What's your CPU and GPU model? Are you using a recent GPU driver?

If you made various settings to VEGAS based on internet recommendations I would start with a full reset.

Next, you can try the VP 16 benchmark in my signature if you'd like to compare it against many other systems using the same settings. If your system is much slower something is wrong outside of the media/project (overheating? bad GPU driver?)

In general HEVC can be slow to decode, and before VEGAS can render anything it has to read the original file. Are you using proxy files to make editing faster? It doesn't use those while rendering.

MagixAVC with QSV, NVENC or VCE is a good starting point for fast renders. Give it a reasonable bitrate and match the resolution and framerate of your project.

VEGAS 16 doesn't support HEVC hardware decoding, so that makes sense. You need a more modern version of VEGAS, and a GPU that supports HEVC hardware decode, in order to get better performance. Otherwise, HEVC can decode VERY slowly on the CPU. Try switching OBS to AVC instead.

As I mentioned, the issue expanded to AVC. This is recording with 8, 12, and 16 megabit variants of H264 and x264. I did try Vegas Pro 19 as well as per customer support's advice when I went to them originally for when this issue was exclusive to HEVC. Once the latest version (at the time) failed to fix things, they had no further support to offer me, and I went back to AVC. Now the issue is both in AVC & HEVC.

What's your CPU and GPU model? Are you using a recent GPU driver?

If you made various settings to VEGAS based on internet recommendations I would start with a full reset.

Next, you can try the VP 16 benchmark in my signature if you'd like to compare it against many other systems using the same settings. If your system is much slower something is wrong outside of the media/project (overheating? bad GPU driver?)

In general HEVC can be slow to decode, and before VEGAS can render anything it has to read the original file. Are you using proxy files to make editing faster? It doesn't use those while rendering.

MagixAVC with QSV, NVENC or VCE is a good starting point for fast renders. Give it a reasonable bitrate and match the resolution and framerate of your project.

GPU is 5700XT. CPU is 3700X in all scenarios mentioned in my OP. I always use the most recent "stable" editions that AMD puts out. No beta drivers. I've done several full strips and installs of drivers, and even OS. Both the HEVC and AVC issues occur on multiple drivers. I've even tried on multiple chipset drivers; for what that's worth.

I have done no internet recommended edits to my Vegas, and reinstalls were performed; including onto different drives.

I did not use proxy files. Neither HEVC nor AVC slow my editing process down enough to need them.

Magix AVC with VCE is my normal go to. For both HEVC & AVC, once enough splits are made in the timeline, No variance of settings are making a difference. VBR vs CBR, all the different "full resolution render quality" settings, AAC vs VCE, variants of bitrates up to 16 megabits. 1080p 30fps in every instance.

When dealing with HEVC, none of the render formats would output a YouTube-ready file without taking an entire day. Even if the video was 10 minutes long. (Perhaps mentioning HEVC to begin with was a mistake, but I figured it could be helpful since it is the same symptoms.)

When dealing with AVC, MagixAVC with the above listed variants completely fails in the same way, but it at least "workable" by rendering my 30 minute videos in small 5ish minute chunks and putting them back together again. Otherwise, SonyAVC works perfectly fine, but naturally renders at half the speed of a graphics card assisted Magix format.

The things in common between the HEVC and AVC files that are showing these symptoms (Because it is not 100% of them. Some AVC renders do work, and some HEVC renders do work) is simply the amount of times I split the timeline. Lightweight edits that involve maybe 10-40 splits work fine in both circumstances. Once it gets towards the triple digits, then the symptoms show as I have described.

The diminishing performance with increasing cuts points to problems with decode. Some video formats are harder to "seek" to specific times.

Best to post a mediainfo report on a typical file and then solicit recommendations.

The diminishing performance with increasing cuts points to problems with decode. Some video formats are harder to "seek" to specific times.

Best to post a mediainfo report on a typical file and then solicit recommendations.

