Just tested my Radeon VII, not working with Gopro HEVC and won't even open IPHONE HEVC in 4k 60p files.... task manager showing 70-80% GPU Usage, but getting what feels like 5fps video.... looking at the clocks in gpu-z they're around 200-350, uvd clock goes to 1133 and gpu load 22%, task manager showing more load but again.. not working for my HEVC, can someone do some tests please. Boy was i excited to see amd acceleration.....and so sad now...BUT

I tested AMD GPU decode on my RX580 and it looks like it is working. I enabled so4 that is usually disabled in my system as causing troubles. Restarted VP (checked that it was closed in Task Manager).

When GPU decoder disabled, GPU decoder usage in task manager is 0, when is is enabled is about 30%. Unfortunately, I do not know if this helps as on my system for the only 4K-25p sample video I do have 25fps (max) in any case. Will need to find 4K HEVC and 4K-60P AVC for further testing.

I had a few minutes to test and it appears that my problems with VP not being able to use multiple GPUs when one is the Intel built-in HD 630 have been fixed in this release! Yay! BTW: this worked correctly way back in VP15 in 2018 until it broken when Intel switched to DCH video drivers!

Specifically, I can now use an AMD RX 580 as my main GPU running my monitor at 4k/60 (only able to run it at 4k/30 using Intel GPU) and still have VP use the Intel GPU for timeline editing acceleration.

A few quick encode timings for a 2 minute 4k clip encoded using Magix AVC/AAC MP4 to 1080p/30 6Mbps avg/10Mbps MAX. Only difference in the runs is the encode mode is changed from Mainconcept to QSV and then AMD, no other settings are changed!

Using only the built-in Intel HD 630:

MC (CPU only): 2:14 but output is 8Mbps with Max at 10, instead of the requested 6/10

QSV: 1:00, output very close to 6 avg, 10 max

With both Intel HD 630 and AMD RX580 installed and enabled:

MC (CPU only): 2:08, again output at 8/10 instead of 6/10

QSV: 1:24, output 4.8/10 instead of 6/10 - don't know why speed and actual bitrate dropped with extra GPU.

AMD VCE: 1:02, output close to 6/10.

So, I'm not at all concerned with the exact speed, just wondering why MC and QSV output doesn't at least get close to the requested bitrates in the template used.

I am thrilled that an issue with saving and rewriting already existing sound clips has been resolved. This never worked right and I had to find a cumbersome workaround for my needs. I was hesitant to ask for a better way to replace existing files with a new file because being an animator I often work differently from camera video editors and I thought nobody would know what I am complaining about. Thank you! I don't even know what this is called!

Thank you Vegas for adding the AMD support!

Ok, here is an issue I am seeing against QSV. QSV always decodes smoothly, AMD works one time and then not the next. When I goto full screen (50" 4K tv) QSV works smoothly, not |AMD (slows/starts/pixelates). USing an H265 32 bit 300 MB file. Perhaps lower bit rates work better. Also I notice QSV runs at 25% and AMD near 70-80% during play.

Just tested my Radeon VII, not working with Gopro HEVC and won't even open IPHONE HEVC in 4k 60p files.... task manager showing 70-80% GPU Usage, but getting what feels like 5fps video.... looking at the clocks in gpu-z they're around 200-350, uvd clock goes to 1133 and gpu load 22%, task manager showing more load but again.. not working for my HEVC, can someone do some tests please. Boy was i excited to see amd acceleration.....and so sad now...BUT

on a happy note, premiere pro just got updated and is finally supporting iphone hevc, 4xplayback of 4k60p is as smooth as butter!

Make sure you go into preferences > File IO and select the AMD gpu from that list, then check the checkbox that enables GPU decoding. I had to do that with my Radeon 7 to get it working.

Yep, its checked and not working at all of me.. it is working and using gpu, but its not really accelerating.. nvidia 2070 super is doing a much better job accelerating hevc as i have both on this machine... but amd vii should be much more powerful......

You have to keep in mind there are dedicated chips on these cards that do the decoding, it isn't using the compute units/cuda cores to do the decoding, so even though the geforce is weaker, its decoder chip may be stronger or may operate better due to better driver support, etc. They did say they held decode back for AMD because it wasn't performing as well as it should be... maybe it will be refined with future updates.

