Sony Vegas Pro 10 is an editing platform used by thousands, and of course you’re going to run into some problems when you first start editing with Sony Vegas. Whether you’re a beginner who is just getting to learn the basics of editing, or you’re moving over from a different editing program.
In today’s post I’ll be covering 3 very common problems that I get asked about daily…
FAQ # 1: When I save my video, I can’t open it to play or upload it to any sites.
This is such a common problem, everyone who has just started out as a beginner with editing will probably encounter this problem. When you go to File > Save as in Sony Vegas, this enables you to save your video project as a .veg file. A .veg file is a Sony Vegas Project file, meaning that if you save your project, you can come back and work on it another time without losing any of your work. A .veg file cannot be played back outside Vegas, it cannot be uploaded or converted.
To playback your file outside of Vegas, upload it to any video streaming sites or display it on your HDTV, you need to Render your video. Rendering is the process by which Vegas will create your video file into a playable format, for example .wmv (Windows Media Video) . The rendering process is not instant, and may take several hours to complete depending on the length of your project and how powerful your computer is. To render, you need to go to File > Render As… . (Learn how to render your video in 720p HD)
FAQ # 2: When I render my video, it is not rendering the full video / it only renders a black screen / the video is longer than it should be.
This is also another very common problem. In Sony Vegas, there is a tool called the “loop region”. If you double click on a clip in your project, you’ll see that above the video tracks, a grey bar appears with a little yellow triangle at each end. This is the loop region. This tool is used for selecting only portions of your project for playback / rendering. This can cause your video project to only render small clips of your video, only render a black screen for a few seconds or render a black screen at the end of your project.
To avoid these problems, the simple solution is when rendering, (File > Render As…), in the Render As.. box, there will be several options at the bottom of the box, with areas to tick/untick. One of the options will be, “Render loop region only” . If you untick this box, your video will render to your last clip and stop there. If you leave it ticked, it will only render the area on your video where the loop region is. (If this option is greyed out, it means that the loop region has not been applied on your project.)
FAQ # 3: I accidentally removed one of the windows in Sony Vegas. How can I get it back?
Yet again, another very common problem. If you accidentally click the X on one of your windows in Sony Vegas (e.g. – Preview Window, Transitions, etc) it will disappear from site. To get your window back, as simple as it sounds, go to the View drop down menu at the top left of the Sony Vegas window, and on the drop down you will see a huge list of the windows open/not open in Vegas. Simply click one to make it appear/disappear.
If you have a window ticked, yet you can see it on screen, make sure to minimize and maximize different windows in Vegas, as it could be hidden inbetween two windows, so click and drag the edges to look for a hidden window. ALSO, one common problem with this is that people drag the window down below the Windows toolbar, and then cannot find it. To make sure/To retrieve your window from behind the windows toolbar, right click on your windows toolbar, go into Properties, and then click Auto-Hide Taskbar. If your Sony Vegas window is hiding down there, you should now find it.