Video clips from Pixel 7 are audio only in VS

[fingerbreaker]

I'm having trouble working with some video clips taken with a Google Pixel 7. Sometimes they work fine but most of the time they show up as blank although the audio still works. When I render the project, the video is still not there (just a black screen). What causes this and how to fix?

Comparing properties to a working clip from my previous phone (a pixel 2) I see some differences whether or not they are relevant (see screen shot - left one is older file that works fine). Could these be causing the problem and if so is there a way to fix it so I can use these clips?

I'm using VS Ultimate 2020 23.3.0.646 64-bit on Windows 10 pro.

Thanks,
FB

[fingerbreaker]

Just noticed I cannot add effects filters to these clips either. Get a ghostbusters circle when I try. The videos play fine outside of VS (windows media player).

[lata]

You do not give any details of your video, what type of video, mts, wmv, mov, mpeg?
There is no screen shot attached to your post.
Are you able to provide a sample for the guys to test.

[fingerbreaker]

Sorry I guess the attachment didn't work. I will try attaching it again.

These are mp4 files. Here is a link to one example:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MxVi7- ... share_link

In addition to restarting and such, I did some fiddling earlier and all of a sudden they all showed up properly. But since then I saved, closed and reopened and many are blank again.

Thanks,
FB

[fingerbreaker]

Many of them have a TS file extension but not all, so it doesn't look like that is the problem. But if that could be problematic, should I do something with the TS files to make them more palatable? THey are still mp4's but like filename.TS.mp4.

[fingerbreaker]

If I try to drag the clip into the library, it says something like "file content not readable" but still puts a (blank) thumbnail there. If I exit VS and start a new project, import one of the files, it comes in fine. THen I opened the other project and all the files are there working normally now. I think that's more of a workaround than a fix because I'm sure they will disappear (i.e. become unreadable)
again as they did before.

Thanks,
FB

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for that sample. I see it uses a variable frame rate, which VS does not like. And you are using version 2020 which did not like variable frame rate at all, often not being able to read them. So that just might explain the problem you are having with TS clips. Can you make one of those available to try out.

More recent versions of VS are slightly more forgiving with some variable frame rate videos, and might play them when the frame rate is close to a standard international frame rate. The sample you gave us is pretty close, and I have no trouble with it at all in VS 2022.

What we usually tell users having trouble with variable frame rate video is to put the TS video in particular through a third party video conversion program, like the freeware Handbrake some of us here use. It would be set to produce new .mp4 with very similar properties but using an international standard frame rate which in this case would be 29.97 frames per second (rounded up to 30) fps or 59.94/60 fps. After doing that, VS should not have trouble with the video.

The other thing you might need to do is to look at the settings of your Pixel smartphone camera and see if it can be set to a fixed frame rate which moreover always produces clips with the .mp4 extension.

[fingerbreaker]

Okay thank you I will try that. I already do the 3rd party conversion thing for quicktime files so just need to add these to the list.

Muchos gracias,
FB

[Ken Berry]

There should be no reason to convert the Quicktime .mov clips if you have the QT codec installed. Do you know if you have it? If not, it is easy enough to install just the codec. Have a look at https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?p=396782#p396782

[lata]

TS video, Transport Stream could be using Mpeg2 codec, of course may use MP4 codec.
The files extension would be VideoName.TS
You show using .TS.MP4, I do not think that would work to well giving a File Format Mismatch
If you are having issues inserting .TS video you could try renaming to use .M2T

As Ken asks, can you make a copy of the .TS video available.
The next time you get a failure to import or the video is black, can you share that file.