nope, just the draft setting :(

Are you previewing in full screen? Even on draft, a fullscreen preview can get choppy.

nope, I have it in the miniture preview mode (240 x something or other)

If you need to see the preview at full frame rate you can "Selectively Prerender" those portions. Works well for transitions and smaller looped regions.

JL

Preview performance depends on many things. If you have native DV files (NTSC or PAL) you should get full frame rate via preview even in the best (full) mode as long as you are doing NOTHING to the clips (cuts-only edit).

What is the format of these video files you are working on? If they are not native DV files then I would not be surprised at the low frame rate.


By saying you only have few FX's and not too many layers means very little related to how much the preview monitor performance will be affected. What is important is the <type> of FX's you are using. The CPU is after all being asked to perform the calculations related to the FX's you are applying and each FX affects performance to different degrees.

What FX's are you using?

I think you might also get stuttering playback if your PCI bus is oversaturated with data and you try to dump out DV through the IEEE1394 hooked up on that bus. It's not common, but it could be the cause.

"I have a dedicated video card,"

What video card? I'm surprised that no one has asked this question . . .

also, check the "ignore 3rd party codecs" setting in the options. maybe you just install a really bad DV codec

I have install pinnacle dv codec before, since then every video vegas rendered looks like crap

"I have a dedicated video card,"

That is because your video card has basically <zero> impact on the preview window render speed.

>>That is because your video card has basically <zero> impact on the preview window render speed.

Maybe if you have a new video card, but I have seen this happen on two systems playing straight DV. Once with a PCI card, and once with an older TNT card - but it was only a factor at high framerates when viewing the full size preview. For whatever reason (Vegas must use directX acceleration to paint the preview video), the video card can help or hurt the framerate. Mine went from 25 to 29.97 upon upgrading.

.25 frames per second is abnormally slow though. If you post your entire system specs and the codec you are using maybe someone can figure it out. I've never seen a framerate that slow! :D

Thank you everybody for all your efforts to help me, I really apreciate it.

I recently updated my codecs, and Ive experimented with toggling the 'enable third party codecs' option. The effect Im running is the 'blurred border' effect, and the video Im using isnt even DV quality, its semi-lo-fi avi clips. I am starting to think it may be my video card however (even though it was said it wouldnt exactly be causing this problem) because its getting to be two years old now, and I sort of took a shortcut and bought one with semi-low specs when I did. I've had no trouble using it in conjunction with Adobe Premiere, but I just started Vegas and the preview window just stinks.

Is there anyway I can render whats on my timeline and view it in the preview field like in Adobe Premiere? I was shocked when I saw Vegas does not render anything while your working, that puts so much stress on your computer Id imagine.

Once again, thanks everybody for all your help,
Panzah

>>>Is there anyway I can render whats on my timeline and view it in the preview field like in Adobe Premiere?

I haven't used Premiere in years so I'm not sure what you are talking about, but when I need to preview something in Vegas I select the time area and go Tools | Selectively Prerender.

>>> I was shocked when I saw Vegas does not render anything while your working, that puts so much stress on your computer Id imagine.

Rendering while you are working would inhibit performance while working on the timeline. Dual CPU PCs could handle it, but most people are using single procs.

Maybe you are looking for dynamic RAM previews - you have to go Tools | Options and go to Video or Editing (I forget) and crack up the amount of RAM that Vegas can use for caching frames. It defaults to 16 but I like it up at 256. Then you can loop a selection and it will get smoother and smoother as more frames get rendered to RAM.

>>> recently updated my codecs, and Ive experimented with toggling the 'enable third party codecs' option. The effect Im running is the 'blurred border' effect, and the video Im using isnt even DV quality, its semi-lo-fi avi clips.

What codec? Maybe the AVI clips are using something that Vegas can't read well. DV would be the optimal codec. I've found that DivX also works very nicely. Indeo RAW is great quality but limited technically.

The effect Im running is the 'blurred border' effect, and the video Im using isnt even DV quality, its semi-lo-fi avi clips

That is the answer to why this is a problem. The Preview window will show full rate video only if that video is raw DV format (NTSC or PAL). ANYTHING ELSE (even low-res-avi) will require the processor re-compresses each frame before displaying.

Add onto this issue the fact you are running a blur FX (which are the hardest hit on processor performance in any case) and you will definitely have very poor preview performance.

The other suggestions of doing RAM renders or render to a new track will give you better performance.

It might save you a lot of heartache (and speed up your preview) if you re-render all the low-res AVI into standard DV format which is the native format that Vegas works best with on the timeline. Try rendering a small section in any case and load that back onto the time-line and apply your blur FX to it. At least then you will be able to guage if this improves the preview perfomance to an acceptable level for your needs.