Vegas freezes, HD video limit?

Rich Parry wrote on 6/28/2010, 7:14 PM

PROBLEM: Vegas Pro 9e fails or freezes when the amount of media loaded into Vegas exceeds some unknown limit. I’ve spent many hours trouble shooting this and the threshold where Vegas fails is about 10 HD .MOV files or about 2-3 GB video clips. It also fails if I have stills and HD video. The problem has something to do with HD Video, but I can’t put my finger on what is wrong.

I’ve been using Vegas Pro for years, this problem started when I began shooting HD video. I have a fast PC running Windows 7, Vega Pro 9e 64bit on dual Xeon machine (12 cores plus 12 threads) with 24GB RAM. I am convinced it is not HW because I have the same problem on my 5 year old AMD XP machine.

My best guess is that Vegas has a limit to the number of HD video clips it can handle and that limit is about 10. The .MOV files are straight out of a Canon 5D Mark II. This screen shot may clarify what I am seeing. Notice that some of the clips are “Green”, they should not be.

http://bit.ly/bqANWg

Any help is appreciated, I’ve been working on this on and off for weeks and getting nowhere.

Rich

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 6/28/2010, 7:32 PM

The .MOV files are straight out of a Canon 5D Mark II.

You would serve yourself well to search these forums for your camera model. There are literally dozens of posts about 5D/7D compatibility with current Vegas versions. You can also be assured that Sony is working on it.

Most 5D owners here go to an intermediate first, such as Cineform. It is worth noting that your system is over the top compared to most users here.

PerroneFord wrote on 6/28/2010, 8:15 PM

I've had north of 150 HD clips on the timeline in Vegas without issue. However, if you are putting clips from the 5D straight onto the timeline in Vegas (or Premiere, or most other programs) you are playing with fire.

Do a quality intermediate and stop pulling your hair out.

kkolbo wrote on 6/28/2010, 11:32 PM

PerronFord and Musicvid aren't on to something. What they said is clear fact. 5D footage does not play well with Vegas and the forum is full of information about it.

I too vote for the DI. Try the XDCAM .mxf and see if all is well and then chose a DI format to use. Batch transcoding with Proxy Stream is easy and will keep more hair on your head in the end. Vegas can handle tons of clips, HD or otherwise, on the timeline, but add 5D and all bets are off. I do short films, all in HD, all the time. It is nothing to think about 10-15 layers in a project and 100+ clips. Long form guys have had trouble, but I believe in breaking things down into sequences, so I seldom see anything they encounter.

KK

PerroneFord wrote on 6/28/2010, 11:33 PM

Lossless intermediates will only change the problem, not solve it. There are any number of good quality intermediate files available. Cineform, Matrox, DnxHD, ProRes, CanopusHQ, etc. Lot's of ways to go.

I've done post with 5D files. 100Gb worth. I played with it for 2 days, scrapped it, and went straight to DNxHD. No more problems, and the hand-off to the editor who was on FCP was smooth as could be.

Working with the 5D files makes zero sense and Vegas cannot handle them adequately.