This is going from bad to worse. No matter what I try, I can't get Vegas to render my 1080P 5.1 video clips that have AC-3 audio. Neither this Pro18 version, nor the earlier Movie Studio 16. Whenever I try, it wants to download a software module but it always fails. I can't help thinking that this is somehow related to the flaky MP4s that it produces 6 times out of 7 as the base camera footage has that audio format. That camera is the only one I have. I have no other means of recording videos. Now it seems, after spending £ hundreds, I have no way of producing any sort of video using any of that footage.

Would a clean instal work? If so, what's the best way to go about it? What will I lose - I have lots of add-ons from New Blue, Boris and Pixelan that I've acquired over the years - will I lose them?

Going through the help section of Vegas, the recommended render setting for 5.1 audio is MainConcept MPEG-2 - then Blu-ray 1920x1080-50i 25Mbps. But when I select the audio tab for that template, all the options are greyed out. So I can't select 5.1. So I'm still completely screwed.

With me Voukoder and Sony AVC/MVC can make not AC-3, but AAC LC with my 6 channels. If you want to see the customized templates you'll have to ask.

I've just opened a ticket with Vegas. Hopefully they will be able to resolve my issues or refund me, because at the moment, this software is no use to me at all.

@deckingman My previous post attempted to separate the video from the audio. If it turns out that they are two separate issues then you are piling on unnecessary trouble on yourself by attempting to solve two separate issues simultaneously.

I still think that you should render out a video only clip and see if it has any freezes. If it does then you know for certain that the audio is a separate issue. I have seen previous posts re: no support for 5.1, but since I only ever output stereo, I never paid it much attention.

@deckingman Here’s a 5.1 VP link to some discussion.

Plus this very informative link within the above link.

I noticed that to save a render template in 5.1 you MUST first set the project properties to 5.1, only then can you set and save the render template as 5.1, all in Sony Avc.

@JN- TBH, although the MP4 thing is what I started this thread about, the lack of 5.1 audio support is a much greater concern. I only use MP4 stereo for YouTube videos for which I get nothing back in return - it's a "labour of love" for the benefit of others. But for my own personal use, I use 5.1 surround sound (because I have a reasonable home theatre system) and because my camera doesn't do too bad a job or recording it (at least the surround effects for the rear and sub are better than nothing and I can leave them "as is" and just use better audio for the front channels).

But regarding all these continued efforts to produce a source video that I can say 100% always reproduces the problem - well I can't. The best I can do is a source which fails for me 6 times out of 7. But a few people have now rendered that source numerous times, using numerous different settings and no-one has as yet produced a rendered mp4 that fails the same way that it does for me. Also, this is the same camera, and the same settings that I've been using for years without any prior problems of this sort.

Logically, all this indicates to me that the problem isn't the source footage as such. It's too much of a coincidence that all these problem have started since I "upgraded" to Vegas Pro 18. But the common denominator between the 5.1 problems and the rendered MP4 problems is that same source footage. Given that it would seem the source footage is fine, (in that it can be rendered by others, using different machines, with different settings), then logic would again dictate that there is something amiss with installation of Vegas Pro on my machine.

We know that there is at least one missing module or component (because Vegas tries to download it but fails), so maybe there are others too? I'm no expert on video editing software and I don't think there is inherently anything wrong with Vegas Pro 18 because there are plenty of other users who don't have the same problem as I do. But I do think that something has got "scrambled" with Vegas as it is installed on my machine.

So all in all, I'm more inclined to get the 5.1. surround problems sorted so that I can at least render "raw" (as in native) camera footage, and if that just leaves me without the ability to produce MP4s for YouTube, then so be it.

Maybe I should just cut my losses and give Davinci resolve a try. I'll wait for Vegas to see if they can come up with anything but I'm not a happy bunny right now. Being a pensioner, money is tight and this VP18 was my Xmas pressy from 'er in doors .....

@deckingman Here’s a 5.1 VP link to some discussion.

Plus this very informative link within the above link.

Yes, I saw that. - That's what prompted me to try Voukoder, but as I said, I end with no audio whatsoever if I try it. Ref the link - I've read through it and it seems there was a problem with 5.1 audio being shown as 6 tracks when in fact it should only be 4 (because front and surround are stereo and not pairs of different mono tracks). But that's fixed on my machine - I get the correct 4 tracks showing when I drag a clip to the time line (it's just that I can't render them due to a missing component that won't download).

@deckingman Well, I’m a happy camper, because I learned something today! I read the 5.1 thread that I linked to above, and with the help of JV's screenshot plus vp's error message, telling me that it wouldn’t save the render template because project properties didn’t match. So I set the audio in project properties to 5.1, then the audio in the Sony Avc to 5.1 also.

I then successfully rendered out my very first 5.1 audio clip, 40s duration from your source mts clip only, no Tascam audio. I then confirmed it played the full 40s with no freeze. I then imported it into VP18 and sure enough, as mentioned in that other thread, the audio channels are stacked, a total of 4. The third from the top, LFE appears to have no audio, but the rest play fine, very nice.