You have to keep in mind there are dedicated chips on these cards that do the decoding, it isn't using the compute units/cuda cores to do the decoding, so even though the geforce is weaker, its decoder chip may be stronger or may operate better due to better driver support, etc. They did say they held decode back for AMD because it wasn't performing as well as it should be... maybe it will be refined with future updates.

I guess we'll have to hope for it...

The white balance is still not accurate

Is anyone having issues with the white balance Fx? I'm not finding it usable- you have to make correction amount large to have any impact on the image and small adjustments with the tint/temp sliders seem to make drastic changes. [Maybe this is image specific- I had a lot of trouble with one street shot but now trying it on another one it's more subtle. How far with "amount of correction" do you go?]

White balance in the grading panel is still affecting image contrast (clipping endpoints), with no control over the % to be clipped, so I am finding the Fx ColorFast "pick white" most useful for minor white balance tweaks now.

hold ctrl for finer control of the color grading panel controls.

I ran Picture Quality tests using Wayne Waag's Render Quality Metric tool to see if decode made any difference in the quality of the output.

Date: 2020/02/06  16:00:05  
Description: Magix VCE FHD 28-48 Mbps Vegas Pro 17-387, Encode, but no decode.
Frames Processed: 899
Mean Squared Error: 13.664
Peak Signal to Noise Ratio: 43.691

Date: 2020/02/20  20:57:24  
Description: Internet FHD 1080p 29_97 fps AMD VCE 28 Mbps Decode & Encode Active
Frames Processed: 899
Mean Squared Error: 13.653
Peak Signal to Noise Ratio: 43.515

This was a very short, very complex FHD video that I use for testing. It didn't saturate the video card...

... the way UHD does.

Conclusion: Hardware decode doesn't negatively affect the quality of the video.

I am thrilled that an issue with saving and rewriting already existing sound clips has been resolved. This never worked right and I had to find a cumbersome workaround for my needs. I was hesitant to ask for a better way to replace existing files with a new file because being an animator I often work differently from camera video editors and I thought nobody would know what I am complaining about. Thank you! I don't even know what this is called!

@Paul-Fierlinger Were you suffering the bug whereby overwriting an AC-3 file renders a silent file? If so, is it fixed for you? There are numerous other posts on this, including this one from @bitman.

 

Conclusion: Hardware decode doesn't negatively affect the quality of the video.

Could you do a test to see if hardware decode reduces cpu and/or increases preview fps in comparison between hardware decode on and off?

Did more AMD decode testing.

Results on my system (CPU: Ryzen 3700X, 16GB RAM, GPU: MSI RX580 8GB, VP17 build 421):

NO20190727-124401-000101.mp4
From: 70mai dashcam
Info: HEVC Main@L5.1@Main, 2560x1440, CFR (30fps), 16.7 Mb/s

Decode OFF: Preview: 30fps, CPU usage: 27%, GPU decoder usage  0%, GPU Compute 1: 6%
Decode ON:  Preview: 30fps, CPU usage: 12%, GPU decoder usage 20%, GPU Compute 1: 6%

Vegas_Pro_Clip1.mp4
From: SampleProject 4K
Info: AVC High@L5.1, 3840x2160, CFR (25fps), 10.3 Mb/s

Decode OFF: Preview 25fps, CPU usage: 20%, GPU decoder usage  0%, GPU Compute 1: 10%
Decode ON:  Preview 25fps, CPU usage: 16%, GPU decoder usage 19%, GPU Compute 1: 10%

SampleProject 4K_MagixAVC.mp4
From: SampleProject rendered with MagixAVC
Info: AVC High@L5.1, 3840x2160, CFR (25fps), 20.0 Mb/s

Decode OFF: Preview 25fps, CPU usage: 25%, GPU decoder usage  0%, GPU Compute 1: 11%
Decode ON:  Preview 25fps, CPU usage: 20%, GPU decoder usage 20%, GPU Compute 1: 11%

VID_20191130_161940.mp4
From: Mobile HTC U11+
Info: HEVC Main@L4.1@Main, 1920x1080, VFR (59.813fps), 49.8 Mb/s

Decode OFF: Preview 5-60fps, CPU usage: 60%, GPU decoder usage  0%, GPU Compute 1: 4%
Decode ON:  Preview 60fps,   CPU usage: 16%, GPU decoder usage 30%, GPU Compute 1: 8%

