Vegas REFUSES to render my video!

[TerryOlaw]

Let me start off by saying that I have been working on this video for about a year. Recording footage with games, editing the footage, etc. I have spent massive hours of work and dedication into this and now it seems that the product may not even be finalized. Help is very much appreciated.

I have been using Sony Vegas 7.0 for 6 years and I can not recall ever encountering this problem before. But then again I have never worked on a project this big until now. The video is 22 minutes long and there are a lot of clips in the timeline.

When I try to render, one of the following things happen.
1. I get an error saying that the video could not be rendered because of a unknown error.
2. I get an error saying that "an exception has occured" and the program shuts down.
3. The video renders until a certain amount of procent, then I get an error and it stops rendering/ or program shuts down.
4. The video renders until a certain amount of procent, then the procent bar stops but the rendering continues, although not like it's supposed to. The "time remaining" counts down to 0:00:00 but it keeps rendering without the procent bar moving and the "elapsed time" just counting onwards.
5. The program shuts down without an error or anything.

The original video format is MPEG2. I have noticed that this error occurs much easier if I try to render the video as a MP4. Rendering as MPEG2 works better, but still not great.

Does anyone know what the problem is and how I can fix it?

[Z Cheema]

Assuming the error appears at the same place on the timeline, then I would suspect the clip or a plug in giving jipp.

Render the faulty section to confirm that is the faulty place, then render up to and past it to see if all is OK
if they are OK, then replace clip(s) there with a bit of Sony media and try that section again and see what happens

[TerryOlaw]

If it only were so well. :/ No, the error appears at random places throughout the rendering process.

[Grazie]

My money is on an aging system that is lacking in system grunt and space.

Rendering is THE most demanding of tasks. Rendering "cross" formats, MPG to MP4 doesn't help. Rendering cross platforms on an aging PC using a release of Vegas that's although proven to work on projects less than 22minutes, hasn't/doesn't test your system nor Vegas to perform. You may just have reached the "tipping-point" for a project on your setup that's trying to tell you something. Sorry.

OK, potential remedies:

1] Render out a test of part of your Project to its own format. Say 4 minutes.

2] Start a fresh Vegas Project and import that which you have just rendered.

3] Render THAT into MP4.

Give those simple 3 steps a go and report back.

Over the past 10 years with Vegas, I've upgraded with it and have adapted, adopted and bought in at least 5 systems in that time. Moving from Laptop to Tower and from Windows Millennium via XP Pro and Home to now a beast of a PC that runs Win7, 16gb RAM a video card that's just plainly obese, 5 internal hardrives and an extra slot-able drive bay. I'm using VP11, that's setup to take/make use of the CUDA support on the Graphics card which has 2gb RAM. And presently I'm kinda ok for the next 12 to 18 months - I think!!!! I say all this 'cos my thriving within this craft depends on me being able to conclude projects. I've just completed an evaluation DVD for a SE County Council Big Lottery evaluation project, and I need to be able to use my MXF files; edit; render to MP4 and DropBox them to my clients for approval and comment. I say all this just to give a flavour as to how I've come to appreciate PC Grunt with Vegas. I ain't no programmer - I leave that to others. But I DO know when something hurts and I don't need to "hassels" clients with the issues I'm having - it's NOT what they pay me for.

So, in summary: You've been fortunate thus far. Now let's get to grips in converting your hard work into a rendered, viewable file.

Keep the Faith!

. . . . . . . . . .

[vidmanners]

You could (after saving) create a new version of this epic, and then halve the timeline content, see if i Renders 11 min. =- then halve that again.
If it still refuses, you might try a New project and render effect that are internally generated, to prove it's able to render, eg text, transitions Credit Roll and so on. These should not throw it.
Another possibility (as you've not said) is that the file os too big to go onto the space left after all that work. HAve you plenty of space on an internal drive - not just for the working files, but the Rendered output along with some spare for the OS....?

The speed of a PC should not affect Rendering, although it will become rather long...I rendered a 4-hr (duration) Vid and that took 24 hrs....and contained very little video-"Work" for it to perform. I'm running VS 10, OS=W7 32-bit with 4G RAM and plenty of spare-space on an internal SATA spare-drive.
However, asn aging PC may have storage/RAM issues making things more difficult, but technically it should not stop working, unless you have some forced-power-saving program that cuts-in, when you stop moving the mouse, for example.

From what you've told us there is noting unusual I read, other than some formats...maybe try a simpler Render (but I don't know what that might be, sorry). I found VS very confusing when it comes to all those Options.