This fixed my problem! Thank you so much! This seems like a relatively simple thing for sony to fix in an update?

The steps above are actually a work-around rather than a true fix. The bug in Vegas is still there, but the circumstances that trigger it don't occur after the changes above have been made. Sony needs to fix the underlying bug. That might not be very difficult, but it will involve actually changing their program code rather than merely reconfiguring the environment it is executed in, which is what this work-around does.

Guys, can you help please?

I have followed the steps as you have described but when I get to the save bit it tells me I cannot save the changes, it then gives me the option to save under a different name (which I did) but when I try to open it no joy.

Thanks

You cannot save the changes made with CFFExplorer unless you are running as administrator. Otherwise you don't have the necessary privilege to save them. The modified versions must have the same names as the original files or they will be ignored. It is also necessary that the files are not in use to be able to save them, which means that you cannot be running Vegas under any account on your computer while you make these changes. I recommend making the changes after rebooting your computer to make sure none of the Vegas files are (still) loaded. Let us know how it goes for you.

Shaun717, I had the same problem so saved the file to my desktop and then copied it from there into the Vegas directory to overwrite the target file.
Also, the admin needs to sticky these fix threads until Sony fixes them for good.

Awesome work around. Thanks.

I never had any rendering issues until I tried 1080p. Then the crashing started. With 4.8 Mbps 720-24p WMV rendering I did not have any issues. But stepping up the the 6.4 Mbps 1080-24p WMV, it would crash quite quickly. Same went for MPEG rendering. I haven't tried that yet with the fix, but I'm looking forward to trying.

So this workaround works well for most things but has caused new problems. Vegas can now blue screen Windows 7 x64 HP. 8mbps 1080-30p renders crash the whole system (BSOD) after about 1/2 hour.

I am new here to the forums, have trolled a little before. I too had problems rendering to AVCHD formats. I changed the flags refrenced here in this post, and have had success rendering AVCHD. I do now have some sort of sync issue with my rendered 1920x1080 avchd, it seems after viewing through my ps3 about 3-4 minutes into video gets choppy and audio is advanced maybe 5-20 seconds. If I have the ps3 display turned on it plays at arond 12 mbps until it gets out of sync then it jumps to 25+ mbps. This is what I remember, I don't recall the exact rates. Is this a issue caused from the >2 gig flag? or a different issue, hopefully with a cure. I am at a loss with rendering anything HD. 1440x1080 AVCHD renders now and plays good for the most part but if I FF for a while I can get that out of sync also. I sincerely am thankfull for you guys that figured out the flag deal, however I am still not able to do much with HD. Any thoughts or tips from someone who knows what is going on would be greatly appeciated. Is my software rendering avchd correctly or is it rendering a corrupted file.

Thanks, Todd

It's extremely unlikely that changing the >2GB flag would cause a synchronization problem. The >2GB flag doesn't actually change anything about how Vegas works or any of its programming code. All the >2GB flag does is tell Windows to load the Vegas program in a slightly different way, but everything that is loaded is identical whether the >2GB flag is set or not. In other words, the >2GB flag actually modifies how Windows works, rather than how Vegas works. But doing that is enough to change the circumstances so that the bug in Vegas that still exists doesn't get triggered, preventing the rendering crashes or freeze-ups.

You said that you are at a loss for rendering anything HD. There are actually quite a number of different ways of rendering HD output. The choices that make sense for you depend on which type(s) of equipment you want to display your HD with. You've indicated that you use a PS3 for playing your AVCHD video files. You could also try playing one of your AVCHD files that has the synchronization problem with another device, such as the free VLC media player, on your computer. If you can play your AVCHD file with that without any problem, then that tells you that Vegas, and your AVCHD files, are essentially okay, and the problem is something with how your PS3 deals with AVCHD. I get the sense that your synchronization problem is not reproducible. By that I mean, I suspect the synchronization problem isn't identical each time you play a file (you said that fast forwarding throws it out of sync faster). That suggests the problem is with how your PS3 plays AVCHD. So, in general, to pursue this requires first determining what it is that actually has the problem, and my guess is it is your PS3.

