Help! 7.0e says all avi files are offline

Billy d wrote on 10/1/2007, 3:12 PM
Hi,
Just fired up Vegas 7 this morning and found all my projects with avi files show them as "Media Offline" on the timeline and "Stream Offline" in their properties.
My still photos show up correctly on the same video tracks - just the avi's don't.
What can I do?
I can't figure out how to get them back.
I tried clicking "Recapture all offline media" but no joy, I tried reloading them but no joy either.
They are physically there in the correct location and correctly viewable with VLC media player. (no oddball "hidden" atributes)
Vegas does not give any errors while starting up.
I've tried a couple of cold boots and even rolled back the new DivX codec I installed this week (6.7) to 6.6.

Comments

RalphM wrote on 10/1/2007, 6:38 PM
Have you tried searching for the media when the message "media offline" comes up? Are your media on an external drive? Sometimes the drive letter gets changed if you've changed the order you add external drives and you have to let Vegas find the drive.
bdg wrote on 10/1/2007, 6:48 PM
There's no message.
Vegas starts up fine with no errors. But all the avi files are "offline" - according to Vegas.
All the media is there, in good condition, on the same drive with the same drive letter.
I haven't changed the .veg
Vegas just can't find the attributes of all my avi files. It finds them for everything else (jpg, psd, png, wav etc.)
The avi files open and run fine in VLC media player so the files are not corrupt.
Former user wrote on 10/2/2007, 6:15 AM
You could try this.

Make a copy of your VEG file as a backup.

Rightclick on the AVIs in your Media Bin and then REMOVE from project.

Then when you re-run VEGAS and load the VEG, it should ask for replacement files.

Worth trying, but make a BACKUP before just in case.

Dave T2
MH_Stevens wrote on 10/2/2007, 11:48 AM
Discover just where your files are. You may have deleted or moved them.
bdg wrote on 10/2/2007, 11:58 AM
Didn't work, if I remove the files from the media bins I created Vegas still sees them in the "All Media" bin (as offline of course). If I remove them from the "All Media" bin then Vegas deletes them from the timeline.
Now when I reload the files vegas will put them in the bin I created as "Stream Offline" but will NOT let me put them on the timeline (Circle with the diagonal line).
The files are not lost or damaged or in the wrong subdirectory or in any other way missing or confused.
They are all perfectly visible (some have their archive attribute set) and they all play perfectly with VLC media player.
Udi wrote on 10/3/2007, 5:37 AM
Do you see them in the vegas explorer window?, can you play them from there?
Can you replace the file in the media bin, with the same file?
If you open a new project, can you use those files?

Udi
bdg wrote on 10/3/2007, 11:12 AM
Yes, they are in the explorer window.
No, I cannot play them from that window. When I click on them I get a line which says "Video: Stream attributes could not be determined" and selecting "Play Media" does nothing.
(For a bmp I get: "Still 640x360x24 Uncompressed" and the still "Plays" (shows up in the preview window).
wav files play correctly from explorer. *everything* plays correctly from explorer.
*Except avi's*

Yes I can replace the file in the media bin with the same file. No change, it is still "Stream Offline" in its properties and "Media Offline" on the timeline.

If I open a new project I get the same problem. Everything except avi's is OK. An avi loads into a media bin as "Stream Offline" but cannot be moved to the timeline.

Note: all these avi's work fine when played by VLC Media Player. Just fine.

I'm beginning to think it's time for a fresh reinstal of windoze after a nice half-day formatting the c drive. What a pain, a reinstal will take a week to get back all my programs, why can't Vegas work on a decent operating system like Linux?

Maybe I should ask tech support what's with the avi's, but I think they're real busy right now.
Udi wrote on 10/4/2007, 1:45 AM
It seems that the codec thayou use was removed.
You did mention an install/remove of some codecs, so the codec ued by those avi's was removed.
You can find what codec is used using GSpot or similar.
You will have to reisntall the codec, for some reason vegas "lost" the connection to that codec.

Udi
bdg wrote on 10/4/2007, 7:57 AM
Ah Ha!
Just installed Gspot, it tells me the codecs *are* installed, but this does seem like the most probable cause.
I'll try uninstalling all the DivX stuff this time before doing a reinstal of the slightly older 6.6 codec (which used to work fine).
Interesting bit of info on the Gspot site: VLC media player does not use the windoze codecs (its codecs are built in) - so that is why it works on my avi's right now and Vegas doesn't.
bdg wrote on 10/4/2007, 8:30 AM
Oh well, nice try. Didn't work.
After uninstalling the DivX codec and checking to see it was uninstalled after a cold boot Gspot *still* says the correct codecs are installed for my avi's.
So Gspot is no use here!
Then tried a reinstal of the DivX 6.6 codec but no good, vegas still says all my avi's are stream offline.

Got up early this morning thinking I was going to start a complete fresh reinstal of my operating system. Think I'll have breakfast first and then take a deep, long breath...
Thanks everyone for your help.
I'll let you know if the reinstal works when I finish in a few days time.
bdg wrote on 10/4/2007, 11:40 PM
Well that's the fastest reinstal of an operating system I've ever done. Less than a day.
*It worked*, my avi files are now visible in Vegas!
One thing for sure, I'm not going to use that DivX 6.7 codec again.
Alls I have to do now is reinstal all my other apps. That will take a few days.

Oh and the vegas: something like sql manager refused to instal.
Whatever.
I just hope everything else in vegas works and I can carry on creating stuff.