Have no idea, but how about rendering out only a portion of the whole project to DV. If that part goes okay, then render out another portion, and so on.

If all render okay, then you can bring those rendered DV parts to a blank timeline, then render out the whole shebang.

three things that cause large render times include
3d
magic bullet fx
effects that effect pixel of every frame like blurs

Your file will still be rendering, but it could be taking many minutes per frame if you have a crazy project.

If it is truly locked up that's a different issue

Isolate the problem as suggested... if it truely is not rendering but Vegas doesn't crash then it is likely going into an endless loop. Find that section and you should be able to find out why.

If rendering to MPEG2 for DVD
Try using Variable bit rate encode – not the CBR

wild guess

There's no big FX or anything. I got three video layers, one of which is set to Add (which is the top layer). There is no loop or anything since I've tried it about a dozen times and it does the same thing each time.

Would the whole compositing parent/child thing make a difference?

By loop I think he means a programatic loop. Something you can't see but that Vegas is hanging on. An internal process.

Setting that aside, I'd do what's been suggested. Try rendering out regions of the timeline (Maybe everything after whatever media or effect you suspect) and seeing if you can render anything. You can "render to new track" to just start biting off bits and pieces of the project.

Process of elimination. Course it might be more complcated if the goal is to render an mpeg for DVD. You haven't said what you're doing yet.

Rob Mack

I'm rendering out an avi to be burned on a DVD, I've tried different file formats and I come across the same problem. It will render the Vegas generated media (like text) but not my video. I also tried rendering out different parts and it wouldn't render the frames, it counted the time it took as elapsed time but didn't budge. Other projects render just fine.

Start by backing up the project file and putting a copy somewhere safe.

Maybe if someone is interested in trying it, you could email them a Veg file (no media) and they could see if there's anything obvious. (Not me, I wouldn't be free for hours and hours).

Questions:

What types of media are on the timeline?
Are these special flavors of AVI or MOV file?
What is this track that is in "Add" transfer mode? What happens if it's turned off?

Ideally, you'd be rendering from the Vegas timeline straight to MPEG2 with a seperate audio file. Is this impossible? Impractical?

Rob Mack

is the track or the event set to 99% opacity?

This is sometimes done by mistake

as usual, all good advice from forum members - but why, oh why are you rendering the day before screening?

leslie

Will any of your video render in Vegas? Have you successfully rendered even 10 seconds of straight video and sound? You are making it sound like all that will render are Vegas titles.

No video will render whatsoever

The Add video track that is at the top of everything is for muzzle flashes for gun shots, I have tried turning it off and I get the same problem

What type of video is in the timeline? What camera did you use to shoot with? Are you using a weird audio rate like 32Khz or lower? Not all avi's are the same. I've had some play in WMP that won't play in Vegas.

I'm rendering m2t's as avi's (some shots are .mov's)

I've rendered and burnt a cut of it to dvd before (rough cut, that is) I don't know why it's doing this all of a sudden.

Something else that was weird happened. My fx shots are .mov's and compressed with h.264 (or something or another) and when I put them in, Vegas slows down to like a snail's pace. And just putting one in would crash the program. Sometimes certain events would just turn a solid red. I eventually got it so all the quicktimes are in there properly. Anybody heard of anything like this?

If you have rendered a rough cut before of the same project video then something changed in your system or something changed in the video files. Check the date of the video files -- is it correct or has the video been modified? Check the codex you are using -- has something changed? Do you have any video from this shoot that will render? Do you have any original media from the shoot? Can you transfer a small piece and see if that will render? YOu have to find out what works now -- what did work before and what changed ? There is a logical answer. Think. If the rough cut rendered -- what changed?

Open Task Manager (right click on the Taskbar and select Task Manager)
Select the Performance tab and see how much memory is being used and what the processor is doing when it hangs up.

Have you ever been able to render one these fx shots?


h.264 aka mp4 is not a great format to edit. It's great to deliver to, but requires a ot of processor time to edit.

2 suggestions I have no idea if they would work.
1. try rendering a single one of these fx shots by itself and see if it's slow
2. If that fails, I would think about reinstalling Vegas just to make sure something didn't get corrupted.

John C's suggestion will tell you what your computer is doing during a render.