I don't know what types of HD video your PS3 is supposed to be able to play.

That whole issue might be sidestepped just by rendering to some other HD format besides AVCHD. AVCHD isn't very good as a simple file (the AVCHD spec actually requires a whole set of supporting files that go with the video stream file). Vegas doesn't produce them when you render to AVCHD. Have you tried rendering to 1920x1080 wmv or avi, for example? I think they tend to be better formats for rendering to if you're going to use just a simple file rather than a true AVCHD compliant structure such as is used on ACVHD DVDs.

Thank you for getting back to me so soon. You have a lot of good points, I agree that I have not isolated the playback or render issue, I am not quite sure how to go about the diagnosis, but would agree with your conclusion with FF. I am still not sure (being really new to all of this) what format I want/need. What I can tell you is I want to render 720x480 for my non hd stuff for friends and family, and I want to take advantage of the cameras1920x1080 HD for my DLP/ps3 equipment. I really dont know all the ins and outs of the specific format pros and cons. I do know I want to keep my hd files on DVD media single or dual layer. I have read the ps3 plays: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 PS, MPEG-2 TS, AVI, AVCHD(.m2ts) and others. So what would you suggest to be the best workflow for me now that you know what equipment I am dealing with, it looks like I am talking to the right guy, any guidance would be helpful.

Thanks, Todd

First, I don't have a PS3, so the advice I have is just me making guesses.

I do recommend downloading a free copy of the VLC media player. You can use that on your computer to play AVCHD files. If it plays your AVCHD files properly then you know the problem is with your PS3. If it doesn't play your AVCHD files properly, then you pretty much know the problem is with Vegas.

I just took a look at Sony's PS3 website. I have a few observations:

1) Have you updated the operating system in your PS3? The most recent version is 3.15, released December 10, 2009. I don't know if that will fix any of your problems, but it makes sense to use the latest version before spending any more time trying to fix things on your own.

2) According to Sony, the PS3 Video Categories that it supports on DVD media (what you said you want to use) are:

a) Data Discs ("Play video files saved on compatible, recordable disc media such as a CD-R or DVD-R.")

b) DVD-ROM / DVD-R / DVD+R / DVD-RW / DVD+RW ("Play a DVD or an AVCHD Disc.")

3) Regarding Data Discs, according to Sony, the PS3 types of HD files that can be played from DVD Data Discs are:

# MP4 file format
# - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (AAC LC)

# MPEG-2 PS (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2, AAC LC, AC3(Dolby Digital), LPCM)

# MPEG-2 TS (MPEG2 Audio Layer 2, AC3 LC;Dolby Digital, AAC LC)

# MPEG-2 TS (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, AAC LC)

# AVI
# - Motion JPEG (Linear PCM)
# - Motion JPEG (mu-Law)

# AVCHD (.m2ts / .mts)

# DivX

# WMV

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Okay, getting back to advice:

As far as making standard definition DVDs for friends and family of video shot with your 1920x1080 camcorder, that should be pretty straight forward. After you have edited your HD video, just click "Make Movie"/Burn it to DVD, Blu-ray Disc, or CD/DVD. (I haven't actually made a SD DVD with Vegas yet, so lots of other people here could add advice about this if you need it someday.) If you want to have a menu on your DVD, then you will need to use some external program, like DVD Architect Studio, to combine the individual rendered SD videos together onto a SD DVD.

