Why does my video Clip get shorter when I slow down the playback rate?

[Jeff Wisener]

I am using Vegas 9.0 Platinum. When I go into properties of a video clip, change the playback rate from lets say the default of 1.0 to lets say .5 the end of the video clip gets cut off. Why does this happen and is there a way to prevent the clipping from occurring and still get the slow motion I desire?

For the record I am dealing with really short clips of surfing, lets say 10 seconds or less. When you slow down the playback rate/slow motion it looks fantastic. The problem I am having is the end of the ride is cut off if I do it. In the future I could just record longer so if clipping occurred it would not have the undesired effect. Better yet, if someone has a way of preventing the clipping that would be even better.

Thanks!

[Mike Kujbida]

Jeff, it sounds like you're forgetting to stretch the modified event (what Vegas calls a clip) out to compensate for the new longer length.

[Ian Stark]

To add to Mike's advice, I don't recall if this was a function in Vegas 9 but in later releases you can also CTRL-click the right side of the clip, drag to the right (to stretch to a max of 0.25x playback) or to the left (to shorten to a max of 4.0x playback). It not as accurate as typing a specific rate in the clip's properties but it's a great way to stretch or shrink a clip so it fits into a specific gap on your timeline.

[Edward Troxel]

In short, you changed the speed of the clip but you did not change the length of the clip to match that new speed. That is a separate step unless you use the CTRL-drag mentioned above or use a script that will do both for you at the same time (such as Excalibur).
http://www.jetdv.com/excalibur