C0049.mp4
From: downloaded
Info: AVC High@L5.1, 3840x2160, CFR (25fps), 98.3 Mb/s

Decode OFF: Preview 25fps, CPU usage: 35%, GPU decoder usage  0%, GPU Compute 1: 11%
Decode ON:  Preview 25fps, CPU usage: 25%, GPU decoder usage 30%, GPU Compute 1: 11%

2015-06-07_165355.mp4
From: Panasonic X920 re-wrapped with ffmpeg
Info: AVC High@L4.2, 1920x1080, CRF (59.940fps), 23 Mb/s

Decode ON:  Preview: 59.940fps, CPU usage: 22%, GPU decoder usage  0%, GPU Compute 1: 8%
Decode ON:  Preview: 59.940fps, CPU usage: 18%, GPU decoder usage 15%, GPU Compute 1: 8%

The only noticeable difference is with the VFR HEVC from mobile. With decode: OFF it is almost impossible to edit as preview fps changed from 5 to 60 fps.

Installed 421 from the link in V17 and all fine. I have AMD 1700 CPU, Nvidia 1060ti and 32gb DDR3. There's now an AMD option in the FileIO preference (I think that's new). But using the Nvidia option with GPU acceleration selected in the Video preferences still gives the smoothest timeline playback for me with a mix of 4k and 1080p clips and heavy fx settings. But would I need to deselect GPU acceleration for the AMD File IO setting to actually take effect?

With Nvidia choice in FIle IO timeline playback is great (at all quality settings), there's a slight stutter going from quick clip to quick clip, but the need to render to preview is much less.

Each update has made my setup more stable. I often have multiple projects open (e.g. one for all clips and one for the edit) and that seems the most likely to cause crashes. Will have to wait a few days to see if that's improved.

@Nick Hope

Nope and my "bug" is back. I need to overwrite a preexisting sound file which I am using in my animation software with a new one, which has its length changed by me in Vegas. So I double click on the new, longer event on the Vegas timeline with the intent to overwrite the older saved shorter one in my browser from where I can now load it into my animation software (I always animate to a preexisting soundtrack which I create in Vegas and the nature of my work consists of frequent changes created by me to the lengths of any given sound event) .

So after double clicking the stretched event I right mouse click on the thin line at the very top of the timeline, select to "Render to New Track" which opens the render panel and after hitting "RENDER" that gives me the Popup: "File already Exists, do you want to overwrite the existing file?" (which I do) so I select YES but this gives me the dreaded error saying "the file already exists in the project and cannot be overwritten".

Well, DUH, why not? I was just given the yes/no question if I want to overwrite. "YES" I do, but then I am told I cannot.

When the current new upgrade (build 421) came I could finally overwrite the preexisting event which showed up in a new track. Eureka, it works! Yes finally means YES so I began to do this on a whole series of events ... until I couldn't. The dreaded "you can't overwrite an existing file" popped up again after I answered YES, that is what I want to do. Does what I describe here make sense to you Nick? To me it looks like a bug.

@Paul-Fierlinger I don't think this is a bug. Vegas is happy to overwrite a file that already exists on your hard drive when you confirm with YES but files that are in use by Vegas are marked as "in use" by the program and therefore not overwritable, since it would be trying to simultaneously overwrite the file that it was generating the new file from!

@Paul-Fierlinger Yes, that makes sense, but I'm afraid I agree with David. It's normal behaviour that you can't overwrite a file like that while it's in use in Vegas. I just tested it with a WAV file in Vegas Pro 10 and the same thing happens.

WHITE BALANCE in Color Grading and Color Curves

I confirm that the repair is not good.
Still, you're adding more contrast than necessary.

this is correct in v353:

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/v17-color-balance-v353-vs-v387-bug--118648/

In version 353 it works correctly!
So again we will wait 3 months to repair the released repair?
Oh my god.

David & Nick,

But in that case there is a bug because it sometimes works. The last time was just after I had written that story I tried it one more time and it worked. That was itt, never again, Any idea for a working workaround besides renaming the file? I'll try deleting it and rewriting on the spot and see how that goes. But thanks for the replies; it shows that you guys care.

4 Months and my bug which is reproducible by the team IS STILL PRESENT.

Crashes on Intel QSV and my entire display driver crashes on NVDEC.

zero issues on vegas 16 😔