Do you have a specific reason to still use .ac3?

Do you have a specific reason to still use .ac3?

In my case, it's to use .ac3 5.1 audio tracks in DVD Architect 6 to produce BluRay discs. I've tried other methods (e.g. Voukoder, HOS, .wav 5.1) but either couldn't get an .ac3 5.1 render or couldn't get DVDA to recognise what was rendered.

A short list of what occured so far after a couple of days of use in an XAVCS 4k 10bit 422 project:

Very frequent crashes. Working starts Ok, but then they increase in frequency after some time, to the point where v20 crashes after 2 minutes or so upon loading the project , and I have to reboot Windows to reset the crash frequency. Mostly when opening a clip in the trimmer, but also on seemingly random manipulations, like muting a clip, moving a clip,going through a clip frame by frame. The blue wheel shows up, sometimes the cursor would change into an arrow, V 20 freezes and there is no crash report window.
A weird one I've never seen before is that my second monitor occasionally gets hijacked by the Vegas preview. Even with Vegas closed, the monitor is frozen on that image and I can't close it until I reboot windows.
It is not pleasant to work with at this point.

Do you have a specific reason to still use .ac3?

In my case, it's to use .ac3 5.1 audio tracks in DVD Architect 6 to produce BluRay discs. I've tried other methods (e.g. Voukoder, HOS, .wav 5.1) but either couldn't get an .ac3 5.1 render or couldn't get DVDA to recognise what was rendered.

Yes I agree with you as I was doing the same when making Blu-Ray discs, I imported the sound track into V16 the last version I could make AC3 pro work in. But I have now moved away from BluRay as I am re-editing all my original video filmed in 4K since 2015 back to 4K to save on 64GB memory sticks which play great on 4K OLED TV.

5.1 .ac3 is not available in Vegas Pro 20 it being dropped many years ago apparently due to licensing reasons.

My workaround thus far has been to copy/paste the audio timeline from Vegas Pro 17+ into Vegas Pro 16 and render to .ac3 in VP16. That's going to get a lot harder to do now that VP20 can use VST3 audio plugins, something that VP16 can't use. I might now need to render individual audio tracks in VP20 to .wav (which can do 5.1 renders) and then import those tracks into VP16 in order to do an .ac3 render.

For most situations, VST 2 should be fine. VST 3 "advantages" are mostly in the realm of VSTi instruments, MIDI improvement, more and more flexible outputting, and the idea that with no audio signal present, there is no CPU hit, but for video, for most situations, this is usually not that relevant. Correct me if I'm missing something. Sans any such omission on my part, your workflow should/would remain the same.

@dexcon could I ask what the problem was with using Voukoder to generate an ac3 5.1 audio track to use in DVDAP 5.2 to burn a blu ray?

@Wovian I created this topic last year showing how to create audio AC3 Pro Stereo and 5.1 in Vegas for DVD Architect using Voukoder. At least for me it still works fine.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/ac3-pro-stereo-and-5-1-again-on-vegas-with-voukoder-10-2--133327/

Thanks @Joelson. I’ve seen your excellent video but since then it seemed that there had been problems and @dexcon had issues using it so I thought I’d ask as I’m not an expert on these things. (I only make a handful of family movies on blu rays a year). Great to know it still works for you. I’m a step closer to another VP purchase! VP is total overkill for me I know but I’ve used it for many years and try to support the product where I can.

Problem with 16GB Dram

Today I tried to cut something in this version and unfortunately it doesn't work. If you only have 16GB of RAM, then the memory quickly fills up and everything is choppy in Vegas - moving events in the Timeline, the mouse, changing the position of the playback head, everything.

I had to go back to VP19 where it's ok. Sorry, but for me the VP 20 with DRAM 16GB is unusable.

@pierre-k I was wary because of the memory leak issue in VP19 steadily climbing.

I wanted to see the same project I am working on in VP19 B643 and how much system RAM it was consuming and compared it to VP20 Trial. It was the same.

And yes, in both cases I was close to 15GB RAM. 47 video clips and 28GB, bitrate 150Mb/s 422 10bit 25P UHD 4K.

@pierre-k I was wary because of the memory leak issue in VP19 steadily climbing.

I wanted to see the same project I am working on in VP19 B643 and how much system RAM it was consuming and compared it to VP20 Trial. It was the same.

