Cutting a clip from the timeline and lagging.

[Aaron Star]

SSD and external media are all good ideas for different reasons. The lagging of the system sounds more software related than disk hardware related.

I would try encoding a couple clips from the camera master mp4/H265 format to Sony XAVC-intra. Then create a new Vegas project with only the XAVC-I converted files on the timeline. Then see if Vegas still hangs when attempting your edit. Vegas does not support mp4 with H265 natively, and so the add-on that is allowing you to work that way maybe cause the glitch.

When you attempt the edit and the system hangs, do you see little … building next to the frame counter below the preview window?

[Kyle Le]

the system is fine when i edit, splitting and everything. the previews are smooth when it comes files that have been proxied using sony’s software. However, i can’t browse the net or anything with sony vegas opened and the only lag i have is when I split a clip and then delete it or cut it. I want to be able to get in there and have it deleted instantly. But after the 5th or 6th clip it just lags for 5 seconds or more and then it’s gone.

the sony format is whats lagging. sony’s .mts files do not lag at all.

So i think the most cost affective thing for me is to get a separate external hard drive thats 7200rpms and USB 3.0?

Now, I should have USB 3.0 on my Lenovo y50 laptop, and I have several external Toshiba Passport harddrives that are 5400 RPMS, and they copy files over at around 60 to 80 mpbs. Is that normal?
I have an older WD external harddrive with USB 2.0 and it copies files over at 30 mbps. When I copy files from one USB 3 drive to another I get speeds of upwards of 100 mbps. I have 16 gbs of Ram installed, but they are a couple of years old. The computer came stock with a single 8 GB piece, but I haven’t been able to locate the exact same kind to buy locally here, so I opted to use a friend’s ram. I’ve noticed definite faster music and video load times, but i dont know if this ram can affect the transfer speeeds or if these speeds sound normal to you. thanks

[John Rofrano]

[Kyle Le] “I am editing with the new mp4 codec H.265 and with 4K content. “

I’m not working with 4K so I don’t know how a single external USB 3.0 drive @ 7200 RPM will perform. I’m work with HD which is significantly less bandwidth. So while you can try using an external drive, I don’t know how well it will work with 4K media.

[Kyle Le] “btw, how do i find the write speeds of my current hard disk and external usb hard drives? thanks”

I use the BlackMagic Designs Disk Speed Test on my Mac. It’s a free download from the Apple App Store. There is a PC version but it’s bundled with their driver software so you need to download one of their drivers and unzip it to find the speed test exe inside.

This is the speed test for my G|Drive Mobile USB drive @ 5400 RPM connected via USB 3.0:

This the speed test from the internal SSD on my MacBook Pro:

As you can see, SSD’s have quite a lot more throughput. I don’t have a 7200 RPM USB 3.0 with me to test bt it should perform better than the 5400 RPM drive above.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[Kyle Le] ” However, i can’t browse the net or anything with sony vegas opened and the only lag i have is when I split a clip and then delete it or cut it. I want to be able to get in there and have it deleted instantly. But after the 5th or 6th clip it just lags for 5 seconds or more and then it’s gone.”

Hmmm… that doesn’t sound like disk a throughput issue. There should very little disk i/o to cut a section out of the timeline.

[Kyle Le] “the sony format is whats lagging. sony’s .mts files do not lag at all. “

Which Sony format are you referring to?

[Kyle Le] “Now, I should have USB 3.0 on my Lenovo y50 laptop, and I have several external Toshiba Passport harddrives that are 5400 RPMS, and they copy files over at around 60 to 80 mpbs. Is that normal?”

Yea, 80MB/s is about the top end for a 5400 RPM external USB drive. I posted some screen shots of my Speed Disk test on a similar drive.

[Kyle Le] “I have an older WD external harddrive with USB 2.0 and it copies files over at 30 mbps.”

That’s consistent with USB 3.0 being about 3x faster than USB 2.0 at file copying.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Kyle Le]

You have been very helpful. Thank you so much.
I wasn’t able to go out and buy a 7200 hard drive today
but as an experiment I put some files over on my 5400 external drive
and the lag when I cut/delete clips are almost gone. At least, they disappear way faster than before. but after a few clips there will be some lag as well. So that might have solved my problems for now, I’ll buy a 7200 rpm hard drive and test it out later, but I have a lot of hope.