Roger dodger. Unfortunately, this site isn't taking text files so this'll be a bit of a text wall. This is a stereotypical AVC file that slows my Magix AVC format's rendering by roughly 97.4% once split enough times in the timeline.

General
Complete name                            : VIdeoFile.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size                                : 55.6 GiB
Duration                                 : 8 h 9 min
Overall bit rate                         : 16.2 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.2
Format settings                          : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 8 h 9 min
Source duration                          : 8 h 9 min
Bit rate                                 : 16.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS
Minimum frame rate                       : 29.412 FPS
Maximum frame rate                       : 30.303 FPS
Standard                                 : Component
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.257
Stream size                              : 54.7 GiB (99%)
Source stream size                       : 54.7 GiB (99%)
Color range                              : Limited
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : 2 / 40 / mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 8 h 9 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 162 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 568 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : 2 / 40 / mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 8 h 9 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 61.2 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 214 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : Track2
Default                                  : No
Alternate group                          : 1

@Resoula 1st do a Vegas reset to default settings and clearing all cached data. Btw, 5700xt works fine for editing hevc 4:2:0 in my Xeon system with vp16 and camera media. But it's not a great choice for screen capture. If you were having trouble with only hevc, I'd guess your obs encoding settings might be at fault. Suggest you capture something easier to encode and decode. Either use obs standard x264 or consider custom prores-ks to mov. And avoid double frame rates, variable frame rates, and use a ups for power-fail protection instead of edit-unfriendly format compromises. Better yet, ditch obs entirely and use the capture facility built into the amd driver... it's performance is much better and its default capture formats are edit friendly.

@Resoula 1st do a Vegas reset to default settings and clearing all cached data. Btw, 5700xt works fine for editing hevc 4:2:0 in my Xeon system with vp16 and camera media. But it's not a great choice for screen capture. If you were having trouble with only hevc, I'd guess your obs encoding settings might be at fault. Suggest you capture something easier to encode and decode. Either use obs standard x264 or consider custom prores-ks to mov. And avoid double frame rates and use a ups for power-fail protection instead of edit-unfriendly format compromises. Better yet, ditch obs entirely and use the capture facility built into the amd driver... it's performance is much better and its default capture formats are edit friendly.

Hello, I've done full reinstalls including of the OS. As I mentioned, this issue has extended into AVC as well. I actually record in MKV and just create an MP4 after, but recording directly to MP4 made no difference in my testing. My 5700XT was, in fact, used in recording some of the footage that I experience problems with, but my newer 7800XT was used as well (I have two different PCs, but I edit on the one with the 5700XT). I have not tried regular x264 recordings yet, but I can give it a shot. I also have not tried AMD's recording software, and could certainly attempt that as well next time I record an equivalent file to the one in my mediainfo report.

@Resoula Reinstalling Vegas does not necessarily reset Vegas settings changes you made or delete corrupted cached data. An OS reinstall would, however. But that's overkill. See (from: Read This 1st):

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-how-can-i-reset-vegas-pro-to-default-settings--104646/

Checking the box to delete cached data is optional but recommended. I find deleting cached data more likely to fix problems unless internal settings were also changed and forgotten.

I've had the slow render with mkv files in the past, but selected ones, not all, it was strange and unexplainable when it happened, if I recall correctly would render at 0.7fps. But you're working with AVC's and I've never seen that, due to the variable frame rate it looks like you're probably encoding to mkv, then OBS or other software is remuxing/ to mp4. Your OBS settings could be looked at and improved upon, but that's not the direct issue here.

See what happens after the Vegas Reset.

A vegas reset done just now (using Howard's instructions linked) has had zero effect. Testing a project, that I know suffers this issue, resulted in no improvement when using all the same settings. Unfortunately.

I've had the slow render with mkv files in the past, but selected ones, not all, it was strange and unexplainable when it happened, if I recall correctly would render at 0.7fps. But you're working with AVC's and I've never seen that, due to the variable frame rate it looks like you're probably encoding to mkv, then OBS or other software is remuxing/ to mp4. Your OBS settings could be looked at and improved upon, but that's not the direct issue here.

