Could you share a link to download the actual media for testing?

Thank you for the quick - and helpful! - response. I checked all 3 versions and it was turned off on all 3! VP19 had Experimental HEVC turned on, though. I kinda remember doing that several years ago,

They must've made some change in this area after 19, which I used for my last major project in the fall of 2202.

Obviously, I don't do a lot of work with Vegas these days. But I built a new computer last year and decided it was time for a lot of software upgrades, too, and I'm just starting to use them.

VP 21 build 300 and newer have a new decoder so the meaning of the checkboxes have changed. It would still be good to get VP 22 working- if you can provide a sample of the media (same format, short is fine) we can test it.

@cbrillow In VP21 build (300) they introduced mxcompoundplug, turning Legacy AVC on makes VP use the former so4compoundplug (I'd have to restart VP to check that name but can't right now).

@RogerS or someone else would be able to explain what n why this is better than me.

Right click the event Properties, this is with Legacy AVC Off/unticked

VP 21 build 300 and newer have a new decoder so the meaning of the checkboxes have changed. It would still be good to get VP 22 working- if you can provide a sample of the media (same format, short is fine) we can test it.

Well, 21 and 22 are working with the Legacy AVC Decoder enabled. Do you mean to get 22 working without having this function enabled? Is that even possible? If you still want a sample, I'll provide one tomorrow.

Yes, getting 22 working with the current decoder is the goal so a problem file would be great!

Crap. I just finished composing a lengthy response that got lost when I apparently took too much time writing it and got logged out.

I'll summarize: I need to be able to write a short clip or two without re-encoding, but the tool that I usually use for this purpose - the late, great VideoReDo - is crashing when I try to save the file. Do you have a suggestion for an alternative?

Maybe ShutterEncoder's trim function?

Otherwise could you just create a new file the same way as you did the old one?

That would be impossible - I didn't create the file. I collaborated with a friend on a couple of authorized DVDs of a TV program we used to watch. I did some preliminary editing and then passed along the video to him for restoration and upscaling. I think he probably wrote the resultant file from Premier Pro. (some old version that he likes...)

I'll have to check the other files that wound up on the DVDs and see if they also have trouble in 21 & 22 without legacy AVC enabled. I did all my work in 19 and only opened the one up in 22 before discovering the problem. I'll do some more fishing around and eventually get back with some kind of a sample file.

Ok, I've written a file using a utility called LosslessCut, illustrating the display problem in VP 21 & 22.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9MJsKW2ql6OwRma9MxX858cjU_2sMGx/view?usp=sharing

If you load it into Vegas with the AVC legacy decoding turned off, you should see problems where there are fade-outs/fade-ins between program segments. There are two little mini-clips that illustrate this.

This is a 1440 x 1080p 59.97fps file. In order to display it correctly as 4:3 video, please set the clip's pixel aspect ratio to 1(Square)

If you need any more info, or have questions, ask away!

@cbrillow Yep, I get the same result.

Legacy AVC - Off

Legacy AVC - On

@cbrillow With VP21 Build 315 I found as you have that Legacy AVC decoding solved the problem as VP switched from mxcompoundplug.dll to so4compoundplug.dll (as mentioned by others).

But I also noticed your file has a variable framerate. This appears strange for old TV material and I wonder why. Anyway using Shutter Encoder to convert the file to 59.94 Constant frame rate resulted in a file that plays perfectly in my VP21 with Legacy AVC decoding both On and Off. I don't have VP22 to check with it. This seems to indicate it's the VFR that mxcompoundplug.dll doesn't handle well.

Oh incidentally your file imported correctly with its PAR 1.0.

@cbrillow My Shutter Encoder converted file is here should you be interested https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WzIwWw6RFRJIdnM7LSRA9fk6SGyqkF64/view?usp=sharing

@cbrillow I also converted it with Shutter Encoder & got a good result. Also your file doesn't show the thumbnail in Windows but the converted one does..🤷‍♂️

PS. I didn't bother changing the PAR in the pic above.

@Gid That's interesting as both the original and SE conversion show thumbnails for me. I'm Win11 Home 24H2.

Also I wonder why I have no problem with PAR?

This is possibly Off Topic but maybe related as it seemed strange.

