@Trentonius-Maximus To be clear, turning off GPU support had absolutely zero effect on the freezing?

Correct! I've tried different variations on this based on various troubleshooting videos I've run across (closing and re-opening Vegas between changes):

1) No GPU and default Dynamic RAM of 200

2) No GPU and default Dynamic RAM of 0

3) GPU and default Dynamic RAM of 0

4) GPU and default Dynamic RAM of 2000 <--hey, for testing, why not?

After a few hours of working in Vegas last night, it looks like no GPU and Dynamic RAM of 200 makes the freezes a bit shorter (like 10-15 seconds instead of 20-30), but the other variations are still random freezes of about 20-30 seconds.

I should also mention that I gave the entire program carte blanche access to the system, running it as an Administrator and telling my anti-virus/anti-malware to ignore Vegas and anything in its folder(s).

I also tried the advanced option of setting processor affinity to 4 of the higher cores (of 10) in the CPU. I haven't tried disabling multi-processor affinity though. I may try that next.

Thank you all for the replies! @j-v I'm not sure why you 'wouldn't dare', but I'm certainly open to feedback. ^_^

Maybe put everything back to defaults and turn off NVIDIA decoding on the file I/O tab?

@Trentonius-Maximus Try completing removing one of your gpu's. If possible make available for testing a sample that does give trouble. Supply Mediainfo info. of your media, plus a screenshot of your project settings. Is any of your media variable frame rate, if so try converting to CFR.

You mention trying it with different media types but were those attempts with a project with just that media playing, no fx of any kind (other than the default audio fx added by vp)?

I ask this because I found that mixing PIP with layer dimensionality was the key to the hanging I was regularly experiencing.

Removing LD worked around this issue for me.

So you might try seeing what the raw video does and if you can isolate a common "when" the program dies, you might be able to isolate what fx aren't combining well

Maybe put everything back to defaults and turn off NVIDIA decoding on the file I/O tab?

I'll give this a try, thanks. I can't work in Vegas today but I'll try it and update here as soon as I get the chance to.

@Trentonius-Maximus Try completing removing one of your gpu's. If possible make available for testing a sample that does give trouble. Supply Mediainfo info. of your media, plus a screenshot of your project settings. Is any of your media variable frame rate, if so try converting to CFR.

Thanks JN! I'll take this in bits.

1) I can't remove a GPU. This is a custom water loop with a hard parallel cooling block, so it's not worth the risk and mess that would entail. :)

2) Let me know what kind of 'sample' would be useful (how best to package such a thing)

3) Two example projects:

One is a 3-minute 720p iPhone video that has a combination of small phone still images and short phone-captured video clips. Simple fade transitions from asset to asset. Eventually I did audio processing chains but this problem emerges pretty much from the get-go of Project creation.

Another is a series of 4K clips @30 FPS captured on a Nikon Z-series, laid in sequence with simple fades from clip to clip.

I do like to use the default prompt of making the project's specs match the first asset I drag into the timeline.

CFR for the win, I don't care for VFR. I can look at the individual assets on that first project and see if any are VFR and update you accordingly.

@Trentonius-Maximus 2) A small sample project that makes your system fall over, so to speak. Put it in a downloadable zip for users to check out on their machines.

Its quite likely that item 2) above won’t be necessary as I now know that you’re using iphone media which may be VFR. If so convert to CFR first and then see how it goes. It can save a lot of time posting your media info first, as sometimes its the cause of the problem.

VP16 does handle VFR but not as well as VP17, but even with VP17 it makes everything easier if its CFR.

”I do like to use the default prompt of making the project's specs match the first asset I drag into the timeline.”

If u have mixed media type, best to set project properties to what is the most used media, that may not be necessarily the first clip you load into the project.

You mention trying it with different media types but were those attempts with a project with just that media playing, no fx of any kind (other than the default audio fx added by vp)?

I ask this because I found that mixing PIP with layer dimensionality was the key to the hanging I was regularly experiencing.

Removing LD worked around this issue for me.

So you might try seeing what the raw video does and if you can isolate a common "when" the program dies, you might be able to isolate what fx aren't combining well

Correct! Very simple media drop-ins and cross-fades with no FX added in, no PIP, and I didn't fiddle with the audio track until I was close to render-ready. To both you and @michael-harrison, I'll add that I have a weeny nerdy project of just 4K clips on a timeline that I'll spend some time working on and see how that goes. Right now I'm at GPU acceleration off, 0MB Dynamic RAM preview. @RogerS can you tell me where to get to the File I/O tab? I'm on Vegas Pro 16, I don't see it if I Shift+Ctrl+click Preferences, but I do know that some of the Prefs tabs are different in Vegas Pro 17.

You may also want to try https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/avc-xavc-s-issues-in-vp15-16-try-disabling-so4compoundplug-dll--108345/

in addition to disabling the nvidia hw decoding

@vkmast hmmm. Wonder where I got that idea. I looked again and I definitely don't have a speacial-to-me fileio tab in my version of 15

The File I/O tab was added in VP 17. It did not exist prior to that.

Thank you! I have 15 and 16 and was digging around questioning my sanity! XD

Sorry, I forgot we were discussing 16, not 17.