Well, of course now that people are ready to look at the problem all the videos I drop now into the timeline play fine! I'll keep trying and post what you asked for when it fails again.

Bring up the Windows Task Manager and look at disk utilization. Windows gets busy with I/O sometimes, especially when updates are happening, virus scanning, disk indexing (turn it off, you don't need it). Agent Ransack is much better at finding what you want on a disk. This can be a nuisance if you're using slower spinning disks.

Ok, the juddering is back.

John, I thought you might be onto something with the slow drive suggestion since the source mp4 is on a 4TB USB drive. But moving the mp4 to the solid state C drive didn't fix it.

I've uploaded the media and project properties. I also uploaded the About Computer info.

.

Thanks for your help.

Instructions for providing MediaInfo (it's an app) and Vegas file properties are here. Unfortunately, your screen grabs provide none of the information needed to guide you to a solution.

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

Here info from MediaInfo. The File data seems to be that same info that' in the media_1, media_2, and media_3 images I sent previously, but let me know if I'm wrong.

General
Complete name                            : C:\VegasVid\MSB.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size                                : 28.2 MiB
Duration                                 : 5 min 3 s
Overall bit rate                         : 779 kb/s
Writing application                      : Lavf58.25.100

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3
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                                 : 5 min 3 s
Bit rate                                 : 645 kb/s
Width                                    : 404 pixels
Height                                   : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 0.561
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.074
Stream size                              : 23.3 MiB (83%)
Writing library                          : x264 core 157 r2935 545de2f
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / 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=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=23.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 5 min 3 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 128 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 24.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 23.438 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 4.64 MiB (16%)
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1

=======================

Your video has already been transcoded to x264 at 30.00 fps progressive, although it probably began life as 23.94i with soft telecine. If so, no encoder can unbake that cake.

Go back to your actual source (DVD?) and Vegas should handle it fine.

Post back with your findings.

I don't have access to the source. It's something I downloaded from the Internet. VLC Media Player plays it fine. Why can't Vegas handle it? I have access to ffmpeg. Is there some conversion in there I could run it through to make it play nicer with Vegas?

Thanks

I can't go into lengthy explanations because your video is a third generation download. I see these mismatched transcodes every week. The source may be copyrighted as well, which runs counter to our user policy. Good luck.