Sony Vegas Issues

[Shockwave.EXE]

Most of my projects (but not all) are gaming related stuff. Lately I've been having a few issues with rendering in Sony Vegas.

I'm pretty sure this in the right place for sony vegas, (i dont think theres a seperate place for issues with it?) and before anyone asks, i have used the search function to find out if anyone else has had the problem. Didnt find anything. A little thing about my project, none of the settings should be causing this. In this case, My source files are AVIs but im rendering to WMVs, now WMVs is supposed to be more compressed than MP4 however in my experience ive got a lot better quality with WMVs (doesnt make sense i know)

I used to face this black screen issue (audio remained the same) at random segments in the video, rendering again and the black screen would be at another part of the video so i dont think its anything wrong with the video files. I managed to fix it by highlighting the entire project and selecting render loop region only. That fixed it. I'm explaining this because its relevant to the next problem i have been having.

With my latest project, i have been having a slight flickering issue. I don't know why but im guessing its because of the length of the video. Ive never done one this long before (close to an hour) and there are lots of video files in the project. I don't know if that's the problem but i want to fix it. Heres a link to a short clip to show you what I'm talking about: Sony Vegas Segment #0058 - YouTube

Now you don't see any black segments in the video however if you pause on any of the flickers all it will show you is the flicker and a black screen.

and here is a screenshot of my project: http://i.imgur.com/N20za.jpg

Now looking at that screenshot I'm thinking, that's way too many different files but this is a professional editing software, i think it should work properly if there's a 100 files. I don't have any problem playing back the source files (AVI's) so i don't think the problem is there.

I've tried rendering twice, got the same flickering, on my 3rd attempt i unchecked the "render loop region only", this is where its relevant and i get no flicker but i do get the random black segments.

I've had the black segment problem for months but i found a workaround. As for the flickering, thats a new thing with my latest project, the only thing that comes to mind is that its my longest project but i dont know. It's not that big a deal but i have to do a few projects for school in the next few months and i really dont want there to be problems since we have a limited time in which to do it. I would appreciate any help. Thanks

[Midnight Blue]

I have no idea what your problem is but I sometimes have a flicking problem. I have found setting the pixel format in the project properties to 8bit solves it for me. Are all your video files from the same source. A .avi could have been made with a number of different codecs, not all .avi files are the same. ie mini DV, divx, xvid, Ciniform, Canopus etc... You may have the right codec to play videos on your PC but this is not always the same as the right codec to edit videos. I use to use Edius for editing and now use Vegas, I can not edit the Edius .avi files in Vegas.

Hope this helps.

[TimStannard]

That looks pretty horrible.
I don't have any immediate suggestions but the following might help narrow it down.

Do you get these flickers/black screens in the preview or only when you render.
Suppose you render only a small section?
What happens if you render as an avi? Or Mp4 or whatever?

If possible, try rendering to a single avi, then open that in a new project and render that as wmv. Or render two halves as wmvs then joing them tohether in another project or ....

... all just suggested workarounds to try.

That many clips is nothing. Whilst I'm sure Vegas can handle it, it is possible your machine can't - it's possible you've ot a dodgy bit of RAM which is only accessed occasionally - such that other projects have never touched it (for example).

Check you're running the latest build of Vegas Pro 9 (downloads are free on the Sony Creative Software site) and also the latest drivers for your video card.

[Shockwave.EXE]

I have no idea what your problem is but I sometimes have a flicking problem. I have found setting the pixel format in the project properties to 8bit solves it for me. Are all your video files from the same source. A .avi could have been made with a number of different codecs, not all .avi files are the same. ie mini DV, divx, xvid, Ciniform, Canopus etc... You may have the right codec to play videos on your PC but this is not always the same as the right codec to edit videos. I use to use Edius for editing and now use Vegas, I can not edit the Edius .avi files in Vegas.

Hope this helps.

