What is the source of the mp4 files? Which camera?

What is the source of the mp4 files? Which camera?

Source is OBS using CQP set to 20, recorded to .mkv files and then remuxed to a .mp4 so it can be edited. Resolution of the recording is 1080p at 60fps.

Start by posting this information:

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-how-to-post-mediainfo-and-vegas-pro-file-properties--104561/

I will get that information as soon as I get back to my editing machine and post it.

@SnarfConsortium
Proven and recommended OBS settings can be found here:
https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-what-obs-studio-settings-work-well-with-vegas-pro--109925/

My info for the video clip is below

General
Complete name                            : G:\OBS Remuxed\RE4 Rando\Yakuza 0 - 2022-11-09 19-15-17.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size                                : 18.4 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 23.6 Mb/s
Writing application                      : Lavf59.16.100

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                                 : 1 h 51 min
Source duration                          : 1 h 51 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 23.1 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 40.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 60.000 FPS
Minimum frame rate                       : 58.824 FPS
Maximum frame rate                       : 62.500 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.185
Stream size                              : 18.0 GiB (98%)
Source stream size                       : 18.0 GiB (98%)
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
mdhd_Duration                            : 6712716
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 161 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                              : 129 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                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 274 b/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                              : 1.82 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : Track2
Default                                  : No
Alternate group                          : 1

Audio #3
ID                                       : 4
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 156 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                              : 125 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : Track3
Default                                  : No
Alternate group                          : 1

Audio #4
ID                                       : 5
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 161 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                              : 129 MiB (1%)
Title                                    : Track4
Default                                  : No
Alternate group                          : 1

Audio #5
ID                                       : 6
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 274 b/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                              : 1.82 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : Track5
Default                                  : No
Alternate group                          : 1

Audio #6
ID                                       : 7
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 51 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 2 274 b/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                              : 1.82 MiB (0%)
Title                                    : Track6
Default                                  : No
Alternate group                          : 1

General
  Name: Yakuza 0 - 2022-11-09 19-15-17.mp4
  Folder: G:\OBS Remuxed\RE4 Rando
  Type: AVC
  Size: 19.34 GB (19,805,140,253 bytes)
  Created: Wednesday, November 9, 2022, 9:08:51 PM
  Modified: Wednesday, November 9, 2022, 9:11:27 PM
  Accessed: Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 5:09:08 PM
  Attributes: Archive

Streams
  Video: 01:51:52.683, 60.000 (VFR) fps progressive, 1920x1080x32, AVC
  Audio 1: 01:51:52.683, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, AAC
  Audio 2: 01:51:52.683, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, AAC
  Audio 3: 01:51:52.683, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, AAC
  Audio 4: 01:51:52.683, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, AAC
  Audio 5: 01:51:52.683, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, AAC
  Audio 6: 01:51:52.683, 48,000 Hz, Stereo, AAC

Summary
  [TCFM]: 6

ACID information
  ACID chunk: no
  Stretch chunk: no
  Stretch list: no
  Stretch info2: no
  Beat markers: no
  Detected beats: no

Other metadata
  Regions/markers: no
  Command markers: no

Media manager
  Media tags: no

Plug-In
  Name: so4compoundplug.dll
  Folder: C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 20.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\so4compoundplug
  Format: AVC
  Version: Version 1.0 (Build 8532)
  Company: MAGIX Computer Products Intl. Co.

I have also tried the same footage and project on a laptop I recently purchased, the specs for it are below:

CPU - i5 11300H

GPU - RTX 3050

RAM - 16gb (I do not know the specific speed of this ram)

Storage - 1tb nvme

The project has no issues with stuttering when trying to playback even when set to the Full resolution of the project. I am failing to understand how a laptop with a CPU that is slower and with 1/3 of the cores and half the ram is able to beat my primary editing desktop. Does Vegas Pro just play nicer with intel CPU's and the 3000's series of gpu's? Or is it that the footage is being loaded from an SSD rather and an HDD that is causing the stuttering issues?

For nonlinear editing, Constant Frame Rate works best. You appear to be using a machine encoder, which requires pretty large files to maintain quality. You should be able to render directly to mp4 in OBS, saving you the remux step. Do you need 6 audio tracks?

It's possibly the badly performing Vegas GPU decoder overloading. To improve performance set Max B frames to 1, and set Keyframe interval to 1s (based on 60fps) Psycho Visual Tuning is ticked, look ahead is unticked. Btw I haven't' done extensive testing on best setting, found one that worked with Vegas and haven't bothered looking more into it.

