Vegas adds black frames between HDV clips at DVinfo.net

Richard Vaughan · June 28th, 2007, 01:18 PM

Recently I have been experimenting with how to get good SD downconverts from edited HD movies. I am still struggling with this issue in Premiere. Since I had a copy of Vegas Platinum I thought I'd see how well that does the job of downconverting; I would expect it to be an indicator of how well the full Vegas would do.

I had already captured some 55 short clips using HDVsplit. I opened a new Vegas project with properties derived from one of these clips, i.e., project settings for HDV. I imported all the clips and then placed them on the timeline in the desired order by double-clicking.

I find extra, blank (black) frames between each pair of clips on the timeline. In most cases there are two such frames. Sometimes there is a single blank frame followed by a repeat of the last frame in the preceding clip. This creates a noticeable black "flash" between clips rather than the usual jump. I would like to know what I may have done wrong to obtain this result.

Thanks,

R.L. Vaughan

Mike Kujbida · June 28th, 2007, 02:12 PM

You haven't done anything wrong.
Do a search of the Sony Vegas forum and you'll find a LOT of very upset users experiencing the exact same problem - with no real solution to be found :-(

Peter Wright · June 28th, 2007, 07:10 PM

Mike, the problem most of us have been having is with black frames in the MIDDLE of clips, not at the beginning or end.

It's a very strange situation, because although the black frames (always two of them) appear in Preview, the "missing" frames are clearly visible on the timeline thumbnails if you zoom in, and for many people it can be "cured" by setting dynamic ram to zero. I can also get rid of them by rendering those "black" frames to a new track, and they reappear.

This problem Richard has may or may not have a similar cause, but it sounds much more predictable being at the beginning and end of each clip, rather than maybe once or twice an hour at random points.

Richard, in case it makes a difference, you could try capturing a short sequence in Vegas instead of HDV Split.

Richard Vaughan · June 29th, 2007, 01:57 PM

Today I captured the whole 6 1/2 minutes of tape from which the 55 clips had come, using Vegas instead of HDVsplit. Then I imported these into a Vegas HDV project and isolated and moved some of them by splitting the timeline. Of course there were no black frames added between the clips that I did not rearrange -- as they were now all part of one big clip -- and I do not think there were any black frames added between the pieces that I moved around or anywhere in the middle, though I have not checked this in detail.

It would be nice to be able to use HDVsplit in the same manner as I have been using Scenalyzer -- to subdivide my video automatically into many small clips so I can locate cuts and add transitions if needed and so that I can make any color corrections or other adjustments which are usually associated with individual clips. But it seems there is something about clips from HDVsplit that causes Vegas to insert the black frames.

By the way, is there any mouse or keyboard trick in Vegas to move the cursor on the timeline to the beginning of the next clip?

Thanks

Richard Vaughan

Edward Troxel · June 29th, 2007, 02:08 PM

Quote:

By the way, is there any mouse or keyboard trick in Vegas to move the cursor on the timeline to the beginning of the next clip?

CTRL+ALT+Left/Right Arrow

Peter Wright · June 29th, 2007, 07:28 PM

Vegas HDV capture now includes the ability to split captures whenever the canmera was stopped/restarted. Look for "Scene Detection" in capture preferences.

Vegas often gives choices on how to do things - as well as the method Edward described, the [ and ] keys will take you backwards and forwards from clip to clip on a given track.

Danny Fye · July 3rd, 2007, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard Vaughan

I had already captured some 55 short clips using HDVsplit. I opened a new Vegas project with properties derived from one of these clips, i.e., project settings for HDV. I imported all the clips and then placed them on the timeline in the desired order by double-clicking.

I find extra, blank (black) frames between each pair of clips on the timeline. In most cases there are two such frames. Sometimes there is a single blank frame followed by a repeat of the last frame in the preceding clip. This creates a noticeable black "flash" between clips rather than the usual jump. I would like to know what I may have done wrong to obtain this result.

Thanks,

R.L. Vaughan

You can try my FS-4 solution to combine the clips so that there will not be a gap between the events.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=85791

Danny Fye
www.dannyfye.com
www.vidmus.com/scolvs

June 28th, 2007, 01:18 PM	#1
Richard Vaughan New Boot Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Highland Park, IL Posts: 12	Vegas adds black frames between HDV clips Recently I have been experimenting with how to get good SD downconverts from edited HD movies. I am still struggling with this issue in Premiere. Since I had a copy of Vegas Platinum I thought I'd see how well that does the job of downconverting; I would expect it to be an indicator of how well the full Vegas would do. I had already captured some 55 short clips using HDVsplit. I opened a new Vegas project with properties derived from one of these clips, i.e., project settings for HDV. I imported all the clips and then placed them on the timeline in the desired order by double-clicking. I find extra, blank (black) frames between each pair of clips on the timeline. In most cases there are two such frames. Sometimes there is a single blank frame followed by a repeat of the last frame in the preceding clip. This creates a noticeable black "flash" between clips rather than the usual jump. I would like to know what I may have done wrong to obtain this result. Thanks, R.L. Vaughan

June 29th, 2007, 01:57 PM	#4
Richard Vaughan New Boot Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Highland Park, IL Posts: 12	Vegas capture seems okay Today I captured the whole 6 1/2 minutes of tape from which the 55 clips had come, using Vegas instead of HDVsplit. Then I imported these into a Vegas HDV project and isolated and moved some of them by splitting the timeline. Of course there were no black frames added between the clips that I did not rearrange -- as they were now all part of one big clip -- and I do not think there were any black frames added between the pieces that I moved around or anywhere in the middle, though I have not checked this in detail. It would be nice to be able to use HDVsplit in the same manner as I have been using Scenalyzer -- to subdivide my video automatically into many small clips so I can locate cuts and add transitions if needed and so that I can make any color corrections or other adjustments which are usually associated with individual clips. But it seems there is something about clips from HDVsplit that causes Vegas to insert the black frames. By the way, is there any mouse or keyboard trick in Vegas to move the cursor on the timeline to the beginning of the next clip? Thanks Richard Vaughan

June 28th, 2007, 02:12 PM	#2
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	You haven't done anything wrong. Do a search of the Sony Vegas forum and you'll find a LOT of very upset users experiencing the exact same problem - with no real solution to be found :-(

June 28th, 2007, 07:10 PM	#3
Peter Wright Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 193	Mike, the problem most of us have been having is with black frames in the MIDDLE of clips, not at the beginning or end. It's a very strange situation, because although the black frames (always two of them) appear in Preview, the "missing" frames are clearly visible on the timeline thumbnails if you zoom in, and for many people it can be "cured" by setting dynamic ram to zero. I can also get rid of them by rendering those "black" frames to a new track, and they reappear. This problem Richard has may or may not have a similar cause, but it sounds much more predictable being at the beginning and end of each clip, rather than maybe once or twice an hour at random points. Richard, in case it makes a difference, you could try capturing a short sequence in Vegas instead of HDV Split.

June 29th, 2007, 07:28 PM	#6
Peter Wright Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 193	Vegas HDV capture now includes the ability to split captures whenever the canmera was stopped/restarted. Look for "Scene Detection" in capture preferences. Vegas often gives choices on how to do things - as well as the method Edward described, the [ and ] keys will take you backwards and forwards from clip to clip on a given track.