X4 - Clip transitions display incorrectly on export

[Shannon M]

Hi there,

I spent hours the other day putting together a memorial video for my cat who passed away recently, and was happy with how it looked within VideoStudio. But when I exported the video, I noticed there were a bunch of unwanted black frames in the space between certain clips. It's even worse on crossfades, where the screen flashes black multiple times. I uploaded a segment of the video to show exactly what I'm talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-u9bquxICI

0:04 the screen flashes black multiple times during a crossfade between two clips
0:10 there's a quick cut between clips here--for some reason this one looks fine
0:19 another quick cut, and this time, the screen flashes black during the cut

In the full video, it's more of the same, where certain cuts flash black and other ones appear fine. It seems almost random, because I can't figure out what's different about the transitions that work vs. the ones that don't. But it always happens in the same places every time I export, and regardless of what format or resolution I export to.

The original source videos for the cropped clips were all AVIs (recorded from a VADO HD camera, 1280 x 720, transferred via USB), which I now seem to remember hearing can be problematic in VideoStudio X4. If that is indeed the problem, is there any way for me to fix it without starting the whole editing process from scratch?

Or is there anything else that might be causing this to happen?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[lata]

Hi

Welcome to the forums

The transitions do look a little strange having the black frames???

If you remove all transitions from between the clips does that remove the black frames effect. Play the project from the timeline.
I was wondering if the actual video files has a few black frames at the ends, if so they would need removing, cutting out before applying a CrossFade

If you have used a transition called Fade to Black, would create a similar effect.

I cannot think of any other reasons without having a look at a short sample project, you would have to create a smart package to upload to a sharing site for us to download, you would not be able to attach to your post.

[Shannon M]

Hey, thanks for the response. I finally got around to exporting a smart package of the project file. I just left the first two clips and removed everything else in the project so that the filesize wouldn't get ridiculous:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/461 ... o_test.zip

Anyway, in answer to your questions, removing the transitions didn't seem to remove the black frames, and I don't think those black frames could have originated in the source video files themselves, since everything looks fine before exporting. The only transition I used was crossfade, and not fade to black.

I'm kind of wondering if this is just a bug in the software that can't be avoided.

[lata]

Hi

Thanks for the sample project.

The two video files are 2 minutes 3 seconds and 41 seconds respectively.
They both have black frames throughout the video, I don’t understand why that should be, but would cause the black blips you are seeing.

You have cropped your second clip at 16seconds 22 frames that shows the black frames.


There is no bug in the software, the problem is within your video files

[BrianCee]

Very strange because I cannot see any black lines around either of those videos - whether I play them in VideoStudio X7 - or Windows Media player.

Neither do I see anything wrong at all with the video on Youtube - except that the transition is so short that the screen just seems to flash

I opened the project file from the zip file in X7 and that to plays without any problems except for a quick blip between clips which is where there is a transition - a very very short transition - on checking I found that it was 9 frames - less than half a second !! - far to quick to see anything except a black flash - a crossfade needs to be a minimum of 1 second to see it's effect.

Video viewed in Windows Media player - no black lines or borders.

[lata]

Hi Brian

I am checking this using Video Studio X4 (as is Shannon M) there are quite a lot of black frames within the files.
I have now used X7 and that does indeed seem to be ok with no black frames showing.

So far I don’t have an explanation for that.

[BrianCee]

There are no black frames in Windows Media player either

[Shannon M]

Thanks for checking that out, guys.

BrianCee: By black frames, I was actually referring to the black flashes that you mentioned (by "frame", I meant the still images that make up the video file, not anything related to a border--sorry for any confusion). The weird thing about black flashes that you mentioned is that they don't happen within the project file itself in VideoStudio X4--they only appear after exporting. It is indeed a very short transition, but before export, there definitely weren't any black flashes, and I honestly thought it looked fine. In the YouTube video, there's also a quick black flash at 0:19 (which was also definitely not there before exporting), and that's a quick cut between clips that has no transition effect applied to it. In contrast, there's another quick cut at 0:10, which for some reason looks absolutely fine, even after exporting.

lata: How do you go about locating black frames in the source files? I've been checking sections of the video frame by frame (by manually advancing forward one frame at a time), and there's definitely a few black ones at the very beginnings of each of the source files, but those are cropped out in the project. When I view the videos frame by frame anywhere around the transitions (where the problem is occurring after export), I definitely don't see any black frames.

Did you happen to try exporting from VideoStudio X7? I still can't help but think that X4 might have a bug where the timing of the clips is slightly off when exporting (maybe due to a rounding error or something), and so gaps are created between certain clips, which would appear as blank (black) frames. If it is indeed a bug, I'm wondering if maybe the it was fixed in later versions of VideoStudio.

[lata]

Hi
Using X4
I expand the timeline to display the black frames but the view seems to change with different zooms, I can see black frames within the timelines. Interestingly the frames either side show ok in the timeline but black on the preview screen, if you get my drift?

From the sample VSP there are a few black frames at the beginning of the second clip, some hidden by the Crossfade transition, remove the transition and I can see the black frames that cause the black flash.

You have cropped the video clips to use a short section, so you have effectively cropped out the black frames from the rest of the clip.
Display the clip in full and there are a lot as image below, also notice the library clips as black?

Is it a bug? Certainly X4 displays the video differently to X7.
It also shows the video properties differently well at least the compression type, don’t know if that is significant.
I have tested the clips using both X5 and X6, same results as X4.
X7 is the only version that seems to handle the clips ok.

[canuck]

I know it is a simple question but ... how do you show each individual frame on the timeline for a clip?

[BrianCee]

Expand the timeline to it's maximum

[lata]

Expand the timeline to it's maximum

Then scroll the timeline frame by frame by nudging the digital click.

[canuck]

Simply expanding the timeline to its maximum did not work. I also had to set "Thumbnails Only" under Preferences/Clip Display Mode.

[Shannon M]

So I just wanted to mention here, in case anyone else runs into the same problem in the future, that upgrading to X7 ended up solving it entirely. This is the final exported version, and as you can see, the black flashes are completely gone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skhwtcdpFsw

Thanks for taking the time to help me troubleshoot the problem.