Thank you again. Ive been editing videos for years and never knew I should have used another drive for media.

The sony codec I was refering to is the .MTS files that came out of my sony rx100. Which was so easy to edit on my current laptop setup. no lags whatsoever – no need to create proxies.

My current camera is a samsung nx500 which only captures in .mp4 format that needs to be converted to another .mp4 codec hv 264 so that sony vegas can read it. These files are so compressed that I need to create proxies to edit them.
And even with the sony proxy, there’s more lag.

Thank you again. I will buy the new external harddrive tomorrow. Looking to get a Lacie Porsche desk top version.

[John Rofrano]

I’m glad to see that even the 5400 RPM hard drive is providing some relief. The 7200 RPM should give you about 120MB/s which should give an extra boost over the 80MB/s of a 5400 RPM drive. I hope that fixes the problem entirely for you.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Aaron Star]

You could determine what the hold up is when deleting clips with Promon, but this might be to in depth for average user.

There is another post on SV forum on a process to allows Vegas to edit the HEVC files directly in the Vegas timeline. I thought this is what you were doing when I first read this. If you are converting your HEVC files with some camera sidekick app, I would try the solution below. Then when Vegas can read the HEVC files, convert them to XAVC-i.MXF. It could be that your camera app is not creating compliant MP4 renders.

https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/showmessage.asp?messageid=931639

.MTS HD is not a good edit format, converting to HDCAM-SR-lite.mfx, or XDCAM-ex/422.mxf, would edit smoother and take better advantage of system hardware.

HEVC ironically needs to be converted to XAVC, even though HDCAM SStP is 4K capable just not included in Vegas. I say convert the HEVC to XAVC because even though Vegas will read the HEVC format, editing with it slow and chunky.

Word to the wise. Steer clear of Lacie drives. Lacie has attractive designs with crap hardware interface chips, and their designs do not deal with heat well. The heat kills the drives prematurely, or the chips fry from the HDD heat build up. After loosing 2 LaCie external drives, and one during a production, they made the S-List. Luckily the drive that failed during production was the adapter chip that blew, and HHD internal was ok when connected directly as an internal PC drive.

[John Rofrano]

[Aaron Star] “Word to the wise. Steer clear of Lacie drives. “

+1

I was going to say the same thing. Lacie makes horrible drives. I would not use them.

I use G-Tech G|Drives but they are formatted for the Mac. You would have to reformat them for a PC but that’s not a big deal. WD Passport drives are reliable too but Western Digital doesn’t list which drives have 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM disks in them. G-Technology sells both and lists this in the specs.

G-Technology 1TB G-DRIVE mobile USB Portable Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Kyle Le]

thank you.

I live in Vietnam, so computer options are limited.
I will try to find a WD my book or something tomorrow, but it’s very difficult.

on a separate issue, I have a tablet that has a usb 3 on it, unfortunately it has very low capacity, so when I’m traveling, I like to bring a hard drive with me. This tablet only has one USB drive, so i need to get a hub. I’ve used a USB 2.0 on it before and all it did was lag and the disk would click signaling not enough power.
Should I upgrade to a USB 3.0 hub with a wall plug in unit?

[Kyle Le]

i bought a WD harddrive and put it in anexternal box.

here’s what i’ve noticed… in other file formats, it’s blazing fast and deletes instantly.

But in the file format that I’ve been struggling with, it still lags, therefore I believe that it must be because of that codec even at 1080 HD

My camera records video at the new h.265 codec, which sony vegas can not edit. This file format is so compressed and awesome for the memory cards I have to convert it to the h.264 codec, which is a nightmare to edit even with my new 7200rpm 64mb cache drive. in the preview screen it won’t play normally and lags so I have to use sony vegas’s create a proxy feature. This helps the lag in the preview, but the cutting is still slow.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot faster than what happened before, but it’s still not instant like the other mp4 and other formats. Instead of 5-10 seconds for it to delete, it now takes 1 second to 2 seconds, but it’s still noticeable.

Any ideas on what I can possible do besides create proxies outside of Sony Vegas? It’s a little bit troubling to me to have to convert two times and most free programs out there can not convert 60 frames per second.

thank you.