Video Clips Altered

[Zelenabel]

Hello, I was in the process of editing multiple video clips (using the timeline view). Corel crashed at some point and closed itself, and when I reopened the saved file (I save my work about every 5 minutes, so I just was going to start back at the last copy I had); and when I opened it, everything in that file was different. There are gaps in the timeline that weren't ever there. And when I go to watch most of the clips, it is now either completely a still photo of the part of the clip, or has a couple seconds of video, and then just a still. The clips at the bottom in the timeline view usually have a solid green color to them (besides a preview image); but the ones with stills now are a bluish color. Trying to figure out what exactly happened, and if there was a way to easily fix it, since it seems to have affected the entire project.

Thank You

[cybernick]

Please provide more info like:
- I assume you use VS 2021 Ultimate as it is in your profile
- What is the video format you edit (source files)
- What are the project specs
- Do you have HW acceleration enabled ( Vnvidia, AMD or INTEL ?)
- K-lite installation. I would strongly suggest to install the mega pack of k-lite
- Have you enabled smart proxy?

[Zelenabel]

Yes, it is VS 2021 Ultimate. My files are MPEG-4 Files. Not sure what you mean by project specs. I did enable smart proxy. I included an attachment that shows the timeline. One of the questions I had was why the timeline files that were video clips that got somehow got switched to still images are now that blue color. You can see some of them are still the normal green color, and are still video clips. I didn't know if there was a way to switch a bunch of clips in the timeline from video to still images? They were all video clips before the program crashed, and are mostly now still images.

2021-04-14.png

Thanks

[Ken Berry]

A couple of comments. First, 'project specs' or project properties are what govern the editing process and often also the rendering process. You will find them under Settings > Project Properties.

Second, your timeline. I too am not sure what that blue represents as I haven't seen it before. Could you please switch what you see in the timeline to show only the thumbails in the timeline and none of those colours. Go to Settings again, and at the top of the drop down menu you will see Preferences. Open that and on the first tab (General), go to Clip Display Mode and select Thumbnail only.

Now what do you see in the timeline where the blue used to be? Have you actually tried playing those clips in VS the way they are now? Select the clip by left clicking within it and then -- it will then be surrounded by a thin yellow line. Then press the Play button under the preview screen. What happens? Do you only get a still image on screen or do you get video?

[Zelenabel]

Thank you for such a quick response! I have used VS since 2016 and had never seen the tiles on the timeline view switch to blue before; nor have I ever had video files just auto-switch to stills lol. I included the screen shot of the project properties, as well as a screen shot of what the timeline looks like after switching to 'thumbnails only'. When trying to play back, they are still just still images.

2021-04-14 (1).png

2021-04-14 (2).png

[Ken Berry]

The originals of those blue video/images should still be on your computer where you originally stored them. Editing is virtual, so the originals are untouched. The thumbnails in your library window should also be linked to the originals, so I would have thought simply dragging the thumbnail from the library into the timeline after you have deleted the blue bits, should reinstall the originals. Otherwise, go to where the originals are stored and copy and paste them into the timeline in place of those blue bits.

Otherwise I'm afraid I can't really help as I can't say I have ever seen this happen to another user...

[lata]

Is it possible that you have changed the length of the clips by dragging the ends of the clips, the yellow trim handles.
If we drag beyond the actual length of the clip the program will add duplicate frames which will appear to be an image.

I am not on my pc at the moment, also a little late in the day, I will check this out later to see if the above changes the colour to blue.
Ken can you give this a test, simply drag the end of a clip to the right. Switch view to file name instead of thumbnail
Of course it could be something different

[Zelenabel]

Hello,

The clips are still substantially shorter than the original videos. I did play around with it to see if it would change things anyways, and it just changes the length of the still image. I played around with a new project, and yes, dragging beyond the actual length of the clip does cause part of it to be blue. It almost appears as though that happened with each individual clip, and somehow on each one, the front part deleted/dragged to the right, so there's no video. This happened after VS closed unexpectedly, and when I reopened the project, this is how it was. Is it possible that a bunch of random occurrences happened as it shut itself improperly causing this to happen?

[Zelenabel]

There were also a lot of 'gaps' between trimmed videos in the timeline view, when originally, there were not gaps between video at all. Whole thing just seemed odd to me. In the end, if it's not fixable (restoring the still images back to their original video clips), I do still have the original files like Ken mentioned; so I may just have to start over.

