Hi,

After getting Panasonic TM900, I've upgraded to Vegas Pro 11 and a new computer (Dell T7500 - 2.4 GHz 6-core, 24Gb RAM, Quadro 4000). The video in 'Video Preview' window is choppy (panning shots). After several days of troubleshooting the Vegas and Quadro setups and searching the Internet for I still have this problem. (My Vegas skills are at best intermediate). This morning I've installed a trial version of Premiere, loaded same video files - no preview problems. What's going on? I'd like to stay with Vegas but how can I make preview smooth?

If this question was answered already, please point me to the URL with the answer,

Thank You,

Adrian

This is kind of complicated Adrian. Vegas can playback pretty well depending upon what's playing, and in some cases you need a video card upgrade to maximize playback quality and performance.

On the other hand, I know nothing about Premier, but I've read that the latest versions do offer very good playback, much better than Vegas. I found that to be true even in previous versions of Premier that I've played with casually.

Anyway, Vegas preview/playback can be improved upon a couple of ways. You have to find which Preview mode you can choose that will give you the best quality without stuttering. Lately I've been using "Good Auto" and it seems fine.

As far as which video card to use, I use a GTX 460 card it does improve my playback with 1080 24p footage. I edit multicamera and it's playing back pretty well. Not perfectly, but pretty good. The GTX 570 video card seems to be making users pretty happy, and is the card I would buy if I was shopping for a new one. Here's a link to a video card similar to what many are buying for use with Vegas: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130593

Thanks Jeff,

so it looks that Vegas can't take advantage of Quadro's GPU but Premier can. :(
I can only hope Sony will come up with an update to improve on that.

Adrian

Adrian, a lot depends on the version of the video driver you have installed as well. What version do you have installed? The current version as of today is 296.10 and was release a week or two ago.

Edward, I just went to NVIDIA site - the latest I see there is 295.73
Where can I find the 296.10?

Thanks, Adrian

It appears Quadro is now 295.73 while Geforce is now 301.1.

I submitted a ticket for this 3 days ago now and haven't heard a peep. I asked for any hints or tips on what could be going wrong with my system to not allow optimal playback and rendering using GPU.
To get very high scores in Cinebench (see pic) for CPU AND GPU and still have issues in Vegas is pretty ordinary
My new system with 3930k processor, 32 GB of ram, and a GTX 580 still has faster rendering, and more stable playback with GPU turned off.
The Sony guys really need to have a look at the Mercury Playback Engine for a few hints

I've updated to the latest Quadro driver - can't really say if it helped. The 'Video Preview' window on the main screen still exhibits choppiness / tearing, although the preview on the second monitor is almost usable at the "Preview (Full)" setting. At any higher setting the preview gets unusable.

On the other hand I managed to set the Premiere trial version to show the preview in the second monitor (full screen) and it plays smoothly, without a hitch, just like on the main screen.

SONY HELP! I don't want to go through another software learning curve. There are some features in Vegas that I really appreciate. But the preview ^&$*&^!

8 bit or 32 bit?

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-happens-vegas/506366-8bit-vs-32bit-settings.html

Pete

The project is set to 8 bit. If I go to 32 bit the preview gets worse.
The shots that give most problems in preview are closeup pans or tracking shots, ie. closeup pan of a bookshelf. If I set preview to higher quality than "Preview (Full)" I get choppy image (stuttering) and image tearing.

I submitted a ticket for this 3 days ago now and haven't heard a peep. I asked for any hints or tips on what could be going wrong with my system to not allow optimal playback and rendering using GPU.
To get very high scores in Cinebench (see pic) for CPU AND GPU and still have issues in Vegas is pretty ordinary
My new system with 3930k processor, 32 GB of ram, and a GTX 580 still has faster rendering, and more stable playback with GPU turned off.
The Sony guys really need to have a look at the Mercury Playback Engine for a few hints

Here are my test results:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/members/adrian-lepki-albums-vegas-picture671-test.jpg

Are there any video-Vegas oriented tests?

