GPU encoding fails on Vegas Pro 11 - all versions.

jonski wrote on 9/3/2015, 9:41 AM
Vegas Pro 64 bit build 701

System: Windows 10 Pro. Intel i5 4690k CPU @ 3.50GHz. 8GB RAM.

Also tried 32 bit Vegas, Windows 7, Windows 8.1 etc.

500GB SSD free.

I just spend a whole bunch on upgrading my motherboard, RAM etc, so that I could fit a an NVIDIA GeForce GT 740 specially to use with Vegas to speed up rendering.

I previously had an ATI RADEON HD 4350, which also said it was compatible ("GPU is available"), but would never encode.

So now that I've got this whole new rig, when selecting MainConcept AVC/AAC, "Check GPU" under the "System" tab shows:

"CUDA is available."

But when I go to render the file, it always says:

"An Error Occurred while creating the media file (Name of file)
The reason for the error could not be determined"

When rendering as Sony ACV/MVC, under "system", in all formats, "check GPU" shows "No GPU available".

Although am now on Windows 10, this is exactly the same as in Windows 7 and 8.1

On the motherboard, there is also an Intel HD Graphics 4600.

I know these must be capable of GPU-related tasks, because they both get used for BOINC (grid computing, SETI etc).

I can also use the GeForce GT 740 with programs like "Free CUDA video converter", but of course, that is not an editor.

I have found other people in the forums and on Youtube videos saying that the "solution" for this is to disable GPU rendering, but I don't see disabling a valid, compatible £80 CUDA card as being much of a solution.

I see there is a newer version of Vegas. If I upgrade, how do I know that my card will even work?
But in any case, I don't see why I should have to pay when this is clearly a bug.

I tried contacting support but just got told that

"Vegas Pro 11.0 is a legacy product that is not eligible for technical support."

Then I found this:
https://www.custcenter.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5172

So does that basically mean that £350 of new kit to encode video faster is pretty much down the drain?

(Yes, of course the newer intel chip will help, but it's not £350 faster at encoding!)

Comments

OldSmoke wrote on 9/3/2015, 10:02 AM
[I]compatible £80 CUDA card[/I]

And here we go again. Your card is not "fully" compatible with any current versions of Vegas that support GPU acceleration; VP11,12 and 13.

The last "fully" supported Nvidia card was/is the GTX580.

If you do a lot of MP4 encoding straight out of VP11, get a GTX580 off eBay. That will enable you to use Mainconcept AVC template with CUDA, which is very fast and Sony AVC with GPU.

Proud owner of Sony Vegas Pro 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13 and now Magix VP15&16.

System Spec.:
Motherboard: ASUS X299 Prime-A

Ram: G.Skill 4x8GB DDR4 2666 XMP

CPU: i7-9800x @ 4.6GHz (custom water cooling system)
GPU: 1x AMD Vega Pro Frontier Edition (water cooled)
Hard drives: System Samsung 970Pro NVME, AV-Projects 1TB (4x Intel P7600 512GB VROC), 4x 2.5" Hotswap bays, 1x 3.5" Hotswap Bay, 1x LG BluRay Burner

PSU: Corsair 1200W
Monitor: 2x Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM (2560x1440)

wwaag wrote on 9/3/2015, 11:15 AM
My suggestion--do yourself a favor and use Handbrake for your AVC renders. Here is a link to a "one-click" solution. http://www.vegasvideo.de/vegas-2-handbrake-en Use your video card for effects processing only (set in video preferences). In Handbrake, you can use Quick-sync which is roughly twice as fast as CPU only. (BTW, Quick-sync renders from Vegas only work for 720 60P--1080 is broken). It takes awhile to set up, but afterward you'll find it works very well. For high bit-rate renders, I use Quick-sync. For low-bit rate renders, like for Youtube, I use the CPU option which seems to afford the best quality for the lowest bit rate. There's an excellent tutorial available on how to configure Handbrake for Youtube and Vimeo. Good luck.

wwaag

AKA the HappyOtter at https://tools4vegas.com/. System 1: Intel i7-8700k with HD 630 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX4070 graphics card. System 2: Intel i7-3770k with HD 4000 graphics plus an AMD RX550 graphics card. System 3: Laptop. Dell Inspiron Plus 16. Intel i7-11800H, Intel Graphics. Current cameras include Panasonic FZ2500, GoPro Hero11 and Hero8 Black plus a myriad of smartPhone, pocket cameras, video cameras and film cameras going back to the original Nikon S.

astar wrote on 9/3/2015, 5:24 PM
Similar to what Oldsmoke says. The Intel4600 would be better than either the NV700 or the AMD HD4000. The HD5770 would be the bottom end supported card for Vegas versions that use GPU for encode and timeline.

