How do I edit both audio and video to the Timeline?

[DennisStauffer]

I have clips that were created in Adobe Premier Pro and exported as .mfx files. I can import them into Adobe Premier Pro and play them in the source monitor. However, when I try to drag them onto the timeline, only the audio track appears. No video appears in the timeline or program monitor. (Plenty of other clips from other sources are working fine.)

What am I doing wrong? How can I get these clips to play properly?

[R Neil Haugen]

The first thing to check on anything like this is of course to make sure your Source and Track targets are set. The Source targets are for coming onto the sequence, and the Track targets for moving things around within a sequence.

They're 'active' when blue, and not when background charcoal ... is the V1 Source target active on the far left of your header block, as in my image here?

Neil

[DennisStauffer]

Yes, that's fine. I have a sequence I'm working on, and everything else is fine. I can even drag new clips onto it and it's fine. It's just clips from this particular batch that I created previously that are not working, and not working only within this project. 

When I open a new project, I can import the problem clips there with no problem. I even tried exporting them again, but those exported clips behave in exactly the same way in this project.

You can see in the image here that the same clip that plays in the source monitor, only has an audio track in the timeline, and that's how it plays in the progam monitor.

I'm stumped!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hey there Dennis,

Sometimes, clips aren't automatically targeted in the Timeline when they are loaded into the Source Monitor for one reason or another (file that bug here). If that happens, just click the left V1 button in the Timeline header. It will turn blue and you'll be targeted. Then drag in (or Insert/Overwrite) the clip to the Timeline.

• Make sure you always are lit up V1 > V1 and A1 > A1, etc. before dragging any clips to the Timeline.
• In the order of editing operations, targeting always comes before editing clips into the timeline.
• It's very easy to forget this crucial step.
• See this FAQ.

Sorry for the frustration.

Thank You,

Kevin

[DennisStauffer]

V1 has been active throughout, as you can see from the image I sent.

I finally solved the problem by using raw footage. I have a collection of clips edited from that raw footage and they all appear only as audio in this project, even though all my other clips work fine. Even the problem clips work fine in a new project, These were clips that have been viewed through the VLC media player, and I haven't figured out how to break the default setting that created. My suspicion is that may somehow be the issue, but that's just a guess. The raw footage had not been viewed using VLC. So it did not have that default setting.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Actually, the image shows that V1 is not targeted as it's not lit up in blue. The right V1 control that is lit up is for selecting the track. The left V1 needs to be lit up too for targeting the track for an insert or overwrite edit (which you are doing by dragging).

Selecting the track is for other track oriented operations, like copy/paste. Targeting the track is expressly for editing a clip into the proper track. These buttons are for two different but related operations.

It's the same system in many other NLEs too, but people still commonly forget to target tracks before editing clips.

Kevin

[DennisStauffer]

OK, I've just completed an entire project without once doing that for any of the clips, but I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks.

[R Neil Haugen]

Delete all the Premiere cache/cache database files with Premiere closed and reboot and launch again. See if that does it, as you've got some busted metadata in the project.

Also delete the files from the project and re-import them as another possibility.

If nothing above works, create a new project file. From the Premiere Media Browser navigate to and select the previous project file and import the sequences.

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan]

I don't think that's necessary, Neil. I think he just needs to click the V1 button in the Timeline header. 

Thanks,
Kevin

[Ann Bens]