"Seems like Vegas can't handle a render job. Failed twice after 6+ hour attempts? "

I just finished a 3 day render with h.264 so I know vegas can handle renders.

It sounds to me that you have errors in your project and THAT'S why it's not rendering. Have you checked into why Vegas is showing an error on opening this project?

BTW... why are you selecting the entire project as a region.... this is not a necessary step. Vegas automatically selects the entire project unless you specify a smaller chunk.

Is your render crashing in the same place all the time or is it at random places?

Pretty much every time Vegas has had a render issue for me it's been because of a hardware issue or an issue with something I did (bad clip, etc). Here's a thread about someone who had an issue for a year & they admitted it was a setting on their machine they messed with that caused it:
here.

Unless you give more info nobody can help you.

I actually render a 55 min FHD short. It started on sunday and will probably end next tuesday.

You say you get errors when opening the master project. First you should check which nested project makes Vegas to report those stream open errors and fix them.

Also provide the version of Vegas you are running, if you use large stills, and any tech information about your project which would help understanding the origin of the issue.

" It is a nested project and when I open the master project it says error cannot open some video streams but when I play the project on the time line everything seems fine. "

Sounds like an issue with the proxy files that Vegas created when you nested the project. As far as I know they are only used when you preview / playout the project, not when you render.

Still I'd try deleting them which should cause the master project to ask the child to rebuild them. That *might* cure your problem.

The other trick that may get you over the line is to reduce the max number of threads to 1.

I'm assuming you've already checked the obvious things such as overheating CPU, bad RAM and dodgy power supply. Rendering video stresses all of those more than just about anything.

Bob.

Yes it is hanging at the same place 6 hours into the render? The files it can't find when I open the master project were never part of the project in any way whatsoever and all the sub projects open fine and there is no unused media in any of my bins? Btw I am using Vegas Pro8 and this computer is very new.

Rgds/Steve.

Hate to say this but you need to get Vegas 10. I had lots of memory handling problems with 8, then the first couple versions of 9 were buggy as well. Vegas 10 is much more stable and reliable. Never has failed render on any of my systems that range from a 32 bi,t 4 year old laptop to a new Win 7 64 bit machine.

Mike

Try rendering just that spot on your TL. You're rendering to mpeg-2 so it should still have the partly rendered file (mpeg-2's save as they're rendering & if you cancel don't always get deleted, unless it's something new for V10). This happened to me when I had to get a DVD out. Turns out it would stop rendering at the same spot every time. I tried rendering a few seconds & it would still stop at that spot. I moved the event one frame & then everything worked fine.

So, since you've already got a partly done mpeg-2, try rendering out just that part. If it works, render out just the stuff that needs done, then make a new project with the same settings as your mpeg-2 file. Place both your mpeg's on the new TL (separate tracks most likely to line them up perfectly) then render a new file to the exact same template as before and it should smart render almost the entire thing. Then all done! :D

"Yes it is hanging at the same place 6 hours into the render? "

If it's hanging in the same place then there is most likely something on the time line that Vegas doesn't like. What format(s) are you using on the T/L?

" The files it can't find when I open the master project were never part of the project in any way whatsoever and all the sub projects open fine and there is no unused media in any of my bins?"

That's correct.
When you nest a project Vegas renders the child to a proxy file. Look for files such as "child.veg.sfap0".

Bob.

[edit]
One other way you can trip yourself up with nested projects is to create a circular reference i.e. your child project contains a nest that is the parent.
Another question How many nests and how deep?
Beyond 1 level things can get wobbly, beyond 2, you're on your own as you need more and more RAM.

I use Vegas 8c almost daily - it remains the most rock-solid stable editing version for me (now on an ASRock MB with i7, and also same experience on my Asus MB with Q6600). Months go by between any kind of quirky behavior.

Back in the day when I HAD to render on 8c, I dreaded each render. It helped when I converted all clips to Cineform and then rendered to Cineform. But still I usually had to cut each project into tiny segments, assemble all the segments on the TL, then render again with Cineform. Even so,l I often got crashes after rendering 6 or so segments; then I'd have to reboot. A regular nightmare.

A few things will help:
1. Reduce rendering threads to 1, as previously mentioned.
2. Unclick all items under the View menu, especially Waveforms and Frames.
3. If it's crashing at the same point, check the size of any still at that point on the TL; 8c sometimes had problems with large stills during rendering. Also avoid Xvid, .MP3s, etc. - look for them at that point too.
4. Use Win7-64 bits and utilize the memory hack (search forum for "Some interesting observations . . ." You can use that hack in 32-bit versions of Windows, but you'll need to close all programs and TSRs. And still Windows 32-versions can't free up all that much memory no matter how much memory you have.

But, as mentioned above, the best solution is to get a 64-bit versions of Vegas (I always render in 9c or 9d; 10c won't import my 8c .VEGs properly; nor is it as stable as 8c for editing).

Having said that, to this day I render every video clip to Cineform before putting it on the project's TL, render all .MP3s to .WAV format, and render the final project to Cineform. From the final Cineform .AVI, I can always degrade it to interlaced (I now shoot mostly progressive), to .MXF for export to Handbrake's .MP4s for the web, etc.

The 32-bit versions of 9c and 9d also are much better for rendering, so I use them when I'm forced to use a 32-bit plugin.

If you buy Vegas 10, I'm pretty sure that you can download all the earlier versions; and if you get Vegas 10 64-bits, you'll also get the 32-bit version (you can install both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vegas on the same machine). Both run well in Win7-64, and your troubles will be over.

How do I reduce rendering threads to 1? Sorry if that is a dumb question....I looked in options/preferences and found nothing?

Steve.

Options - Preferences - Video.
Second from the top.

Mike

The files it can't find when I open the master project were never part of the project in any way whatsoever and all the sub projects open fine and there is no unused media in any of my bins?

The file that Vegas is looking for that was never part of this project, is referenced in one of your nested veg files.

Steve Mann