Vegas Video discussions from 2004 (Q1Q2)

[Glenn Chan]

There are many tweaks you can do although only a few tweaks do anything significant.

1- Ensure your drives are in DMA mode. Go into control panel --> system --> device manager --> properties and make sure your drive is using DMA.

2- overclocking (kind of counts). I'm not sure if this is worth your time since you need to stress test your system. It's best to plan for this before you build your system. Using thermal compount instead of the thermal pad is the #1 thing you should do. Everything else (premium heat sink, overclocking RAM, water cooling, etc.) is questionable and not so clear cut.

3- Clear out any running programs and processes you don't need. Fire up run-->msconfig to do this. You probably don't need ANY of the programs that start up.

?- Set Vegas priority to real-time. This makes like a 1-2% difference. Probably not worth it.

4- Disable unnecessary services:
Indexing service
Messenger Service (doesn't affect performance really but isn't useful and lets people spam you if you aren't firewalled)

Rendering to a different physical drive doesn't really help unless your render is mostly a file copy. On long renders you will see virtually no difference. On network renders your drive configuration may make a very significant difference (based on other people's testing).

5- Enable hyperthreading. This makes a few percent difference on real world renders (it *really* depends on your render though).

Other ways to improve performance (that may or may not count):
1- Get a faster processor. Within the same processor family, clock speed has a nearly linear relationship to rendering speed.

2- A faster front side bus speed helps. This is related to your processor and motherboard. This makes a few percent difference, which ain't much.

3- Dual processors. This doesn't help too much with Vegas although it helps with DVD encoding a lot.
Exception: You might get more performance by network rendering to your own computer.

4- Go do something else.

5- Render with one instance of Vegas and open up another copy to continue editing.

6- Avoid the median filter.

7- Make sure all your clips are at 100% opacity. The Sundance site has some useful scripts for this I believe.

Doesn't help at all:
1- lower memory timings. They make no measureable difference in my tests. Avoid the expensive low latency RAM.

2- loads of RAM. I doubt anything past 512MB will improve rendering speeds. However, more RAM will give you longer video previews.

[Dan Peterson]

Spot,

I registered for the Sony Media Showcase on Wednesday night, the 19th, (unfortunately, can't afford the dollars and time away from my day job for the training sessions).

Will Sundancemediagroup be sending out an email listing the time and place for the Chicago media showcase?

Thanks,
Dan

[Cameron Stainton]

Thanks Rob. I am trying to split a large project that will not fit on a single DVD. I'll use your suggestion.
Cameron

[Edward Troxel]

See... just proves I shouldn't try answering questions at midnight! :-)

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

It's listed on the site currently. I believe it's the Westin, but I'm not certain. That's managed by someone else.
www.vasst.com/training_tours.htm

[Cameron Stainton]

I know what you mean Edward..thanks anyway....:)

[Dan Peterson]

Thanks, Spot. The locations weren't listed last time I checked the VASST site. I should have checked once more before posting here!

Dan

[Mark Richman]

I am setting up a TV and DVD in my office for demos to play on.

Is there a software(DVD Arch.) or hardware(player) solution that is easy to implement?

Thanks,

Mark

p.s. DVD Arch. has a 1 gig limit on Background video.

[Kelvin Kelm]

I use DVD Lab to author looping DVDs. It has end actions. I use DVDA version 1 for most projects, but it does not have this capability. I'm not sure if DVDA version 2 has end actions or not.

Also, some DVD players have an A-B repeat function, but it can be troublesome to get setup in the beginning.

[Jim Lafferty]

2- loads of RAM. I doubt anything past 512MB will improve rendering speeds. However, more RAM will give you longer video previews.

Loads of RAM will allow you to run multiple Vegas's more smoothly, as well. With a dual CPU machine, you can even set the specific instances to specific CPU's by using the affinity settings in the processes tab of the Task Manager.

- jim

[Magnus Helander]

I've had good results with "Tune Up utilities"
Finds a lot of strange things in registry and
other places and does not kill XP or apps when cleaning.
Also has system optimizer

http://www.tune-up.com/

/magnus

[Edward Troxel]

DVDA2 will handle that with ease. End Actions ARE included in DVDA2.

[Kevin Crockett]

I'm new to Vegas and developing a training video that will incorporate both moving and still diagrams.

I know Vegas 5 can now import flash. What other options do I have for moving diagrams?

[Glen Elliott]

I have a project I'm working on...for one reason or another some of my clips went offline- maybe I moved them or deleted them..I'm not sure which. Anyway I chose to "ignore all offline content..>" went on about my business and did some editing. When I was finished for the night I saved the all the changes I had mad during this editing session and closed Vegas. I open it up again, later, and it....again....asks me to locate offline media?! So I go through the same routine- clicking "ignore offline content..." etc.

Why does it prompt me to find this offline content every time I load the VEG? When I save the veg after I choose to ignor offline content shouldn't it no longer ask me for it when I load it?

[Edward Troxel]

If it's still missing, it will continue to ask for it. Make it not "missing" and it will no longer ask.