Ebay
HD5770
HD 6970
HD7970-ghz

New
R9-270x
R9-280x
R9-290x/390x

If you want Vegas performance. If you are stuck on NV for other applications uses, then there is not much the forum can do for you.

Most people have decent upload speed these days, just rendering out to XDCAM-ex and uploading to YouTube is a good way to avoid the min/maxing of handbrake.
jonski wrote on 9/4/2015, 3:40 PM
Well, OK, thanks for all the feedback. But...ugh! So, when I "test" and it says "CUDA is available", it means "CUDA isn't available".

That said, it doesn't matter now because that video about using a third party encoder is excellent, and I didn't realise you could directly "pipe" a workflow like that.

I always found Vegas's output to be significantly larger for the same quality, than the equivalent settings in Avidemux or Vidcoder.

I'll probably export to h.265 now - I know I won't be able to re-edit h.265 in my V11 of Vegas, but at least everything seems to play it and youtube likes it. And while it might be significantly slower, the quality vs filesize is stupidly, ridiculously better for MOST output.

That is to say, most of what I use it for, which is generally largest static content with, for example, screencams, or someone reading on a podium. And I'm talking about 17 minutes of 1280x720 ending up at 7Mb. Yes, 7Mb (took over an hour to process on Avidemux's slowest mode, mind!)

h.265 for the win for me, but whichever I end up with, that video is really helpful.

So one question remains - why can so much better/quicker results be achieve with free third party tools than with a professional editing tool?

(btw email notification doesn't seem to be working despite being setup, so apologies for the late reply!)
OldSmoke wrote on 9/4/2015, 3:46 PM
btw email notification doesn't seem to be working despite being setup, so apologies for the late reply!

Sorry, no such functionality in this forum.

Proud owner of Sony Vegas Pro 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13 and now Magix VP15&16.

System Spec.:
Motherboard: ASUS X299 Prime-A

Ram: G.Skill 4x8GB DDR4 2666 XMP

CPU: i7-9800x @ 4.6GHz (custom water cooling system)
GPU: 1x AMD Vega Pro Frontier Edition (water cooled)
Hard drives: System Samsung 970Pro NVME, AV-Projects 1TB (4x Intel P7600 512GB VROC), 4x 2.5" Hotswap bays, 1x 3.5" Hotswap Bay, 1x LG BluRay Burner

PSU: Corsair 1200W
Monitor: 2x Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM (2560x1440)

wwaag wrote on 9/4/2015, 5:38 PM
@jonski

So one question remains - why can so much better/quicker results be achieve with free third party tools than with a professional editing tool?

Good question. I don't know, but it could very well have a lot to do with licensing arrangements between Sony and Mainconcept. For all we know, use of Mainconcept encoders may restrict Sony to use only encoders they have produced like Sony AVC. Plus, Mainconcept is very well integrated within Vegas unlike any other 3rd party solutions. So if you're not terribly concerned with speed or quality or you're uncomfortable with using 3rd party software, just use Vegas--it's easy. Again, just speculation on my part. From a practical standpoint, it really doesn't matter. Another 3rd party encoder to consider, although not free like Handbrake, is TMPGEnc's Mastering Works. You can frameserve directly from Vegas without installation of some of the software needed to do the 1-click Vegas to Handbrake installation. As an aside, I downloaded the trial, and found that Quick-sync renders in TMPGEnc were even faster than Handbrake, although CPU encoding was slower. It also includes a very good MPEG-2 encoder, unlike Mainconcept that is included in Vegas.

wwaag

AKA the HappyOtter at https://tools4vegas.com/. System 1: Intel i7-8700k with HD 630 graphics plus an Nvidia RTX4070 graphics card. System 2: Intel i7-3770k with HD 4000 graphics plus an AMD RX550 graphics card. System 3: Laptop. Dell Inspiron Plus 16. Intel i7-11800H, Intel Graphics. Current cameras include Panasonic FZ2500, GoPro Hero11 and Hero8 Black plus a myriad of smartPhone, pocket cameras, video cameras and film cameras going back to the original Nikon S.