The bigger issue is making HD DVDs. You start from the same point you created your SD DVD, with your edited HD video in Vegas. You just need to choose different rendering options. There are two ways to go: creating an AVCHD Disc, or creating a Data Disc. The distinction is that a Data Disc is just a DVD with no particular structure, while an AVCHD Disc must be compliant with the AVCHD specification for DVDs. Sony Vegas does not offer an option for creating AVCHD DVDs (though it is possible with external programs such as multiAVCHD; see my post here for how to do it). Consequently, it is easier to create a Data Disc. Data Discs can not have menus like AVCHD Discs can have, however. So, if you require a menu, then you must go the AVCHD Disc route, otherwise you can go the Data Disc route. You can have any collection of files (video and non-video) you want on a Data Disc. The video files must be any of those the PS3 documentation says it supports. For starters, I suggest using the WMV format, but you can experiment and try others and find what works best for you with your equipment. That's pretty much it: in Vegas, render your edited HD video, just click "Make Movie"/Save it to my hard drive/Format(Windows Media Video V11 (*.wmv))+choose an appropriate audio & framerate 1080 Template (higher bitrate for better quality but bigger filesize). Burn the resulting HD video file(s) to a DVD and play it in your PS3.

Not having a PS3, I can't discuss the effectiveness of things like fast forwarding or rewinding video files on Data Discs. If that doesn't work well with any HD video format (you already know it doesn't work well with AVCHD video files) and it's important to you, then you would need to go the AVCHD DVD route. All those non-video stream files in AVCHD DVDs are there to support features like menus, chapter selection, fast forwarding, rewinding, subtitles, etc.

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Alternatively, if you want to continue doing things as you currently have but just get the synchronization problem fixed, you could try the advice LR2003 gives in the thread I cited above for how to create an AVCHD DVD.

Thank you for the helpful information. What are the differances between the formats for quality and size. I did render to AVI last night and ended up with a 603.67 GB rendered file! Same data rendered 6.42 GB in m2ts and 2.48 GB in MPEG-2. Is there a book or website that has done all the comparisons of the types and quality benefited, so I dont have to? Anyways I thank you for your helpful knowledge.

P.S. How would you even store a 600 GB file! Whew...

What is "VLC" and where do I find it?

The answer to your question is pretty tough to give, because Vegas actually offers infinitely many variations in rendering options. I don't know of any book or website that's done the comparisons, but I find that just a few experimental tests will pretty quickly get me pointed in the right direction.

So, because there are so many options, you need to be careful how you specify them. (I recommend taking notes and experimenting with short test clips so you can get your results quickly.) In general, you need to look at every field in the render dialog.

For example, when you choose the AVI render format there is also a field named Template. The initial template choice is "Default Template (uncompressed)" and it does just what it implies... renders your file in AVI format without compressing it (so each high definition 2 megapixel frame may be about 6MB in size times, say, 30 per second, which comes to about 180MB per second of HD video). You probably want to choose another template, like maybe HD 1080-60i YUV for example. [There are so many variables, like what the frame rate of your source video is, etc., which means I can't tell what you should use without knowing much more about your whole circumstances.]

If you don't see any template choice that you like, you can click the "Advanced Render..." button, and then click the "Custom..." button, then go to the Video tab and you can really start to adjust various video settings (ditto for the audio settings on the audio tab), and that's just for the AVI format. In general, use one of the supplied templates if any seems appropriate for you, and if not then choose the closest to what you want and then customize the individual settings to get exactly what you want.

You might find the WMV format has more intuitive template choices.

My approach is not to use a choice that just says "default" unless it also describes what that means. For example, I know what resolution I want to render to, and I know what frame rate I want, and I know that I want NTSC rather than PAL (because I live in the US), and I know what aspect ratio I want, and I know if I want interlaced or progressive video, and I know the characteristics of my source video (like whether it is interlaced or progressive, etc.), and I have a good idea of which format I want (at least after doing a little experimenting). So, I start with those things I know, then I play with the other things and see what happens. Of course, once you find what works well for you, you don't have to go through this whole thing again, just use the same settings.

Incidentally, the uncompressed AVI files produced by that default template would be used for rendering short clips that you intend to bring into some type of video editor tool for further processing, and then bring back into Vegas. Since it's uncompressed, it won't introduce any new compression artifacts. Otherwise, repeatedly compressing and decompressing a video clip will result in noise on noise on noise and degrade the image quality more with each generation. You'd never want to deliver your final production in the uncompressed form.