[Davidk]

Just a brief experiment on a PC with no apparent CVS issues, 2021 ultimate only version installed, 24.0.1.260:
- opened to the UI in a fresh session
- dragged the lake sample from the library to the timeline
- selected the clip, and dragged the length beyond it's nominal length: the extended length shows as blue. Screenshot

CVS 2021 extended clip in blue.jpg

Playing the extended clip just shows the last frame repeatedly when the timeline marker moves into the blue zone.
Yet in the vsp, a clip is defined in part by it's start time and duration, as original or edited. Using the filename only approach would give those gaps, because of the way the vsp specifies the clip (file stored at location x starts at time z and plays for duration y), and since 2019 VS has allowed gaps in the TL.
So what might have happened is that clips are being displayed at the relevant start time, just the first frame (which would look like a still photo) even tho the overall effect is a clip thumbnail with the remainder of the clip duration as blue.

Is there any control/effect etc which would cause just the 1st frame of any TL clip to be displayed??? Alternatively, if the crash has corrupted the code somehow and a replacement project still shows this issue, a big bug report and a re-install probably necessary.

[lata]

J a big bug report and a re-install probably necessary.

David
Already discussed on the General forums and a bug report 0605 created some 5 months ago, that is before the release date
David appreciate a comment there.
The problem of adding duplicate frames when dragging the clips trim bars appears to be associated with the newer tools Slip, Stretch, Roll and Slide. It is as though the curser is using the Slip option by default, Also sets the same at the beginning of a clip. Selecting the Slip option shows no change in the cursor shape as though it is already selected.

Zelenabel
Although we know that the additional frames / images can be set to the end of the video clip by dragging the trim handles I do not understand why this would happen automatically, nor why you appear to have unexplained gaps in the timeline that somehow seem to have been filled by the duplicate frames. Certainly not experienced anything like that.

Gaps within the timelines are created by us, I do not know of a way that the program automatically creates gaps
You provided a screen shot of the project containing gaps, are there any additional frames within that project, switch to File Names Only to view the blue areas or not, if no extra frames
Go to File Save As to save a copy.

From one of your projects, right click the timelines for “Remove All Gaps”
If there are blue areas then each clip will need resizing / trimming to remove the extra duplicated frames. Then Remove Gaps

The quickest way for me is to use the white bar below the preview screen to adjust the Trim Markers
With the clip selected, drag the appropriate trim marker to remove the frames, this will also remove the blue and some video frames, simply drag the marker back to the end to replace the video frames.

[Zelenabel]

Thank you to everyone for the help.

Trevor,
I will probably just have to start back over from scratch, because the clips in the timeline are not even remotely correct. Some clips were completely replaced by just a still photo of part of that clip, (so it's not just the video clip with a still photo on the end that I can just trim off, but only a still photo), and other clips DO have video with the still photo at the end, but it's just a couple of seconds of the original, longer clip, not the entire video clip.

I figured I'd be starting over anyways; but was more looking into the reasoning of the whole thing going crazy, so I can avoid it in the future. I've used Video Studio since 2016, and have had it crash on me many times before, but never had anything remotely similar to this happening. If I had kids I would have thought one came and messed with a bunch of stuff on the timeline, saved it, then closed the program, but I do not, so alas, I will never know lol.

Thank you again!

[lata]

Is it possible that you can share your project with us.
You would have to upload the mp4 video files along with the .vsp project files.
Google drive, dropbox etc. could be used
There is an option to create a smart package using Video Studio although the sizes may limit what can be uploaded.

If you do not wish to share your video files can you give us a copy of the vsp files
One showing the gaps and the other showing the blue segments
I would try to replace your video clips with my own samples.

Very strange indeed what happened to your project and if possible identify the reason.
You can zip the vsp files then attach to your post.

[Zelenabel]

I would definitely be willing to share everything; but would have no idea on how to go about it lol. If it's worth the time explaining the best way to do it for me, I would be happy to follow. But if it's too much, I totally understand.

[lata]

I appreciate the positive response

First create a Smart Package, Open the project then go to File – Smart Package
Follow the instructions there, it will copy the content of the project saving it to a new folder along with a vsp file.

Check the size of that folder In Gb that will give us an idea as to uploading the file to a sharing site.

If you do not use a sharing site Google Drive, One Drive etc then I may be able to provide you with a link.

The actual VSP files could be attached to your post here, providing you either Zip the file or rename to use TXT as its extension, the forum does not allow us to attach VSP’s