Im new, obviously. I have a question. I go to play back my clips on Vegas, and a box comes up. It reads as follows:

"An Error occurred while starting Playback. The device specified is in use."

Then there's an OK button and Details button. The OK botton does nothing, and the Details button says as follows:

"The playback device Microsoft Sound Mapper does not exist."

Now, what do I do? I have Direct X 9 or 8, one of them. I also think I have Windows Media Player 10. The clips work outside of Vegas so I am confused... Any help would be appreciated.

This guy had a similar problem not too long ago:

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=5483

What codec do these clips use?

Ummmm...Im not sure. I looked there, and it didnt help me much.

Im sorry I forgot to put this in my first post but What is a Codec anyway?

A codec is the compression format for a Clip.

If you are using firewire to capture clips from a DV camera, DV25 is the codec that all Mini-DV Cameras use to acquire footage onto tape, and then when you download those clips via firewire into Vegas, Vegas pulls that same data off the tape in DV25, so you have a DV25 clip. If then, you save that file to Windows Media Video, it is now in WMP codec. If you save that clip (Render) to DIVX it is now in a DIVX codec. If you use quicktime, there are a plethora of codecs like Sorenson or Mpeg-4 which will compress your video and audio and allow you to play in Quicktime. Audio is the same way. Mp3 is a codec, so is Windows Media Audio. You really need to have a firm grasp on what Codecs are as a fundamental step to understanding how to make good movies with Vegas. If you use the help file in Vegas and look up Codec it should explain this in more detail.

Conversely you can convert all clips - video and audio or just video or just audio to UNCOMPRESSED format, which saves the file as UNCOMPRESSED WAV or AVI. This means no codec is used, it save the footage in as high of possible editable way as possible. This is better than using the compressed codec to do your editing by all ways, the major downside is to convert all of your footage takes very little time but much, much much more space on your harddrive.

There is apparently some type of a problem using WMP codec clips on the timeline in Vegas, although I have never encountered this.

IF you are using just the raw DV25 stuff captured straight from your camera there is probably a different issue at work.

Somehow your clips inside of Vegas are having an issue with your hardware. It might be the sound card drivers themselves, the settings you have in Vegas for sound, or the DirectX installation or even the codec you might be using to render with.

Where are you getting your footage from?
Also need to KNOW if you've installed WMP10 and which version of DirectX you have... Not that you "might" have it... need to know it.

Codec is what is used to compress the video footage.

Did you create the footage yourself? If so, how?

I think Im miss understood. Im using clips I downloaded off of the computer. So all that is messed up. And I use Windows Media Player, and I think I have 9 because I can't seem to get 10 but i'll try again. So what do I do?

I've got Direct X 8. And Im downloading WMP 10 now.

See if you have downloaded these clips off the internet, they are probably in one of those compresed internet codecs like Windows Media or QUicktime. When you look at the file on your harddrive, what is the extension? .wmv ? .asf ? .mov ?

If you started to install WMP10 or are using WMP10 clips and only have WMP9 installed, Vegas may be having a fit with it. First find out what the extention of the file is.

They've all got differant extentions, because I downloaded them from Ares. Here is what I found:

MPEG
AVI
QTIME
CVID
AVICVID
WMV
ASF
MOV


so...also, im trying to download WMP 10...

load each one individually into Vegas... Then play... See if they ALL give the error or a certain one.

I've seen .MOV but not .QTIME ? strange

OK try this:

Try to load each one individually into a new project and see if it plays. It might just be one particular codec that is a problem.

Lol Coot... you know what they say about minds that think alike...

damn! and at the same time too!

When i load them up on Ares they all turn into .WMV

what is "Load them up on Ares" mean? What's Ares?

CoDec is short for Compressor/Decompressor.

It's the specific way in which the audio and video are encoded.

File-types such as .mov and .wmv are "wrappers" that hold all the bits & pieces that comprise the file together. A video file that ends in .mov could have any one of dozens of CoDecs used within it for that clip; one for audio, and another for video.

Many of the most common CoDecs are included with the media player's basic install. These tend to be automatically picked up by your NLE and are usable. However, sometimes you'll come across CoDecs that are not on your computer, and you have to find them... if you know what they are.

