Multicam editing

chuck-thomas wrote on 4/19/2021, 7:47 PM

I have an i7 3.2Ghz cpu with 32 Gb RAM-I just purchased Vegas Pro 18-In multicam I have Googled for help and changed settings as advised but it is still quirky-lags when I change clips so it's impossible to get the right clip high lighted at the right time! I also use Powerdirector and it works flawlessly but I am more familiar with Vegas and would really like to get it to work. I don't use a separate graphics card-tried one once but it didn't help. I feel I have wasted a lot of money if a cheap Powerdirector software is gonna work better than Vegas Pro. Any advice on what to adjust or change? Thanks much

Comments

RogerS wrote on 4/19/2021, 10:36 PM

What settings did you change exactly?

What is your CPU model number? i7 could be 10 years old. What does preferences/file i/o say for decoding?

What media are you using? Use Media Info text mode to answer: https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo

Did you change preview to preview/auto?

Is your hard drive fast enough for multiple simultaneous streams? Consider moving each active project to SSD.

If that's not enough right-click on the media and "create video proxy" which is a good idea for multicam in general.

chuck-thomas wrote on 4/20/2021, 9:27 AM

Open Cl/Gl Interop changed to "false"---enable Legacy HEVC and AVC decoding ---dynamic RAM preview max-changed to 1/3 of my RAM -(10,000)-----cpu Model number is intel core i7-8700 cpu @ 3.20 GHz---media: XAVC 4.53GiB---MPEG 4 2.82 GiB---BDAV 1.24GiB---I have preview set to "good"--my hard drives are Samsung 850 EVO SSD-500GB---I'll try the create video proxy-thanks for your help.

RogerS wrote on 4/20/2021, 9:46 AM

I would undo all of those changes. If you disable the GPU (open CL/GL) for the preview, then enable legacy AVC decoding which keeps your GPU from helping with decoding you are forcing the CPU to do all the work.

Putting that much ram into dynamic ram preview isn't necessary, try the default (200) or experiment with somewhat greater values (1000, 2000) especially if you actually create such preview. Turn back to 200 or 0 for rendering.

I have the same SSD- that should be adequate.

I don't really understand what media you are using but if it's XAVC it works with GPU decoding so reset file i/o to defaults.

chuck-thomas wrote on 4/20/2021, 12:16 PM

ok-thanks much

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 4/20/2021, 12:23 PM

@chuck-thomas agree w/RogerS on settings. Also, to maximize Vegas multicam performance, make sure your clips are in a format Vegas can use your hardware gpu to decode and that it's in fact decoding that way. Look in Task Manager, Performance charts for your gpu(s) and make sure there is decoding utilization while you play the clips. If you're using m2t or Sony xavc intra for your clips, you won't get gpu help from either an rx580 or an Intel igpu. Suggest you transcode your clips to Magix avc instead, perhaps raising the bitrate from the default if your source clips are higher.

chuck-thomas wrote on 4/21/2021, 9:24 AM

wow-I'll check that-again, I just don't see why Vegas is so complicated when a cheap software like Powerdirector plays and edits my same clips with their multicam flawlessly right out of the gate. Granted Vegas has a lot more professional aspects but for something as simple as a 3 camera multicam video with a mixed sound track you would think it would be a piece of cake for Vegas. I should have got the trial version, then I would have never purchased it. Anyway, thanks for the advise!

john_dennis wrote on 4/21/2021, 10:32 AM

@chuck-thomas

It would be enlightening if you would share a screenshot like this:

  • with Power Director playing your multicamera project.
  • with Vegas Pro 18 playing your multicamera project.

Use this button to upload:

chuck-thomas wrote on 4/21/2021, 12:22 PM

I guess this would explain a lot- Vegas is using 100% cpu! I don't know why that is when Powerdirector is using half of that!

Musicvid wrote on 4/21/2021, 1:00 PM

1. Make Proxies

2. Adjust your edit points in post.

3. Practice

4. When in doubt, refer to #3.

john_dennis wrote on 4/21/2021, 1:22 PM

@chuck-thomas

You need to scroll down and look at GPU utilization. That's how Power Director gets away with using less CPU.

... and also how Vegas will use less CPU when you get the configuration right.

chuck-thomas wrote on 4/21/2021, 1:24 PM

I do have better results with proxies-I'm just baffled at why that is necessary with Vegas and not Powerdirector which is absolutely flawless without changing anything-but thanks much!

Musicvid wrote on 4/21/2021, 10:07 PM

I understand PowerDirector prerenders in the background.

Just a different way of doing things.

RogerS wrote on 4/21/2021, 10:32 PM

I do have better results with proxies-I'm just baffled at why that is necessary with Vegas and not Powerdirector which is absolutely flawless without changing anything-but thanks much!

Did you change the setting back that disabled your GPU? If not, try it and CPU usage should magically drop.
Now that will mainly benefit you if you are using formats that support hardware GPU decoding- like most AVC (but not 10 bit 4:2:2 for example). Otherwise make proxies.

Vegas is pretty easy to work with these days if you don't sabotage it with settings changes and understand how proxies can help for certain types of files. When I used FinalCut it transcoded everything on import which meant it took way longer to start editing than with Vegas and used more disk space, but was smooth when it finally finished.