One of my friends reccomended Edius but i havent got around to trying it out yet. Pixel format is always on 8-bit but i have been thinking about trying out 32 bit at some point to see if theres a noticable difference in quality. I dont care about rendering times but i want to get the best quality possible. Well apart from saving it as an uncompressed AVI, as that creates a monster file size. Its like over 800% of the raw file sizes, its not even funny.

That looks pretty horrible.
I don't have any immediate suggestions but the following might help narrow it down.

Do you get these flickers/black screens in the preview or only when you render.
Suppose you render only a small section?
What happens if you render as an avi? Or Mp4 or whatever?

If possible, try rendering to a single avi, then open that in a new project and render that as wmv. Or render two halves as wmvs then joing them tohether in another project or ....

... all just suggested workarounds to try.

That many clips is nothing. Whilst I'm sure Vegas can handle it, it is possible your machine can't - it's possible you've ot a dodgy bit of RAM which is only accessed occasionally - such that other projects have never touched it (for example).

Check you're running the latest build of Vegas Pro 9 (downloads are free on the Sony Creative Software site) and also the latest drivers for your video card.

Its the first time i have the flickering issue, i'm rendering the whole thing at once into a single WMV. I dont like to rendering multiple files then rendering them together. I'm a quality freak and that decreases quality.

I might give an MP4 a try later. As for the flickers and black screens, their not in the source files and their not in the preview either, only the final rendered file. (When rendering i turn the preview off because i was told it makes Vegas slightly faster)

I don't believe i have dodgy ram (its new), and I've experienced the black screen issue on both my Laptop and my desktop.

If WMM wasnt so broken that it came up with errors with AVIs longer than a few mins i would give that a try even if the compression is bad (always been a problem with this type of file). I think tonight before i go to bed, i'm going to try rendering it as an MP4 on my desktop. Maybe trying the original WMV on my laptop. I really dont understand it and it is extremely frustrating.

Another thing i forgot to add, with this type of file, 3 times out of 10, vegas said something about a codec and that video file would appear red in the timeline, sometimes it still worked, sometimes it didnt. Removing it and just putting it back in there fixed it.

I think i was running Vegas Pro 9.0D not long ago but i went back to 9.0C because it was taking about 10 mins to import AVIs.

I just finished and uploaded a project which went just over 30 mins, No problems there but the recording source was different and these were M2TS files. Although i experienced nnother Vegas problem with my latest captured M2TS file. Vegas crashed and says something about a BEX64 Error. Maybe thats just a one off thing, i recaptured it and rendering in vegas appears to be successful.

As for drivers, i updated my desktops video drivers to the latest version recently. My laptop however is a different story. Its a good laptop but it has something called switchable graphics which means it can use the integrated Intel graphics and the dedicated graphics depending on power needs and stuff, because of this i can only get drivers from Dell and of course they never update them. I'm also stuck with the drivers on the disk because they have the completely wrong Graphics card driver listed on my laptop models page. Kinda stupid because when it comes to gaming and other stuff i have the hardware to run it more than well but i'm held back because of old drivers. I do most of the video editing on the Laptop because i use the desktop for other intensive stuff and Video editing takes a lot of power. Rendering times are pretty much the same, my laptop might even be a bit faster despite being a dual core with hyperthreading. (desktop is a quad but because of the laptops hyperthreading its basically a quad) and having bad drivers.

Tomorrow after school i'll be crossfiring my desktop. That should be fun. =)

[TimStannard]

Its the first time i have the flickering issue, i'm rendering the whole thing at once into a single WMV. I dont like to rendering multiple files then rendering them together. I'm a quality freak and that decreases quality.

Not necessarily. In fact certain file types don't recompress at all. And even if it does, is it even noticable? May I remind you that the black screens and flickering most definitely ARE noticable.
(Anyway the point is to see whether the problem disappears)

I don't believe i have dodgy ram (its new),

Most dodgy RAM is new.

and I've experienced the black screen issue on both my Laptop and my desktop.

