Preview window gone red and crashing

philRmonic wrote on 10/12/2010, 3:05 PM
I've been editing a file for a few hours and getting towards the end the preview window has been displayed soild red. VMS has then crashed. Now every time I start VMS with this file the same thing happens after a few seconds. This is driving me crazy!

The only thing I'm doing significantly different in this project is I'm using a number of iPhone 4 clips interspersed with some still images. The project has about 5 minutes of footage but seemed to work fine until I got to this adavanced stage. I've managed to remove the last minute or so but it still crashes. I did notice that the iPhone clips were natively 29.97 fps and I have my project set at 25 fps (UK) but if I put a few clips in a new file they seem to play OK.

Anyone any ideas please? Thanks

Comments

jetdv wrote on 10/13/2010, 5:56 AM
Solid red is not a good thing and typically indicates a problem reading/decoding the clips you've placed on the timeline.
philRmonic wrote on 10/13/2010, 7:32 AM
I've played around with the file a bit more. It seems to happen when I play any one of the .MOV clips - the stills play OK. I can play clips in the media folder but when I play a clip in the timeline and the window goes red, at that point the whole project virtually freezes.

I guess the only option is to start again but, since I don't know why this is happening, I'm worried the same thing will happen again once I get some distance into it. I was wondering if I should re-render my clips into another format? WMV? It would take some time but if it's the only way......
musicvid10 wrote on 10/13/2010, 8:37 AM
Red often indicates available memory depletion.
What version of Vegas are you using?
What version of Quicktime is on your system?
What are your system specs?
Can you upload an original clip somewhere?
philRmonic wrote on 10/13/2010, 2:36 PM
Sorry yes, I was a bit short on detail!

I am using VMS 10 Platinum and the latest Quicktime (7.6.8). I have a quad core Q9400 CPU, 4 GB RAM, nvidia GeForce 9400GT video card (1GB), running 64 bit Windows 7.

It's difficult to post a clip as I can't render the project and each clip works fine if I put them individually into a new file. It only seems to be a problem when the clips are in the timeline. I don't even have to play the file, all I have to do is place the cursor on one of the clips and the preview screen goes red!
Brandenburg wrote on 10/13/2010, 9:22 PM
Same *exact* issues here, but with even more ram and faster equipment.

I haven't tested, but maybe it's an issue with some .mov files?
musicvid10 wrote on 10/13/2010, 9:29 PM
By an "original clip" I meant one, unmodified, from your iPhone, uploaded to a remote service like MediaFire or Vimeo.

I never asked for a render or a "new file." But if you are uncomfortable doing what was requested, I understand completely.
philRmonic wrote on 10/14/2010, 4:41 AM
OK I misunderstood what you were looking for! I've uploaded a short clip to

http://vimeo.com/15836079

but as I'm not a "plus" member yet it may take a while to appear!

As Brandenburg said it may be the .MOV files as I've never had any problem with my usual Canon HV30 footage. As a short term fix I've edited some of the clips together in Windows Movie maker and will import the rendered file into VMS and see what happens.
musicvid10 wrote on 10/14/2010, 10:19 AM
OK thanks, I'll look into it. Apple doesn't always play well with Windows NLE apps.

OK, with QT 7.6.2 and a Vista 32 laptop, I can't duplicate your issue in either Vegas Pro 8 or 10. Timeline playback, scrubbing, editing is normal, even with multiple copies. Tell us more about your stills, are they huge? What format?

Your Project should have the same properties as your media. If you need 25fps that is done in the render, and plenty of discussion on the forums.

Sorry, but my VMS 10 trial expired, but leave your clip up for a while to see if someone else can help more.
philRmonic wrote on 10/14/2010, 11:54 AM
Thanks for the help!

It didn't seem to be a problem until I got to what seemed like a "critical mass" of clips. Before it started crashing I did notice, however, when I opened some of the stills in the event edit window the window would go grey, but at least that was managable! The stills are JPEGs from a 10Mpxl Canon G7 so I wouldn't have thought they were particularly large.

I don't plan on making a lot of use of the iPhone video but it would be nice to think I could incorporate the odd clip here and there.
musicvid10 wrote on 10/14/2010, 12:35 PM
Yes, a bunch of 10MP jpeg stills must all be loaded into Vegas' memory.
It may not be your only problem, but batch convert them to PNG at about double project resolution (1200-1600 px height). That will leave you some wiggle room for pan/crop/zoom.

The free Irfanview will do this rather quickly for you. Just don't delete your original stills in case you want to try another size.

Then load the smaller stills and your MOV clips into a new project (that should match your MOV properties as mentioned before) and see if it works better.

Good luck to you.
Brandenburg wrote on 10/14/2010, 1:30 PM
Yes....it does seem like some kind of critical mass problem (although it doesn't have to be very many).

I have a set of 30 clips, each only 20seconds - 1 min in length. I have no problem putting about 5-10. However, when I load more than this onto the timeline, I start getting red screens, memory problems, and more. It's very frustrating.
philRmonic wrote on 10/16/2010, 3:36 AM
OK thanks! I'll give that a go.
philRmonic wrote on 10/16/2010, 4:24 AM
Brandenburg - I just noticed your other thread and tried the 2GB memory cap fix. Amazing! I've only being trying it for 5 minutes but so far no red preview screen!!! As you say, why isn't this offered as a "Preferences" option!?