Render Problems in V9.0a with Mpeg 2

Lancerman wrote on 7/25/2009, 9:42 PM

There's been a lot of reports of render crashes in V9+. In my case it is on SD video - but, never had any issues until V9. 9a didn't help. I can render out as an AVI, but the Mainconcept mpeg2 render crashes at all kinds of points, not consistent at all, so I don't think it is the content. Anyone had anything similar or any ideas - very frustrating... I'm using 32-bit version because some plug-ins I use won't work in 64-bit yet... Of course, now that I have hours of work done, I can't go back and use 8.0 - which never had a render problem ever...

Comments

Harold Brown wrote on 7/25/2009, 9:49 PM

I have done several MPG2 files with 9 & 9a and no problems so far. 32bit Vista & Vegas. I haven't had any render crashes at all on any output type.

Lancerman wrote on 7/25/2009, 9:56 PM

Thanks for responding - of course, that doesn't help me too much... I'm just technical enough to cause problems :) - but, can you think of any reason why I can render out to avi's with no problem, but not mp2's? I haven't done much with the settings on the render dialog - is there something in the preferences of Vegas itself that might affect this?

xberk wrote on 7/25/2009, 11:07 PM

I am working in SD. Rendering to Mainconcept MPEG2 from 9.0a with no problem using standard =DVD NTSC template.

Try to narrow this down. Can you render any part of the timeline to MPEG2 without crashing? Can you start a new project, place some of the same media on the timeline and render that to MPEG2 ? .. Narrow things down.

Lancerman wrote on 7/25/2009, 11:12 PM

Thanks for responding... Yes. I am rendering segments of the project. Each section is anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes long - which may take anywhere from 6-8 minutes to render if it completed. It crashes at all kinds of various spots in the timeline - might render for a minute, two, or up to 4 or 5 minutes (on the same project) before crashing.

Lancerman wrote on 7/25/2009, 11:15 PM

It does not seem to be media caused... it's not a consistent spot that always has problems, plus, if the media were a problem wouldn't it crash trying to render an avi file as well?

John_Cline wrote on 7/25/2009, 11:43 PM

MPEG2 rendering puts quite a load on the CPU which generates a lot of heat. Many random render crash problems have been caused by CPU overheating. Have you opened up your machine lately and blown the dust off the fins of your CPU cooler?

Lancerman wrote on 7/25/2009, 11:52 PM

I have actually considered heat as a problem - but, the machine is new - so, I don't think I can do much other than drive some cool air into it. It is liquid cooled and has multiple fans on it so I don't know what else to try to cool it further. I've removed all I can from memory to try to remove that as an issue, but, did load up a thermal monitor one time to see how hot things got - the temp coming off the CPU and some of the internal fans rose over 10 degrees in just a matter of minutes - from around 90 to over 100. I may crank a big fan in front of it and see if driving cooler air at it will help - or at least see if the render(s) tend to go longer before crashing - which might tell me your idea might be on the right track...

ushere wrote on 7/26/2009, 12:23 AM

unfortunately, like the others, i don't think this is vegas's problem (i could be completely wrong of course!).

a. my first thought would be overheating (is your 90>100 c or f?)

b. bad, or badly seated ram. give it a wiggle, or even pop it out and swap it around.

c. which should have been a. grab a media generated clip, stretch it to 5mins - and try rending that out in whatever flavour of mpeg you want.....

call back in.....

Lancerman wrote on 7/26/2009, 1:10 AM

y'all may be on track with the heat... I started up the thermal monitor and overrode the "automatic" fan settings and forced them to run at 100%. Sounded like an airport, but while rendering it did keep the temp down below 100 F. One of the segments rendered completely. I tried another, but it crashed - temps were in the same range as for the one that completed when it happened (I'm sitting here staring at fan speeds and temperatures all over my computer while it's rendering - pathetic...). So, I don't know if I got lucky or just pushed my luck and maybe ought to let it cool down between renders a bit before starting it back up.

It's late here - but ushere, I'll try your tests - reset the ram and run a video test - but probably about 20 mins of content - that will take around 8-10 minutes of render time - and, I'll report my efforts.

Thanks for the ideas folks. I have a couple other things I am going to look into if the problem persists, but was hoping to avoid getting into that level of stuff (system is overclocked and some other tech boundries are getting pushed too - which I may try to wind down a bit. It screams pretty well, but definitely pushes up the heat index) - just thought I would check around for ideas first - and, I appreciate y'all contributing.

bsuratt wrote on 7/26/2009, 2:04 PM

Is your CPU overclocked? If so, back it down to Mfg specs and try.

MTuggy wrote on 7/26/2009, 4:06 PM

Have you tweaked your virtual memory settings? You should boost your virtual memory to 1.5 times your total RAM, split it on your C and D drives (i.e. 8 GB RAM = two 6GB page files on each drive). I have not had a render crash since I did that. Your problems sound very familiar.

Are you using HD footage or SD? The latter require less RAM to process and compress. I was having real trouble with HD until I fixed the virtual memory issue.

MT

Lancerman wrote on 7/26/2009, 6:44 PM

Bsurrat - manufacturer O/C'd it - I didn't do it myself - and, don't know how to wind it down - though I may get with them if I can't get anything else to fix it...

MTuggy - I'll try your suggestions once I am done with the current run of tests I am running - and, here is the latest.

Appreciate all the suggestions folks - I'm trying to keep up with all your ideas and hopefully some progress will be made...

It is NOT heat - I have the thermal monitor up - and on the internet and running a few other programs while I rendered to avi, mov, wmf, and mpeg1 - though the temp gets hotter than it does with the mpg2 when it crashes, they all rendered completely, even with all the other stuff running as well.

So, I'm hoping MTuggy's type of ideas of tweaking some Vegas settings, or mainconcept settings will work... I did not have this problem with Vegas v8 and rendered a whole bunch of mpg2 stuff less than a month ago with that version of the software. I would go right back to it if I didn't have a bunch of time into the current project but v8 won't open v9 veg files. plus, I'd like to move ahead... I like v9 except for this one problem.

Oh - and I am just doing SD - I mostly do videos for my boys' sports teams and most of the majority of the parents still have regular DVD players rather than HD support. I'll be headed there soon - whole new set of problems by the look of the forums...