Render + Print to tape problem

gmontoya wrote on 10/4/2004, 11:10 AM
Hi.

I'm working on an 80 minute project (3 video tracks, 9 audio tracks, the works)
I tried printing to tape but the program locked and gave me an error when it was about done with the render (half the files are stored in the PCs hard disk, the other half in a WD external HD - I'm not sure, but I suspect the external HD goes into standby during the render - I've already shut hibernation off)
To solve the problem, I rendered the project to an AVI file (actually 4 separate avi files), then opened the files in a new project and printed to tape with no problems this time (although the project got rendered a second time).

My questions are:

1) Does anyone know why Vegas errors out during the render, on a print to tape?
2) If I've already rendered the project, is there a way to print to tape without re-rendering it?
3) Is AVI + print to tape the best choice if I plan to transfer to VHS?

Thank you.

Comments

Liam_Vegas wrote on 10/4/2004, 12:45 PM
What error did you get? Usually helps to diagnose if you can give more detail about what happens. Did you get the same error / same place in the print-to-tape?

There are some standard things you need to look at related to doing a print-to-tape. Mostly you should be certain that your video files are not on the same drive as your operating system. You mentioned the files for this project are on the "PC's hard disk" and some are on an external drive, So it sounds to me that you ARE storing files on your C-Drive. This could be where the problem is.

One thing is to be certain that your drives where the video files are stored do not need to be defragmented. This is especially impotantant if you are doing a tools-print-to-tape as you could be dealing with many small files that may end up all over a defragmented disk. If you are working off video from you c drive it is MUCH more likely that you have defrag issues.

When you do a tool/print-to-tape Vegas will generate pre-render files for all parts of the video that require rendering (anything where you have added transitions or other video FX's). Where are your pre-rendered files going? (there is a project setting that determins this (File-Project Properties).

If you have rendered the project to an AVI you will not need to re-render in ordere to do a print-to-tape. If you do a tolls-print-to-tape it will merely need to render a special "audio/w64" file but that will go through very quick and then it till proceed to do the print-to-tape.

In most cases when I need to go out to VHS I do indeed render to AVI first and then do a print-to-tape from the capture utiltiy (not from the timeline). This fits my needs as I tend to end up needing to render all of my timeline as I use a lot of FX's and graphics to my video.