I just captured 1 hour hdv footage from my HV10 with scene detection.
Its about 80 files.
I want to edit, cut the bad part, and render to a new M2T file without recomression.
I imported only 15 clips to the timeline, this is about 8 minute video.
I set the correct project properties 1440x1080i, 50 field per sec.
I have 1GB dual ddr ram in my PC, while editing vegas eats almost 900MB, and when i want to render to a new file, memory usage goes up. 950MB, 1000MB, and higher.. Is this normal? OK, i have swap file, but this slow down the system.
Do i need 2GB ram? And if yes, maybe i can render 20 min. project? :( :(
How many ram is needed for one hour project?

I think this is some bug of vegas8!
(900MB when 8 clips are on the timeline without effect, dissolve, etc...)

others: E2160, Samsung 250GB Sata2, GF7600GS, XP SP2)

thanks
Marton

2 GB. of RAM will definitely help you with the hard drive paging/swap file issue.
I did that a few years ago and was astounded at the difference.

thanks, i thinked it helps, but even with 2gigs i cannot work with 1 hour project?

Why vegas need SO MUCH RAM?
Importing one few seconds clip, and ops! minus 50MB ram.
The clip is only 30mb...
This is unbelievable for me.

This is Vegas 8 Pro you're using, right, and not Movie Studio?
The reason I ask is that, while I don't do HDV yet, I've read numerous posts by folks using a lot more than 80 clips without the problems you're having.
To ease the strain on your system, you might want to look into using a proxy tool like Gearshift (http://vasst.com/product.aspx?id=5830e4f9-d99b-4d0b-908d-aa4954c324a3) or Neo HDV (http://cineform.com/products/NeoHD.htm).

yes, its vegas 8 pro, latest.

i dont want to use proxy and intermediate format, because of large disk space, time, and because i loose the good thing:
rendering files without recompression - so after editing i became the same quality as it was on the hdv tape.

i dont do serious editing, many layers etc, just simple cuts.
i think that this is not so big thing that vegas eat 1+ GB memory.

Proxies such as Gearshift are designed to allow you to work with a low-res version of your file (easier to edit with).
Then, when you're ready to render, you "shift gears" and render the original footage so no quality is lost in the process.

I just looked at your specs again and, if I read them correctly, you only have a single hard drive.
No wonder you're having hard drive paging issues :-(
The usual recommendation is that you have at least 2 drives.
The OS and rrograms go on one drive and anything you capture and edit goes on a second (or third) drive.
My home system has 3 drives, one for OS & programs, one for captured material and one for finished edits.
You'll find that doing it this way puts a LOT less strain on your entire system.

2G should help, you definitely need a couple Hard drives as noted to prevent bottlenecks, what processor are you using?

There's a lot of "uncompressing/recompressing" going on as you play back those files, and it wouldn't be a surprise if that's slowing things down significantly - think of it this way... the file size on the disk represents a highly compressed version of the video, but in order to display it, your computer must UNCOMPRESS it, meaning around 4-5x + bigger in memory, unless you use a proxy (or from my experience a lower preview quality seems to help).

SO... <best Elvis impression> "There's a whole lotta swappin goin on"...

More RAM will help, but you may still need to address any bottlenecks in I/O. I doubt that you're seeing a problem due to the number of files per se, but rather it's an I/O choke point as files are flying in and out of HDD and RAM

Definitely need at least 2G and a separate drive running at 7200rpm and at least Firewire 400.
Cheers.

thanks for answer!
I know 2GB will help the page file issue, but dont help to reduce vegas memory usage, so i'm afraid even with 2GB i cannot work with 1 hour HDV project. I dont want to use proxy files, please dont recommend this.

I do have more hard drives: exactly 4 piece.
But in the case is only ONE, that everytime work, this contain OS, programs..
I have a separate 160GB HDD in usb rack, that can do 30MB/sec.
But even if i work from this disk memory usage is still the same, dont you think?

Dave: as i wrote, i have E2160 core2duo processor
it seems that instead of many files with scene detection, i work better with one large m2t file, and vegas use less memory!

thx

I regularly do 2-hour HDV programs on a quad-core machine with 2 gig of RAM. During rendering, Vegas uses about 1.5 gig of RAM. Vegas needs more that 1 gig, but never more than 2 gig unless you've got a bunch of very high resolution stills in your project.

thanks, than i buy more 1GB.
Do you have swap file, or disabled?
I hope my processor is enough :)
Do you work with native M2T files?

Yes, I have the swap file enabled.
Your processor should work fine.
Yes, I work with native M2T files.

My guess is that the files were captured with something other than Vegas and are causing Vegas to fall back onto its less-memory-friendly compatibility decoder.

I've had hundreds of HDV M2T files in projects before.

-Matt

Matt you are right!
I captured with free hdvsplit.
But i thinked it just capture standard HDV m2t files.
What capture vegas 8?
How many ram do you have, and with 50-100 clips on the timeline, how much is used? (task manager)

thank you!

...What capture vegas 8?...

The internal HDV capture program does pretty well with Vegas 7 and 8. I've never used HDVsplit, but understand that many people like it for scene detection. But if you search this forum there are users reporting various issues with using files created by HDVsplit.

The Vegas HDV cap does include scene detection, but it doesn't always catch every scene change. That may mean other methods of clip-splitting must be used, such as loading up the clip in the trimmer and creating sub-clips.

With RAM at its current price there is simply no excuse for not adding more. Vegas seems to love lots of RAM and a fast CPU to get the job done. Multiple internal drives help the situation too, preferably 7200 rpm SATA2 variety if your mobo supports them. Ideally keeeping the Program, Raw Footage and Finished Video all on separate drives will yield the best results, especially if you set the Page File to use only both non-OS drives.

Be aware you will need a 64-bit OS if you install 4Gb or more of RAM due to memory addressing issues or accept a 32-bit OS will probably see 3.5Gb at best. In saying that, I am running a Quad with 4Gb under Vista Home Premiun 64 yet I have never seen my system demand more than 1996Mb when Vegas has been rendering. You may also get a performance advantage by overclocking your CPU a little but, depending on how far you are prepared to push it, you might want to consider changing the stock CPU cooler to something more efficient.

Matt:
"Vegas to fall back onto its less-memory-friendly compatibility decoder."

I dont understand what this really meant.
When i import an 1GB m2t file capture with hdvsplit, vegas uses about 300mb memory. When i import an 1GB m2t file, captured with vegas8, it als uses about 300mb memory. So what's the difference?
Today, i upgraded to 2GB ram, it seems good, BUT i loose dual ddr channel.
4x512 is not a good idea for intel 865PE chipset, because i get half of memory speed :(