Thanks Roger - I will update the NVIDIA drivers as suggested. I've tried NVENC and Mainconcept - seems to crash at a different point each time, not a transition or FX. What happens is the rendering slows then hangs, and I have to force quit the app.

If that doesn't fix it, please share screenshots of project settings, File I/O in preferences and Media Info for the video you are using. Maybe that will yield a clue. Did you make other changes to settings?

@sam-renkin In task manager, under the performance tab, while rendering, observe especially the memory graph. Check that it doesn’t simply use up and run out of all of the memory, around about when it stops. Use normal settings, dynamic ram to 200, use GPU HW Acc. set Nvidia in the I/O tab, set project properties to the largest piece of media type in your project.

VP doesn’t like .mov files, and can freeze with too many. If thats the cause of the problem you might have to convert the .mov files to .mp4.

Just an addendum- that's mov files that are decoded with 32-bit Quicktime (if this is an older camera that could be an issue- you can click on media and look at properties/general and then Plug-In to see the decoder being used).

AVC .mov files, HEVC, ProRes, etc. have no limitations.

@RogerS AVC .mov files, HEVC, ProRes, etc. have no limitations.

TBH I wouldn’t go that far, its been my experience that .mov files, prores especially, don’t behave as well as .mp4. RE: stability I have found, on my machines, that it’s mp4, .mov and the .mov that needs the 32 bit quicktime in order of usability. Your experience may be different.

I keep Quicktime disabled on my machine. ProRes isn't decoded with the 32-bit QT plugin so it doesn't black out if you add too many GB of clips (that's what I meant by no limitations). I agree it doesn't perform as well, hopefully that changes when Magix implements the Apple decoding as they mentioned a while ago!

All my footage until a couple years ago was h.264 MOV shot on Canon and it's no different than any other h.264 mp4 file, it decodes happily with so4compound.

"I agree it doesn't perform as well, hopefully that changes when Magix implements the Apple decoding as they mentioned a while ago"

The OP is using Prores, so my valid comments.

If you are going to do addendums, AFAIK, addendums apply to your own comments. If you are going to make a correction to another user comments just say so.

Okay, not an addendum but a clarification on the importance of specifying what is in the mov container. (Dnx or Cineform is a difft situation than ProRes).

Have you had crashes or blackouts with ProRes, though? I haven't had or even seen reports of that in Vegas.

Thanks for the helpful advice everyone! I was traveling yesterday, but to answer your question about media - almost 100% of the footage I work with is ProRes LT recorded with an Atomos Ninja V. I switched to ProRes from MP4 because it worked so much better and faster with VP15. My camera is a Panasonic GH5, and I also work with a crew using a Sony FS-7. All camera footage is 4k @ 24 or 30fps. In this particular project, we didn't use cameras. I used the Ninja to capture the screen of my MBP in ProRes HD60. I captured the presenter via Zoom, and also captured some slide graphics from PowerPoint. Project settings are HD 30p. I will say - the issue seems to be connected with HD60 files - in other projects, the camera footage seems to render fine (even with FX like chromakey). Does that shed any additional light on why the render bogs down and crashes?

I have recently purchased same model Dell, same processor, 128 gig ram and a weaker card, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 360 ti 8 gig...having all kind of crash issues with 18. not going to hijack with my issues ... following this closely.

Monday morning update - as recommended, I downloaded and installed the NVIDIA studio driver for my GeForce RTX 2060 Super. I also took a really close look at the ProRes LT HD60 screen capture files recorded by my Ninja V. They are 60p (60.00 frames) and I suspect the conversion to 30p during rendering is part of the crash issue. I set up a custom MAGIX AVC MP4 NVENC render profile for 1080 @ 60.00 fps, and it rendered the complete file with good speed (almost real time). CPU usage is averaging 46%, memory usage is 2GB. Then I used Handbrake to convert the file to 30p. I think the takeaway here might be that 60p files need to be converted to 30p before importing to a 30p project?

Have you tried the new build?

I think the takeaway here might be that 60p files need to be converted to 30p before importing to a 30p project?

Generally speaking, no. If disable resample is off at the project level Vegas just tosses out the unneeded frames. I haven't used the Ninja V, though.

Hi Roger, the resample mode is set to smart resample right now. The other two options are force resample and disable. Which are you recommending?

fr0sty - just got the update notification this morning. I'll download after this project is complete - looks like a long list of bug fixes!