I used to do a lot of WMV rendering out of Vegas back around 2000. There are other tools free now from MS to do this type of conversion. You may want to look at Encoder 4 and see if that works better for what you are trying to do.

Couple things to try is to make sure your select down conversion is the same as the source media. Use a true 16x9 frame size, and not some default.

https://pacoup.com/2011/06/12/list-of-true-169-resolutions/

Also make sure to maintain your interlacing and progressive status during your conversion/render.

I did some test renders and Vegas does not seem to crash with WMV on my end. Can you give more info on your workflow and reasons for needing WMV still? I understand the low bitrate needs. Are you saying that a straight clip conversion on the timeline crashes, or does edited content crash?

Try a workflow of converting all your source footage to XDCAM.mxf, or Cineform-low.avi. Then editing that material, and rendering to the same master codec for conversion, or rendering to .WMV. Make sure to do all down sizing of images in Best/Full mode on your project or render template.

For small size video, you might try also the Handbrake path. Edit your material, export to one of the above formats, then use Handbrake to down scale the image to h.264 using a true 16x9 frame size.

MP4/h.264 is pretty much the same thing as WMV, minus MS continued development. WMV tops out at VC-1, which later they attempted to adhere to h.264 but the licensing killed it. VC-1 is just a lower profile standard than h.264 or XAVC of today. WMV is just a container standard that holds the video information, a long with various other information like CC and multi-channel audio.

My reason for using WMV is because my corporate clients all want their video content delivered on-line via cloud services, I no longer make DVDs. The final content is usually posted on intranet sites for staff and shareholders so file size & quality needs to be optimum.

So far, I've found that WMV renders out of Vegas exhibit the least macro-blocking artifacts and the smallest possible file size compared to MP4 or Quicktime formats at the same bit rates.

My project deadlines are pretty tight so transcoding rushes is something I avoid - all my cameras are Sony AVCHD & XDCAM models so there should not be any compatibility problems. I no longer use 3'rd party plugins (NewBlueFX, BBC etc) and stick to the basic Vegas tools. Now if only Vegas could do it's job and create WMV renders without the hiccups, however, I'll look into that MS Encoder and see if the workflow is faster than MS Movie Maker.

You could try the Vegas2Handbrake method. It creates excellent MP4 files specifically at low bit rates.

Ok so I ran a few render tests this morning to see that I was not misleading myself. The footage is handheld on a Canon DSLR that we filmed a few years ago.

Rendered using AVC MP4 codec:


Rendered using WMV:


Rendered using WMV through Movie Maker:


All renders 2Mbps bit rate.

To my eyes the WMV render has less macro blocking though it might not be as sharp as the AVC, I think I prefer the less blocky output from WMV. The Movie Maker WMV render looks too grainy so at the end of the day Vegas needs to sort it self out and not crash on WMV renders. Just as a side note the crashing only occurs after an hour or longer editing session, so something must degrade during that time to cause the problem.

Screen shots of the render configurations used:
http://s772.photobucket.com/user/1976pinball/media/AVC%20MP4.jpg.html
http://s772.photobucket.com/user/1976pinball/media/WMV.jpg.html

Do you have all the latest builds (updates) from Sony? I mean for both Vegas 13 and 11?

[I]Just as a side note the crashing only occurs after an hour or longer editing session, so something must degrade during that time to cause the problem.[/I]

Heat in your system? An overheated CPU, PSU or other component can easily cause a render to fail.

Thanks guys, I just tried Handbrake and it does the best encode by far!!!!

Here's the proof:


The source file was rendered out from Vegas using MPG compression at 25Mbps into an MT2 container and then chucked into Hanbrake and rendered out at 2Mbps.
The result is miles ahead compared to anything out of Vegas at such a low bit rate and even using the slowest most accurate rendering method, Handbrake rendered that clip in real time!!

I think I've found my low-res render workflow now. Thanks again guys :)

Yes we're quick to update to the latest Vegas build and my editing workstation is high spec ASUS branded with the best tower case money can buy :) The company I work for spares no expense on having the best and newest gear.

As I mentioned earlier, try the Vegas2Hanbrake method; it will frame serve straight from the Vegas timeline to Handbrake and you do need to have the intermediate render you currently do. Search this forum or Google it.

Edit:
Here is the link

Thanks OldSmoke, I'll definitely try the Vegas2Handbrake method as it will help me get those renders out where turnaround time is limited. The intermediate high-res renders are also necessary for us as they serve as archive copies we can edit from, especially if we change to another NLE platform in the future.

Sadly I just noticed in another thread that the current version of Vegas is going to be the last so I've started looking at potential alternatives that are similar to Vegas - not much luck so far :(