so at this point I can't get it to render at all, just a portion of my project. I believe it is likely that the SO4 is not disabled (first troubleshooting in other posts), and that's because the ffmpeg converted files that I could no longer open without (in addition to files that are opening rotated).

- what setting in ffmpeg would have created .MOV files that are unopenable

- what setting is creating files that are rotated when imported into Vegas, but not when viewed via other players?

sorry for all the messages (and emotion) --- so I realized i could rotate the files in Project Media.. fixed the issues in the project. Also, by enabling quicktime plugin, I was able to open those mov files, keep the SO4 settings set.. and the reason I was having troubles rendering is VP was stuck trying to build proxy files. So I shut that off for now. First attempt to render a piece worked... hang on....

I think the flavor of .mov you created isn't decoded by so4 anyway, it's an old Quicktime compatible version. There must be other ffmpeg settings to create AVC that Vegas can read natively.

Glad to hear you got through a render, though.

ugh...personally never using ffmpeg... so can't help much...

I prefer Magix Intermediate - and it can render to whatever resolution including portrait mode shots.

You are correct for turning on the QT plugin.

@sakendrick You can batch convert all .mov to .mp4 without losing any quality, thus avoiding quicktime usage. Nick Hope did a nice FAQ on it here. Its always possible that not converting to CFR and only converting to .mp4, below, might have resolved some of the issues, but anyway, more food for thought. I think having the files as CFR has to be a plus.

This is an extract from his post ...

4. BATCH-CONVERTING A WHOLE FOLDER

If you have many files to convert, or a regular need to convert, then you can create a Windows batch file to automate the process.

Download here, or open a text editor such as Notepad, then copy and paste the following text into it:

for %%a in ("*.mov") do ffmpeg -i "%%a" -vcodec copy -acodec copy "%%~na.mp4"

Since my conversions the video preview is effectively unusable. I set it to draft/quarter, I turned Nvidia acceleration back on, set ram at 10gb, and turned the proxy pre render back to auto, but it takes about 10s to preview every frame. Any suggestions?

@sakendrick Have you converted the .mov to .mp4?

@sakendrick I have added an extra zip at the same download location, Sakendrick.zip, it's more for future use, as you probably don't want to redo all of the .mov files again.

The two files in the zip 03 ... .bat and 03a ... .bat converts from VFR to CFR, but any .mov input files are also changed to an output extension of .mp4.

@sakendrick Ok, I've updated those two files in the Sakendrick zip to output GOP of 30, ffmpeg's default is 250, which can cause preview slowdown sometimes. This change, to a GOP of 10 in Richards case improved his playback.

Your original files are probably a GOP of 30. This is worth a try anyway. The value to change in both files, in both ffmpeg lines (total of 4 places) is the n value -g n. So I currently set it at -g 30.

so for the mov files, I should convert the originals again, using these new scripts?

appreciate the support the batch files

@sakendrick Use the two new files, download them again as I have changed the GOP to 30. Use them for any, all VFR files. They will automatically output .mp4 for any .mov inputed files.

You can always experiment and set the -g to say 10, if 30 works though, leave it.

thank you - I will start with the troublesome MOVs to see if that helps with the Preview issue I'm having.

@JN- one other related question... now that I'm changing an MOV to a MP4, what's the best method to replace this file with out having to redo and crops, etc... Just use Replace File in Project Media?

Just use Replace File in Project Media?

help answer: yes

@sakendrick What I do is allow vp to search and replace with a new, different named file. If you use the method of adding CFR to the end of the converted file, just add a hyphen to the end of your old filename, vp will protest, then let it find the new file with CFR at the end. OTOH if you use the method of saving the converted files to the CFR folder, so no change to filename, (using the 03a ... .bat) then move the original files somewhere else, copy the contents of the CFR folder to the original projects files location, then vp will probably say nothing.

Sets answer is simpler.

Thanks to you both. Happy to report I have managed to get a good render out including some rudimentary coloring and contrast adjustments (too many knobs and dials!) and feel like I'm on a good path to get this out on Friday. My only issue is some of my cell shot video is lower quality for some reason.. may have been lighting, trying to fix with denoise and not spend more $ on a plugin, but Magix denoise is very difficult to render, so I saved it for last. Trying to see if I can pre render a few of the the small snippets to Intermediate.

Thanks - I'll post when I"m done. It's really not that intricate of a video but I'm learning lots to hopefully make my next project go smoother.

@sakendrick 👍.

so... released today, this was the end result. Not perfect but I'm happy with it. If you happen to be Canadian, you'll get this :). If not, enjoy! (and thanks again everyone for talking me through this)

Well done, really good - glad it worked out OK.

WOW - Nice! 👍

Love that landscape insert while moving!

yes - that was the big challenge with this edit (see my other posts). So I moved each frame independently with track motion... what I wanted to do was build a video wall, import as a nested project, then pan around, but Vegas kept crashing with nested project. I haven't tried that approach since I upgraded drivers etc and I was too far down the path. Got it done. Will try more advanced approaches next time (with less work!)

I realize this is a very long forum thread that veers a bit from the central topic of Vegas Pro 18 crashes and render hangs, but I want to add my two cents worth from the perspective of a long-time VP user and professional editor. This is by far the worst version of Vegas Pro I have experienced in over 10 years. Since upgrading to the full VP suite, I have not completed a single project without frequent and frustrating crashes during the edit and rendering processes. I have tried every single solution suggested in this forum and others — all to no avail. Short render or long, a crash or hang is almost guaranteed — often at exactly the same point in the render regardless of export format. My edit suite setup is top-flight and we have no shortage of computing hardware resources in this shop. Frankly speaking, in my professional opinion, this is a grossly defective product that needs to be pulled from the market and not released until the issues are resolved. If you successfully render a project, count yourself as lucky. The highly unstable nature of this version is so destructive to my workflow that I have now decided to stop using VP 18. I have, instead, reverted back to VP 17, which usually renders without incident (though it too has a nasty habit of crashing during the edit). Interestingly, I have also noticed the render times are SIGNIFICANTLY faster with VP 17. There is something seriously wrong with VP 18. Too many users are crashing and hanging in renders for this to be user configuration issues. In my view, no one with a serious regard for the editing craft should rely on this version until these issues are resolved.