Vegas is Slow for me????

jrazz wrote on 1/25/2006, 5:27 PM

Is Vegas the only thing that is slow? Have you tried any other programs that are processor intensive? If not, try them and see if you get the same results- if so, you might want to try cleaning out your case; sweep it clean of dust. If Vegas is the only thing that is slow, make sure that you haven't accidently applied an effect to the track such as color correction or other effects, or that you are not working in HD. Some of this seems basic, but sometimes the things we overlook are the things that cause us the most bewilderment.

j razz

johnmeyer wrote on 1/25/2006, 6:17 PM

What video format are you editing? Is it standard NTSC or PAL DV, or is it something else? If it is MPEG of any flavor (from a disk camera, DVD, or HDV camera) then Vegas WILL be slow. With NTSC or PAL DV, it should be very fast for simple transitions, and should not slow down as the project gets bigger or as you continue editing.

If you want to email your VEG file or post it somewhere where I can download it, I'll take a quick look.

craftech wrote on 1/25/2006, 6:38 PM

Send it out to an external monitor and see what happens.

John

jkrepner wrote on 1/26/2006, 7:33 AM

Check the dynamic RAM preview max setting under Options>Preferences> (Video Tab) and make sure it is set really low. I have a 1GB of RAM and was told to set the RAM preview to 16MB on a resent problem I had posted. It makes Vegas much snappier but kills the RAM preview entirely.

Vegas needs an overhaul in this regard... and a faster render engine.

rmack350 wrote on 1/26/2006, 8:04 AM

It's a sign of professionalism to run tests. It's a long-standing tradition in this business.

Yes, this particular performance problem is probably a result of setting the RAM Preview too high. I find, through testing, that I can set it up as high as 500MB on a 1 GB system and still have perfectly good playback.

So what's happening? If you open up your task manager and watch the performance tab you'll be able to see if the page file (aka "PF Usage") is growing during playback. You don't want it to grow.

What's happening is that Vegas is caching video as it plays. Even if you don't explicitely create a RAM preview, Vegas will load frames into the Preview RAM you set aside. It does this in an attempt to ensure full speed playback. The problem is that when you allocate too much memory to RAM preview, Windows will start writing things off to the page file. This will slow down Vegas, even if Vegas itself isn't what's being written to the PF. So the playback will start to slow down and Vegas will try to cache more frames to compensate, using more of the alloted memory, causing Windows to write more to the page file (and now it's surely Vegas being written to the PF), and slowing down playback even more.

To fix it, all you have to do is set the Preview RAM low enough to stop windows from paging. It doesn't have to be set to 16MB. It could be much higher - but you'll have to test it to see how high it can go.

Could the Madison folks fix this? Probably. Maybe they could make sure that Vegas doesn't use the page file, but they can't stop Windows from paging out other parts of the system and that would still cause a performance hit. Or maybe they could build some sort of smart limiter into the preview RAM setting that lowers it if Windows starts filling the page file during playback. But then people would start complaining that they have 2GB of RAM and Vegas can't use 1.8 GB of it for RAM Preview. The smart limiter would need to give some feedback about why it's limiting the RAM preview amount. (And things like this create more CPU overhead for Vegas.)

The simplest thing would be for users to figure out how high they can set their preview RAM. It might be helpful to have a dynamic monitor and slider available. Maybe this is scriptable.

Rob Mack

8 Imaginations wrote on 1/26/2006, 11:17 AM

Thanks for all the replies.

This should answer all questions:

My task manager shows a only 33% processor use. 560 PF
All other programs on my PC run just great.
I have tried the 16mb Preview Ram (this helps somewhat , but add another effect and good by frame rate)

I just can't believe a system like mine struggles to show a low res preivew... Two clips, 1 effect and a dissolve and I can barely edit. I have exhausted all solutions I have read in this forum. Is anyone else at the same point I am at....

Would Win64 be a better option?

Thanks!

Former user wrote on 1/26/2006, 11:19 AM

What effect are you using?

Dave T2

8 Imaginations wrote on 1/26/2006, 11:20 AM

------
What effect are you using?
------

Something as simple as Black and White or even a crop.

I love this program but Preimiere does better real time for me and I can't stand that program at all....

Spot|DSE wrote on 1/26/2006, 11:45 AM

You still haven't told us what the source of your media is. Was it captured in Vegas? Was it captured from something else? What codec, if any, is being used? What size is the media?
Are your drives in DMA mode or PIO mode? Are you editing from a DVD/CD media storage?
There are lots and lots of things that could be responsible for why you're seeing slow playback, but we need a lot more information from you in order to help

8 Imaginations wrote on 1/26/2006, 11:50 AM

Sorry about that...

I captured the video with vegas from my mini DV camera...

I am editing from the drive they were captured to which is a SATA Raid seperate from the OS drive. As for DMA or PIO not sure, how do I check?

I am just doing the basics here. SD, DV, no speical plug-ins, source footage all NTSC, basically shoot and edit DV....

jkrepner wrote on 1/26/2006, 1:47 PM

I guess this is totally obvious, but does this happen even after you start a new project after you have closed Vegas and rebooted? it is possible that you have something active on a track that you are not aware of, like motion blur on the video master track down below.

