I may have to give Vegas up

[Mike Kujbida]

I guarantee that Vegas can deal with MXF files as that’s the format I work with daily (transcoded using XDCAM EX ClipBrowser from the mp4 files generated by my JVC HM-750 and shot in HD).

[Jack Monkiewicz]

Well apparently clips transcoded from an Sony EX3 through the XDCAM clip browser are riddled with issues.

two other people i know of have similar issues with the MXF format from EX3 downloads. Never had any issues like this when we used avi’s from tapes.

I can appreciate that no software is bullet proof and may have the occasional hiccup, but i cant render MXF’s without changing all the settings multiple times, making sequence super short and then nesting them. Otherwise i get the much hated ‘low on memory error’, and i can forget about adding effects.

[Mike Kujbida]

Are you using the latest version of Clipbrowser (2.60)?
I started off with 2.0 and had several issues that were solved once I went to the new version.

[Jack Monkiewicz]

not sure as the footage is given to me on hard drives. i’ll enquire into the version and confirm, if that is the solution i’ll dress up in a fairy suit and dance around the garden, because i’m honestly loosing the plot.

[Stephen Mann]

Where do I begin?

“My system is in good working order”
Except that it crashes and you get low memory errors. Other than that, your system is in “good working order”.

Vegas is working fine for thousands of users, many who use MXF files. Fix your computer. Start with the latest drivers from the video card manufacturer. Just because you can see video on your display does not mean that your drivers are good. The drivers contain many processes that any application may call. If a newer application calls an old process in an outdated driver, an Exception Error or Access Violation is likely.

“low on memory error”
I can guess that you haven’t done a forum search on “low memory”.

Look here:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/928710

And here:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/924960

No, wait, that’s an echo…

You *can* use other NLE software, but until you fix you computer, you will still experience problems.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Jack Monkiewicz]

Thank you Stephen for your comments, however you have made some huge assumptions which aren’t accurate.

My system is in good working order, Sony Vegas is the only program which ever crashes. I also used After effects, Photoshop and various other applications other than adobe which have never, ever crashed or had issues.

All my drivers are current and up to date, i have replaced my video card twice to see of that was the issue.

I also have searched both this forum and the net generally for fixes to these issues, and the result is the error is probably more common than you would like to admit, probably hundreds maybe thousands of people experience these issues.

so far i have tested mikes suggestion that MXF’s converted from the older clip browser (2.0) could be playing a roll in the error. I have done a huge test render with the raw MP4 files from the EX3, added a number of effects to all the clips and rendered, so far so good.

so by the powers of deduction MXF’s are the issues, blame it on sony’s clip browser or editing software their is a fundamental problem.

[Stephen Mann]

“All my drivers are current and up to date, i have replaced my video card twice to see of that was the issue”

You don’t say which error that hundreds of people are experiencing. By replacing the video card, you may have inadvertently used an older driver. Run “dxdiag” and look at the display driver that Windows is using. Is it the latest driver that you downloaded? Also, installing new hardware does not ensure that you have the latest drivers unless Windows loads it from the net.

When someone insists that their computer is good because other programs work fine, I am even more certain that the computer has a driver issue.

I run AE, Photoshop, and dozens of other programs, and I use Vegas daily. I can count the number of crashes on my system over the past five years on one hand. And they were all user-induced.

Hundreds of people may be experiencing errors, as you say, but many thousands of people aren’t. You may have shotgunned the patient with so many attempts to fix the problem that you may have introduced new overlapping errors.

Here’s an idea. And it’s a lot cheaper than buying Premiere just to find the same problems anew. Buy a new1Tb drive – they are as cheap as $50 on NewEgg. Remove your system drive, install the new HDD, and reinstall Windows and Vegas fresh. I predict that your projects will edit and encode just fine, and you will have proved that Vegas is not the problem.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Jack Monkiewicz]

Hi Steve,

The error that hundreds if not thousands of people are experiencing is that horrid ‘low on memory error’ that pops up at different stages for people. Mine happens when I attempt to render MXF’s. If i google search this error for sony vegas there is at least 30 pages of people asking about this error, offering fixes on youtube or simply giving up and letting others know that Vegas is bugged.

When I replaced my graphics card i obviously updated the driver that goes with it, so they were the latest version.

steve, you maybe 100% right that it is a driver issue, but i dont think is good practice by sony that clients have to struggle, wrestle with application trawling the net for fixes to issues that should not be there. you may argue that it is my responsibility to have the right drivers, i would argue that when i purchase a application all drivers and required software should be included or boldly stated where to acquire them to not cause issues.

is it okay for sony to have 100’s perhaps 1000’s of dissatisfied customer if 10,000 are happy? probably not the most effective way to compete with FCP or MC. as we all know, unhappy customers are much more likely to tell people of their experience than happy customers.

your last comment makes no sense to me if you’re suggesting its a driver issue, why would it be resolved with a fresh install of windows and vegas? and if this is what is required to run vegas my goodness gracious me.

[Stephen Mann]

“Low Memory” error is a Windows issue, not a Vegas issue. If it were an application bug, then it would be predictable and repeatable. If only a small percentage of users are experiencing the problem and the majority of them are not, then it’s probably not a bug.

If you can describe the steps to make it happen, and other users, including Sony Tech Support, can duplicate it, then it is a likely bug.

Many Sony users edit MXF footage every day without getting Windows errors, so what you probably have is a broken computer, not a Vegas bug. By starting over with a clean install of Windows and Vegas, you eliminate all of the self-inflected fixes you’ve attempted over the past few days or weeks.

“When I replaced my graphics card i obviously updated the driver that goes with it, so they were the latest version.
”

Have you *verified* this? When you insert and remove various graphics cards you set up the opportunity for the graphics card to be using the wrong driver. When Windows says “loading drivers”, it first looks at the signatures of the drivers already loaded. If it finds one it likes, that’s what’s loaded.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Chris Young]

Jack. Try the following before you render.

Once your project is finished make sure you have no anti-virus monitoring disc and file activity. Make sure that any disc-defrag software is disabled. In your preferences set Dynamic Ram to zero and rendering threads to 1. Finally save your final project as a ‘Render to FINAL’ or some such name and now go to your ‘Project Media’ bin and click on the little gold lightning bolt in the top left corner of the bin. This will REMOVE all UNUSED media in your project. Re-save to your ‘Render to FINAL’ project. Re-start your PC and go render.

Have done over 400 programs for TV and ALL based on MXF files from the EX series cams and PDW 300-350 and PDW 700-800 series and as Stephen I think mentioned have around half a dozen hangs a year and usually when I check them out it’s self induced by me the operator.

The only time we were really boxed in with issues like you outlined it turned out to be a bad stick of ram. Discovered that after running some ram torture tests. Swapped out the bad stick and that machine came good again.

Chris Young
CVY Productions
Sydney