Additionally, there are some CoDecs that are freely available to use in media players, but require propietary software to purchase to actually function in an NLE. Panasonic's MPEG converter is one such product. Anyone can view MPEG... but if you want to use this specific Panasonic CoDec in Adobe, for example, you have to cough up some dollars.

If you view the "Properties" of a clip in Advanced, it will tell you a lot more about the actual video clip you are using. Frame rate, datastream size and which specific CoDecs were used.

Are you trying to load various clips of differing type into the same Vegas project?

It's really easy actually. It's the program. I can hit pause, with nothing on the project and it happen. I can have just audio and it do it. And, no they all turn to .WMV when I start Vegas. Where can I download Codecs, and everything works, it just happens when i want to play it back, like they load up on Vegas, but It won't play back, and the message that comes up is what i putn in my first pose. Also, I used to have Vegas and it worked. Then it stopped working and I hit repair. And when I did that it worked (came up) and now this is happening.

What's Ares?

Peer-to-Peer file transfer network

Oh damn... NEVER use PEER-TO-PEER... bad juju!

I suppose you got Vegas from Ares?

I would say to re-install it but if you pirated it, you have a bad copy or maybe even a virus.

Especially using P2P... That's the script kiddie world of hacking. That's their testing ground.

I have new news. Im screwed. This involves Windows Media Player 10. It extracts and all and then this box coems up saying that a setup is already running and it can not run another one. However, there isn't another oen being set up.

Oh, I never downloaded Vegas from there. I got the free trial, and then a bud gave me the code, so now I have it forever. I simply download my clips from there, and it seems to work for everybody else.

Ok we're getting off the track here. First, fire up Vegas and find out which clip it is that is giving you problems.

2) do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to see if there is any other setup program running. Try rebooting and trying again. Try going into safe mode and trying again.

If none of that works check the system for spyware and viruses. You may have something running in the bg that is screwing your whole system.

'hmmm... Very interesting... What OS are you using? Have you downloaded any service packs or windows updated?
What's your video card?

Im not sure about the video card. I have service Pack 1 and have XP.

Well some good news. I checked for spyware and had a bunch. I deleted it. Then i tried downloading Windows Media Player again, and it's installing so after it's done and I have these Codecs I'll try Vegas and see what it does. In the meantime can somebody tell me what a Microsoft Sound Mapper is?

I've gotten WMP10 downloaded, but Vegas still needs the Microsoft Sound Mapper..what is a Microsoft Sound Mapper?

OK this is the last time I will ask you to do this.

Take 1 clip, note what file extention it is, and load it into a new project, see if it plays.

Find out if it is just one type of codec clip that wont play or if it is all of them.

Microsoft Sound Mapper controls the sound from the software to the hardware.

Vegas is loading now for what you said, Wideshot. Where can I download Microsoft Sound Mapper?

I just checked, and it does it with all of the Codecs, and it says I need Microsoft Sound Mapper.

OK now that explains a lot. It says that the problem is not necessarily having to do with WMP or any of the codecs themselves, but instead probably a hardware issue with your drivers or a Vegas problem.

OK FYI Microsoft Sound Mapper is a built in feature of windows. I dont believe it ever needs to be replaced, only that there are occasionally problems with it.

Try going in Vegas to OPTIONS > Preferences > Audio Device Type and changing the Audi Device Type to "Windows Classic Wave driver" and click OK see if that changes it.

lol. Now theres a new problem. A box comes up and reads:

"An Error Occurred while starting playback. An Unsupported media type was requested.

I click on details...

"The playback device Modem #0 Line Playback does not support the current output format.
The playback device Modem #0 Line Playback does not exist."

Sounds like there is a hardware problem.. when was the last time you defragged your drive?
Have you checked your system settings to see if there are any conflicts?

Have you installed any new hardware or software in the machine?

Let us know.

I installed Ad-Aware and thats it. How can I check and what does defragging have anything to do with it?

I also have the same problem with sony vegas 6, the message 'The playback device Microsoft Sound Mapper does not exist' only occurs when i move the the time ruler!! Is there another audio recording device besides the Microsoft Sound Mapper which i could download to hopefully fix this problem???

Any info regarding this problem would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Go

Options---->Preferences---->Audio Device Type---->and change it from Sound Mapper to something else.
I changed mine to ASIO and it works fine.