DLR's and black previews

smashguy37 wrote on 9/8/2010, 4:37 AM

I've read about people with similar problems on this and other forums, but last night I started putting together my first project (short 2-3 minute video) shot with a Canon XH A1s and a Canon T2i/550. After a while half of the video went black (none of the HDV and some T2i) and when I was near completion the whole thing went black (no preview just audio) and I can't seem to bring it back.

I already rolled my Quicktime back to 7.6.4 and tried that whole "show vid monitor" button selected in trimmer thing too. I just bought EPIC 1 last night but I'm not 100% on using it either (I started using it half way through editing the project).

Is there any other alternatives to fix this? It's a shame because the DLR stuff actually ran very well on my computer, even the raw .MOVs.

Comments

smashguy37 wrote on 9/8/2010, 5:01 AM

Well, I just had a new experience -- .veg's deleting themselves.

I deleted my render files (and not my sequences, for sure) and opened up my sequence then came back to it 15 mins later, couldn't save it (some error) then when I closed it, it was deleted off my hard drive. I then proceeded to open my original half completed sequence and same thing...couldn't save and it too vanished off my hard drive. What the !@#$???

Sequences deleting themselves? Is Vegas really THAT unreliable? And I'm 110% sure I did not mistakenly delete them. Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to start from scratch in FCP at work, it's too bad I enjoy working in Vegas but it's such a POS to work with sometimes (I also still enjoy problems like pre rendering and everything turns to black until I delete the render files).

I just worry for the day I work on something that isn't work related and my sequence deletes itself. Am I missing something here?

End rant. Sorry.

farss wrote on 9/8/2010, 6:19 AM

"Sequences deleting themselves? Is Vegas really THAT unreliable?"

For starters Vegas doesn't do the sequence thing, more the pity but there it is.

Terminology aside, no I whilst I wouldn't say Vegas is 100% reliable it in not THAT unreliable. More to the point and regardless of which NLE you use you need a more reliable workflow because anything can cr*p out on you.

" Am I missing something here?"

Yes, even electricity is not 100% reliable. You need to keep saving to incrementing project numbers e.g. Proj001.veg Proj002 etc. That way if anything goes badly wrong, including the thing between your ears, you don't loose massive amounts of work.
Whenever I restart a project I immediately save it to an incremented project. If it's a long term project I might increment the numbers to the next decimal so I effectively have version and revision level tracking of what I've done when. Sometime the client might decide he liked it the way it was 3 months ago, really pays to have the project from three months ago.

Also before I do an Undo, I increment and save. I have no proof of this but it does seem to me that things maybe get messed up in the Indo buffer at times. Having a version to go back to before the Undo can maybe save a lot of angst. This is not just something I do in Vegas, I do it when I work in AE as well, if I was (shudder) working in FCP I'd do it too.

Bob.

musicvid10 wrote on 9/8/2010, 7:44 AM

I already rolled my Quicktime back to 7.6.4
What version of Vegas? 7.6.4 does not work with most installations of Vegas Pro 8.

smashguy37 wrote on 9/8/2010, 1:52 PM

I'm using V 9.0e (64 bit) and sometimes 32 bit if needed.

I realize programs don't delete sequence files...and I had two sequences, but as soon as I opened them they somehow were deleted off my hard drive (I literally opened them, hit save and poof), so while I do incrementals (however not as many as you), they are no good if they get deleted as soon as they get opened (and are blocked from saving them as any other sequence).

FCP isn't perfect by any means...I use it 40 hours a week and it definitely has it's share of issues, I just hate when I finally do some stuff at home I run into so many problems. I know the DSLR stuff is relatively new for these NLE's though, but my black screen problem also extends to pre rendering, where I pre render and 50% of the time it just gives me black footage with audio. I still haven't been able to find a fix.

Yoyodyne wrote on 9/8/2010, 3:18 PM

I've had great luck with Cineform Neoscene and DSLR footage. Stability is very good for me with Vegas 9. I know this is a pretty popular workflow too.

Cineform also corrects a gamma issue that the raw DSLR mov file has. I think they have a free 30 day trial, worth checking out.