Huge Problems with Vegas Pro and Even Bigger Problems with Support

Craig-Lewis wrote on 2/20/2021, 1:20 AM

I bought Vegas Pro about 2 years ago. I have since paid for various upgrades and still haven't been able to use the software I paid for.

I created a very simple video project. 3 video tracks. Track 1 using Vegas Titles & Text (about :09 length), Track 2 using Vegas Titles & Text (about :09 length) and Track 3 using Vegas Noise for some clouds (about :20 length)

That's it.

The Titles have a little animation in them, but nothing I would even come close to calling taxing on the system. Each Time I preview it, when it comes to the titles, the frame rates drop to about 5fps.

I went through the whole list of things to check, yes I can build a preview each time, but this isn't a working production solution. After all, this isn't that complicated of a video file.

I posted this issue to the forum last year with no real solution.

I opened a case with Magix Support. The idea they had was to reinstall using admin profile. I bought a new computer, no luck. I spent several days with Dell support to go over all the settings, hardware and drivers. Everything was good. I bought an SSD drive, swapped video cards, no luck. Finally they recommended I reinstall the OS to try. I did and reinstalled Vegas using admin profile. No luck

I contacted Magix support again and I'm getting the worst response times from them. I maybe hear something about every 3-4 weeks. I get a line or two from them, respond and back to long waits.

The last response was to try their latest update. I tried and still no changes. I was hoping vegas support might even recommend a screen share to look at things, but I get the feeling that Magix support isn't the least bit interested in supporting their software.

 

I even asked for them to just refund the money spent into their product so I can invest into Adobe instead and they wouldn't have to worry about my problems. Nothing. Anybody have any other ideas?

 

Is it too much to ask for? I just want to edit my videos.

Comments

RogerS wrote on 2/20/2021, 3:08 AM

It's actually easier for Vegas to deal with video than some of these generated media.

I tried to make a project like yours:

It didn't play smoothly the first few times but after it cached got acceptable at preview/auto. For better playback, consider highlighting the length of this media and doing selectively prerender video under tools to Magix Intermediate/ProRes, or use dynamic ram preview (shift +b) if it's short. After doing that it played back smoothly at 24p at best/full.

Steve_Rhoden wrote on 2/20/2021, 12:50 PM

Use the Dynamic ram preview feature at the problem spots....Just because you cannot get realtime playback preview consistently means that the software is unusable!

Musicvid wrote on 2/21/2021, 9:47 AM

You are experiencing normal, expected behavior, and the onus to rendering generated media in real time is on your system, not the software.

The solutions already provided in Vegas are:

  • RAM Preview Render
  • File Preview Render
  • Nesting
  • GPU Acceleration of Preview

For individual support, start here, including full system specs, file specs, timeline fx. We'd love to help, but without some detail and examples??

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/important-information-required-to-help-you--110457/

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/got-questions-consult-the-tutorials-first-please--120282/

Craig-Lewis wrote on 2/24/2021, 1:06 AM

I posed this back last year and tried just about everything.

All of my specs were posted too.

I have used a cheaper video editing software, Pinnacle, and never had problems with something so simple. Worse yet, the EXTREMELY poor support from Magix.

I've been working in television for over 35 years....including NLE since it became available. So, I am familiar with it.

As I described in the message above, it's a really small and simple project/timeline...yet i'm being told I should render everything? So, each time I move a title around a few frames, I need to render? Rendering every time I make a change doesn't seem like a professional way to edit. The wasted time.

This type of solution seems like a plan B...if it doesn't work as expected, render it.

Hell, if I was told I needed to change some hardware, that would make more sense. But I did work with dell support and they went through everything and couldn't find anything wrong. They said what i'm doing is pretty basic.

RogerS wrote on 2/24/2021, 1:46 AM

I don't think you read the answers thoroughly. Dynamic ram preview is instant.

I found the sample project I made editable, even if not totally smooth. If it is really performing that badly you may benefit from a faster CPU.

Craig-Lewis wrote on 2/24/2021, 2:03 AM

I tried that...and I even tried to bump it up. Where the pauses/jitters happen, the CPU hits only 20%...so, faster CPU?

RogerS wrote on 2/24/2021, 2:20 AM

You haven't provided any of the info people asked for, and we don't have access to a thread you made last year.

At a minimum, start with system specs.
Then screenshot of project properties.
Then screenshot of Vegas settings. Is GPU accelerated preview on?

For positioning text precisely, can you disable the generated clouds for a few seconds?

Feel free to share a dummy project if you'd like others to test. I got it to work well enough here but am just guessing as to what you are doing based on your description.

