Video goes black during rendering-pulling hair out

Melanie wrote on 9/1/2009, 9:10 PM
In the middle of the rendering process my video preview goes to a black screen. I still get audio, but no video. When it is done rendering my video timeline goes red. I have tried numerous times, read every possible thread and I'm ready to throw the software out the window. I have 'rendered as' MPEG-2 and AC-3, I have tried "Make Movie", nothing works. Please help!

Comments

wjsd wrote on 9/1/2009, 10:55 PM
What do you get at the end of your process? A video file? A dialog? Anything?

There is no audio output during the rendering process. So what is it that you are actually doing?

Often when rendering on my system the cursor gets ahead of itself. It moves to the end of the video and shows a black screen even though the rendering process is still running. However, because the rendering process does not happen in real time I expect no audio. I don't care if I see the preview while rendering.

I've seen red preview screens before, but in the screen capture program -- not in Vegas itself.

It would help if you could include a screen capture of what you're seeing. Also, do you have a new, fast machine or an older, slower one? And what version of Vegas are you using? Could you fill out your system info on the Forum Settings page so we see what you're working with?.
Melanie wrote on 9/2/2009, 4:57 AM
At the end I get a video file which opens in DVD Architect, but half way through the video goes blank, just as in the rendering process.
I have a pretty new, very fast PC.
I have screen captures, where do I send them?
I'm using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8
mike_in_ky wrote on 9/2/2009, 5:53 AM
Melanie...

When you preview the video in the Preview window, what do you see when it gets to the same point in the rendering process where you see the black screen? If you see the same thing in preview, perhaps you have some video effect or transition causing the problem at that particular point on the time line. If you do see the same thing in preview, perhaps at the point where the problems starts you could try deleting some things to find out the culprit.

Another thing you could try is to open a second instance of VMS and then copy to the clipboard video and audio from the first instance of VMS and paste it to the second instance of VMS one at a time until things work properly. Occasionally, there's a glitch in editing work that I will catch as I copy and paste and it solves my problem.

mike_in_nc
Eugenia wrote on 9/2/2009, 11:38 AM
Do you use any plugins? Some clips will go black if the plugin can't support them well (e.g. some plugins don't work in some resolutions).
gogiants wrote on 9/2/2009, 4:13 PM
One theory: You have a gap in your video timeline that is small. Sometimes a space of a few frames can be "invisible" if you are zooming way out. Try zooming in very close and see if there is a gap.

Also, I'm not sure I understand where you are seeing the black. If you are only seeing it in previews and in DVD Architect, there may not be an issue. I'd suggest rendering out to a video file and playing it back in your media player of choice directly on your PC without going to DVD Architect. Does the black space appear?
Melanie wrote on 9/2/2009, 4:52 PM
The preview screen goes black at some random point while rendering, it's never the same point, but it is close each time. I removed all transitions, text, markers.... anything I thought may be causing an issue. I tried copy/paste, I also started over from scratch a couple of times. Weird thing... Movie Maker will do it... cheap/free Movie Maker...go figure!
Maybe I'm out of luck and have wasted my money... again.
I haven't added any plugins either.
mike_in_ky wrote on 9/2/2009, 8:07 PM
Melanie...

What are the specifics for the files of the raw video footage that were used in your project?

mike_in_nc
gogiants wrote on 9/3/2009, 11:45 AM
Apologies if I missed this in an earlier post, but do the black frames show up in the final rendered product when replayed in a media player on your PC?
Melanie wrote on 9/3/2009, 4:18 PM
The files are either .avi or .mpg and range from 1.5g to 3g. I clipped them down to run just under 120 minutes (about 4g) when I added them to my project.

I decided to take one of my video files (avi 1.5g) and cut it down to just 15 minute intervals and render just those 15 minutes. It worked, but I'm not happy with that. I expected this software to be more advanced than that.

So do you think it just can't handle the larger files?

General
Name: Video 1.a.avi
Folder: G:\My Videos\VHS-DVD_Project
Type: Video for Windows
Size: 1.55 GB (1,587,001,856 bytes)
Created: Saturday, October 07, 2006, 12:04:31 AM
Modified: Monday, October 02, 2006, 8:29:32 PM
Accessed: Thursday, September 03, 2009, 5:53:19 PM
Attributes:

Streams
Video: 00:40:47.979, 29.970 fps, 352x240x24, Sony Motion JPEG
Audio: 00:40:47.960, 48,000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo, Uncompressed

ACID information
ACID chunk: no
Stretch chunk: no
Stretch list: no
Stretch info2: no
Beat markers: no
Detected beats: no

Other metadata
Regions/markers: no
Command markers: no

Media manager
Media tags: no

Plug-In
Name: aviplug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\aviplug
Format: Video for Windows
Version: Version 1.2 (Build 7339)
Company: Sony Creative Software Inc

Melanie wrote on 9/3/2009, 4:19 PM
No, the final render goes black after about 15-ish minutes. Audio is still there though.