Although this is a very long shot, there was a small issue with the Intel 5520 chipset and the Intel NIC card driver. I believe you have two nic ports in the back of the system. If one of the NICs is left empty, there was a small hesitation with the graphics on the machine. ( on my system, the mouse would jump instead of being smooth under certain cpu loads )

So, you might want to try and disable the second port in the bios and or try several versions of the NIC driver from Dell. I disabled mine as I don't need two for a workstation and the issue went away. ( if your system has two network ports sometimes Dell cuts things out of their systems )

Small chance but when you have a fancy system like yours, sometimes it is something so small that can make such a huge difference.

GL

Thanks Joe for the input.
At the back I see only one NIC port. The card is Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller.
I'll be checking drivers now, if anything improves - I'll report here.

It appears Quadro is now 295.73 while Geforce is now 301.1.

Actually, the 301.1 driver is for the new GeForce GTX 680 only. For the GeForce 5## (580, 570, etc.) and earlier series, the latest official driver is still 296.1.

If I set preview to higher quality than "Preview (Full)" I get choppy image (stuttering) and image tearing.

If you have smooth playback at full definition preview quality, this sounds fine. In my understanding the other higher quality output modes are for rendering and available in the preview window only to check your output before rendering.

Are there any video-Vegas oriented tests?

This would be really great, if Sony released a veg file where we could benchmark our cards.
We could then nail down card v card performance,
and,
as I suspect to be the case, see if the same cards are getting different results on different systems.

This would be really great, if Sony released a veg file where we could benchmark our cards.
We could then nail down card v card performance, and, as I suspect to be the case, see if the same cards are getting different results on different systems.

How about a very large (2.5 GB.) benchmark file?
Vegas Pro 11 GPU acceleration (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro/gpuacceleration)
The link is near the bottom of the page.

OMG 2.5 GB!!!
Sony remind me of an apprentice I used to have... Find the hardest possible way to do something so simple.
Surely there would be a way to make an animated .veg with media generators or one or 2 still images, add a few FX that are particularly hard on GPU.
A download that would be 400kb instead of 2.5GB
Might give it a go this arv.

How about a very large (2.5 GB.) benchmark file?
Vegas Pro 11 GPU acceleration (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro/gpuacceleration)
The link is near the bottom of the page.

OK, 6 core, 2.4 Ghz, 24GB ram, Quadro 4000, rendered this test file:

#1. XDCAM EX HQ 1920x1080-60i 35 Mbps VBR in 125 sec., MP4 file size 188.6 MB
#2. MainConcept AVC/AAC Internet HD 1080p in 103 sec., MP4 file size 88MB

I can playback #2 using Windows Media Player or QuickTime Player.
#1 file doesn't work in those players but it opens in Vegas OK.

been downloading that Vegas project all afternoon, have some results soon.

Here is a fun little veg I made while I was waiting.
Its a simple test that doesnt require a massive download.
Be interested to see some other results if people could give it a go.
Rendering to Sony AVC Bluray 16Mbps 50i
I got -
Laptop i7 GT540m = 6min 8sec

Desktop 3930k i7 and GTX580 =1min34sec

ok, Sony's own press release project results-
3930k i7 GTX580 3GB 32GB ram
#1. XDCAM EX HQ 1920x1080-60i 35 Mbps VBR in 125 sec., MP4 file size 184 MB = 56sec
#2. MainConcept AVC/AAC Internet HD 1080p in 103 sec., MP4 file size 86.2MB = 51sec

Thats strange Adrian, my file sizes are slightly different to yours.
In comparison my i7 laptop took 5min 2sec to do the XD cam render, up till now I thought it was pretty quick.

been downloading that Vegas project all afternoon, have some results soon.

Here is a fun little veg I made while I was waiting.
Its a simple test that doesnt require a massive download.
Be interested to see some other results if people could give it a go.
Rendering to Sony AVC Bluray 16Mbps 50i
I got -
Laptop i7 GT540m = 6min 8sec

Desktop 3930k i7 and GTX580 =1min34sec

Gerald,

3min 24sec on my pc.

Thanks Adrian, be good to get a few more.
Be very interesting to see if any of the cheaper cards are offering higher than anticipated results, or vice versa with the more high end cards not delivering what you would expect.