Vegas suddenly down want to import any movie files I download

Kaptajnen wrote on 1/22/2025, 3:48 AM

I have been using Vegas for many years at this point and for the most part, its been a very intuitive and smooth experience
but yesterday I started to experience an issue that has seemed to persist no matter what I've been doing.

Usually whenever I download a video file from youtube, twitter etc. its then as simple as draggin and dropping it into Vegas but now when I do I just get the crossed out sign from the curser and it won't let me drop it.
If I then manually click import and select the file, Vegas gives me the following message

Warning: An error has occurred while opening one or more files The file could not be opened. Make sure the file exists and that you have access to the file/folder

When I record something through OBS or download a file through the DownloadHelper extension, the file will import just fine and any of my older downloaded movie files will also still import just fine.
It's only with any of the new ones that I download.

Here we have what is essentially the same file, one of them I just downloaded through Chrome, the other I used the DownloadHelper extension but it almost seems to be in a state where Vegas can't see it.
I tried downloading through Edge too just to see if it was a Chrome-exclusive bug but the error seems to persist.


One thing I DID notice before this issue started popping up.
I accidentally clicked on a file from the download list in Chrome instead of the "open location folder" shortly before this happened and instead of opening in the VLC player, it opened in Windows Photo Viewer.
I don't know if it's important tho.
One cumbersome workaround that has worked a little is that if I open one of these movie files in Photo Viewer and trim the very first part, I can then suddenly import the trimmed file into Vegas.
However, that process itself seems to be really buggy and doesn't at all work consistently.
But every movie file I download online seems to not be accepted and it's extremely frustrating.
The only other thing I can think of is that I recently did a big backup of everything to my external harddisk but I have yet to actually delete anything after that

Another weird thing is that if I take a movie file that I've trimmed and that is now working and go to
online-video-cutter .com and edit it but turns on "No Re-encoding" then download it, that downloaded file will also work in Vegas. But anything else I try to download refuse.


I am using an older version of Vegas 13 and was actually considering finally upgrading but if it wouldn't make much sense to do so if Vegas suddenly is unable to work with any of the files I feed it.
I have never had this issue with the program before.
And I find it really weird why any of my older downloads just work with no hiccups like they always have but everything I've downloaded since yesterday refuses to be recognized by Vegas.
Image files can still be both downloaded and imported with no issues
 

I'm running Windows 10 on an older computer but


Still, I've never had this issue before and I can't tell if the error is on Vegas side or if my downloads are somehow getting corrupted during download. They all play and work just fine outside of Vegas it would seem and all the meta data seems to be there. It's only Vegas that seem to have developed this issue with recognizing the videos' locations all of a sudden.

I really hope someone here can shed some light on this issue and possibly giving me some pointers as to what is causing this.

Thanks in advance

Comments

Dexcon wrote on 1/22/2025, 5:01 AM

Please make sure that your recent downloads are being downloaded in the AVC (H.264) format and not the HEVC (H.265) format. Your first image shows 'Sony AVC' which would be expected to work in Vegas Pro 13, but the second image shows the format type as being 'unknown' which suggests that it is not an AVC (H.264) video. The increasingly popular/common HEVC (H.265) format would not be expected to work in Vegas Pro 13.

HEVC will playback in Vegas Pro 22 but before purchasing give the free trial version a try because unfortunately your computer specifications are well below the specs recommended for Vegas Pro 22. While you might get basic functionality, AI FX may not work at all and playback will likely be sluggish especially with HEVC (H.265) video which is a highly compressed video format.

The best way to find out exactly what format the problem media is - download and install a free app named MediaInfo and run it on the problem media - it will list the video format. You can upload the MediaInfo report to this forum thread for further assistance.

Last changed by Dexcon on 1/22/2025, 5:14 AM, changed a total of 2 times.

Cameras: Sony FDR-AX100E; GoPro Hero 11 Black Creator Edition

Installed: Vegas Pro 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22, HitFilm Pro 2021.3, DaVinci Resolve Studio 19.0.3, BCC 2025, Mocha Pro 2024.5, NBFX TotalFX 7, Neat NR, DVD Architect 6.0, MAGIX Travel Maps, Sound Forge Pro 16, SpectraLayers Pro 11, iZotope RX10 Advanced and many other iZ plugins, Vegasaur 4.0

Windows 11

Dell Alienware Aurora 11:

10th Gen Intel i9 10900KF - 10 cores (20 threads) - 3.7 to 5.3 GHz

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8GB GDDR6 - liquid cooled

64GB RAM - Dual Channel HyperX FURY DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz

C drive: 2TB Samsung 990 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD

D: drive: 4TB Samsung 870 SATA SSD (used for media for editing current projects)

E: drive: 2TB Samsung 870 SATA SSD

F: drive: 6TB WD 7200 rpm Black HDD 3.5"

Dell Ultrasharp 32" 4K Color Calibrated Monitor

 

LAPTOP:

Dell Inspiron 5310 EVO 13.3"

i5-11320H CPU

C Drive: 1TB Corsair Gen4 NVMe M.2 2230 SSD (upgraded from the original 500 GB SSD)

Monitor is 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz

RogerS wrote on 1/22/2025, 5:35 AM

The files may be encoded as VP9 which is good for streaming but barely supported for editing. If it's AV1 it should open in VEGAS 22 (but may not be great for editing either).