Grazie wrote on 2/24/2021, 2:26 AM

There's an alternative:

Kwik Preview as part of Happy Otter Scripts, I'll say that again, Kwik Preview as part of Happy Otter Scripts: - by our very own Wayne Waag! A bunch of years ago I asked Waggle if it would be possible to FrameServe - thank you Mr Satish - a Vegas Timeline Selection to a Previewer? Mr W twiched his whiskers, thought about it, he tested it with me, and KP was born! Marvellous!

The USPs are:

1] BRP Gets Binned: No need for RAM Building and therefore NOT constrained to the amount of RAM you have or haven't.

2] Kwik Preview Spans Your Creativity: Not confined to a single Event but WILL span a Event/s Transitions.

3] You Gotta Choice Render Format? You can elect for whatever Render Template you have. Currently I'm using MagicYUV as it's blisteringly fast, I may try Vouduker later.

4] Proof of Pudding: I've just done a Split with Transition + A BORIS Swish Focus Transition + Each Split has two different NewBlue Colorfast colour treatments + BORIS Titler on each of the Split Events. I made a 7 second Selection spanning ALL the Transition. I activated Kwik Preview and that 7 second Feature-Rich Selection only took 10 seconds to come into the Pler Preview!!! It's freekin' magic/VooDoo . . .

Outcome? I get to SEE my Narrative/Flow almost immeadiately. No waiting around for Building and then being dissapointed by the indegestion the BRP often hobbles the flow. After Previewing, KP wipes it's feet and leaves the Building. I've NOT used SHIFT+B (Build RAM Preview) for months.

3POINT wrote on 2/24/2021, 4:30 AM

When I'm reading right KP does exactly the same as what SHIFT+M (Selectively Prerender) does in Vegas, creating a temporary prerender file for smoothly previewing a complex timeline segment.

Musicvid wrote on 2/24/2021, 1:17 PM

I posed this back last year and tried just about everything.

All of my specs were posted too.

No, the information we asked for, not even your Vegas version or file properties, were posted, nor were they posted a year ago. In fact, this thread is almost a carbon copy of the last one.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/just-upgraded-to-18-and-still-having-jittering-in-preview--123518/

Still running that 1070? It's not much help with preview acceleration. Maybe try a Turing instead?

Marco. wrote on 2/25/2021, 2:30 AM

"When I'm reading right KP does exactly the same as what SHIFT+M (Selectively Prerender) does in Vegas, creating a temporary prerender file for smoothly previewing a complex timeline segment."

Yes and no.

Yes, Kwik Preview does this, but it offers more options, it uses an external player and it does everything in the background with only one mouse-click. Also, with its default settings, it automatically adopts the render frame rate to the source frame rate. So the overall workflow is more streamlined than the core Selective Prerender process.
The additional options Kwik Preview offers are to render with or without FX, to compare two tracks, to compare Takes, to apply a full swing/studio swing conversion. Once set-up - just one mouse-click.

3POINT wrote on 2/25/2021, 3:15 AM

@Marco. When KP uses an external player, means it shows only the generated prerender and not what's before and after that on the timeline?

Vegas prerender adopts project framerate which is normally source framerate but also set to something else.

Does KP prerenders stay in the timeline like Vegas prerenders do? Can KP do also multiple prerenders? Can KP loop play?

I prefer the use of SHIFT+M a lot more than SHIFT+B.

Marco. wrote on 2/25/2021, 3:30 AM

"When KP uses an external player, means it shows only the generated prerender and not what's before and after that on the timeline?"

Yes.

"Does KP prerenders stay in the timeline like Vegas prerenders do?"

No.

"Can KP do also multiple prerenders?"

No.

"Can KP loop play?"

No.

But I just wanted to say KwickPreview is not the same as the Selectively Prerender feature. It's a different tool for a different purpose. Just like it's name says: It is a Quick Preview tool and for this very purpose I like it better than the Vegas Pro core tools, maybe except the RAM Preview which I prefer to use for very short sections. I almost never use Selectively Prerender.

3POINT wrote on 2/25/2021, 4:09 AM

I do not have HOS, so I cannot compare KP against Vegas internal preview tools. From your description of KP it seems to me a combination of Vegas Selectively Prerender and Render to new track.

I used Selectively prerender a lot for complex Timeline segments, because they are saved with the project and stay present till you decide to delete or overwrite them. RAM preview with a standard setting of 200MB is really useless for nowadays project resolutions and changing constant it's setting to get a RAM preview of more a fraction of a second is really annoying.

