Freeze with Too many DNxHD clips

vtxrocketeer wrote on 9/29/2013, 12:18 AM

Relevant specs:

Vegas 12.0, Build 714
QT 7.7.4
DNxHD codec 2.3.8

Just before going crazy, I discovered many times over that I can add no more than about 90 DNxHD clips to the project media pool before Vegas freezes. It doesn't go milky white or try to phone home with an error report; it just becomes totally unresponsive. Same happens when dragging files from a (1) Windows explorer folder, (2) within Vegas from the Explorer tab, or (3) via file/import media. File size seems irrelevant, clips are DNxHD 220 10-bit, 23.976, preview RAM variations have no effect. Project properties match media. Not my first BBQ, k?

I found two related posts here:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/Forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=4&MessageID=856779
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/Forums/ShowMessage.asp?Forum=4&MessageID=860735

Neither offered solutions. Monitoring processes in Windows Task Manager revealed that FileIOSurrogate balloons to about 1.3 GB (!) when Vegas freezes. Killing that process instantly causes Vegas to crash and phone home with an error report.

I'm crestfallen since I wanted to edit with DNxHD which conveniently is my acquisition format, too. A workaround is to transcode to Cineform, but that's not a solution, just a workaround.

Just for grins, I dumped my 115 DNxHD clips into After Effects and it didn't balk one bit. Of course I'd never edit in AE, but my little exercise did tend to point to a bad combination of Vegas and Quicktime, FileIOSurrogate, and/or the codec.

Can anyone shed some light onto what is going on?

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 9/29/2013, 8:14 AM

It's quicktime's notoriously bad memory handling, rolling back to 7,7,1 or earlier may help.
Otherwise Cineform is a good option.

vtxrocketeer wrote on 9/29/2013, 8:22 AM

Thanks for the suggestion. What can you tell me about QT 7.7.1 (or earlier versions) that might help? 'Till this point, I simply have ensured that I have the latest version of QT. I don't mind rolling back if it will help.

Adobe Media Encoder fortunately allows for unattended batch transcoding to Cineform. Also fortunately, HD space is cheap...

musicvid10 wrote on 9/29/2013, 10:48 AM

7.7.4 is known to cause render freezes and crashes. No idea if that relates to your issue.
7.7.1 was "relatively" stable by comparison, although there's no sure thing with Quicktime,.Some still use 7.6.
No point in upgrading once you find a sweet spot.

You meant DNxHD 2.3.8?

john_dennis wrote on 9/29/2013, 12:10 PM

vtxrocketeer wrote on 9/29/2013, 10:04 PM

Thanks, guys. I might try QT 7.6.

At the moment, Cineform is performing like a champ. Perhaps that is the 'sweet spot' where I'll stay.

Yes, musicvid, I meant DNxHD 2.3.8. It's corrected now. It was late night typo.

musicvid10 wrote on 9/30/2013, 10:25 AM

In general, I use cineform for working intermediates in Vegas, and dnxhd for transparent handoff to other apps.

Dnxhd 2.3.9 has been released, but I dont recall seeing anything particularly exciting.