Video Studio: video backgrounds remain black in preview and exported MP4

[cichy20002-lang]

Hi! I’m seeing a reproducible issue with video backgrounds in Video Studio on Windows.

Problem

Video backgrounds do not display. The canvas/background remains black even with background dimming set to 0%.

Tested

• Pexels photos work correctly.
• Pexels videos can be selected and the UI indicates that the video is loaded, but the background remains black.
• A local MP4 uploaded from the computer also results in a black background.
• The issue is present both in the Video Studio preview and in the final rendered MP4.
• Rendering/FFmpeg itself completes and produces an MP4, but the selected video background is missing/black.

Troubleshooting already done

• Updated ACE-Step-Studio using update.bat to the current code available through the updater.
• Restarted Studio after the update.
• Tested background dimming at 0%.
• Tested both Pexels video and local MP4, so this does not appear to be only a Pexels API/CORS issue.

Expected behavior

The selected/uploaded video should be visible as the animated background in both preview and exported MP4.

Actual behavior

Video background remains black in both preview and export, while image backgrounds work.

Environment: Windows 10, Chrome, local ACE-Step-Studio installation.

Thanks!

[LIQUIDMIND111]

Hi! I’m seeing a reproducible issue with video backgrounds in Video Studio on Windows.

Problem

Video backgrounds do not display. The canvas/background remains black even with background dimming set to 0%.

Tested

• Pexels photos work correctly.
• Pexels videos can be selected and the UI indicates that the video is loaded, but the background remains black.
• A local MP4 uploaded from the computer also results in a black background.
• The issue is present both in the Video Studio preview and in the final rendered MP4.
• Rendering/FFmpeg itself completes and produces an MP4, but the selected video background is missing/black.

Troubleshooting already done

• Updated ACE-Step-Studio using update.bat to the current code available through the updater.
• Restarted Studio after the update.
• Tested background dimming at 0%.
• Tested both Pexels video and local MP4, so this does not appear to be only a Pexels API/CORS issue.

Expected behavior

The selected/uploaded video should be visible as the animated background in both preview and exported MP4.

Actual behavior

Video background remains black in both preview and export, while image backgrounds work.

Environment: Windows 10, Chrome, local ACE-Step-Studio installation.

Thanks!

i get this error when making a video

@timoncool

[Render] Session started: render_1787633363316_tn5kcq
[Render] Encoding 13770 frames, nvenc: true
[Render] ffmpeg -framerate 30 -i F:\ace-step-studio\ACE-Step-Studio\app\server\tmp\render_1787633363316_tn5kcq\frame%06d.jpg -i F:\ace-step-studio\ACE-Step-Studio\app\server\tmp\render_1787633363316_tn5kcq\audio.mp3 -c:v h264_nvenc -preset p4...
[Render] Failed: ffmpeg exited 4294967256: ed with error: Invalid argument
[vost#0:0/h264_nvenc @ 0000017ab1c678c0] Terminating thread with error: Invalid argument
[out#0/mp4 @ 0000017ab1be3500] Nothing was written into output file, because at least one of its streams received no packets.
frame= 0 fps=0.0 q=0.0 Lsize= 0KiB time=00:00:00.98 bitrate= 0.0kbits/s speed=23.6x elapsed=0:00:00.04
[aac @ 0000017ab3c3d480] Qavg: 0.218 Tr: 0.0% TNS(L): 2.1% TNS(S): 0.0% M/S: 100.0% I/S: 0.0% PNS: 0.0%
Conversion failed!