AVC/XAVC-S issues in VP15/16? Try disabling so4compoundplug.dll!

NickHope wrote on 8/29/2017, 12:58 AM

VEGAS Pro 15 has a new decoder, so4compoundplug.dll that reads AVC and XAVC-S files. I think the intention is that it will also handle m2ts and perhaps other formats in the future.

The benefits of this new decoder include:

Decodes Panasonic GH5 10-bit 422 AVC footage
Decodes JVC YUV 4:2:2 AVC footage
Decodes iPhone/iPad AVC footage (without requiring Quicktime)
(I guess) Scope for improved performance

However some negative issues are attributed to this new decoder. In particular:

XAVC-S slow loading and high RAM usage
Stereo audio decodes as dual mono (e.g. Nvidia ShadowPlay)

If you experience any such issues, or any other issues with AVC behavior in VP15 that you did not experience in VP14, then first check which decoder plugin is being used by looking at the "Plug-In" section at the bottom of the VEGAS file Properties window (accessed by right-clicking on a file in the VEGAS Explorer window then choosing "Properties", or right-clicking on a video stream on the VEGAS timeline then choosing "Properties" then "General" tab):

If the troublesome files are getting decoded by so4compoundplug.dll then you can try disabling it as follows:

Hold down the SHIFT key while opening Options > Preferences
Click the Internal tab
In the field "Show only pref containing:" file type "So4" without the quotes
Set "Enable So4 Compound Reader for AVC/M2TS" to FALSE.
OK > Restart

With luck, VEGAS will now instead attempt to use an alternative decoder such as compoundplug.dll to decode your files, which may solve the issue.

Bear in mind:

This may break some of the new format support such as iPhone and 10-bit 422 GH5 files, and that the bugs with so4compoundplug will probably be fixed in future updates, so don't forget that you've set this because you'll probably want to un-set it in the future!
Your audio waveform previews (stored in .sfk files) will be rebuilt when the codec is disabled or re-enabled, which may make it appear that your projects are opening more slowly. But once the waveforms are re-built, projects will open more quickly.

Note that in VEGAS Pro 15 builds before 261, more formats were decoded by so4compoundplug, and this caused the following issues:

Much lower fps playback of some AVC files including some GoPro, DJI & Xiaomi Yi files
Slow rendering of video event thumbnails for those files
Garbled audio decoding (also here)
Slower opening of large projects containing many AVC files (Largely fixed in VP15 build 216)

Edit 1st December 2017: In VEGAS Pro 15 build 261, troublesome GoPro, DJI and Xiaomi Yi formats have been put on a new "blacklist" that makes them fall back by default to opening with the compoundplug decoder, which generally works very well with these formats. Read the thread for the full story...

Edit 6th June 2018: In VEGAS Pro 15 build 361, the blacklist was made into a separate, editable xml file. In this build the file needs to be moved in order for it to work. Other formats such as XAVC-S can also be added to the blacklist if necessary by editing the file (with great care). Full details in this post.

Edit 3rd September 2018: From VEGAS Pro 15 build 384, so4_blacklist_vp15.xml is placed by default in C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 1X.0\ where it can be read, so there is no longer any need to move it.

Edit April 2024: The default reader for AVC files in VEGAS Pro 21 build 300 onwards is the new mxcompoundplug, and the So4 blacklist feature was removed. The feature is available in versions 15 to 20. The so4compoundplug reader can still be disabled by renaming the C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 21.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\so4compoundplug folder.

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Comments

AVsupport wrote on 3/25/2018, 4:15 PM

Would be nice to know..Where's the Blacklist and How to check What's in it? anyone?

NickHope wrote on 3/26/2018, 2:56 AM

Would be nice to know..Where's the Blacklist and How to check What's in it? anyone?

As far as I know, the "blacklist" is internal to the code and not visible by users, and contains GoPro, DJI and Xiaomi Yi AVC formats.

