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Problem displaying MXF files in the Preview Window of Vegas
I’m asking this question on behalf of a friend, so I’m lacking perhaps all the technical details. First the technical details I have:
ADK built PC Workstation
Processor: i7-3930K 3.2Ghz
Ram: 32Gb
1 TB system drive
2 TB Raid Zero Source (2 drives)
2 TB Raid Zero Render (2 more drives)
Radeon 6970 2Gb graphics card feeding dual monitors
Windows 7 64 Bit
64 bit Vegas Pro 13 Build 428 (the latest)We’ve done both SD and HD projects with this machine without any issues. Including 1080 60P. But the first time we imported MXF files for a 1440 X 1080 60i project a big problem cropped up. Things looked fine in the Vegas Preview window for a couple of minutes, and then suddenly the video preview turned to digital hash, almost like a head clog or detuned TV set from the old days. Audio still plays, everything else in Vegas is still functional. Every once in a while, a bit of recognizable video peaks through the digital hash, but it never corrects itself.
The problem takes a couple of minutes to crop up after loading stuff on the timeline. It often happens when you switch from “preview” to “draft” or “full”, but not necessarily. Sometimes it just happens after about 2 minutes of jockeying around on the time line while staying in “preview”. If you kill Vegas and restart it, the video fixes itself, but in a couple of minutes invariably it happens again.
I’ve read that some people have issues with video cards, and some have suggested that turning off CUDA enabled preview (or is it OpenGL enabled?), and only turn it back on to render, might be one solution That’s not a way we want to go. I’ve also heard people suggest transcoding the MXF files into something like just straight up Mpeg4 or Mpeg2 files and editing those. My friend doesn’t want to do that.
Before we get involved in swapping out video cards, I’m wondering if anybody has had this issue with Sony camera MXF files. Again, it doesn’t happen with straight AVCHD or MP4 files.
Thanks
CBChris Brunner
Rock Cove Productions -
3 Replies
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Hi,
can you post a small clip on-line somewhere that shows the problem?MXF is a “container” format so the actual format could be one of many. In fact using that HDV size it is probably is MP4. You don’t need to “Import” MXF files – they go straight on the timeline.
Add a file to the timeline, set project properties using the “Match Media Settings Button” to see what Vegas thinks it is.What do the MXF clips come from? i.e. which camera? What is the process you use to get the clips off?
IT appears the clips are getting corrupted somehow – but that is just a guess.
mark -
Hi Mark,
So there has been a development in this. Reading other threads and talking with some local fellow editors who use Vegas and edit MXF files, the finger started getting pointed at the GPU acceleration of the Preview video. So we went into Preferences, Video Tab, and turned off “GPU acceleration”. Voila. The preview playback is fine. But of course now the CPU is doing all the work.
This is a bit of a kludge in my book, because if you’re paying for a higher end graphics card, you’d like it to accelerate and smooth out playback in the Preview window during editing. The intent is to turn it on when the time comes to render. It’s quick and easy, but it’s a kludge. And we’re wondering how slow and jerky Preview Video is going to get when the Timeline is crammed with multiple layers and lots of effects processing.
To answer some of your specific questions, the MXF files are being generated in an early Sony HDV XDCAM. (1440 X 1080 60i MPEG-2 according to Sony specs…then wrapped in MXF) That’s the one with the optical disc. Ingestion (I used the word “import”) into the PC and into Sony Vegas is accomplished with a Sony U1 XDCAM player/recorder. Vegas 13 Pro has a module for controlling the U1, and ingesting footage as MXF files. We “import” them to a RAID 0 drive set (two 1TB 7200 rpm drives).
We bought the machine from an outfit called ADK in Kentucky. Three of us bought pretty high powered machines, for a price we couldn’t beat with do-it-yourself construction. ADK configures the machines for your specific NLE, and loads all the software. In our case Vegas Pro. Three of us all bought these machines, including one college professor who teaches media/video courses and has access to lots of vendors and uses every NLE under the sun. ADK (unpaid testimonial) turned out a beautiful product. But hey, these are computers, and problems will crop up.
CB
Chris Brunner
Rock Cove Productions -
Hi Chris,
it looks like you have this under control.All the same, people in this forum report good results with your gpu card so there is no obvious reason it should not work.
mark
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