Urgent: Can't render DV-NTSC clip to AVI

smhontz wrote on 12/28/2003, 6:39 PM
I have a DV-NTSC clip rendered in FCP 4. The media properties (as viewed in Vegas) are 720x480x24, 29.97 interlaced DV-NTSC. This clip plays fine in Quicktime. I can preview it in Vegas, put it in the trimmer, move thru it, select a video selection and put it on the timeline. I then try to render it to AVI - DV NTSC template.

The resulting AVI file has sound but no picture - it's black. If I go back to the timeline and make the clip longer by dragging an edge, the entire clip goes black on the timeline. It no longer previews with the auto-preview - sound, no picture - and the trimmer shows no picture. The only way I can get it to display again is to close Vegas and re-open the project. If I re-open the project, the clip is back on the timeline and plays fine.

I can render to Quicktime format or MPG-2 formats fine. As soon as I go to AVI format, things go black. Help!

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/28/2003, 6:57 PM
Sounds like it's not decoding correctly in the render. Can you render uncompressed? Do you have Ignore Third Party codecs disabled in Prefs? (this shouldn't matter, but I'm taking a shot in the dark)
Have you tried to Force Resample the vid?
smhontz wrote on 12/29/2003, 6:08 AM
3rd party codecs was disabled, and force resampled didn't help.

I can render uncompressed, bring that clip in, and render back to NTSC DV. Or I can render to MPG2 or MOV, so I guess I have a workaround. For some reason it just refuses to render the orginal footage straight to NTSC DV without making it black.

The scary thing is how the clip on the timeline (the portion of the larger file) and the entire clip in the trimmer go black, too, and you can't do anything with them (except hear them) until you close and re-open Vegas. (Just closing and re-opening the project won't do it, you actually have to close Vegas).

The interesting thing is the rendered file actually has 4 correct frames at the beginning, and then the rest is black. But the stuff on the timeline is totally black.
SonyEPM wrote on 12/29/2003, 8:45 AM
Is the FCP-generated clip a QT reference file?
smhontz wrote on 12/29/2003, 9:20 AM
How do I tell if it is a reference file? It was produced in FCP 4 by doing "Export DV stream" (I believe) in order to be put into iDVD.

The media properties in Vegas don't mention anything about a reference file. The file properities say this:

Streams
Video: 00:12:37.957, 29.970 fps interlaced, 720x480x24, DV - NTSC

Plug-In
Name: dvsplug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry\Vegas 4.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\dvsplug
Version: Version 1.0 (Build 419)
Company: Sonic Foundry, Inc.

I have QuickTime 6.5 and Vegas 4.0d.

The other interesting thing is if I try to save the project and "Copy and trim media with project" I get an error: "An error occurred while creating the media file. An unexpected error has occurred." Then the clip on the timeline goes black.
SonyEPM wrote on 12/30/2003, 7:10 AM
What is the extension of the Quicktime file?

Things to try:

1) Delete the folder "dvsplug" from ....\Vegas 4.0\FileIO Plug-Ins

2) Try renaming the file with an .mov extension

Close restart Vegas, reload the file...post results here.

smhontz wrote on 12/30/2003, 4:35 PM
The file had a .dv extension.

Results:

1. Deleting the folder worked. The clip now says it is DV/DVCPRO - NTSC when viewing it's properties. I can render to .avi without any problems.

2. Renaming the file to .mov didn't work. It rendered to a black .avi.

So, I guess the workaround is to remove the dvsplug folder. Are there any drawbacks to that? It appears that without the dvsplug, it uses the QuickTime dll instead.
SonyEPM wrote on 12/31/2003, 5:07 PM
No probs removing dvsplug- for this particular file, you want to be using our QT reader, and you now are, so all should be cool. Please report any other oddities (if they surface).