Check with MediaInfo. https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-how-to-post-mediainfo-and-vegas-pro-file-properties--104561/

A workaround would be to convert them (some downloaders can do this). I use https://www.shutterencoder.com/ convert to output format h264.

Last changed by RogerS on 1/22/2025, 5:36 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Custom PC (2022) Intel i5-13600K with UHD 770 iGPU with latest driver, MSI z690 Tomahawk motherboard, 64GB Corsair DDR5 5200 ram, NVIDIA 2080 Super (8GB) with latest studio driver, 2TB Hynix P41 SSD and 2TB Samsung 980 Pro cache drive, Windows 11 Pro 64 bit https://pcpartpicker.com/b/rZ9NnQ

ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Intel i9-13900H with Intel graphics iGPU with latest ASUS driver, NVIDIA 4060 (8GB) with latest studio driver, 48GB system ram, Windows 11 Home, 1TB Samsung SSD.

VEGAS Pro 21.208
VEGAS Pro 22.239

Try the
VEGAS 4K "sample project" benchmark (works with VP 16+): https://forms.gle/ypyrrbUghEiaf2aC7
VEGAS Pro 20 "Ad" benchmark (works with VP 20+): https://forms.gle/eErJTR87K2bbJc4Q7

Kaptajnen wrote on 1/22/2025, 6:50 PM

Thank you both for the quick response.

I downloaded MediaInfo but I'm not really sure what all these values means but this here is the data on the file that wont open in Vegas
I don't believe I spot the numbers H.264 or H.265 anywhere tho.

General
Complete name                            : C:\Users\Anders\Desktop\examples\dFAISAKKC00jk5dP.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/iso4)
File size                                : 1.26 MiB
Duration                                 : 17 s 88 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 617 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 60.099 FPS
Encoded date                             : 2025-01-18 21:45:54 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-01-18 21:45:54 UTC

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 5 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 5 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 17 s 39 ms
Source duration                          : 2 s 746 ms
Bit rate                                 : 476 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 1 586 kb/s
Width                                    : 584 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.217
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 60.099 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.028
Stream size                              : 991 KiB (77%)
Source stream size                       : 991 KiB (77%)
Title                                    : Twitter-vork muxer
Writing library                          : x264 core 164 r3095 baee400
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=2 / psy=0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=3 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / stitchable=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=infinite / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=0 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=28.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=2048 / vbv_bufsize=2048 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=2:1.00
Tagged date                              : 2025-01-18 21:45:54 UTC
mdhd_Duration                            : 17039
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 17 s 88 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 128 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 131 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 267 KiB (21%)
Title                                    : Twitter-vork muxer
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1
Tagged date                              : 2025-01-18 21:45:54 UTC

 

 

And just for comparison.
If I put the file in the program HandBrake and press encode, I get this file which DO import into Vegas.
I'm not sure what makes it different tho.

 

General
Complete name                            : C:\Users\Anders\Desktop\Dfaisakkc00jk5dp.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID                                 : mp42 (mp42/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size                                : 959 KiB
Duration                                 : 17 s 88 ms
Overall bit rate                         : 460 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 24.298 FPS
Encoded date                             : 2025-01-23 00:21:47 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-01-23 00:21:47 UTC
Writing application                      : HandBrake 1.9.0 2024120100

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Main@L4
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 17 s 39 ms
Bit rate                                 : 450 kb/s
Width                                    : 584 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.217
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 24.298 FPS
Minimum frame rate                       : 15.025 FPS
Maximum frame rate                       : 30.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.066
Stream size                              : 937 KiB (98%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 164 r3186 585e0199
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=6 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=1 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=30 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=22.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=20000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date                             : 2025-01-23 00:21:47 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-01-23 00:21:47 UTC
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.601
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 17 s 88 ms
Source duration                          : 17 s 109 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 281 b/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 4.76 KiB (0%)
Source stream size                       : 4.77 KiB (0%)
Title                                    : Stereo / Stereo
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1
Encoded date                             : 2025-01-23 00:21:47 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-01-23 00:21:47 UTC

 

I will once again thank you both for taking the time to assist me here.
I'm not very tech savy and this has just been such an utter headache for me so I really appreciate you helping.

RogerS wrote on 1/22/2025, 7:24 PM

It's h264 (AVC). Are you able to change its settings?

Width                                    : 584 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 1.217

and an odd framerate. 60.099 FPS

This one in particular is strange: keyint=infinite
keyint= your framerate (60) would work a lot better.

Your Handbrake settings aren't good. The framerate is variable but should remain the same as the source. The keyint is also too high. Try starting with the "production standard" preset.

Kaptajnen wrote on 1/22/2025, 8:55 PM

I'm not really sure where to change it.
Also, where can you see that it's in the H264 format?

This is the kind of file I get when I try to download a Twitter video through this website
https://twittervideodownloader.com/

And I get the same issue when trying to download YouTube videos from this site
https://ssyoutube.com/en140yN/youtube-video-downloader

They never gave me any issues back in the day tho.

RogerS wrote on 1/22/2025, 9:26 PM

Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec

means h.264.

I don't really want to troubleshoot random downloader software. The software is a moving target and so is the source material online (which is often VP9 or AV1 these days).