I'd bet your antivirus is still running, if you have a fast computer. Or, somethign else is messing with your background services.

I'm new to the editing game but do understand the fundamentals. How do I go about converting to cineform intermediate? (Sorry if this question or answer has ben posted before) . Also how do I ensure my project settings match my data input characteristics. I just need to get the playback to be smooth and the rest of it I will learn on my own or from tutorials. I just need to get on my feet with the first few steps as i'm new to the .mxf format.

Unfortunately, to convert to Cineform outside of Vegas, you'll need to buy Cineform Neo HD. You can do it within vegas, but, then you'll have to drop the native files on the timeline and render. Cineform intermediate is under .avi file type.

To set the project properties, press Alt+Enter.

Thanks Bill I will try it out when I get home.

1.83 singlecore proc, old VAIO laptop, 1394 pocket drive, getting 23.97 from my EX1/mxf files.

how 'bout 29.97p or 59.97 fps, Douglas?

29.97 is fine as well. I don't have any p60 on this drive.

Guys, c'mon - it does NOT relate directly to the CPU speed! Vegas timeline can chokes in 32bit mode (or, for that matter, in 8bit but a couple of filters added) - on both my Quad&3.3GHz desktop, and the Duo@2.4GHz laptop.

If it was only dependent on the CPU, I'd see some 45% CPU usage on the Quad vs 100% on the Duo; yet they both are used at some 30% max.

What do you think it is?

Videocard?
I'm guessing 'cuz this doesn't make sense to me why we see so much variation from platform to platform if it's not CPU speed. But, Piotr is right. When I'm stuttering, I'm NOT running at full CPU, but, more like 75-80%. Edius plays smooth as butter, no stutters, even on my laptop.

.mxf files from my EX1 play very smoothly in 8-bit on my desktop workstation, core2 duo extreme, 3Ghz, Quadro FX1500 vidcard. Stutters like crazy at 32 bit FP.

yes when im looking at the cpu monitor they barely crack 80% yet my video and sound are choppy. My video card is a very good one so it cant be that.

Lack of proper code optimization or GPU acceleration. Which doesn't mean the CPU is not important - but I'd say that anything above certain (pretty basic) specs will perform the same, fps-wise.

A fast CPU is if course the fundamental thing when it comes to rendering, followed by available RAM and HDD speed.

I think it's a lot of variables, predominantly related to guys that go pick up a computer off a store shelf and simply think they can start editing without thought as to optimization, background processes, proper file and RAM management, etc.
For example, I can't in my wildest dreams, imagine even installing, let alone running anti-virus on an editing machine. Talk about dragging hard drives through dusty roads behind a pickup truck!
Then there are background processes. How are they managed? What about USB2 vs 1394? What apps are running in the background? How full/fragged is the system drive? Any media playing from the system drive? DMA vs PIO modes? Swap file set up?

Many, many variables. I have zero performance problems in Vegas, and appreciate not having to convert files to any intermediary format. Then again, my laptop is set up primarily for video editing, and very little else.
BTW, my MacBook Pro screams with 720p60 files under Bootcamp/Vegas

My system is custom built, I defrag my drives daily.
I'm anal about not running background processes...there are none. Even on my laptop I run an external drive for video files. Pagefile on my laptop is on the C drive, but, on my desktop I have a dedicated SATA drive for pagefiles. 2gigs of RAM on the laptop, 3gigs on the workstation. HD speed tests with HDTACH all show very high thruput, well over the reqmt for HDV. The video drive on my workstation is a RAID0 with a read speed of about 100MB/sec. The laptop video drive tests at 50MB/sec.

I'll leave it at this. I'll post a screenshot to demonstrate it, as I'm currently working on my laptop.

Really? I can do that just fine on 6 and 7 (with the medium-quality and other caveats), but that feature was removed from Vegas Pro 8. It gives you the standard Cineform not-licensed error.

I always use HDLink, never go thru Vegas to transcode to CFHD. It is possible it was removed in V8 and I never noticed...sorry if I was incorrect about this.

Douglas, from the screen grab attached I can see you're using the Preview/Auto setting. While OK for a tiny preview window, it's no good for the full screen preview on a separate monitor. With this setting, I guess you are right, but we were talking Best/Full here.

At Best/Full, the full fps is only possible in 8it mode and without any effect added - even on high end machine. I hope you can agree.

A-Best/full resamples everything. An understanding of how Vegas works is a requirement.
B-I get full screen preview at Preview/Auto as well, with nothing added. But, I also have an SDI monitor that I use, so it's not a big issue for me one way or another. But, on a laptop, full screen preview is full framerate, in Auto/preview. My laptop isn't 1920 x 1080, however.

Douglas, thanks for this kind advice :)

If it didn't resample, there would be no issue of slow timeline playback (just as there is no problem when it plays back from Explorer, or Project Media folders).

It's the performance of this resampling/playback process that shows lack of optimization, as even with a Quad CPU, it rarely can play full fps and yet - even when it heavily drops frames (like in 32bit mode, or with stuff added) - the CPU usage is just around 30%. For most of the time Preview/Auto is enough, but sometimes I need to preview in Full res - and Vegas should be able to do it, using as much CPU resources as required. If it did work at 100%, I'd be more understanding to a few frames dropped here and there or a glitch in audio - on a new transition I just threw in, or similar stuff...

Of course, I can use the RAM render/preview, but it's a joke.

So, it's the fps of the Best/Full preview that I (and I guess others, as well) were talking about.

