Please Help! Swap of Clips with a single Still

gingeriffic wrote on 6/9/2012, 9:16 PM
I don't know the right keywords to use to find if there's a prior thread about this issue.

I'm putting a video together that's mostly stills with some video clips. Sometimes when I reopen the file, I discover that video clips have been replaced by a separate still image. After re editing the same clips multiple times, I finally made a new file, saved clips from the original mpg, closed the file, reopened it & bam, there's that still image again. It's always the same one. I just renamed the image file and restarted the program, and now it's still looking for that file, for even more of the clips!!!

I hope this makes sense. I'm so frustrated I'm about to throw my laptop out the window. I filed a Sony support request on Monday & I haven't gotten any response.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 6/9/2012, 10:02 PM
You're video clips are being replaced by still clips?

How do you know this? Is it because it freezes during playback?

What happens if you Make Movie and output your project as a WMV or MOV? Are the movies still a freeze frame?

The reason I ask is that you can overload the program by using oversized photos with your video and the timeline playback will show them as freeze frames rather than a smooth playback. But if you output the movie as a WMV or MOV or any other movie, they will play fine.
musicvid10 wrote on 6/9/2012, 10:25 PM
The "replaced media" bug has been around for some time, and it seems related to memory loading on some systems.

The workaround I found is to remove the offending event from the timeline, remove the offending media from the Project Media pane (this is important!), save and close the project.

Then when you re-open the project, use the correct media to fill the gap(s) on the timeline. Save promptly before continuing with editing.

It is a good idea to save your project every hour or two, close and re-open Vegas to flush the ram buffers. On older machines, we would also reboot.

Best advice is, "Save Early, Save Often."
MSmart wrote on 6/10/2012, 1:13 AM
And when you save, do a Save As every so often and give it a version number.

Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
etc.

That way you have an earlier version to revert back to if needed.
gingeriffic wrote on 6/10/2012, 8:30 AM
MSmart & MusicVid, thank you so much! I am so happy to know I am not crazy. I will try again.
gingeriffic wrote on 6/10/2012, 8:32 AM
Steve Grisetti - I don't even get as far as the output, it just swaps a still image for the movie clip. You have a good point about the image size though. I hate to use a lower resolution though...
musicvid10 wrote on 6/10/2012, 9:59 AM
You don't need to use an image resolution any higher than the output resolution, with some allowance for pan/crop figured in.

For 1080 output, 2000 vertical for your stills is more than enough. for 720 output, 1400 vertical is enough.

Any more than that just wastes available memory, and may actually contribute to the drain that I think is related to the replaced media bug.
Tim L wrote on 6/10/2012, 11:18 AM
@gingeriffic:
As musicvid points out, this has been a huge issue on the Vegas Pro forums going back several versions. There are numerous threads "vegas replaced the footage" or "vegas replaced the media". (Unfortunately, and due to high frustrations, many of those threads degenerate to arguments and bickering...)

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=814742
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=793775
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=797374

There was hope that the bug had been found and fixed with Vegas Pro 11 (Build 510/511) when the release notes indicated: "Fixed an issue that could cause events to use the wrong media in certain circumstances (seen when project is later loaded)."... but unfortunately there are reports of it still occurring after that release -- though overall it does seem less frequently.

There was a lot of speculation on the Vegas Pro forum about what sequence of events lead up to the problem situation. Some suggested that having two copies of Vegas open at the same time, and copying timeline events from one to the other might be the culprit. Others suggested an issue with the "undo" buffer.

Have you ever had that project open simultaneously with a second copy of VMS running, and copied between the two? Do you run any third-party applications, like PluralEyes, etc.in your workflow?

Part of the problem is that some think it's not until you re-open the project that the swap occurs. You work on the project Tuesday night and save it, and when you open it on Wednesday you see that the media has been swapped.

Very frustrating for many people. And certainly very frustrating to the developers as well.