...but that eiminates it

If WMM wasnt so broken that it came up with errors with AVIs longer than a few mins i would give that a try even if the compression is bad (always been a problem with this type of file). I think tonight before i go to bed, i'm going to try rendering it as an MP4 on my desktop. Maybe trying the original WMV on my laptop. I really dont understand it and it is extremely frustrating.

Well there's a clue. I have no problems with AVIs of more than a few minutes and never have - something wrong there, surely.

Anyway, I wasn't suggesting making an AVIs and playing it, but making an avi then importing that into Vegas in order to make a WMV.

Tomorrow after school i'll be crossfiring my desktop. That should be fun. =)

Please let us know ...

[Shockwave.EXE]

Not necessarily. In fact certain file types don't recompress at all. And even if it does, is it even noticable? May I remind you that the black screens and flickering most definitely ARE noticable.
(Anyway the point is to see whether the problem disappears)

Yeah, your probably right. Its worth a try even if it is more work. I'll do it tonight.

Most dodgy RAM is new.

Thats true but this is the first time i have experienced this problem and i have never experienced any issues with this ram, yet.

...but that eiminates it

What Eliminates What?

Well there's a clue. I have no problems with AVIs of more than a few minutes and never have - something wrong there, surely.

Maybe your right. Source files play back without any issues, its when it comes to rendering but i'm going to try out a new codec tonight and hope that fixes it.

Anyway, I wasn't suggesting making an AVIs and playing it, but making an avi then importing that into Vegas in order to make a WMV.

What do you mean by that? Post was a little confusing. My source files are always captured in AVI format but i usually save them as a WMV or MP4

Please let us know ...

Let you know? Well I've just crossfired my PC about 10 mins ago (Replaced PSU with one with more wattage and added a second graphics card) Works pretty good but looks a mess thanks to my terrible wiring skills

[TimStannard]

Sorry for confusion. Hope this clears it up

1. The fact that you experience the same issue in different machines eliminates faulty RAM being the problem (unless you've been really unlucky)

2. The business about AVIs, I was simply suggesting that you render the edited project in the same format as the source (this shouldn't take long). If that avi plays back OK, create a new project and use that as input - and create your wmv from that.

As I work with standard def dv avis (ie what came out of camcorders before numerous incompatible high def codecs came out), my whole work flow is in avi. My result is an avi.

Only once I've got that do i start worrying about converting to whatever delivery format I need.

You'll find this is a common approach - edit in the highest quality most editable formt you can and save the compression until later.

[Shockwave.EXE]

Sorry for confusion. Hope this clears it up

1. The fact that you experience the same issue in different machines eliminates faulty RAM being the problem (unless you've been really unlucky)

2. The business about AVIs, I was simply suggesting that you render the edited project in the same format as the source (this shouldn't take long). If that avi plays back OK, create a new project and use that as input - and create your wmv from that.

As I work with standard def dv avis (ie what came out of camcorders before numerous incompatible high def codecs came out), my whole work flow is in avi. My result is an avi.

Only once I've got that do i start worrying about converting to whatever delivery format I need.

You'll find this is a common approach - edit in the highest quality most editable formt you can and save the compression until later.

I have thought about that but an uncompressed AVI creates a monster file. I remember when i was testing it, a 20 second file of 1080p quality was about 160MB. I think i was doing that completely uncompressed, my capture thing comes with a codec that appears to work in vegas which is called a Video Decompressor, that makes it sound like its also going to be a monster file but i haven't tried it.

Because of processing speeds, upload speeds, etc, for me a GB for every 7 mins of video is the most acceptable. an uncompressed AVI would be at least a hundred i think for my 50 min project.

But I'm determined to get this sorted over the weekend. Its driving me crazy. And i'd like to see how it performs with my new desktop set up.

[TimStannard]

Can't really help as I mainly work in Standard Def PAL land. But even there I don't use uncompressed avi, normal standard def avi has inter frame compression only and works fine.
We still don't know what type of avi you have (what codec)

[Shockwave.EXE]

I'm still trying to figure out the codec thing myself but i'll try some standard def AVI and see how that works out. Thanks for the help