VEGASHeman wrote on 3/27/2018, 9:40 AM

@AVsupport: Right now the list of files being black-listed, as Nick mentioned above, are internal to the application, and include the following:

1) DJI AVC

2) GoPro AVC

3) Xiaomi Yi AVC

We are considering plans to make it an externally edited file in one of our future updates (we just need to make sure we provide the appropriate tools so that it is easy enough to do that)

AVsupport wrote on 3/27/2018, 3:56 PM

thanks for confirmation @VEGASHeman, I think .xml should be easy enough to deal with, or maybe integrate those items into the 'Internal Preferences' as 'Blacklist: DJI = TRUE' for example..easy enough to search them all for the 'Blacklist' keyword ;-)

wwjd wrote on 3/29/2018, 9:08 AM

@wwjd Question from the developers: If you have QSV available on your CPU, can you please try setting "Enable Hardware decoding for So4 Compound Reader" to FALSE instead of "Enable So4 Compound Reader for AVC/M2TS" and see if that also fixes your issues.

Looks like my CPU DOES have the QSV, so I have changed that setting, but had zero time to do any editing. But will be hitting it all weekend, and we'll see.

Do I leave GPU ability OFF during all this?

wwjd wrote on 3/29/2018, 10:57 PM

With the setting listed above, and my NVID 1070 GPU selected in preferences, I was getting 2 FPS preview playback of 4k material set to PREVIEW/Quarter. With the above setting back to TRUE, getting full 24fps most of the time.

Anything else?

NickHope wrote on 3/29/2018, 11:24 PM

With the setting listed above, and my NVID 1070 GPU selected in preferences, I was getting 2 FPS preview playback of 4k material set to PREVIEW/Quarter. With the above setting back to TRUE, getting full 24fps most of the time.

Anything else?

@wwjd Thanks for testing. I think the point was to see if disabling "Enable Hardware decoding for So4 Compound Reader" fixes your issues as well as disabling "Enable So4 Compound Reader for AVC/M2TS" does. So it's the comparison between those two settings that is important.

wwjd wrote on 3/30/2018, 8:37 AM

Okay, I feel it sort of DID fix the issue.... I did not have any editing problems OTHER than the preview was completely useless (making editing impossible for me). After switching back to everything on, 4k played back GREAT, but crashed again within 3 or 4 edits. Shut So4 back off, and worked fine for editing.... EXCEPT 4k playback was not AS FAST.... tolerable, but not 24fps like when So4 was on.

NCARalph wrote on 4/20/2018, 10:35 AM

I was having unusably slow preview display on 311 VP 15 during editing 2 tracks of 4K mp4 with the project set to 1080P. Disabling the SO4 dll made it much better. Thanks.

It would be nice if it were faster of course.

karma17 wrote on 5/12/2018, 5:37 AM

Do you still have to do this for Build 321?

peter-ilyk wrote on 5/12/2018, 5:54 AM

Do you still have to do this for Build 321?

I had to - so I assume most people will need to as well.

Kenshin9977 wrote on 5/14/2018, 11:32 PM

I tried the fix and it worked for videos encoded in h264 but it doesn't work with h265 no matter if I set the So4 parameter to true or false. Did someone managed to find a fix for h265 videos ?

karma17 wrote on 5/15/2018, 12:17 AM

I wonder why this persists as a bug? The solution must be complex???

NickHope wrote on 5/15/2018, 1:56 AM

Do you still have to do this for Build 321?

@karma17 Depends on your system and the format of your footage. If your footage is being decoded by so4compoundplug.dll and you are having problems then it's still worth a try.

I tried the fix and it worked for videos encoded in h264 but it doesn't work with h265 no matter if I set the So4 parameter to true or false. Did someone managed to find a fix for h265 videos ?

@Kenshin9977 H.265 is decoded by a different codec, mxhevcplug.dll, so disabling so4compoundplug.dll will have no effect. What problem are you having with H.265 videos?

I wonder why this persists as a bug? The solution must be complex???

I would say, extremely! The diversity of video formats and variations in users' systems is much greater than it was in the past. Many videos don't follow format standards. There are a huge number of factors to balance in trying to cater for new formats but maintain robust playback of existing ones.

peter-ilyk wrote on 5/15/2018, 3:07 AM

Do you still have to do this for Build 321?

@karma17 Depends on your system and the format of your footage. If your footage is being decoded by so4compoundplug.dll and you are having problems then it's still worth a try.

I tried the fix and it worked for videos encoded in h264 but it doesn't work with h265 no matter if I set the So4 parameter to true or false. Did someone managed to find a fix for h265 videos ?

