Flash Frames and Quantize to Frames

hugoharris wrote on 8/2/2004, 11:54 PM

I've been following the threads on flash frames, but have never experienced them myself - prior to today. In addition, my experience today does not sound exactly like the experiences other users have had, but it may possibly give clues as to the cause. By the way, I have always left "Quantize to Frames" toggled in any project I've done in the past.

(To be honest, I don't understand why you would not use "Quantize to Frames" in a video project - fine editing of audio parts maybe?).

I had toggled Qunatize to Frames off when using Vegas to master an audio CD recently, and had forgotten to turn it back on. Today, I put together a quick video for my wife's parents, with simple cuts and dissolves, nothing complex. My process was as follows:

1) Select the clip on the timeline.
2) Use "split" to mark in and out points
3) "Delete" the video and audio befor and after the clip.
4) Slide the clip over to "snap" to the previous clip.

The "flash frames" I am experiencing always occurred at straight cuts; they are not visible at dissolves.

Two examples:

Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3

and...

Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3

Notice how, in the frame transition at the cut, there is footage completely unrelated to the clips on either side, but found elsewhere in the project. These are consecutive frames captured from the mpeg render, and are also found in the avi render. If I step through the original project frame by frame (pre-render), I also see them there. I assume this has to do with quantization problems, but how did elements separated in time appear magically at the cut point? Could this be related to the "flash frame" problem others are having?

Looking forward to some advice,
Kevin.

Comments

hugoharris wrote on 8/3/2004, 12:32 PM

Bumperoonie. Is anyone else having this problem, or can shed light on its origins?

Miklb58 wrote on 8/3/2004, 1:56 PM

I noticed a similar effect and found that it was video underlying in the same track. I must have done something wrong during my edits (cut & deletes) which "slid" my "wanted" event over where I wanted it, but left the unwanted event underneath.

I solved it by switching to A/B view and then could see the video underneath...to get rid of it.

Mike

craftech wrote on 8/3/2004, 5:46 PM

I notice the flash frames as clean frames. Yours seem to sort of dissolve from the good footage to the flash frame. Mine have always been separate whole frames unrelated to what I am editing. On mine, nothing is underneath as the person above has experienced. If that were the case the flash frame phenomenon would have been resolved a long time ago.

John

hugoharris wrote on 8/3/2004, 6:16 PM

What I don't understand, is how the interpolated frame arrived there in the first place. The origin of the footage superimposed on the intermediate frame is nowhere near (in time) the clips on the timeline. Has anybody had problems with flash frames (like mine or otherwise) when an entire project has been done with quantize to frames toggled on and never switched off? In a video project, why would you switch quantize to frames off; ie, what is the purpose of this feature?

Kevin.

johnmeyer wrote on 8/3/2004, 6:18 PM

If you use ripple edit -- especially if you have it affect all tracks and markers -- you can get some unbelievably weird results, including video from way further down the timeline suddenly appearing underneath your video. It all depends on the combination of:

1. What, if any tracks you have selected.
2. What, if any events you have selected, and whether you have selected the audio that goes with the video, or not.
3. What grouping you have created. Things can get really strange with grouping.
4. Whether you have a range selected.

Given the roundoff errors in the underlying way Vegas keeps track of timecode (which I found out about when writing scripts), it might be possible for one of these to "peak" out for one frame.

This is one of the weakest things about Vegas. While the ability to have all these selection combinations is obviously very powerful, there are just way too many unexpected things that happen when you press the delete or cut keys. It needs to be simplified.

Errors = Wasted Time.

After discovering this problem, I use ripple edits only when I am doing my initial cuts-only edits. The suggestions of switching to A/B track view is also a good one.