After downloading the problem file and dragging into VP21 I checked my File I/O Properties and found I had Legacy AVC ticked. So I unticked it and rebooted VP to activate the change. As VP started I got the spinning Magix wheel as it phoned home to Berlin. The following then appeared

I'm sure that previously I've played around switching Legacy AVC on and Off so the Hint message puzzles me.

@cbrillow My Shutter Encoder converted file is here should you be interested https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WzIwWw6RFRJIdnM7LSRA9fk6SGyqkF64/view?usp=sharing

Thank you for your testing, comments and the corrected-file download. It's very interesting that you've identified the apparent problem as being a variable frame rate! I always like to know WHY something didn't work, and am not just satisfied that it's fixed...

The video took a very tortured path since it was shot and taped on a local New Orleans TV station's cameras in 1987. The original tapes were mastered and copied to Betacam or Betacam SP (not sure which) and the masters were owned by the creator of the program. In the early 2000s, he was concerned about preserving them for the future, and arranged with another local station to create 'archive' copies on - wait for it! - the station's DVD recorder. 😖 The Betacam copies still exist, but are in bad shape, with dropouts galore.

A cohort of mine and I have worked with the creator to release a couple of DVD compilations of the show, one in early 2012 and another in October 2022. All the video was sourced from those DVD recorder copies. We painstakingly restored the video and audio as a labor of love using the best tools we could afford at the time. My cohort is quite talented and knowledgeable with the various restoration software, and used an insane upscale path to take the shows from 480i to what's in the file. He uses some combination of avisynth scripts and other tools, and various versions of Topaz Video AI and it's predecessor, Video Enhance AI. At one time, it was upscaled to 2K, and the entire 30-minute file was in a huge folder as individual images. And Apple Pro Res was also involved at some point. Like I said, it took crazy path to this!

He's a fan of Premier Pro and uses some old version of that, but I can't speak to what he ultimately used to encode the file he supplied to me.

I'd ask him, but he's hosting a LIVE game show broadcast on YouTube and Facebook as I write this...

Again, thank you - and thanks to all who have weighed in with helpful suggestions!

@EricLNZ 

In the picture above the VP Explorer is showing the OP's orig video + a screen capture I made, it needed refreshing to show the Shutter Encoder exported video. Sorry should've done that before posting.

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I'm Windows 10 & I just tried all options I could in Shutter Encoder - Image options, inc exporting as .MOV but VP still showed it as 1.3333 with all I tried 🤷‍♂️

Windows shows a 4:3 thumbnail, Shutter Encoder show a 4:3 preview. VP shows 4:3 in the Explorer but always shows it at 1.3333 in the Preview when added to the timeline & Trimmer

@Gid That's interesting as both the original and SE conversion show thumbnails for me. I'm Win11 Home 24H2.

Also I wonder why I have no problem with PAR?

 

The PAR thing first surfaced for me when I started working on the second DVD volume in 2021, with the upscaled videos. Written as 1440 x 1080p, Vegas assumed that they were 16:9, set the PAR to 1.33 and displayed them wrong, regardless of the project settings. Setting the PAR to 1 at the clip level sorted that out. This allowed me to mix 4:3 videos with a 16:9 menu structure and movie in a widescreen DVD. It works out great, as long as viewers let their TVs adjust to the source's format. Those who use 'fill' or 'stretch' get what they get - stretched faces, out-of-round circles, etc.

Written as 1440 x 1080p, Vegas assumed that they were 16:9, set the PAR to 1.33 and displayed them wrong, regardless of the project settings.

Yes this was a problem that has cropped up for discussion previously and has presumably been fixed but I'm not sure when.

On 1440x1080 PAR: Event Media Pixel Aspect Ratio Weirdness _ Vegas 17 & 18

Written as 1440 x 1080p, Vegas assumed that they were 16:9, set the PAR to 1.33 and displayed them wrong, regardless of the project settings.

Yes this was a problem that has cropped up for discussion previously and has presumably been fixed but I'm not sure when.

I'm not so sure that it was ever fixed. I learned of this several years ago and just 'dealt with it' by changing the PAR to get what I wanted/needed.

It seems to be working the same for me on 21 & 22.