Brad,
I'm no expert at reading the error but everytime I've had that problem, it's been a bad clip or photo...crupted file at the point of failure. Try replacing the event at that spot or maybe deleting it to see if still fails at that point. Hope that helps.
Randy

Imjo Vegas could be better at handling bad clips and images. At least it could tell us which event caused the crash.

I've had the same problem numerous times. In each case, what I found is that a photo was too large for Vegas to render out as video.
Oddly enough, Vegas will still play the timeline, but will crash on rendering.
-Solutions I've used to correct this typically involve changing the file size of the source photo, either by opening the photo in another program such as MS Photo editor and resizing the photo (this can also be done in "Paint" -how's that for low-tech!) or by using Vegas to take a snapshot png of the frame in question, and replacing the photo with that.
In my experience, as soon as Vegas encounters a photo more than 2MB on the timeline, it crashes.

I've also found frequent crashes trying to render a project directly to mpeg for use on a dvd. A simple one here is to render the project in sections as .avi files and put the new pre-rendered sections on the top line of the timeline (Vegas will apparently disregard whatever is underneath and playback will be much smoother.

Rendering from mpegs from avi sources seems to be the preferred way to go in this environment. (faster too!)
-R

I have found using the border with soft edge and the post "arrow" selected (on photos) can cause issues with rendering, stops dead, take the Border out and it works again.

Ok you guys may be onto something with the photos. I ask my photographer friend to take all of his photos that he wants me to use to be in the png format and cropped to 1920x1080. Well what he sent me was files that were 1920x13xx, so they didn't fill the 16:9 frame and I'm self admittedly too lazy to recrop them. This has happened before, and what I typically do is add Sonys soft edge border to them and it usually looks pretty good. Add all that to the fact that each photo gets the "Ken Burns Effect" and I suppose that very well could be tripping it up.

I believe I remember hearing one time that someone said to try and render the project out as an avi and it will still save the rendered file up to the crash point so you can see where it's going wrong. Is this true or am I just imagining things?

Thanks for the help and suggestions guys.

-Brad

Brad, I also see you are using an HMC-150. I've had problems similar to yours when using 720p60 footage. Until SCS fixes this known bug you'll have to transcode these.

Also, are you using Vegas Pro 9? I would think it should handle the larger photos.

Jerry

don't think it's the res of the photos. most of the time I use straight 8mp photos from my rebel with no issues.

I'm thinking along the "added effects" line like what was previously said. Something somewhere @ that point makes vegas unhappy. Render to an AVI & it won't delete it when the render is crashed & then you can plop that on the TL & see where the issue is.

If you're crashing reliably at the same point then there for sure something on/in the time line that vegas doesn't like.

When it crashes on render, it does not (obviously) have time to clear the already rendered section from your HDD. Find it and load it into a player and find out EXACTLY where on the time line it is crashing.

FWIW, if it's crashing at 54%, shouldn't be too hard to figure very roughly where that is on the time line. Rather than a complete render to avi, what about just from ~ 52 - 53%, or just a small segment if you think you spot the trouble, like maybe a photo near that point?

I didn't catch what format rendering to, but is it something like mpg2 that can be joined? If so, might be able to potentially save some render time... maybe find a good point somewhere at the +50% mark, & render from there? Then once you've got the prob fixed, optionally after a proj save with new name, remove markers. Add a marker to the last frame in the 1st half, render a half dozen frames past that, with I frame at markers selected. Put the 2 halves together. PITA, but if you've got a long render...

Tee Time- yeah I'm using the HMC150, but any clips I have that may be 720 60p .mts get rendered out as Sony YUV .avi intermediates. This particular project has 1280x720 clips that are 24p .mts and 60p .avi (overcranked on the 24p timeline), some of the clips have been reversed, 1920x13xx .png pictures that have soft border/Ken Burns applied, and some slight color corrections. Oh, and a music track.

I'm gonna work with a few things and let you all know what I find. Thanks for all the help so far fellas!

do you have any really large file size clips in your timeline? i had this problem, too (mine quit at 64%) and finally discovered a clip that was much larger than the rest...i split it in the timeline, rendered each as an individual avi clip and replaced the original clip with these and no more problem.

Actually what was hanging it up was a vertically taken picture that was too large for Vegas' liking. I brought the size down quite a bit without sacrificing quality and it rendered fine.