If you wish, please call me another "Edius fanboy" (Bill, welcome to the club) - but yes, it beats me why I can add transitions and some curves or CC to my HQ mxf timeline, and it will still play back full speed _AND_ quality in Edius, but not in Vegas (on the same hardware) - not without pre-rendering, that is.

Which is a pity, because otherwise, I like Vegas much more, as it's simply a much more complete solution!

What is significant here and no one has addressed it is HOW BIG YOUR PREVIEW WINDOW IS. If you use the small default preview window then you will get full frame rate from the mxf files even at best auto (unless you have a problem) but make the preview screen fill half an HD screen as I do and even with Cineform you are going to get 5 or 6 fps.

Mike
PS
Happy and a Joyous Easter everyone.

All I know is when viewing my external monitor with Vegas set to preview, the image is soft. When set to full, it slows down as mentioned, but the image looks great on my external monitor. When viewing my external for image quality and color, I have to use full in Vegas.

I'm trying to save my project or clips in vegas to .avi or windows video. I tried "Render as..." and tried to save it in dofferent formats and it either saves blank or it saves it very choppy. Any way to convert these .mxf files to avi?

Again, i'm new to the editing department so your advice is appreciated.

-Dennis

That's what the Cineform codec does. If you are going to use Vegas and EX1 a lot for serious work you need but the standalone codex. That way you ditch ClipBrowser and convert the mp4 in the camera to avi bypassing the mxf altogether. If you go the cheap route and use ClipBrowser so you have the mxf files in Vegas render them all to avi individually using the Cineform codec in Vegas.

Render As>
Video for Wndows>
Custom>
Video>
Format>
Cineform HD Codec

Then edit and if you wish your final work to be avi then do the same again for the whole project.

I did just that and the sound came out perfectly but no video. I want to basicaly downconvert it to a lower resolution HD to send in a file for a friend of mine.

When do you wish to down-convert? After the editing and on the final render? If so then DON'T USE CineForm as it is HD. If you down convert then it's not HD any more so you need render to Windows avi with one of the standard settings such as NTSC DV

As a side note. One of the reasons I use the stand alone CineForm codec and not ClipBrowser is that often (and the reasons aren't yet clear) the mxf files after ClipBrowser/SxS processing seem to become corrupt in a way that CineForm does not like and you get a "Vegas Stopped Working". There is never a problem feeding the mpg4 files direct to the CineForm codec as long as it gets them fresh and virginal from the SxS card.

So basically it;s better to bypass the whole clipbrowser ordeal and dump it directly into vegas? if so, would i just import it normally as I would from the hard drive or is there some kind of method to capture it from the camera? By the way I upload it from the camera and not from the reader if that makes a difference.

Yes, but you have to buy the CineForm stand alone codec which ain't cheap. The CineForm software will capture from your camera, convert to avi and dump directly into your project or hard drive.

Lets just say that I did not have sony vegas and all I wanted to do was view my footage on my pc and send it to other people over the net with a smaller size hd form. Is that not possible?

Hi Dennis,

This should be working for you with .mxf files and no workarounds whatsoever. You can definitely go direct from your timeline to .avi or .wmv with no pre-render or pre-avi conversion.

Please give a quick description of what you are doing, and we will try to troubleshoot for you.

I'm actually at my office right now so I don;t have Vegas open in front of me but I will try to describe the situation the best I can. After I transfer files from explorer to project media, I am trying to save a selected clip from the timeline to a lower resolution HD quality clip to send over the web. I'm also trying to put some clips on Vimeo as everyone here has been utilizing that website pretty good to stream their videos. What do you suggest?

Thanks,

-Dennis

So to clarfify, you have previously used Sony's clip browser to "export" the file as an .mxf, then opened Vegas pro 8 and brought the file through explorer to project media and dragged it onto your timeline. Then you set the loop region to your clip, and follow these instructions:

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/1...-for-vimeo-hd/

That is correct. I have done all that and when trying to render it either says there is an error and then I go back and change a few settings and then it will render a real choppy video (the video that gets saved actually looks like its being rendered) , or I get good sound and no video. I believe I have matched teh project properties as well. when shooting in 1080240 I click on "108024p YUV" template and match it up as best I can. That's why i'm confused as to why it is still not working. Is there somethign I am missing?

Also, what if I did not have sony vegas, would there be any way to turn the native files into .wmv? By the way that article on transfering files from HD to vimeo was very helpful but the following picture was too small for me to see> http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/images/sonyavc.png

What project settings are you using for Vegas? This is Vegas Pro 8, correct? What does the error message say?

Yes Vegas Pro 8. It was an error messege during rendering. I forgot exactly what it said. I'll try again later tonight and let you know.

Also the other major issue I am having is playing back the actual clips in Vegas. I can drag them on the time line or right click while they are in explorer or project media and after 10-15 seconds of the clip playing it starts to get choppy. I have brought it down from 32 bit to 8bit which kind of helped. I know it can't be my system because others are running it smoothe with similar or lower specs.

Yes, let us know the project settings and the exact error message. So far, there is nothing that you have said that should, under normal circumstances keep the file from rendering to an .avi or .wmv.

The Vegas playback is different than what I am experiencing as well. 8 bit with no transitions or effects always plays smoothly for me. 8 bit with simple transitions or basic effects also plays smoothly. 32 bit or multiple effects is choppy, but workably so.

Randy, you are the man! I figured it out and rendered it perfectly from HD to DVD quality. The audio has some static/choppyness to it but I have to figure out the settings to that.

Other than that, thanks for the tip!

-Dennis