Clearing source viewer – a sort-of-solution

I wanted to know how to clear the source viewer so nothing showed in it, because sometimes it could be a bit distracting. But I couldn't work out how to do this, and a few searches revealed that others had had the same issue and couldn't solve it. You could change the source, but you couldn't get it back to being blank. And I didn't want to have to keep switching between single and dual viewer modes.

I eventually worked out a semi-solution: click on the source viewer mode drop-down menu on the bottom left of the source viewer, and choose 'Offline'. (It's the menu where you get the choice of Source, Offline, Audio Track, Multicam and Annotations). As long as you haven't assigned an offline reference movie, this blanks out the source viewer. (Would be better, though, if there was simply an option to clear the source viewer – I'll put in a feature request.)

You could also zoom out in the viewer, then middle-click drag the clip to the side. Still not as easy as being able to clear it.

You could also work with a single viewer and switch between source and timeline using the Q key on your keyboard.

Use the Effects palette and double click on Solid Color generator to load black into the Source Viewer.
Problem solved.