VLC is a free media player that natively plays AVCHD very nicely. You can google it to find many places where you can download it, like here.

Getting back to making SD DVDs, see this thread.

Ok, I've got a new I5 (4 processors) with 8GB RAM running 64bit W7. My rendering times have decreased significantly from my P4 system. 2 hours of video with minimal effects takes about 45 minutes to MPG2. Is this good?
I haven't had any crash issues, but I decided to try this >2GB fix just to see if it made any difference in rendering performance. It doesn't. I also tried unchecking the "32 bit word machine" flag and that doesn't make any difference either.
Should I have expected any increase in performance, or is this just to fix the crashes? Should I reset the flags?
My next plan is to add another external drive (USB) so that I'm not reading and writing the same drive. Should I expect much better performance ?

On one hand, it's not really possible to say whether your new rendering times are good or bad without knowing lots more details because they can greatly influence your results. On the other hand, if your rendering results seem good to you, then they are good. It doesn't really matter what other people say, since you're the one that has to work with it. My personal feeling is that rendering at faster than real time, as you have, is pretty easy to live with.

I do not recommend making the >2GB mods unless you experience rendering crashes or freezes (or unless they provide you with some other benefit). I would not expect any change in performance one way or the other; the changes were intended just for fixing the crashes. It was worth making an experiment to try, though! Personally, I'd reset the flags as they originally were unless you have a need for the modifications.

As for adding an external USB drive: I would expect it to hurt your render performance. According to wikipedia, the maximum theoretical transfer rate of a USB 2.0 port is 480 Mbps. Most internal SATA hard drives have a maximum transfer rate of 3 Gbps, or more than six times faster.

The truth is, despite lots of advice to the contrary, adding a second hard drive will have almost no effect on render performance at all. How to prove it: you say it takes 45 minutes to render your 2 hour video. How long does it take to make a copy of that rendered video onto the same drive? Half of that time is the largest theoretical improvement you could hope for by adding a second hard drive with the same data transfer rate, and you won't even come anywhere close to that because the CPU is the bottleneck during rendering. That simple test is an excellent way of telling you what to expect, because it involves both reading and writing to the same drive (what is also happening during rendering with only one drive). My guess is that it will take no more than just a few minutes (a small fraction of the time required to render it) to make the copy.

In any case, I would have all my source material and my render destination on one or more internal SATA hard disk(s) with 3Gbps data transfer rate. If you have anything (source or destination) on an external hard disk connected through an USB port, your render performance will suffer somewhat.

David,
Thanks, I'll reset my flags. And it sounds like even a second internal drive would make little difference.

Is this fix valid also for version 8.0d? I'm having numerous crashes with 8.0d and SD video running 64-bit Vista. It crashes on pre-rendering as well.

You can give it a try, but I seriously doubt that it will help. If it doesn't help, you can undo the changes. I have never had version 8.0d, but my understanding is that version 9 was the first to support the HD features that have caused the rendering crashes for some people, so I doubt 8.0d even has all the same executable files modified with this fix.

Just a quick thank you to David, Mad Pierre and blink3times for taking the time to post things like this. No idea how Mad Pierre finds solutions like this but for me it worked a treat.

FYI I'm using 64bit Vista, 6gb RAM and an i7 CPU 920@2.67GHz and VMS platinum 9.0

Cheers
Exorsista

how to i get an administrator account for CFF explorer?

That depends on which version of Windows you use. This is a Windows issue, not a CFF Explorer issue, by the way. Windows XP requires at least one user account has administrator privileges. If you have only one user account, then it has administrator privileges. I don't use Vista or Windows 7 so I can't say how to do it with them, but the mechanism may be different. Try searching Windows help system for "administrator" if you use Vista or Windows 7.

To Yanksfan2194:

If you use Windows 7, or maybe Vista, and haven't had any luck figuring out how to execute CFFExplorer with administrator privileges, take a look at SedgDad's 2nd message on 4/4/10.