@Kenshin9977 H.265 is decoded by a different codec, mxhevcplug.dll, so disabling so4compoundplug.dll will have no effect. What problem are you having with H.265 videos?

I wonder why this persists as a bug? The solution must be complex???

I would say, extremely! The diversity of video formats and variations in users' systems is much greater than it was in the past. Many videos don't follow format standards. There are a huge number of factors to balance in trying to cater for new formats but maintain robust playback of existing ones.

So how come other programs don't have this problem? I only have this problem with Vegas - other programs seem to be fine. If it was so complex then surely other programs would display the same issue - but they seem to have overcome it.

Kenshin9977 wrote on 5/15/2018, 8:16 AM

@Kenshin9977 H.265 is decoded by a different codec, mxhevcplug.dll, so disabling so4compoundplug.dll will have no effect. What problem are you having with H.265 videos?

My issue with H265 video are the stereo audio chanels that are decoded as dual mono. It only happens when my video have two or more audio channels.

NickHope wrote on 5/15/2018, 9:59 AM

@Kenshin9977 H.265 is decoded by a different codec, mxhevcplug.dll, so disabling so4compoundplug.dll will have no effect. What problem are you having with H.265 videos?

My issue with H265 video are the stereo audio chanels that are decoded as dual mono. It only happens when my video have two or more audio channels.

This was fixed in build 311. I'm not 100% sure it was fixed for H.265, but probably. From the release notes:

"Stereo tracks from certain file types which were improperly imported as multiple mono tracks are now properly imported to stereo tracks"

What build are you using? If it's not 321, you should update.

wwjd wrote on 5/15/2018, 10:02 AM

on't have this problem? I only have this problem with Vegas - other programs seem to be fine. If it was so complex then surely other programs would display the same issue - but they seem to have overcome it.

Right. Vegas and this DLL WORK fine, things are fast, you do stuff, you do stuff, THEN it crashes. Seems like this should be trackable and fixable. It's been like a year now?

GJeffrey wrote on 6/1/2018, 6:00 PM

It looks like the blacklist has been modified in built 361.

My Gopro files are decoded by so4compoundplug.dll instead of compound.dll in the previous build.

I don't have full time preview anymore unless I set to False Enable "So4 Compound Reader for AVC/M2TS".....

NickHope wrote on 6/2/2018, 12:38 AM

It looks like the blacklist has been modified in built 361.

My Gopro files are decoded by so4compoundplug.dll instead of compound.dll in the previous build.

I don't have full time preview anymore unless I set to False Enable "So4 Compound Reader for AVC/M2TS".....

Good spot! I tried a few various GoPro, DJI & Xiaomi Yi AVC files on the timeline and they are all decoded by so4compoundplug.dll. I wonder if anything is left on the blacklist.

GJeffrey wrote on 6/2/2018, 1:25 AM

Nick,

Do those files play real time on your system with so4 dll enabled?

NickHope wrote on 6/2/2018, 1:56 AM

Nick,

Do those files play real time on your system with so4 dll enabled?

@GJeffrey Unfortunately, no. Performance is extremely poor:

GoPro HERO5 Black - UHD 29.97p = 0.55fps max @ Best (Full)
GoPro HERO5 Black - 2.7k 59.94p = 0.7fps max @ Best (Full)
DJI OSMO - UHD 29.97p = 0.4fps max @ Best (Full)

Also thumbnail building is really slow again. And GPU acceleration barely improves playback, if at all.

These all play at full 29.97/59.94 fps with so4compoundplug disabled, and thumbnails build quickly.

It seems like a strange decision to not keep these formats on the blacklist.

NickHope wrote on 6/2/2018, 2:17 AM

This would be pretty catastrophic if you wanted to mix formats that need so4compoundplug, such as GH5 422, with these older formats. You'd have to roll back to build 321, or transcode one format or the other.

How many fps do you get @GJeffrey?

GJeffrey wrote on 6/2/2018, 3:53 AM

I only have gopro4 2.7K 30fps footage available herevand get 1fps @best full. Gpu acceleration on or off, same result.

i definitely agree with you Nick, the blacklist shouldn't have been deleted or stripped out or should at least be editable.

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