Selected Clips Do Not Appear in Preview Window

Funkenstien

Newbie Joined: Sep 09, 2015 17:39 Messages: 2 Offline

Solved by

Sep 09, 2015 18:17

Hello and thanks in advance for any help with this.

I just started using this program and have 4 video clips with audio loaded as media content and have all 4 as separate tracks in the timeline view. Here's the problem, and a most basic one at that. When I select any of these clips in the timeline view, the video WILL NOT appear in the preview window. The only video track that will appear in the preview window is the LAST track in the timeline view, I.E. track #4. No matter what I do, its always the last track. I can preview the videos in the media content window no problem.

I am in "Clip" mode. I have tried toggling the "automatically switch to movie mode" option in preferences, switching to a low resolution preview mode, disabling hardware decoding, and a few others i can't think of. I am in standard 2D preview. The bar line position display and the properties of the selected clip all correspond, but the actual video that displays in the panel is always the LAST TRACK in the project, not the selected clip. The videos are all H.264 AVC at 29.97. For the love of god there must be a reason for this.

My system info is in my signature.

Thank you. System Specs:
ASRock P67 Extreme4 MoBo
16GB Ram
Intel i5 CPU @ 3.30 Ghz
AMD Radeon HD 6800

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Sep 09, 2015 19:07

That would be correct. The window shows the preview of your composite video creation. Think of it as layers with the highest number track one top, in your case track 4. You can't see track 1-3 as 4 is on top. Shrink the size of video on track 4 and then you will see track 3 appearing on the composite display.

Jeff

PlaySound

Senior Contributor Joined: Dec 02, 2010 10:26 Messages: 2031 Offline

Sep 09, 2015 20:09

Watch with details here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Pr5PGpnT0

Tutorial title, Creating a Video Wall

more tutorials

http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/tutorial/pdr/

https://www.youtube.com/user/PDtoots/videos

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 09. 2015 20:33

AMD-FX 8350 / 8GB DDR3
SSD SUV400S37240G / 2-HD WD 1TB
AMD Radeon R9 270 / AOC M2470SWD
Windows 7-64 / PD16 Ultimate

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 09, 2015 20:20

Funkenstein, the next thing for you to do is decide on how you want all 4 clips to end up on one screen.

Are you going to use a split-screen with each video in one corner, or are you going to cut/fade/transition from one to another? Maybe the MultiCam Designer would be a good approach, as that makes it easy to choose one scene at a time from up to 4 synchronized clips.

As Jeff stated, what you currently have are 4 layers of video with only the video on Track 4 visible. The audio from all 4 tracks will be mixed together, but you'll need to start on the editing in order to show the content "underneath" Track 4.

There are many tutorials on YouTube and here on the forum that will help you make sense of how to work with multiple timeline tracks. Here's one *group* and here are even *more*

Try not to rush through the tutorials, as some aspects of editing may take a while before they click and you may even need to see the same idea in different places to really understand how it works. If you have other questions, the forum's always here

EDIT: Thanks PlaySound!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 09. 2015 20:22

Funkenstien

Newbie Joined: Sep 09, 2015 17:39 Messages: 2 Offline

Sep 09, 2015 21:49

OK well its good to know that nothing is wrong here. I am going to watch the tutorials but it fundamentally doesn't make sense to me why I can't switch to a mode where I can examine and edit individual clips without placing it into a "hiererchical" structure first. I mean, I get it but i thought that is what "clip" mode was for. If not, what is the difference between the two?

Optodata you are right about using the multicam feature, as these are 2 cameras capturing multiple performances, so I will be editing different takes with fade/transition from one to another. Unfortunately I didn't spring for that version and now i am kicking myself. It is difficult with musical edits as the audio timing is so critical...much more critical than the video timing.

Thank you all for the help! Much appreciated. System Specs:
ASRock P67 Extreme4 MoBo
16GB Ram
Intel i5 CPU @ 3.30 Ghz
AMD Radeon HD 6800

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 09, 2015 22:07

You should be able to highlight the clips in the main timeline, then click on the Sync by Audio button. You'll need to do the cuts manually, but you won't have to work so hard at syncing everything

Also, the difference between Clip and Movie mode is only related to previewing. In Clip mode, previewing stops when you reach the end of the selected clip, even if it's not at the end of the project.

In Movie mode, the preview keeps going for the entire project and then resets at the beginning. Mostly, you'd want to be in Movie mode so you can cross clip boundaries, and that's why there's a setting for that under Preferences.

Finally, the easiest way to see the "underneath" clips (on lower numbered tracks) is to uncheck the Enable/Disable Video box on the higher-numbered tracks. That disables them and lets the next-lower-numbered track, like this: