How to cut down render time (8hrs for 15 mins)

Grazie wrote on 6/25/2018, 2:04 AM

It would appear your Capture process is not at the same Math intensity as your Render from Timeline.

So for starters:

1] Use the freebie MediaInfo on your Captured material and report back.

2] Your Project Settings.

3] Your Render Settings.

There other tweaks like unchecking GPU, but let’s see the raw information and your settings first.

G

Niklicious wrote on 6/25/2018, 10:13 AM

Well, I hope it is that simple, but I've been unable to find any setting that makes such a drastic difference myself.

I have done a bit of troubleshooting, and this seems to be an audio problem. If I remove the audio track, the rendering time cuts down from 8+ hours to 35 minutes. That's still a bit under half the speed of the capture, which seems pretty slow... but far better than 8 hours of course.

Here are the settings for video and audio.

Project Property Video Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5fsu
Project Property Audio Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5fza
Render Video Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5g79
Render Audio Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5gdo

I'm just using onboard audio device... but I still can't wrap my head around the time and resources Vegas is using. I can use other software to re-encode so much faster/easier. I actually had to re-encode from .flv capture to .mp4 before Vegas would even open the source, which was a painless experience.

I would really appreciate some more advice.

TIA
Nik

EDIT: Here's the output from MediaInfo on the source file. I hope it is what you're looking for, I've never used that app before. Please let me know if you need anything else. https://pastebin.com/ab8QbphB

Red Prince wrote on 6/25/2018, 10:30 AM

Project Property Video Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5fsu
Project Property Audio Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5fza
Render Video Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5g79
Render Audio Settings: http://prntscr.com/jz5gdo

Why are you posting those links instead of uploading the images right into your message here at the forum? If you want people to help you, make it easy on us to see the images right here instead of expecting everyone to wait for external links to load.

Musicvid wrote on 6/25/2018, 10:37 AM

Your source audio is 128Kbps. Your render audio is 320Kbps. It takes more time to do that, and accomplishes -- absolutely nothing.

Also, this is worth a try, because it can't hurt.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/avc-xavc-s-issues-in-vp15-try-disabling-so4compoundplug-dll--108345/

rraud wrote on 6/25/2018, 10:51 AM

Are there audio plug-ins being used? If so, what?
Does the audio file render 'normally' to AAC/MP4 without the video?

Transcode the original file to a PCM format prior to rendering, and/or.. try moving the source audio file(s) to another folder (or drive). Maybe the OneDrive desktop app is interfering.
If the audio renders at a normal rate, by itself, muxing it into the video only file, which would save time.

Niklicious wrote on 6/25/2018, 11:15 AM

Thanks everyone!

---

"Why are you posting those links instead of uploading the images right into your message here at the forum?"
Because I don't have the source images saved locally. If opening a url is too much work for you, maybe don't bother.

----

"Your source audio is 128Kbps. Your render audio is 320Kbps. It takes more time to do that, and accomplishes -- absolutely nothing."
Fair point, updated render settings to match source.

--

" Are there audio plug-ins being used? If so, what?"
By Vegas I assume you mean? I don't know how to answer this question, I'm sorry.

"Does the audio file render 'normally' to AAC/MP4 without the video?"
Yes, it rendered in under 10 seconds.

"Transcode the original file to a PCM format prior to rendering, and/or.. try moving the source audio file(s) to another folder (or drive). Maybe the OneDrive desktop app is interfering."
Changed project settings to not use the one drive folder.

"If the audio renders at a normal rate, by itself, muxing it into the video only file, which would save time."
There is no separate file for audio and video, I just mute them in Vegas before rendering. If there is no better answer, I can continue rendering audio and video separately, then joining them. Any advice on how I would do that? A different application I would imagine.

So, for reasons unknown to me it is really difficult for Vegas to render audio and video together. At this point my biggest concern is pegging my CPU @ 100% usage for 30 mins + at a time. While it isn't overheating, it doesn't seem necessary, and the smell of heated thermal paste in the morning isn't my favourite.

fr0sty wrote on 6/25/2018, 11:31 AM

First of all, capturing video is nothing more than a process of copying it from point A to point B. Rendering it is an extremely complex process of first processing those frames through any changes that were made to them on the Vegas (or any other NLE) timeline, then encoding each frame using a myriad of techniques for reducing file size, all of which take a very long time to encode in comparison to just copying the data from point A to B.

I suggest taking a bit to do some youtube watching about the different types of video encoding, spatial and temporal especially. In a nutshell, spatial basically takes a block of pixels and sees if it can remove any color shades your eye will likely not notice going missing, and then it uses a few math tricks to further reduce the size of the file needed to store that data. Temporal looks at changes from one frame to the next. If it does not move, it does not send that part of the next frame. So, if you watch an MPEG clip (1,2,4, or 5 variety) of a baseball flying across a static background, you're seeing the background from frame 1 (or the last keyframe) and only the data containing the baseball is updated on the subsequent frames.

All of this takes a long time to do, so you cannot expect 1:1 from capture (are you still using tapes??? get rid of them if so!) to render.

You have a few options to improve render speed.

1. Render to a different codec. The Sony AVC codec can render faster sometimes, try it out.

2. (Preferred) buy a beefy GPU. I'm using a Nvidia GTX 970, it flies through AVC renders. Graphics cards are capable of encoding far faster than a standard CPU. You'll also notice your timeline performance will improve, as the GPU helps with that as well. I'm noticing you have no GPU acceleration in your render settings, indicating you do not currently have a compatible GPU.

3. If this still isn't helping much, upgrade the entire system.

dream wrote on 6/25/2018, 1:47 PM

whats your pc/laptop specifications

Musicvid wrote on 6/25/2018, 1:51 PM

If there are audio plugins or audio effects on the Vegas timeline, it is because you put them there.

May we see a screenshot of your Vegas window please?

rraud wrote on 6/25/2018, 2:22 PM

Try this; Render the audio (only) to a new track ("Tools> Render to new track") as a 48kHz, 16 or 24 bit PCM <.wav> file. Mute or remove the original audio track(s). Render as you normally would and see if that helps.

BTW, you can select the A/V content in the 'Render as' dialog under "Custom". The audio and video render windows have a "Include" check box.

There are lots of muxing utilities available... The free MeGUI always worked good for me. Sound Forge Audio Studio 12 can also replace audio without re-rendering the video.

Niklicious wrote on 6/26/2018, 8:40 AM

Thanks for all the help everyone. I've cut the audio down as far as I can without a notable quality drop, and it seems it is as good as it is going to get.

I'm still surprised, and disappointed, how CPU heavy and GPU light Vegas runs. I guess I got this new card for no reason. Anyway.... it is what it is, much improved now, so thanks again.

Former user wrote on 6/26/2018, 5:44 PM

What cpu, what gpu, are you software rendering or hardware (nvenc)?

Put obvious stuff like cpu and gpu in your message & your render method. Maybe it's normal , maybe something is broken.

None of your screencaps work (for me)

You say things are much improved, but how imporoved. orginal render was 8 hours, now what is it?

Are you a super secret agent, not used to giving out detailed information?

EricLNZ wrote on 6/26/2018, 10:33 PM

I note the source mp4 is 5 hrs 40 mins long, has VBR although it doesn't vary much, and has a low bitrate for 1080. I wonder if that has any bearing?

fifonik wrote on 6/26/2018, 11:20 PM

> 5 hrs 40 mins long, has VBR

Video stream also has variable frame rate. This could be a reason why a lot of decoding might be required.

EricLNZ wrote on 6/27/2018, 5:57 AM

Sorry I meant VFR. Typo!

rraud wrote on 6/27/2018, 10:51 AM

That would not explain why it renders much faster without the audio (as the op stated).

fr0sty wrote on 6/27/2018, 4:41 PM

Thanks for all the help everyone. I've cut the audio down as far as I can without a notable quality drop, and it seems it is as good as it is going to get.

I'm still surprised, and disappointed, how CPU heavy and GPU light Vegas runs. I guess I got this new card for no reason. Anyway.... it is what it is, much improved now, so thanks again.

It's running GPU light because it isn't using your card at all, lol. As I said, you have no GPU acceleration settings on your render settings. Which card are you using?