See what happens after the Vegas Reset.

Yes indeed I do the OBS MKV then remux to MP4. But I've also had these issues on straight MP4 recordings too.

I also went ahead and tested other formats to see which all are affected. Magix AVC and HEVC are affected. WMV is affected. Mainconcept is affected. SonyAVC works. Magix Intermediate works. These results are reliable too. I can trigger them 100% of the time, even if I am using default presets.

That is strange, try these OBS settings, but if you're using default OBS recording settings editing and playback on timeline will be more sluggish using Vegas but never heard of slowdowns in renders as bad as yours, there often is a slowdown due to variable frame rate from the mkv to mp4 rewrap. I guess it might depend on how many cuts you make.

Can try this setting for OBS, hopefully everything is the same for AMD GPU's , but keep in mind Vegas can not read fragmented mp4 correctly so make sure OBS is auto remuxing it to standard mp4,

I just re-read what you said, you are having the slow downs with some codecs when rendering but not others, so that doesn't sound like a decoding problem but encoding. Not sure what the problem is, with these sort of cases the Vegas resets normally fixes it.

Keyframe interval of 2s is for 30fps, 1s for 60fps, can use 1s for 30fps but file size will be larger and most likely not see any improvement in timeline editing.

That is strange, try these OBS settings, but if you're using default OBS recording settings editing and playback on timeline will be more sluggish using Vegas but never heard of slowdowns in renders as bad as yours, there often is a slowdown due to variable frame rate from the mkv to mp4 rewrap. I guess it might depend on how many cuts you make.

Can try this setting for OBS, hopefully everything is the same for AMD GPU's , but keep in mind Vegas can not read fragmented mp4 correctly so make sure OBS is auto remuxing it to standard mp4,

My OBS settings are not default. My settings differ from this specifically in that I typically record & render in CBR at a static 16 megabits, and I only assign 1 b-frame (AMD and Nvidia have some differences there), but I can try CQP and bframes during the next day that I record an equivalent file, but that might be in a week or so with my schedule.

Also, I decided to count. I made ~150 splits in the timeline in the project that I am testing.

Edit: Saw your edit. Yeah, you got the nail on the head, but sadly the reset didn't work. It's still functioning same a before.

@Resoula Just for diagnostic purposes can you do a UHD render with the exact MagixAVC settings listed here and report what time you get? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfguBaMOit_GILkbzL_2ZCFaSTVR4j6Ru0gXU96hDLyrhuZTA/viewform

While a 3rd generation Intel CPU won't be fast it shouldn't take a day to render anything. If it does render okay it suggests there's something with the project (intensive Fx applied somewhere?)

If it doesn't render well try watching HWInfo64 during a render and see if there is overheating or throttling of any components.

That media really should edit okay in VEGAS and if it's playing back without issue and without proxy files it should encode similarly.

One workaround is to bypass the VEGAS encoding and have it just send frames to Voukoder to be rendered. You can use AMD VCE here, too. Just download the non-pro version and the connector for this version of VEGAS. It's free to use (donation-ware). https://www.voukoder.org/forum/thread/783-downloads-instructions/

@Resoula Just for diagnostic purposes can you do a UHD render with the exact MagixAVC settings listed here and report what time you get? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfguBaMOit_GILkbzL_2ZCFaSTVR4j6Ru0gXU96hDLyrhuZTA/viewform

While a 3rd generation Intel CPU won't be fast it shouldn't take a day to render anything. If it does render okay it suggests there's something with the project (intensive Fx applied somewhere?)

If it doesn't render well try watching HWInfo64 during a render and see if there is overheating or throttling of any components.

That media really should edit okay in VEGAS and if it's playing back without issue and without proxy files it should encode similarly.

One workaround is to bypass the VEGAS encoding and have it just send frames to Voukoder to be rendered. You can use AMD VCE here, too. Just download the non-pro version and the connector for this version of VEGAS. It's free to use (donation-ware). https://www.voukoder.org/forum/thread/783-downloads-instructions/

I got 1 minute and 24 seconds.