Grazie wrote on 2/25/2021, 4:10 AM

@3POINT - On a 1:32 Event I just did a timed test and KP knocked 8 seconds off of the Render process compared to Shift+M. As you know Prerender has to make multiple files. KP utilzing FrameServer frames are all Served, no actual File Creation. No need to Clean-up after. What's a Multiple Prerender? Just noticed another option, from within the Player I can SAVE that KP Media and open it back in VP18 - I like that. Can SHIFT+M do that?

KP has so many more options than Shift+M that lend itself to my Narrative creation.

Grazie wrote on 2/25/2021, 4:16 AM

@Marco. - In the Player I'm using that came with KP, I do get this which allows for Looping and Setting INs and OUTs too:

Marco. wrote on 2/25/2021, 5:03 AM

"RAM preview with a standard setting of 200MB is really useless for nowadays project resolutions and changing constant it's setting to get a RAM preview of more a fraction of a second is really annoying."

I use to have the RAM preview value set to something between 1 GB and 4 GB (dependend on the type of project). This allows for a preview duration of 5 up to 45 seconds (while 2 up to 10 seconds usually is all I need for a RAM preview) and it never caused a problem on my system.

3POINT wrote on 2/25/2021, 5:44 AM

"RAM preview with a standard setting of 200MB is really useless for nowadays project resolutions and changing constant it's setting to get a RAM preview of more a fraction of a second is really annoying."

I use to have the RAM preview value set to something between 1 GB and 4 GB (dependend on the type of project). This allows for a preview duration of 5 up to 45 seconds (while 2 up to 10 seconds usually is all I need for a RAM preview) and it never caused a problem on my system.

Strange, a 4GB RAM preview setting gives me only a 12 second RAM preview in a 1080p30 project and just 2 second preview in a 2160p50 project.

Marco. wrote on 2/25/2021, 5:53 AM

4 GB RAM outputs bit more than 15 seconds preview here for a 1080p50 project (preview set to Best/Full if this matters). My projects usually are 8 bit 720p25, 720p50, 1080i25 or in rare cases 1080p50.

3POINT wrote on 2/25/2021, 6:15 AM

No setting of preview (Best or Full) doesn't matter, it's always depending on resolution and framerate of the preview, so only setting Preview to Auto, Half or Quarter does matter.

My projects are mostly 1080p50 with 2160p50 content, so for me when needed, a smooth quick preview of complex sections of my project or to judge a whole project with complex sections, SHIFT+M is sufficient.

Craig-Lewis wrote on 2/26/2021, 1:37 AM

Is there any way to upload a project archive? The project is very basic, but I'm happy to upload it.

By purchasing a different video card, would I actually see an improvement? What card do you recommend?

Also, would love to hear other opinions why Magix Support sucks so bad?

It would seem that Vegas Pro needs a better way to handle these issues. Pinnacle Studio handles previews in a much smoother way and it's barely noticeable. I would say it's pretty seamless..

BTW, I appreciate everyone's response. I'm looking into what everyone is recommending.

Here are a few things people have asked for....

 

Vegas 18 (434)

OS Name    Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version    10.0.19042 Build 19042
Other OS Description     Not Available
OS Manufacturer    Microsoft Corporation
System Name    DESKTOP-T8HCVVF
System Manufacturer    Alienware
System Model    Alienware Aurora R7
System Type    x64-based PC
System SKU    0858
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 3192 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date    Alienware 1.0.22, 6/9/2020
SMBIOS Version    3.1
Embedded Controller Version    255.255
BIOS Mode    UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer    Alienware
BaseBoard Product    0VDT73
BaseBoard Version    A00
Platform Role    Desktop
Secure Boot State    On
PCR7 Configuration    Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory    C:\Windows
System Directory    C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device    \Device\HarddiskVolume5
Locale    United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer    Version = "10.0.19041.488"
User Name    DESKTOP-T8HCVVF\craig
Time Zone    Eastern Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory    15.8 GB
Available Physical Memory    8.42 GB
Total Virtual Memory    27.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory    14.3 GB
Page File Space    12.0 GB
Page File    C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection    Off
Virtualization-based security    Not enabled
Device Encryption Support    Elevation Required to View
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions    Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions    Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware    Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection    Yes
 

Marco. wrote on 2/26/2021, 1:42 AM

"Is there any way to upload a project archive?"

You would need to upload your project to a web hoster like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or else.

RogerS wrote on 2/26/2021, 2:23 AM

For resample, is there a reason it is set to "force resample"? I'd suggest disable resample if you are working with the same frame rate footage.

I don't see where you shared what your GPU is- can you state the model and amount of GPU ram?
 

3POINT wrote on 2/26/2021, 2:55 AM

Resampling indeed can cause slowing down preview, but only when preview is set to good or best.

When I read back this thread, slowing down preview is only when generated and animated text is on the timeline. Have to this text shadow or blur effects been applied?