I am using Sony Vegas Pro 14.
After importing a .mp4 video and moving it to the timeline, when I place the timeline cursor over it the preview stays black....
Also the footage in the timeline shows a solid white object. It does not show the thumbnails as usual.
I thought that it was just a preview glitch but even the renderred video stays black!
Please help!
**It is showing 'Media Offline' in the screenshot because at that moment my screenshot-taking software was active**
General Complete name : E:\Youtube\The Reviewologists\Videos\Samsung S8\Back (2).mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41) File size : 19.8 MiB Duration : 30 s 41 ms Overall bit rate : 5 533 kb/s Writing application : Lavf56.40.101 Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : High 4:4:4 Predictive@L3.1 Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 30 s 41 ms Bit rate : 5 533 kb/s Nominal bit rate : 6 000 kb/s Width : 1 280 pixels Height : 720 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:4:4 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.200 Stream size : 19.8 MiB (100%) Writing library : x264 core 148 r2643 5c65704 Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=4 / threads=4 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=abr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Offline means the media is not where Vegas is looking for it. Check file paths and external drive letters, and try again.
It shows offline anytime I am active in some other window. For example: Say that I am working in Sony Vegas and then I open my browser to check my email. At that moment it shows that all the media in my project are offline. When I come back to editing, it shows that every media are offline. After 2-3 seconds everything is normal again. So in the screenshot, it is showing that the media is offline because at that moment my screenshot-taking software was active.
How was the file created?
Vegas doesnt support 444 chroma subsampling mp4 video. It must be 420.
How can I change the chroma sampling from 444 to 420?
Below are the methods by which I created the file:
1. I rendered the video from my After Effects CS3 using the default .avi format (because whenever I changed that to H.264, the level did not match the video resolution and the rendered video did not run properly)
2. Then I used HD Video Converter Factory Pro to change the .avi video to .mp4 (H.264)
I don't know your video converter but there should be an option to convert to 420 instead of 444.
If you don't find any option for that in your software you may use a free ffmpeg GUI like Xmediarecode to encode your file to h264 mp4.
In the video tab set it up like below
Do you have any problem to import directly your avi file to Vegas?
Well, .avi file is HUGE!! The video length is 1 min 15 sec and the size is nearly 14 GB!! (After Effects video rendering problem)
So if I import that file, my whole video's size will get increased drastically! Other than that there's no problem.
In that software you are talking about, what is level? I have that same feature in After Effects but whenever I render a video as H.264, the level does not match with my video resolution and After Effects does not render my video in h264 format. So I have to go with the default .avi format and get a huge file!
So if I import that file, my whole video's size will get increased drastically!
Imported video size and rendered video size are not linked at all.
In that software you are talking about, what is level?
This is the h264 level which basically constrain the maximum resolution, Max frame rate and max bit rate. Using a level of 4.2 is enough for hd content, 5.1 or 5.2 for 4k one.
Uncheck this:
Options-Preferences-Close media files when not the active application
Imported video size and rendered video size are not linked at all.
Wow! I didn't know that! I thought that my rendered video size would increase because, you know I am adding videos and rendering them so I thought their size would add up.... There are so many things I don't know.....
Uncheck this:
Options-Preferences-Close media files when not the active application
Thanks! I didn't know about that too! This really helps!
"Options-Preferences-Close media files when not the active application"
Sometimes you might want the media files to close when you click away from Vegas. For example, you need to access an audio or video file in an audio mixing program to change something.
Yes, sometimes you might want to do that. That isn't the best default behavior for many users.