i think for once it's a good idea to ask for system specs?

such as, os, vegas version, hardware - would take a long, long time on a pent 4 ;-)

How long is a long time? I have HDV and it takes "a long time" to render in HDV, or even to down-rez my HDV to DV (for DVD creation), but my laptop is old and slow. Having said that, you should be able to smart render your HDV that has not been altered by FX, transitions, etc. Smart rendering is faster than not-smart rendering, but it's still "slow" if you have an older computer.

Regards,

Kimberly

Smart rendering: Make sure you have "Enable no-recompress long-GOP rendering" checked in the general preferences. When you are rendering, assuming you haven't added any FX or crop/pan etc., the preview should be black with the words "no recompression required" for most of the render.

Also, keep in mind that while you are smart-rendering the video, the audio is being recompressed with each generation. That's why I use either .mxf or XDCAM .mp4 instead: because the HDV video will smart-render into these formats while the audio will be uncompressed and not damaged further with successive smart-renders.

Thanks for all the replies!

As I read the documentation, smart-render requires that all the project settings match the video inputs. Is there some tool to cross check what my video files properties are versus the projects?

Click the "Match Media Settings" icon in the very top right of the "Project Properties" window and then choose one of your source files. If those properties match one of Vegas' templates, then that template will be selected. This is in 10.0e. I assume it's the same in 11.

Use MediaInfo to inspect the properties of your files. You get more info if you switch the view to text or tree mode.

Also, when you are choosing from among the render templates, there will be an "=" in front of any template that matches your project.

I've done that and it still doesn't do smart rendering.

However, i've got another problem. I'm not getting any audio when I render, even though the render preset has the audio included.

To snelldl:
you asked "is there some tool to check" --you may want to install Timeline Tools by nfatoys software mentioned elsewhere in posts on this forum.

Never mind about the audio - I had muted the audio line by mistake on purpose by mistake. DOH!

What version of Vegas are you using? V11's smart rendering of HDV was broken until the last build release.

11.0 - but when I use the "vegas on the web" option it says there is no update.

Build 595

595 was specifically supposed to fix HDV smart render. If you render a short clip, then put the resulting clip back on the TL, does that smart render?

Wasn't it hdv print to tape that was fixed in the last release?

Edit

Yes, but also fixed issue which prevented rendered HDV from subsequently smart rendering. Presumably HDV straight from the camera would smart render in earlier releases.

OK, I still don't have it working, but I'm living with it. So let's close off this discussion.

Thanks for all the answers.