Scrambled clips in Vegas 9.0c

PeterDuke wrote on 1/2/2010, 9:01 PM

After rearranging many clips on the timeline (by either dragging or cutting and pasting), I noticed that some clips, although having the correct filename and duration, had the content copied from other clips. A short clip occupying the site of a long clip was repeated, as happens if you drag the end to make it longer.

Could I have done something wrong to make this happen?

I repaired the problem by deleting the scrambled clips and re-importing the correct ones. I hope nothing else got scrambled that I haven't noticed.

I don't feel inclined to mess about randomly shuffling clips ad nauseum to see if I can reproduce the problem.

Windows XP SP2 (32bit) and Vegas 9.0c (32bit).

Comments

PeterDuke wrote on 1/2/2010, 10:32 PM

Aaaagghhhh!!!

Once I save or save-as the repaired project, close Vegas and re-load, the scrambling comes back!

What now? Perhaps copy the good bits to a new project and fill in the missing bits.

xberk wrote on 1/3/2010, 2:10 AM

I've seen stuff like this too. I think it got solved with the correct codec. Is it something like MP4 or a highly compressed format or something you normally don't edit? Can you convert the files to a format you are sure Vegas can handle?

Christian de Godzinsky wrote on 1/3/2010, 4:14 AM

I have also seen this behaviour, but it was in VP 9.0, but might still be in 9.0c...

My problem was related to files names (clips) that contained non-ASCII characters, such as å, ä, ö. A ripple edit run havok the clips in such a way that in the project browser window the usage numbers were negative (-1 ot -2). They also had wrong content on the timeline. This must be a serious internal error if the usage number can become negative!!!

Since I stopped using non-ASCII characters in file names I have not seen this repeating. I don´t dare to test this again, or will do it when I have nothing better to do....

Just my 2 cents...

Christian

Rob Franks wrote on 1/3/2010, 4:45 AM

Many programs can't understand anything outside of the standard lettering system. TSmuxer for example will get totally confused with Japanese fonts used in a folder name and refuse to do a job. Change the folder font to something a little more standard and the problem goes away.

Dates are also a problem with Vegas. I like to rename all of my clips with the date and time shot. But if I'm not careful to use zero's as place holders in ALL of the blank spots then Vegas gets confused and mixes up some of the clips.

Hey.... but what's in a name....eh? :)

PeterDuke wrote on 1/3/2010, 4:50 PM

I think it might have been a random glitch. I checked to see if anyone could suggest what I might have done wrong. The file names used numerics, underscores and hyphens - nothing wierd. The files are DV coded (collected via firewire). I'll save-as a few times as I edit until my confidence returns

PS
The numerics in the file name correspond to the tape number, the date and time of the clip. The files were captured using WinDV.

Rob Franks wrote on 1/3/2010, 5:29 PM

[i]"The numerics in the file name correspond to the tape number, the date and time of the clip. The files were captured using WinDV."/[i]

Yeah... been there, done that.

Be sure to use zeros for place holders otherwise Vegas will scramble your clips.

If you have 1000 clips then do not go 1, 2, 3.....10...
Instead go; 0001, 0002, 0003.....0010....
(Vegas will confuse the 1 and the 10)

With dates you want to go 01_05_2010
and NOT 1_5_2010

With time you want to use the 24 hour clock and go 09;55
and NOT 9;55

If you need to rename your clips there's a great little batch renamer (one of the few that will actually rename according to the windows explorer date). You can write your own rules on how names and/or extensions should be changed and save those rules as presets.

http://www.den4b.com/downloads.php?project=ReNamer

ushere wrote on 1/3/2010, 5:34 PM

If you have 1000 clips then do not go 1, 2, 3.....10...
Instead go; 0001, 0002, 0003.....0010....
(Vegas will confuse the 1 and the 10)

not only vegas - ANY windoz (sort) program.

Rob Franks wrote on 1/3/2010, 5:45 PM

Actually that's not true. Windows7 for example can figure out the proper order of 1, 10, 100...etc.
Vista could too as well. That's why I had such a hard time figuring out what was happening when I originally ran into this problem...

Vista (which I was running at the time) had all my clips in the proper order, but when I imported to Vegas.... they ended up scrambled. Eventually I worked it down to the lack of a place holder being the issue. That missing place holder wasn't bothering Vista at all... but it sure threw Vegas for a loop.

PeterDuke wrote on 1/3/2010, 6:59 PM

Yes, Win Explorer in XP can sort files sensibly too.

A typical file name is
327.07-05-23_09-08-41.0.avi
corresponding to tape,year,month,day,hour,min,sec and sequence.

You will see that leading zeros are used to avoid ambiguity.

(I don't have any tapes recorded last century, so the year is unambiguous! Note that the so-called milennium bug was really a century bug. Computers back in 1899 had the same problem :) )

ushere wrote on 1/3/2010, 8:53 PM

i stand corrected (head bowed in shame).

since win nt i've always added leading 000's - the odd time i didn't in xp it screwed up, so i must have been doing something wrong....

PeterDuke wrote on 1/3/2010, 11:39 PM

"i stand corrected (head bowed in shame)."

There, there!
Use my sleeve to wipe your nose on.

Marco. wrote on 1/3/2010, 11:49 PM

I'd be careful using hyphens (and dots other than which separate the name from the file type) in file names used in Vegas.

Marco

.

TLF wrote on 1/4/2010, 12:11 AM

When using dates, I use the YYYY-MM-DD format as that makes sorting much easier, no matter what program you work with.

Makes sorting so simple if your clips are shot in different years.

PeterDuke wrote on 1/4/2010, 4:22 PM

Please note that I was not talking about shuffling the order of clips in my original post. In the "scrambled" clips, their names and durations were still correct, only their contents were changed.

Weird.

Only some clips were scrambled. The clips which had been copied into the scrambled clips and many other clips were still correct.

I fixed the problem by copying the edited good clips to a new project and inserting the missing clips and re-editing. While I could replace the scrambled clips in the original project, they became scrambled again after a save or save-as and restart of Vegas. So something got corrupted in my original project file.