In this video the first test is default NVENC option of OBS, you can see the decoder overloading and the fps playback is bad, the 2nd test on the timeline is using the setting I just gave you. This video is a poor choice to demonstrate this, but look at the fps and the Gpu decoder and compare the difference

To check if this has improved things, scrub the timeline comparing recording you made with your old settings and with new settings, it should scrub much more smoothly

As far as the laptop performing better goes it may be due to superior support for decoding using the Intel iGPU.

For nonlinear editing, Constant Frame Rate works best. You appear to be using a machine encoder, which requires pretty large files to maintain quality. You should be able to render directly to mp4 in OBS, saving you the remux step. Do you need 6 audio tracks?

I do the initial recording in .mkv and remux to .mp4 in case of a crash during recording to avoid loss of the whole video file. For the audio, it fluctuates how many audio tracks I will need for a specific video. I will need anywhere from 2 to all 6 depending on the amount of people that are associated with the video as each person will occupy a microphone and have their own audio track. I am also removing the unused audio tracks when editing, is having them there from the start affecting the playback of the preview?

It's possibly the badly performing Vegas GPU decoder overloading. To improve performance set Max B frames to 1, and set Keyframe interval to 1s (based on 60fps) Psycho Visual Tuning is ticked, look ahead is unticked. Btw I haven't' done extensive testing on best setting, found one that worked with Vegas and haven't bothered looking more into it.

In this video the first test is default NVENC option of OBS, you can see the decoder overloading and the fps playback is bad, the 2nd test on the timeline is using the setting I just gave you. This video is a poor choice to demonstrate this, but look at the fps and the Gpu decoder and compare the difference

To check if this has improved things, scrub the timeline comparing recording you made with your old settings and with new settings, it should scrub much more smoothly

I will try the new settings in OBS and see if they help improve the preview playback. Unfortunately I have several hours of footage already recorded with the old settings that I need to work through.

Is the 2080ti not that well supported in Vegas? Would upgrading to a newer GPU like a 3090ti, an RTX 4000 series, or even a 7900xt help? I tried the same video files on my laptop with arguably worse specs, and it was able to playback the video without issue. Do the RTX 3000 series cards work better with Vegas?

Is the 2080ti not that well supported in Vegas? Would upgrading to a newer GPU like a 3090ti, an RTX 4000 series, or even a 7900xt help? I tried the same video files on my laptop with arguably worse specs, and it was able to playback the video without issue.

That's interesting, are you using the Intel IGPU decoder instead of Nvidia, what are your decoder settings?

I know that Vegas likes the Intel IGPU for maximum compatibility but did not know it played back garden variety AVC better. It is a Vegas software problem, this decoder overload only exists in Vegas, it's not your hardware. (Assuming you're using decoder)

Because you've been playing with dubious settings sourced from the internet, it would be best to change them back to default. No RTX 30 series don't perform better, The 2080ti is a classic editing card, for editing it's more powerful than 3070, but not as strong as 3080. I don't think it needs updating, and won't help with playback unless you're using very GPU heavy effects.

Is the 2080ti not that well supported in Vegas? Would upgrading to a newer GPU like a 3090ti, an RTX 4000 series, or even a 7900xt help? I tried the same video files on my laptop with arguably worse specs, and it was able to playback the video without issue.

That's interesting, are you using the Intel IGPU decoder instead of Nvidia, what are your decoder settings?

I know that Vegas likes the Intel IGPU for maximum compatibility but did not know it played back garden variety AVC better. It is a Vegas software problem, this decoder overload only exists in Vegas, it's not your hardware. (Assuming you're using decoder)

Because you've been playing with dubious settings sourced from the internet, it would be best to change them back to default. No RTX 30 series don't perform better, The 2080ti is a classic editing card, for editing it's more powerful than 3070, but not as strong as 3080. I don't think it needs updating, and won't help with playback unless you're using very GPU heavy effects.

These are the preferences I have set on my laptop. Again, I can load the same video footage and the same projects that stutter on my primary editing rig and it plays smoothly even when the preview is set to full.

The decoder is on the file i/o tab. The difference is likely the presence of the Intel iGPU, not any settings you can change.

It should be possible to re-encode existing footage with settings as Todd described, or make proxies or use your laptop as a workaround for now.

Just checked my laptop and it was indeed using the intel iGPU to decode. Would installing an intel arc GPU, like the a380 or a770, be a way to gain the benefits of an intel GPU while still having the power when needed of my 2080ti? Have those been tested with Vegas yet?

Yes. Please search the forum for this as one user, Howard, made such tests and had positive things to say about decoding and encoding with the a380. That assumes your system can fit and power two GPUs.