Vegas Pro 21 is completely unusable

Pa-Osiris wrote on 3/23/2026, 8:48 AM

Hi.

I bought a download copy of Vegas Pro 21 in 2024 for £200 and used it lightly. Recently it has become completely unusable.

Evey single action you take from just clicking one button can freeze the program. It could take literally hours just to edit a very simple video with no FX or transitions, now it is no longer possible.

I tried over and over uninstalling it and re installing it from Magix's website. It installs okay, but the same problem happens over and over.

I'm in the middle of completing some assignments, so it came at the wrong time. I'm frantically scaling the steep curve of learning free Davinci Resolve. I don't know how to use Davinci, but I noticed installing it how videos magically can be moved around the program without crashing it. I wish Vegas was like that. I do recall in 2012 how Sony Vegas never ever had any problems like this and was a pure joy to use.

Three months ago I updated my OS to Win 11, I am using XAVC HS 4K files from a small Sony camera designed 3 years ago. I am using a Dell XPS 17 with 11 Gen 8 core processor with 40 Gb of RAM.

Being a Roman Catholic I accept it is probably my fault. But I can't help feeling a little anger toward Magix for making a program so bad, so utterly corrupt like and ultimately useless, and still charging £200 for it.

Anybody any ideas about any other programs I could use that actually work and don't have a massive learning surve?

Thanks.

Comments

RogerS wrote on 3/23/2026, 8:57 AM

I didn't see what GPU you are using which makes a big difference.

Next, what exactly is your Sony media? https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-how-to-post-mediainfo-and-vegas-pro-file-properties--104561/

For me I found build 208 of 21 the most stable and reliable. Builds after that had the beginnings of a new video engine which really showed their full potential in VP 22. You can download it from here (uninstall 21.315 first assuming you are on the final build): https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-where-can-i-download-vegas-pro-and-other-vegas-software--104782/

Hopefully this gets you a working program again.

One other idea is to do a reset- hold control + shift while you double click the desktop icon to start the program.

Reyfox wrote on 3/23/2026, 9:00 AM

OP gave no indication of what build they are using. While I don't use Sony footage, I've found B315 extremely stable on my computer (see my Signature) editing Panasonic 4K 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 footage.

john_dennis wrote on 3/23/2026, 9:02 AM

@Pa-Osiris said: "Recently it has become completely unusable."

Start here and report: [WARNING] : MS Visual C++ 14.50 (v145) kill Vegas - download the fix

Even though it's probably not your fault, you'll probably be the one that has to fix it.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 3/23/2026, 10:41 AM

If he's using the latest vp21 build, that's probably the problem. It's more like vp22/23 with less optimization. b208 would probably be the last build to give him performance similar to when he tried it earlier but only if he set it up to use the 4070 in video prefs and the Intel igpu in i/o prefs which was the old default. Not sure if the 13700 mobile igpu decodes XAVC HS 4K which I understand is 10bit hevc 422. But when I tried hevc 422 mp4 media on Intel Arc a770 with vp21 b108 or b208, Intel graphics decoded it with around a 5% performance boost over 11900k cpu decoding.