Sorry to be captain obvious.

P.S. I guess make sure you have created a project that matches your source footage as closely as possible.

Spot|DSE wrote on 1/26/2006, 1:49 PM

Be sure opacity/level is at 100%, etc. This is a common problem. Also, be sure as jkrepner mentions, that you haven't inserted anything to the system. Be sure you don't have any FX on. If you don't get smooth playback without any FX, it's not Vegas, there is a hardware problem somewhere.

8 Imaginations wrote on 1/26/2006, 1:56 PM

I have actually been dealing with this issue since I purchased Vegas 6 months ago.

Preview is just fine with clips thrown into without any FX. But throw an effect or 2 and a dissolve it starts to crawl. A reboot helps for a few minutes...

As for opacity/level - I can't believe a Dual Core system 3.2MHz with 2 gigs of ram with a Preview set at Preview (auto) can't be in real time..... Again, Vegas rocks, but Premiere on my system handles this with ease....

Thanks!

Coursedesign wrote on 1/26/2006, 2:19 PM

This really sounds like an installation problem.

First do a thorough uninstall followed by a reboot to get a clean system.

Then download the latest Vegas 6.0c from this site (see the Downloads link at the top of this forum), so you know what you have (I hope you have high speed Internet). If you installed from a CD, it could have been corrupt in a way that was not indicated. Extremely rare, but it can happen.

Reinstall Vegas and keep your eyes on the screen during the install process to see if there are any odd error messages that appear and then disappear.

There is one last thing I would try before reinstalling:

Do an MPEG-2 render of a short project that has been giving you trouble, and time the render. Are you getting about realtime? Or is it more like 10x as long?

This would isolate the possibility of anything weird going on with you preview window. What are you using for preview? Your usual computer monitor or a firewire D/A to an external NTSC monitor?

And finally, to confirm:
Are you using Windows XP?
Which Service Packs?
Have you installed any special Windows XP "helper" plug-ins?
Are you checking the Task Manager live during the preview that is giving you the problem? What does it show for memory usage for Vegas before and during the preview?

I have never even heard of anybody with a problem like yours in the years I have been using Vegas, and I have several Vegas systems running on very different hardware configurations.

vicmilt wrote on 1/26/2006, 4:11 PM

The real point is (and SUPER thanks everyone for all that great info - I personally learned a lot) - you are right.
There is something wrong.
With that machine you shouldn't have any problems at the demand levels you are indicating.
Hang in - you'll solve it.
v

8 Imaginations wrote on 1/26/2006, 5:20 PM

Yes, thanyou everyone for trying to help me solve this problem.

I have Windows XP PRO with all the latest service pack and patches.
I do run a few too many services in the BG but even if I disable all of them the same thing happens. Plus, I figured with this system it should handle it as well as the Task Manager shows the system isn't working hard...

Here is an image of a few clips that have some dissolves one clip is black and white and the two clips have an opacity over another clip. Still doesn't seem like much but yet I slow to 2.7 FPS. Look at the task manager and the preview settings and FPS. My experience with other NLE this isn't asking that much of a computer like mine..

http://www.8imaginations.com/vegas.jpg

I have done a reinstall as well with the download and not from the CD but yet the same problem. Can Vegas maybe not handle the realtime I hoped a powerful PC should give me? Sony?

Thanks again!

BowmanDigital wrote on 1/26/2006, 5:23 PM

I've recently upgraded to a new workstation pentium D 830 with 2gigs of ram and had similar issues. I had a trial version installed 6.0c and windows xp sp2. After capturing a file and playing with in the timeline, it would never be at 25fps in a PAL project with no effects.

It occured to me that by default with this trial version that the files are captured in NTSC and i was trying to work with it in a PAL timeline. Such a simple mistake which i seem to make all too often- eg start a new project that is actually ntsc and vice versa.. anyways, not sure if it's the same for you, but thats my experience.

johnmeyer wrote on 1/26/2006, 5:58 PM

In my earlier post, I offered to look at your VEG file. Why don't you post it somewhere and we can take a look. If a complete re-install of Vegas didn't solve the problem, then I'm expecting the fault may lie in how you set up your projects.

arem wrote on 1/26/2006, 7:19 PM

"I am editing from the drive they were captured to which is a SATA Raid seperate from the OS drive. As for DMA or PIO not sure, how do I check?"

You find out by going into Device Manager, (not sure what to click since I have never dealt with SATA) click on SATA(?) Controllers and click on either Primary or Secondary controller depending on where the hard drive is plugged in. Right click, hit properties and click the Advanced Settings tab.

You shouldn't be having any problems like that since I only have 512mb RAM and 2.7ghz Pentium 4 processor and can easily go 3-4 tracks with effects with minimum choppiness. What version of vegas are you on?

-Dan

Chanimal wrote on 1/26/2006, 8:56 PM

I find I get different frame rates between the different preview rates. Surprisingly, I often get better rates not using the default preview option--but a better preview mode. Try changing this and see what happens.