Rendering fails on 45 minute project

Matthias-Claflin wrote on 1/16/2019, 9:38 AM

So first I'd like to say, I've rendered projects this long previously (namely wedding ceremonies) but have had several failed renders to HEVC/AAC at 1920x1080 23.97fps (files are all AVCHD 1080p 23.97 or MP4 1080p 23.97). It always freezes at some point during the render, though this point has been variable.

My current computer specs are:

Ryzen 7 1700 (O.C. to 3.9ghz w/ liquid cooler)
32GB (2x16) Corsair Vengence RGB (3000mhz)
Raedeon RX 580
Samsung EVO 960 500GB (with 150GB free)

All files are located on the SSD and the files are being written to the SSD. The estimated file size is 3GB. There are 3 video layers and 1 audio layer. The 3 video layers have one or two instances of color curves (one for adding contrast and one for fixing white balance) as well as a slight saturation boost via the Saturation Adjust tool. No audio effects were applied with the exception of a few cross fades. The only video transitions used are fades as well. I've added a screen shot of my task manager and Vegas open at the time of failure. If I let it sit long enough the time remaining in Vegas goes to 00:00:00 without making any further progress.

That said, somethings I've tried;

Rebooted (several times and after any major changes including updating drivers/Vegas)
Cleared cache
Updated video drivers
Updated Vegas (was on build 260, now on 360 if I'm not mistaken)
Attempted with and without GPU acceleration, before and after updating drivers and Vegas.
Set Dynamic RAM preview max to 0 and Maximum Number of Rendering Threads to 1 (was a suggestion from a youtube video)

I'm really at a loss right now. I don't "have to" use the HEVC codec, so I'm attempting the AVC option now and it is currently working. I'll update this post later if it fails.

That said, is this a known bug? Is there something I missed when it comes to rending this project? Lastly, is there any good reason to use HEVC over the AVC codec? I seem to recall that I was told previously that the HEVC codec was somehow better but I am not sure I understand the difference between them.

Comments

john_dennis wrote on 1/16/2019, 9:55 AM

Review this page.

Musicvid wrote on 1/16/2019, 8:32 PM

It always freezes at some point during the render, though this point has been variable.

This may be a hardware heating issue.

karma17 wrote on 1/18/2019, 2:33 AM

FWIW, I did some non-scientific tests, and I honestly could not see any difference between AVC and HEVC; in fact, I thought AVC looked a little better. But it could have been psychological because I'm biased toward AVC. I think the main difference is it handles bigger files and renders much faster, but I haven't read too much that it is qualitatively better.

j-v wrote on 1/18/2019, 5:24 AM

It looks somewhat at my resolved renderproblem.

Matthias-Claflin wrote on 1/18/2019, 9:54 AM

Sorry I didn't respond. I wanted to try a bunch of things before I came back here to respond to these suggestions.

First, thank you John_Dennis as the link was very helpful.

I have now tested several of the suggestions there and think I found my problem.

So it wasn't an overheating issue, though thank you Musicvid for recommending that. I did check and my hardware never exceeded 59°C. So that didn't seem to be my issue, though I did end up reworking my GPU fan settings in the works, so a helpful mention nonetheless.

I too can't tell a discernable difference between AVC and HEVC so I've decided to work more with AVC as my friends on Mac have had issues reading my HEVC codecs before (even in VLC media player). I looked into it and it appears as though Mac doesn't support HEVC on it's desktops yet, though it does on Apple TV, kind of strange.

That said, I was able to render to HEVC as long as I didn't include the color curves effect. However, I could render to AVC with the effect applied. Then I was able render to HEVC if I rendered to 29.97 instead of 23.97 (with the color curves applied). So it seemed that the frame rate may have effected it in some way, but also the effect? I'm not entirely sure if this makes sense.

Basically this is how it worked out:

HEVC 1920 x 1080p Variable Bitrate (24mbps max, 12mbps target) 23.97fps (with effects): Failed

HEVC 1920 x 1080p Variable Bitrate (24mbps max, 12mbps target) 23.97fps (without effects): Success

HEVC 1920 x 1080p Variable Bitrate (24mbps max, 12mbps target) 29.97fps (with effects): Success

AVC 1920 x 1080p Variable Bitrate (24mbps max, 12mbps target) 23.97fps (with effects): Success

Alas I think I will just use the AVC codec going forward for my web delivery/USB delivery options. It seems like a reasonable quality and nearly as versatile.