All you should need to do is slide the whole clip (dont grab it on the edge - grab it in the middle somewhere) to create as much or as little transition as you desire {the more overlap the "smoother "the transition and vise versa}. a simple "overlap" transition should never be choppy, although you can select different characteristics.

P.S. I am not sure why you wouldn't see tiny triangles (on my computer they are blue) on both the upper right and left end of a clip. You are using Vegas Movie Studio right? These are the fade offset settings. If you hover your cursor over them it will say fade offset. If nothing else seems to work for you (which I wouldn't understand) and you have smooth clips without overlap, just grab those fade offset triangles and move them around to fade out one clip and fade in another

Hi Rustier,

There may be fade triangles. I am currently at work. I will take a closer look tonight and reply.

I thank you all for your help. I will come back with more info.

Well, I took another look. No little blue triangles anywhere.

Yes, Yes. This is Sony Vegas Movie Studio 6.0b

I don't think the stretching of a clip was the issue either. I recreated the clip in the trimmer and placed in the timeline with a suitable overlapping crossfade. The result was the same.

Is there any chance the media I am using could cause these sorts of problems. I am making a DVD contaiing all our home movies and inserting segments of old TV shows from the '60's in with it.

To make sure I had good media I bought the first season of the show and ripped the video and created an MPG from the VOBs.

I had been working in Ulead MSP, but had other video issues with that. The difference was transitions were fine, but I had momentary out of sequence frames in certain places.

Got any hints on how I can get the transitions to work on VMS?