@JN- Well I guess I'm pleased for you. But I only got the Tascam earlier this year (birthday pressy). So prior to that, I had only ever rendered 1080/50p with 5.1 audio to M2TS. Actaully not quite true- sometimes those files were down mixed to stereo but you get the point. Right now, I'd be more than happy if I could roll back to Movie Studio 16 but that's broken too since "upgrading" to Pro18.

@deckingman If you had another machine, you could try installing vp18 on it, then see if you still cannot get that download item. If not, maybe try a complete uninstall and reinstall, but maybe u have already tried that?

@deckingman If you had another machine, you could try installing vp18 on it, then see if you still cannot get that download item. If not, maybe try a complete uninstall and reinstall, but maybe u have already tried that?

That's a thought. As it happens, I do have another machine. When I ran a business, I set one up as a backup. All program data from the likes of Libre Office, as well as any media files, are sync'd across both PCs and a Synology NAS. So if the main PC fails completely, I could fire up the other one and it'd suck off any data files from the NAS and my business would continue without interruption. This machine has never had any Vegas (or Magix) software installed so it's a "virgin" machine in that respect. But it's only and i5 with 8GB ram - still it might work to prove a point.

I haven't yet tried a complete uninstal and re instal. TBH, I took a gander at the instructions but got scared off when they talked about editing the registry - that's way outside my comfort zone. I suspect this is what I'll end up having to do but I think I'll wait until I get a response to my ticket from Vegas/Magix. I need to get on with the rest of my life today - it's been on hold for about a week while I tried to sort out this cr*p.............

@deckingman One more thing. The download module issue you are experiencing just might be tied into the curtailed Magix support for AC-3 issue? Do let us know if you get any feedback from your support ticket.

If so, without the module download, you could convert the audio to AAC and then try rendering out the converted file to see if the freeze issue is fixed? You can use Handbrake for this, I also have a util to do this, link here, but it will only output stereo, so ok for your YT uploads, but not for your 5.1 system.

UPDATE: Also outputs the input files audio, which can be say 5.1.

@JN Thanks. I haven't heard anything from Magix/Vegas. At this point in time, I'm seriously thinking about changing to Resolve. But that'd be another learning curve to embark on, and at my time of life, these learning curves get very steep :) .I'll take a look at that Handbrake thing...........

@JN- I still haven't heard anything from Magix/Vegas. Meanwhile, I gave HandBrake a go but I could do with some advice on what settings to use, because I started with a 4GB MTS file and ended up with a 25GB M4V file. It does appear to have 6 channel audio in AAC format so I guess that's a step forward. But, I still can't render it because I either get the error about wanting to download a component which it won't do, or the audio optionas are greyed out, depending on format I select to render as. If I try using MPEG all the audio options are greyed out so that looks like it would render just the video. If I try the old Sony AVC option, that wants to render the audio as AC-3 despite the fact that the source footage has been converted to AAC. I really don't know where to go with this...............

@deckingman Have u tried my util at the link I gave? The stereo only output might fix your YT needs. It can also just output the ac3 audio as an mp4 aac file, no video.

Regards Handbrake, I haven’t had it on my PC for years now, it’s a great program, i’d say a bit of a learning curve also. There are other users here who are probably very familiar with it.

I'm sure Magix will get back some time, but whether their response allows you to move forward on this, given the ac3 issue, is another matter.

Have you tried your i5 PC?

@deckingman Have u tried my util at the link I gave? The stereo only output might fix your YT needs. It can also just output the ac3 audio as an mp4 aac file, no video.....................

 

 

Not yet, but I will do. I've been busy with 3D printer stuff and will be for the next couple of days. I just did that quick thing with handbrake to see if it would give me a way to render out 5.1 audio - probably best if I start a new thread about that issue.

I may have found a solution to my original problem with MP4 playback after rendering. The source files have 5.1 audio and I've always dragged the first clip to the time line, then chosen set project to match media settings. So, although I've subsequently muted all the 5.1 audio channels and used separate tracks for audio from my Tascam audio recorder, the project settings have remained as having the audio set to 5.1. That always worked for me with Movie Studio.

So I've changed the project settings from having 5.1 audio to having stereo. All renders to MP4 using that configuration have so far played back without any issues, regardless of which "flavour" of AVC that I've tried.

At least that has worked so far............

I'm not sure of the relationship between media settings, project settings, and render settings. Could someone enlighten me?

I've finally received a response from Magix about the ticket I raised on 6th December about the broken AC3 5.1 audio support in Vegas pro (which used to work fine with Movie studio 16). This is their reply - quote

"Starting with recent versions of Windows 10, the VEGAS line of products uses native Windows tools for stereo AC-3 encoding and decoding. It is not possible to encode 5.1 AC-3 files since they are not supported through the operating system. To encode 5.1 audio, use another audio codec such as WAV.". - end of quote

I'll start another thread because this is way off topic from my original post but that reply seems to me that I'm stuffed. Deeply pi**ed off with Magix/Vegas.................