Render freezing if more then one instance of Vegas is running?

Liberty610 wrote on 1/15/2021, 4:18 AM

Hi guys,

I run a small project studio that offers several media services, and one of those services is transfer old analog tape (VHS in this example) to digital file/disc (DVD or Blu-Ray).

I have been doing this for several years now, and never have had any issues.In most cases I get a box of 20 to 40 tapes that all need captured and rendered down, so to keep things organized, I put each tape into it's own Vegas project file and name/save that project with whatever the tape is labeled as.

My approach to the rendering process has never caused me issues before, What I have done successfully in the past (worked just last week for a project I just finished up), I open 4 to 6 different instances of Vegas, and render 4 to 6 videos at once. I have an AMD Ryzen 3950X CPU with 32 gigs of ram and an RTX 2080ti GPU and have never had any issues with this method before, often only using 75% of my CPU at any given time doing multiple renders. These are all SD videos of course coming from VHS source.

I have a high end VHS deck that has a built in TBC, but it also passes through a secondary TBC (time base correcting) unit.This prevents bouncing pictures during capture so I don't loose any frames. The VHS playback signal goes into my Black Magic Design Pro (non 4k edition) card. This creates large uncompressed AVI files for the captures, which I then drop on a Vegas time line for sorting, editing, and rendering down to usually some sort of mpeg2 file. Either for flash/hard drives or DVD architect files for DVD/BluRay discs.

My most recent attempt at this isn't working. If I attempt to open multiple Vegas projects to do these simultaneous rendering, the renders will just freeze up. For example, let's say I have 2 projects opened, so I am running 2 instances of Vegas. If I start rendering one, it moves along just fine. The render window shows me how long it's been rendering for, and the approximate time left. The video preview window moves right along as well. As soon as I try to scrub across the time line in the second Vegas window, or if I attempt to render in it, the first render will freeze, and then the second one will as well. Both render windows still have time moving on them for the approximate time left and how long it has been rendering for, but the video preview freezes or goes black, and nothing is actually rendering. The progress bar just sits there. If I click on 'cancel' the "Are you sure you want to cancel' box pops up, I hit yes, but the render clocks keep moving, and it won't actually stop. I have to Ctrl+alt_delete and force close Vegas in the task manager.

I have done this multi rendering process successfully countless times, but with my current set of tapes, this freezing issue has occurred. I have made no major changes in anything since this worked the last time. My capture process is the same way, all my hardware is the same.

I have tried full shut downs of my PC, and a few restarts. Problem still occurs.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks for any replies.

Comments

walter-i. wrote on 1/15/2021, 9:37 AM

Very strange.

If you have certainly not changed anything yourself (check your conscience again), then it could be a Windows update.
Can you track that and reset the last one?

Or do you have a backup of your system hard drive that you can restore?

Liberty610 wrote on 1/15/2021, 9:49 AM

Very strange.

If you have certainly not changed anything yourself (check your conscience again), then it could be a Windows update.
Can you track that and reset the last one?

Or do you have a backup of your system hard drive that you can restore?

I know for a fact nothing has changed. I have Windows updates paused, and I just did a btahc of videos like this 3 days ago. I have had no driver updates, no windows updates.

When I turn off GPU acceleration of video processing, it doesn't freeze if I open up another Vegas. The issue with that is, my entire CPU gets used and I don't have the power to do multiple renders.

I turned off GPU acceleration, then turned it back on just to see. Same issue. I unstalled Vegas 17, and re-installed. that didn't work.

walter-i. wrote on 1/15/2021, 10:01 AM

A new installation often does not help because the settings are retained. Try a reset - and follow this routine exactly.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-how-can-i-reset-vegas-pro-to-default-settings--104646/

Liberty610 wrote on 1/15/2021, 10:05 AM

A new installation often does not help because the settings are retained. Try a reset - and follow this routine exactly.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-how-can-i-reset-vegas-pro-to-default-settings--104646/

I'll give this a try as soon as the current video is done rendering, and I'll report back. Thanks for the tip!

Liberty610 wrote on 1/15/2021, 1:11 PM

I rest all the Vegas settings as the instructions said to do, including deleting the cahe, and the problem is still there. I've tried everything I can think, plus what other forums have suggested. I guess I will go back to rendering one project at a time and just let customers know my turn around time is increasing.

Thanks for the replies.

walter-i. wrote on 1/15/2021, 1:20 PM

I'm sorry it doesn't work - I know it works, I've rendered with up to 5 instances myself a number of times.

Maybe someone else has an idea.

diverG wrote on 1/15/2021, 1:41 PM

The advice given by walter-i is sound.

Sounds like run a business so regular system image backup makes for commercial sense. Even once a month is OK. Run a set of 3. Grandfather,father & son on rotation. On a fast machine you can restore an image in around 10 minutes to and be back up & running.

There is a backup restore tool in the Control Panel. Freeby Macrium also OK

In the meantime Good luck.

RogerS wrote on 1/15/2021, 7:12 PM

Are your GPU drivers up to date? Try the latest NVIDIA STUDIO driver. You can always install an old version if it doesn't help

Liberty610 wrote on 1/16/2021, 2:41 AM

Are your GPU drivers up to date? Try the latest NVIDIA STUDIO driver. You can always install an old version if it doesn't help

I do have the latest Nvidia driver. I get them as soon as they come out. And it was last updated before my last project was finished where I was still able to render in multiple instances of Vegas.

Liberty610 wrote on 1/17/2021, 8:06 AM

Are your GPU drivers up to date? Try the latest NVIDIA STUDIO driver. You can always install an old version if it doesn't help

I need to apologize AND make a correction on this!

First, there WAS a change made on my system, and I was unaware of it until further investigation today. I have been keeping my RTX 2080ti drivers updated via the NVIDIA GeForce Experience app, which is aimed more towards gamers. There was an update to that app a couple weeks ago, and when i installed it, some how auto updates for the drivers got turned on, and there was a driver update pushed to my system when i was not at my desk. I didn't notice this some how.

So, Roger, my apologies to you specifically regarding my most recent reply to you. I did NOT have the STUDIO driver. I was in the middle of doing a couple things for my last project when I read/skimmed over your message, and I did not notice the 'studio driver' portion of your reply.

Ironically, in my free time this morning I wanted to try and resolve this before my upcoming projects. I decided to go to the NVIDIA website and manually download a previous driver. This is when I noticed the 'studio driver' option that you mentioned, but I didn't notice you mentioned it until AFTER I downloaded the studio driver from their website. When I cam back here to report the issue was fixed by installing said driver, I noticed that was the option you told me to try.

Again, sorry for the improper reading of your message, and thank you all for the replies on the matter! I just did a multiple rendering test with 3 Vegas projects opened, and everything was rendering as normal. I didn't complete the renders, but I am going to assume the issue is gone, because it would lock up almost instantly when I attempted this on my last set of videos.

Again, thank you, and I apologize!

walter-i. wrote on 1/17/2021, 9:04 AM

Thanks for the feedback and clarification - much appreciated.
And - mistakes happen - it's just a question of how we deal with them.👍