I'm having a problem in Vegas, what should I try?
 

Problem: I add a new effect but I can't see any changes in the preview screen.

Solution: This is a feature in Vegas. Above the preview screen is the "Split Screen" button. Turn that off and you will now see your effect. You can also set left half/right half as shown in this image - the left half is the clip without the effect applied while the right half has the effects applied.

Problem: I add an new effect but I cannot set any keyframes because there is no timeline area.

Solution: The timeline area in the effects dialog is resizable. If you cannot see the timeline, it has been resized to "nothing" as shown in the first image.

Move the cursor slowly to the bottom of the dialog box and as soon as it turns into a up/down arrow, click and drag upwards to once again reveal the timeline area as shown in the second image.

Problem: I'm trying to render my project but it fails because of memory issues.

Things to try: While a specific solution cannot be given for this issue because there are so many variables, there are some things you can try to get the render completed.

1. In the Preferences, make sure the Dynamic RAM Preview is set to a low amount. The default is 350 Meg. You can even reduce it lower than that. Some have reduced it all the way to zero. I do not recommend going all the way to zero but do try a smaller number.

2. In the Preferences, reduce the "Maximum number of rendering threads". There have been cases where reducing this to 1 allowed the render to complete where leaving it at a higher value failed.

3. Try rendering to a different format! If you MUST have the other format, once you have a good render you can then try converting that render into the other format.

4. If you're on 32-bit, try updating to a 64-bit version of Vegas.

5. If you're on Vegas Pro 8.1, please consider updating to a more stable version of Vegas. Version 8.1 had many issues that 9.0 resolved.

Problem: I shot video with XYZ camera, add the clip to the timeline, and I only get video or I only get audio. Where's my missing video/audio? I can see it fine in other Media Players!

Solution The very short answer is you don't have the required codec installed. Many times these will be AVI or MOV files and people say "Vegas supports AVI or MOV files - why won't they open?"

An AVI or MOV file is really like a paper sack. It can hold many different things. You may pull some things out of that paper sack that you recognize. There may be other things in that paper sack that you don't recognize. If someone tells you what it is, you will then recognize it. Same with Vegas, you have to tell it how to "recognize" it.

You can use a program such as MediaInfo or gSpot to determine what codec is actually being used by that video file for both the video and audio streams. Once you know the codec used, you need to locate a "Video for Windows" version of that codec and then Vegas will be able to properly read the file. Note that with Vegas Pro, you also have to find the proper 32-bit and/or 64-bit version of that codec depending on the version of Vegas Pro you are using.

Warning! DO NOT install a codec pack. Instead find the single codec you need from a reputable place and only install that one codec. Codec packs have the potential to wreak havoc on your machine.

Alternately, you can use some other program that CAN open the video file and then convert it into a format that Vegas can natively read. Plus, you may try newer versions of Vegas as the ability to read more file types is added in newer versions. So, for example, Vegas 7 may not open the file where Vegas 9 may be able to do so. One example is MJPEG files which can now be opened natively but could not be a few years ago.

My experience was that I got audio but no avi video. I Installed Mjpeg codec and Xvid codec that solved the can't see avi video problem.

How to disable the reading of closed captioning
 

Vegas 10 reads closed captioning information by default and this can be annoying if you're not using any.
To disable this hold shift-key down when choosing Option / Preferences.
You will find a tab named Internal.
In the search box type "closed" and change the "Enable Scanning for Closed Captioning" to FALSE.
Done.
Lots of other options under Internal, any pro tips on which to change? What does the Panopticon option do?
/magnus

Re: I'm having a problem in Vegas, what should I try?
 

Double click the header bar of any Vegas dialogue box and it will open fully.

Unstable rendering with Nvidea GPUs
 

After months of dealing with crashes while rendering with SVP 11.0 64bit try turning off GPU support under

Preferences > Video > GPU acceleration of video processing > Off

I did this on a Sony Vaio i7 laptop (Win 7) that I sometimes use on site and suddenly my render times improved and renders are done correctly. With GPU support "on" I was getting unstable and unusable render results.

Originally I thought it was a bug with SVP11 or with codecs I was using. I now realize it a "bug" with the Nvidia drivers including up to the latest release 295.73.

Re: I'm having a problem in Vegas, what should I try?
 

Here's another reason why you may have issues on a laptop:

Most laptop video cards actually have TWO parts - the good video card that works, the "low power" video card that does not work. When your laptop goes to "low power" mode, it quits working. To remedy this:

a. Open Control Panel -> Nvidia control panel.
b. 3D Settings -> Manage 3D Settings - >Program Settings.
c. Select Vegas.exe from the list or add the programs using the browser.
d. Choose option "High-performance NVIDIA processor", if there is this option.