Sony Vegas Crashing on HD Renders? This Important Tip Might Help
I have always loved Sony Vegas, and for that reason always been treated like the underdog: “Vegas isn’t a truly pro platform, noone uses it, get a Mac” etc. Well I have my reasons for liking it, reasons that include real-time fades, effects, compositing, advanced audio mixing and routing, using virtually any video format on the same timeline without the need for transcoding, among other things. But when I moved into HD video a couple of years ago, starting with my then beloved Canon Vixia camcorder, the rendering woes started to kill me.
At first I thought it was the processor in my computer, or the amount of RAM, or how my background services were optimized. Sure these were all important factors, but as I searched online for solutions, I found that people with computers far more powerful were facing similar problems and even abandoning the platform altogether.
I have been using Vegas since version one and am currently running Pro v9.0e. Some say that version 9.0d is more stable. I call “superstition.”
Lately I have been using a Canon 7D, transcoding to an intermediate codec with Cineform’s NeoScene and cutting away happily, but the render woes continued – I would get a quarter of the way through a six minute timeline and the session would crash or the render would freeze up.
Until now.
In three different forums, after much scrolling, I read about the tip that if you go to the Options->Preferences-Video tab, and change the default setting for the Dynamic RAM Preview from 300 to 0, close the video preview window, restart the computer and Vegas and then start the render – things should go more smoothly. And they have!
Last night, I was able to flawlessy render a 6.5 minute uncompressed HD render that included 4 video tracks (one for a PSD 1.85 mask, two overlay dissolves tracks and the master edit) plus a time code burn plugin on the master video insert and a stereo audio track in little over 15 minutes. This on a humble Core 2 Duo computer with 3.4 Gigs of RAM.
So give it a try next time, and maybe it will save you much hair-pulling and distress.
Let me know how it goes!
Best of the Decade List Names Canon HV20 As Most Influential Camcorder
When I started this little experiment lab for learning and understanding my amazing new camcorder, I referred to the Pixelvision camera as a comparison – not because of any shared features or format or output, but because of the community that had developed around it.
It seems this impression held fast as almost three years later, the culture and community surrounding the Canon HV20, one of the first Prosumer camcorders to offer HD, 24P video with Cinemode and zebra stripes for under a thousand bucks continues to sell and continues to make great looking video. And the community has not left it.
Anticipating the end of the decade, video enthusiast and professional Eugenia Loli created a series of best-of-the-decade lists for a variety of categories that include best album, best song, best new tech, and most influential camcorder of the decade:
Most influential camcorder
1. Canon HV20 (has the strongest subculture)
2. Canon GL-2
3. Panasonic HVX-200
4. Canon XH-A1
5. Panasonic DVX-100
Like this site, there are dozens if not hundreds of sites dedicated to maximizing the potential and getting around the shortcomings of this excellent performer. Although updated versions have hit the market, the updates are typically very incremental but maintain all the original design and functionality of the HV20 – a testament to its clever and robust design.
See the rest of the list at Eugenia’s Rant.
Canon seems to have done well in this sense – their DSLR the 5D MKII has an equally avid fanbase and is a daily topic of conversation on such noisy platforms as Twitter. THe tools are in our hands, but we are only just waking up to the possibilities of what we can achieve with them.
Nikon D90 or Canon 50D MK II – Twitterstream
ConstantChange
To @5tu and @EugeniaLoli – friend got hands on Nikon D90 – prefer or not over Canon 50D Mk II?
Stu Maschwitz
5tu @ConstantChange Not.
from Tweetie in reply to ConstantChange
ConstantChange
@5tu I guessed so. The footage I’m seeing from the D90 really looks nice though. http://ri.ms/rfv4 (D90 Grammy spot shot by friend)
from web in reply to 5tu
EugeniaLoli
@ConstantChange That’s because the scenes are so short that you don’t get to see all the disadvantages of the D90. Choose 5D.
from web in reply to ConstantChange
ConstantChange
@EugeniaLoli Cheers, as I told Stu Maschwitz – that was what I suspected, wanted to confirm it remained true after firmware updates etc ty!
from web in reply to EugeniaLoli
~~~
ConstantChange
The film we are shooting in Hawai’i right now is using a RED camera
~~~
EugeniaLoli
Ordered the Rode Stereo VideoMic, a dead kitten for it, and a 2.5 m boom pole too. Should be fun.
ConstantChange
@EugeniaLoli – I love the rode mic for my HV20. Have the boom pole too but the attachment screw for it is not well designed.
~~~
(Meanwhile back on Stu’s Twittertstream:)
Stu Maschwitz
@debonbon Actually (Nikon D90′s) 720p is a wonderful resolution if everything else is done well. What Nikon needs is manual control.
Tyler Ginter
@5tu If rolling shutter is the same on the D300s as the D90 and D5000 then Nikon is just showing how little pride they take in video… IMO
Stu Maschwitz
@tylerginter Agreed. The 5D2′s rolling shutter is nasty but workable. The D90′s is a dealbreaker.
5 minutes ago from Tweetie in reply to tylerginter
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Eugenia Loli is a videographer, tech journalist, developer who writes an excellent blog about video, post-production and color correction at http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/
Stu Maschwitz is a founder of The Orphanage and author of the DV Rebel’s Toolkit. he runs http://prolost.com/ an astounding resource on everything from After Effects and color timing to the very latest in HD cameras and shooting techniques.
Constant Change is the author of this blog.
**Full disclosure – although Stu and Eugenia are both critical and discerning and do not work for either of the companies being discussed, I did first come across each of them through their enthusiasm for, and my interest in, the Canon HV20 camera.