I am using a 3700X. This is an AMD CPU. You might be thinking of a 3700k from intel. Zero special effects are used. The only editing is in volume and splits.

Voukoder does successfully start a render while replicating my Magix settings. However, the results do not make it an attractive option for AVC.
MagixAVC (when it works) on a 30 minute video usually completes it in 15 minutes. It uses 100% CPU & 30% GPU when it works.
Voukoder working a 30 minute video is over 30 minutes render time with same settings as Magix. 100% CPU and 30% GPU here too.
SonyAVC working a 30 minute video is ~27 minutes using 70% CPU.

It's quite strange. Perhaps Voukoder might do better with HEVC. I'll have to test that another time. All my footage is AVC atm.

1:34 is quite reasonable so there doesn't seem to be any general issue with the system or VEGAS installation.

Thanks for clarifying this is a modern AMD CPU not an old Intel one.

For Voukoder which codec are you using? Unlike the Magix templates it follows the project resolution and framerate. I assume you are using AMD VCE and not the CPU-only x264.

1:34 is quite reasonable so there doesn't seem to be any general issue with the system or VEGAS installation.

Thanks for clarifying this is a modern AMD CPU not an old Intel one.

For Voukoder which codec are you using? Unlike the Magix templates it follows the project resolution and framerate. I assume you are using AMD VCE and not the CPU-only x264.

H264 AMD AMF was my selected codec.

I can't test AMD AMF on my systems but on the NVIDIA side Voukoder is faster than NVIDIA hardware encoding and its QSV is faster and significantly higher quality than Intel QSV through MagixAVC.

Is the resulting file similar in file size to the native VEGAS one?

@Resoula
I see from the MediaInfo shown that your OBS uses a variable frame rate. That is something Vegas does not like and sometimes refuses to open those types of files if there are major differences. So set the framerate to CFR in OBS

@Resoula
I see from the MediaInfo shown that your OBS uses a variable frame rate. That is something Vegas does not like and sometimes refuses to open those types of files if there are major differences. So set the framerate to CFR in OBS

The settings are set to a constant frame rate. But it is recorded to MKV and converted to MP4. The MKV, according to others above, is why it is listed as VFR. It is recorded to an MKV because I was losing footage due to PC crashes. Though someone else suggested to use a fragmented MP4 in place of an MKV and convert that.

I can't test AMD AMF on my systems but on the NVIDIA side Voukoder is faster than NVIDIA hardware encoding and its QSV is faster and significantly higher quality than Intel QSV through MagixAVC.

Is the resulting file similar in file size to the native VEGAS one?

Yes it is the same file size. I made sure all the settings matched exactly to produce an equivalent file. Perhaps the 1070 in my closet might fare better as an encoding tool, but some of the renders failed on CPU-only formats too so that would be strange.

As a separate note, I have just worked with a file that was split more than any other file (~200 splits in the timeline) and now zero formats render correctly. So whatever this issue is, it's definitely somehow directly related to the amount of splits in the timeline. This is very reminiscent now of what I experienced with HEVC, but now on AVC.I supposed AVC just becomes untenable at more splits than HEVC.

Edit: As another separate note, I changed my render fps from 29.97 to 30 and, while it did not fix my issue, it more than tripled my render speed in every single format . MagixAVC rendering a 30 minute video has gone from a 15 minute affair to a less than 5 minute affair. So, at the very least, taking one video that refuses to render into 5 parts and rendering them back together is now going at triple the speed. Going from a 30-45 minute affair to a 10 minute affair.

Update! I have found a workaround. If I delete the final event in my timeline, and then undo the delete, the render works as-expected 100% of the time. I ran many test renders on different files, projects, settings, and combination of actions. This one simple action produces the desired results 100% of the time. I don't understand why, but it does. So, while I don't know how to prevent the bugged renders, I now have a way to fix them 100% of the time.