And yes, in both cases I was close to 15GB RAM. 47 video clips and 28GB, bitrate 150Mb/s 422 10bit 25P UHD 4K.

VP19 also goes up to 15GB, but you can still work in it. VP20 has delays in Timeline scrolling, stop start with spacebar, etc. And I'm not talking about moving the knobs of third-party VST plugins.

@pierre-k I have 32GB of RAM in my computer, thinking of going with another 32GB to bring me up to 64GB since I am shooting more of the footage I listed in my post above.

I really can't comment on your particular situation, but it certainly doesn't sound like fun. That's why I have 18, 19 and getting 20, keeping them "alive" to see if there is an issue with 20, I can test in the others.

I hope others comment and there is a solution for you.

The sliders in the color grading control panel all seem unusually laggy. Is there a specific reason for that?

Vegas 20 (and Vegas 19) does not display correct size on 2nd screen which is scaled (125%) in Windows (Windows>Display Settings>125%). It overshoots the 2nd Monitor and spills back on top of the primary monitor (all over the top of Vegas Pro). Vegas 17 CORRECTLY displays Windows Scaled 2nd monitors, however, Vegas 19 and Vegas 20 do not (obliterating part the Vegas program in the Primary window). Please FIX!!

Note...(EDIT: Thank - you to RogerS, showing that this is *Fixed* by using the option, "High DPI Settings" (in Options>Preferences>Display: "Use Alternate High DPI Settings")

Great, helpful forum!

It's already fixed. Check alternate high DPI settings.

I do wish there were logic that could detect if there are monitors of varying resolutions detected and then automatically switching to this alternate high DPI mode as this is confusing for users. I had the same issue myself and had to seek support.

Vegas 20 runs pretty stable for me so far. No crashes when working in the timeline or when using other plug-ins. The performance in the timeline and playback is very smooth for me.

The only thing that sometimes happens is that when I want to render a video, I don't get any feedback and Vegas closes.

After a direct restart of Vegas the rendering of a project is no problem. But if I have been working for a while and then want to render, Vegas often freezes and then closes automatically.

I can't send a bug report, would love to report this bug.

5.1 .ac3 is not available in Vegas Pro 20 it being dropped many years ago apparently due to licensing reasons.

My workaround thus far has been to copy/paste the audio timeline from Vegas Pro 17+ into Vegas Pro 16 and render to .ac3 in VP16. That's going to get a lot harder to do now that VP20 can use VST3 audio plugins, something that VP16 can't use. I might now need to render individual audio tracks in VP20 to .wav (which can do 5.1 renders) and then import those tracks into VP16 in order to do an .ac3 render.

There are freeware ac3 encoder apps, and they can even do 5.1... just export a wav file in vegas in 6 channel split mode, then take the 6 mono files it makes and feed those into something like EncWavtoAC3 to do the ac3 encode.

Hello

I have a couple of complaints about Vegas 20 Pro.

1. The installs of both 19 and 20 did not put a launch icon on my desktop, requiring me to search for the Vegas.exe file and create a shortcut.
2. For both 19 and 20 installs, I had to disable Windows Defender. Apparently, Defender thinks Vegas is malicious.
3. Since the Vegas 20 214 build, the initial click on the Vegas icon doesn't do anything. This appears to happen only with the first launch attempt after a Windows startup. I ensure that no other icon has focus before I click on the Vegas icon. Looking in Windows Task Manager, I see the instance for Vegas. I end task it, and when I click the Vegas icon again, Vegas starts. Since I had to search for the Vegas.exe file, I may have selected the wrong one, but I doubt it. This is the target I'm using for my shortcut...
   
   "C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 20.0\vegas200.exe"
   
   Thanks
   Bill

@Bill-R, I didn't see a box to check mark to put an icon on the desktop either. But in Windows>Start, Vegas is there. And since I have 18, 19 and 20 installed, it was easy. I then pinned it to my taskbar. VP20 has launched every time for me, whether first launch after turning on the computer, or any other time.

The Vegas .exe file is the correct one. I just tried it creating a desktop shortcut. But I always launch from the taskbar. It's a one click launch.

In 20 it has a new installer and you have to change the default setting to add a desktop icon. It does work once you do that.

I never had an issue with Defender.

There may be an extension or Fx that is preventing Vegas from fully shutting down. I've seen other users report the same but haven't had this as an issue myself.