I thought it was just my imagination, but yes it crashed a few times while I was idle as well, or if I made a small change like adjust the size of a tab (project media, master bus preview size) etc.

These formats are from before my time as a video editor (and VEGAS user). For making conversions I am using ShutterEncoder (free program) these days as it can convert to good quality AVC using x264 or intermediate formats like ProRes 4:2:2 which work quite well in VEGAS, especially newer versions.

My guess is there's an issue with these re-encoded files and you could try a conversion and replace the media in VEGAS to see if that's correct.

FWIW, neither of these decoder plugins uses the GPU as far as I'm aware so there's another issue at hand, likely with media compatibility.

You're saying re-encode the avi? The m2ts isn't converted in any way.

How can you tell that neither one of these decoder plug-ins aren't using the GPU?

I converted the vob to avi via VirtualDub (direct stream option) which still produced a larger file than the original vob. I know size doesn't seem to be the issue here, but I still don't know the best option to convert from vob to either mpeg/avi/mp4 etc. Whichever format Vegas can read without jittery playback.

.vob is MPEG-2. "Unless" there is some kind of source file corruption, you can rename the extension from .vob to .mpg and it will open, edit, preview, and render just fine in Vegas. It is a very system-efficient codec, Vegas uses MPEG-2 for Proxies, so give it a whirl, and good luck.

Yes for the AVI as the M2TS are likely fine (a more common file source).

I would use ShutterEncoder and select ProRes 422. VEGAS decodes ProRes natively in recent versions (officially from VP 19) and well enough in older versions. File size isn't the problem.

Both of of these decoders are old and I am pretty sure are not GPU enabled. You can of course go to windows task manager/performance, click on the GPU and look at decoding activity to confirm.

I know some folks here are saying the storage drive won't matter -- and I realize -- you'd think it shouldn't.

AND -- I'm currently sitting in a hotel room with CAT5 connecting my laptop to my partner's. Our Sandisk Extreme Pro 2Tb/s drive is on her laptop and she's shared the project folder which I'm working on through that peer network.

All appears to be fine -- except my Vegas is crashing way more frequently than I'd like.

Here's the thing -- I loaded my project -- it sat idle.. literally idle.. and crashed after like 10 or 15 minutes. I watched it happen. Nothing playing even on the timeline. I believe it happened just after an auto-save. Same thing I observed yesterday. So quite possibly there IS something to say about file I/O that may contribute to certain crashes.

(I also reported some years ago that auto-backup on network drives seemed pretty inefficient)

My editing has been solid with zero crashes the past two days. I changed two things:

1. Replaced CAT5 cable connecting our two laptops -- I'd noticed I was only getting 100Mbps... changing cable gave me 1Gb

2. I found on my Tools menu an older Excaliber "Auto Save" feature was enabled, trying to save backups to a non-connected network drive. It had a feature ticked not to report errors when it failed. I disabled that Auto-Save add-on.

All-in-all.. happy it's solid right now! *whew*

Quoting a lovely older TV series: "The owls are not what they seem."

Both of of these decoders are old and I am pretty sure are not GPU enabled. You can of course go to windows task manager/performance, click on the GPU and look at decoding activity to confirm

I'm totally green when it comes to knowing if the GPU is decoding the two files. I'll look at the GPU decoding activity like you said. I didn't know that was an option.

I've used ProRes files before as I've had Super 8 footage scanned at 4k and outputted at 4k ProRes with no problems, which again proves file size isn't my issue.

I'll look into SutterEncoder as well. VirtualDub is a pretty handy program as well and can convert. I'm probably have the settings wrong while converting.

Hi Jason, no worries- GPU decoding is relatively new in the video editing world (well, introduced in the last decade). If there were activity it would show up here:

I'd heard of VirtualDub but looking at it again it seems like it was last updated in 2013. The world has moved on since then so I'd get familiar with modern tools that support modern formats. ShutterEncoder is one such tool, it's free and still under development, and I find it relatively foolproof as to the settings. ProRes will give big file sizes but should play back well in VEGAS. If you ever update VEGAS you'll get native Apple ProRes support which is even better performing.