Weird black preview/render problem

shanedk wrote on 10/22/2016, 9:08 AM

I'm having a problem with VP14. I have a timeline with graphics and video in 2160p, and whenever I try to render it, the initial graphic renders fine, but as soon as it gets to the video it goes black. If I cancel and go back into the timeline, the video appears black in the preview and won't appear in Trimmer, either. If I restart Vegas, then I can see the video fine in the Preview and the Trimmer--until I try to render it again, when the same thing happens.

I've tried deleting the .sfk* files, I did a full reinstall of my GeForce drivers with the option to clean the settings, nothing I've tried will fix the problem.

Weird workaround: if I change the file's properties to 1080p, it renders fine with the same codec (XAVC S Long).

Any ideas?

Comments

NickHope wrote on 10/23/2016, 1:12 AM

Take a look at this post and please come back with the info requested in #6 if you need more help: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/why-does-my-rendered-video-look-bad-quality-troubleshooting-basics--103361/

shanedk wrote on 10/23/2016, 7:40 AM

This does seem to be consistent with what I'm experiencing. The video was shot at 1080i, and I was trying out VP14's Smart Adaptive Deinterlacing as well as Smart Upscale. When I turn off GPU, I have to turn off both of those since GPU is required, and it works as it did before. The Smart Adaptive Deinterlacing works at 1080p, the only hitch is getting it to upscale to 2160p.

It won't let me attach the Properties screenshot, but here's the MediaInfo text:

General
ID                                       : 0 (0x0)
Complete name                            : v:\Quickies\Set 9\00017.MTS
Format                                   : BDAV
Format/Info                              : Blu-ray Video
File size                                : 1.73 GiB
Duration                                 : 14 min 15 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 17.3 Mb/s
Maximum Overall bit rate                 : 18.0 Mb/s

Video
ID                                       : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP                     : M=2, N=15
Codec ID                                 : 27
Duration                                 : 14 min 14 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 16.2 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 16.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan type, store method                  : Separated fields
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.261
Stream size                              : 1.61 GiB (93%)

Audio
ID                                       : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Codec ID                                 : 129
Duration                                 : 14 min 14 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 448 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -67 ms
Stream size                              : 45.6 MiB (3%)

Text
ID                                       : 4608 (0x1200)
Menu ID                                  : 1 (0x1)
Format                                   : PGS
Codec ID                                 : 144
Duration                                 : 14 min 13 s
Delay relative to video                  : -67 ms

NickHope wrote on 10/23/2016, 8:27 AM

What graphics card and driver do you have?

shanedk wrote on 10/23/2016, 1:21 PM

GeForce GTX 650, driver version 375.57

shanedk wrote on 11/7/2016, 9:04 AM

I think I've pinned down my GPU issue, and hopefully this will give someone a clue as to what's going on.

When I'm rendering 2160p video with the GPU, I'm getting issues where it renders a blank screen, or some layers render and other layers render invisibly. When I turn off the GPU and render it, it works fine (although of course I lose filters such as Smart Zoom which require the GPU). If I turn the GPU on and turn the resolution down to 1080p, it works fine with the GPU, including the filters.

So I'm ONLY having the problem with 2160p video rendered with the GPU.

My GPU is a GeForce GTX 650 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, driver version 375.70 (I've had the problem with the last few driver revisions, basically ever since I installed VP14). The computer is a 3.6GHz 8-core AMD FX-8150 with 16GB RAM running Windows 10-x64 and .NET 4.6.2.

I'm running Vegas Pro 14 build 189 64-bit, and it happened with build 178, too.

Jam_One wrote on 11/7/2016, 9:27 AM

GTX 650 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory

'Boris FX' in some of their pre-10 versions of 'Boris Continuum Complete' did mention that we should preferably operate GPUs with a 4GB of memory, or at least 3GB, for some sorts of computations with 4K video. AFAICR.

[Me personally having got 2 x (GTX 760 / 4GB RAM); and status so far "OK".]

shanedk wrote on 11/7/2016, 9:40 AM

It also has 8GB of shared system memory. Does that work?

Jam_One wrote on 11/7/2016, 9:59 AM

I can't be sure what exactly this feature (shared system memory) adds to the situation.
But as an experiment I would suggest switching this "shared memory" completely off, and see if it's better or worse.

My idea of shared system memory from the days I worked in repair/assembly service is not much positive, to say so. I tend see it as a crutch-to-othervise-sub-par-GPU (especially for the ones built into the CPU), and "yet another one weak spot to break".
It (SSM) was actually really good for office PCs - to save money - to not install a dedicated GPU if there's some sort of video chip on motherboard. But for a Workstation (be it vdeo-processing or even a gaming one) things were quite opposite (i.e. actually not good).

Jam_One wrote on 11/8/2016, 7:08 AM

One more thing to consider.

Chances are, the Shared System Memory can not be configured on you PC to serve the 'discrete/add-on' video card (which is your 'master' one in this story), but can only be fed to the 'embedded/built-in' chips (either in CPU or in mother-board's chipset).
(So, in some happy circumstances you, theoretically, may happen to have 3 video-processing 'facilities' of different computing power simultaneously with tricky precedence/priorities. The fact they all need their own proper drivers also adds to the fun.)

If the later is the case, then eventually the resources (namely SSM) are just stolen from you and your GPU-intensive applications.

Since there is hardly a perfect way to understand your exact configuration 'remotely', you, most certainly, have to experiment.
As a first step you might wish to check whether some GPU other than nVidia is enabled in BIOS (video module of CPU and/or video chip on Mother Board) and shut them both down.

shanedk wrote on 11/8/2016, 7:52 AM

There isn't a video chip on the motherboard, I know that. I can't find a setting to configure the shared memory.

This is the motherboard: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A97_R20/

OldSmoke wrote on 11/8/2016, 8:33 AM

It also has 8GB of shared system memory. Does that work?

Where did you get that information from?

shanedk wrote on 11/8/2016, 2:33 PM

It also has 8GB of shared system memory. Does that work?

Where did you get that information from?

The "System Information" window in the NVIDIA Control Panel.