Its an ASUS Vivobook laptop - new. Yes, the freeze is definitely triggered when I select Video Fx.

Interesting - I checked my desktop computer and it looks like same Vegas build 651 as laptop. Don't see the problem on my desktop - Windows 10, 11th Gen i5..K, w RTX3080. I think it was even running fine w GTX1650 Super on desktop.

That's important information. There is a problem with NVIDIA drivers after 522.30 and mobile GPUs (not desktop ones). The easiest fix is to install the current game ready driver. Can you see if that solves it?

Otherwise there's also a compatibility fix you can try in NVIDIA Control Panel:

Thanks! I'll look into that.

For your interest, I saw a video on YouTube showing settings changes to Vegas 19 to fix the problems I was having and it worked!

FYI - Here is the link. Let me know your thoughts... I simply followed his recommendations step-by-step and the problems went away...

VEGAS Pro 19 - Fix Crashing / Run Faster / Optimize Performance

If your problem is the NVIDIA driver you don't want to do other workarounds- just update the driver or change the GDI settings.

If you are also having other issues some of those fixes could be helpful. Raising dynamic ram preview past a few GB probably is not a good idea (it's a preview buffer with diminishing returns). Turning on legacy decoders may help stability with certain files but at the expense of performance. I keep them off unless I have issues. I also set thumbnails to head, tail, center. I wouldn't touch internal preferences unless you really understand what you are doing and sure you need to for your system.

I did update my NVIDIA driver from 536.99 to 537.13 as you suggested. As far as the setting changes in Vegas, I set the RAM usage to 50% - not 75% as he recommended (I have 32GB). The other changes - I'm going to leave as he suggested for now - unless or until I see problems down the road. Right now the program seems to work fine.

I've been using Vegas software for years going all the way back to Sony. Most of my editing is basic - so I don't think I'll run into problems - perhaps with the exception of the 10 bit color issue he mentioned - if I ever go there.

The one area I wish Vegas would improve is their filters. Two areas where I could use some help are filter recommendations for the following situations:

Several years ago, I scan converted many 8mm and Super 8 mm films into digital for YouTube sharing with friends. Some were quite old and had color tinting issues and over/under exposure in parts. I wished back then that Vegas had a tool(s) similar to Photoshop's Auto Level, auto white balance, and skin tone color adjustment. (I haven't ventured into color grading - which back then was limited to brightness, contrast, tint and hue adjustments).

In the past week, I encountered some issues with rendered GoPro Max video clips at a zoo where I wish I had some AI dynamic masking or HDR to bring out details in a dark furred animal against a bright background. I've seen some filters demonstrated in GIMP I wish were available for video to track and spot light dark areas.

Thank you for your help.....

50% of ram to dynamic ram preview is still on the high side for a 32GB system. I often have VEGAS using 16gb of ram and this allocated to the buffer would leave nothing for Windows. Maybe keep an eye on it.

The color grading panel can do some of what you describe with white balance and exposure. Autolevels can fix exposure on the fly: https://www.semw-software.com/en/autolevels/ Newer versions of VEGAS further developed the color grading panel and let you do precise adjustments to single colors.

For just tweaking skin tones, color corrector secondary can isolate and help you shift hue and saturation. That's been available as an Fx for quite some time.

I'm still trying to figure out a good workflow for luminance masking myself. The best I've found so far is creating a tracking mask with Mocha (VP 21 Suite) to isolate the dark object I want to lighten.

I appreciate your help. So much to learn - so little time....

I came across an excellent intro video to color correction with Vegas Pro 17. He made it look easy. I'm assuming - if anything - that Vegas Pro 19 is equal to or more evolved. FWIW here is a link to that video:

The link might be useful in the future to help others.

Back a few years ago when I was digitizing my 8mm films, I came across a tutorial that showed how I could extract a frame from a clip {was using Vegas Movie Studio Platinum v 13 at the time}, process it in Photoshop to do auto level, histogram adjustments, color correction, etc, then bring the corrected frame back into Vegas to correct the entire clip. Tedious, but it worked -- sort of.

I think in the future, you will be able to create a luminance mask that will track an object / person's outline and allow you to do localized effects - sort of a green screen with out the screen. The elements are already showing up in Photoshop and GIMP. What's missing is the automation and motion tracking.

I never shoot in RAW, but see where it would be an advantage in post. That frame I attached above is probably clipped beyond repair. The GoPro Max defaults are usually very good, but that was an extreme case. Sadly, GoPro doesn't offer HDR.

Mocha looks pretty interesting. We've come a long way from the 'centroid of brightness' trackers in the 1970's.

Yes, the color grading panel is much the same as it was in 17 though with additional useful controls on it. In 20 it became a full-featured tool in my opinion with the addition of HSL curves and the ability to apply it at the track and media level.

In theory you can do luminance masks today though I haven't tried it with these methods:
https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/video-effects/using-chroma-keyer-garbage-mattes-luminance-masks/

Mocha was able to do what you describe so I could darken the whole image (using an adjustment layer or track Fx) to bring down the sky and then using an event Fx to just brighten the tracked subject. I could also do it manually with pan/crop though it's time consuming to track each frame. Smart Mask and Z-Depth in VP 21 also do tracked masks but precision wasn't yet good enough for what I wanted to do.

In video raw is uncommon but log formats retain much of the exposure detail and are widely available and have more latitude for manipulating exposure in post. Still you'll be limited by the dynamic range of a small sensor like that in a GoPro.

I came across this interesting video that mimics the masking layer techniques used in Photoshop and GIMP. Except here, the masking silhouette is then tracked back and forth over the entire clip while it creates key frames. Although he demonstrates how to blur the back-ground in his example, the technique he shows here could be used to adjust luminance (or other characteristics as well} of either layer.