Red preview hang in Vegas Pro 15

VEGAS Pro

Red preview hang in Vegas Pro 15

Posted by Michael Hoogasian on December 28, 2018 at 7:36 pm

I just upgraded to Vegas Pro 15 from Movie Studio 12, and I’m having a perplexing problem: while playing around with some of my previous project files, the preview pane will turn red and Vegas will hang and I have to force quit it from Task Manager. I’ve done some googling, and apparently a red screen means Vegas ran out of resources, but all those threads are from like 2012 when people were still on 32-bit OSes…. Help?

System specs:
Vegas version: 15.0 (build 416)
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: 24GB
GPU: Nvidia GTX650
OS: Win7 x64

George Dean replied 7 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 14 Replies
14 Replies

George Dean
December 28, 2018 at 9:54 pm

Hi Michael, have you tried to turn off ‘GPU acceleration of video processing’ in ‘Options’, ‘Preferences’, ‘Video’ tab?

Can you post the specs of your source media in those old projects that are causing the red screen? Use ‘Mediainfo’ in ‘Text’ mode to post the results.

Best Regards……George
Michael Hoogasian
December 29, 2018 at 5:21 pm

Hi George,

No, I haven’t tried that, but I will ☺

Here’s the output for the file types used in the project:

File 1:
General Complete name : *****.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom (isom/3gp4) File size : 7.58 MiB Duration : 28 s 743 ms Overall bit rate : 2 211 kb/s Encoded date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:31:35 Tagged date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:31:35
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : Baseline@L3.2 Format settings : 1 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : No Format settings, RefFrames : 1 frame Muxing mode : Container profile=High@1.3 Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 28 s 743 ms Bit rate : 2 208 kb/s Width : 1 280 pixels Height : 720 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Variable Frame rate : 22.440 FPS Minimum frame rate : 0.147 FPS Maximum frame rate : 88.496 FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.107 Stream size : 7.57 MiB (100%) Title : VideoHandle Language : English Encoded date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:31:35 Tagged date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:31:35 mdhd_Duration : 28743 Codec configuration box : avcC

File 2:
General Complete name : ****.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom (isom/avc1/mp42) File size : 31.9 MiB Duration : 15 s 48 ms Overall bit rate : 17.8 Mb/s Encoded date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:08:54 Tagged date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:08:54
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : Baseline@L4 Format settings : 3 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : No Format settings, RefFrames : 3 frames Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 15 s 48 ms Bit rate : 17.8 Mb/s Maximum bit rate : 106 Mb/s Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.286 Stream size : 31.9 MiB (100%) Writing library : Zencoder Video Encoding System Encoded date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:08:39 Tagged date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:08:54 Codec configuration box : avcC

File 3:
General Complete name : ****.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom (isom/avc1/mp42) File size : 17.9 MiB Duration : 10 s 977 ms Overall bit rate : 13.7 Mb/s Encoded date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:44:21 Tagged date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:44:21
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : Baseline@L4 Format settings : 3 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : No Format settings, RefFrames : 3 frames Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 10 s 977 ms Bit rate : 13.7 Mb/s Maximum bit rate : 25.8 Mb/s Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.220 Stream size : 17.9 MiB (100%) Writing library : Zencoder Video Encoding System Encoded date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:44:13 Tagged date : UTC 2014-10-17 15:44:21 Codec configuration box : avcC

File 4:
General Complete name : ****.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom (isom/avc1/mp42) File size : 30.2 MiB Duration : 21 s 353 ms Overall bit rate : 11.9 Mb/s Encoded date : UTC 2014-10-16 20:29:05 Tagged date : UTC 2014-10-16 20:29:05
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : Baseline@L4 Format settings : 3 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : No Format settings, RefFrames : 3 frames Format settings, GOP : N=1 Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 21 s 353 ms Bit rate : 11.9 Mb/s Maximum bit rate : 33.7 Mb/s Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.191 Stream size : 30.2 MiB (100%) Writing library : Zencoder Video Encoding System Encoded date : UTC 2014-10-16 20:28:46 Tagged date : UTC 2014-10-16 20:29:05 Codec configuration box : avcC

File 5:
General Complete name : ****.MOV Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : QuickTime Codec ID : qt 2007.09 (qt /CAEP) File size : 23.7 MiB Duration : 7 s 941 ms Overall bit rate : 25.1 Mb/s Encoded date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:08:56 Tagged date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:08:56 Copyright : N/A com.apple.quicktime.make : Canon com.apple.quicktime.model : Canon PowerShot SX50 HS com.apple.quicktime.author : Michael Hoogasian
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : Baseline@L4.1 Format settings : 1 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : No Format settings, RefFrames : 1 frame Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=15 Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 7 s 941 ms Bit rate : 23.4 Mb/s Width : 1 280 pixels Height : 720 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.849 Stream size : 22.2 MiB (93%) Language : English Encoded date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:08:56 Tagged date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:08:56 Color range : Full Color primaries : BT.709 Transfer characteristics : BT.709 Matrix coefficients : BT.709 Codec configuration box : avcC
Audio ID : 2 Format : PCM Format settings : Little / Signed Codec ID : sowt Duration : 7 s 941 ms Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 1 536 kb/s Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel layout : L R Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Bit depth : 16 bits Stream size : 1.45 MiB (6%) Language : English Encoded date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:08:56 Tagged date : UTC 2015-12-26 21:08:56

File 6:
General Complete name :****.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media Codec ID : isom (isom/avc1/mp42) File size : 14.9 MiB Duration : 10 s 10 ms Overall bit rate : 12.5 Mb/s Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 07:56:06 Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 07:56:06
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : Baseline@L4 Format settings : 3 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : No Format settings, RefFrames : 3 frames Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 10 s 10 ms Bit rate : 12.5 Mb/s Maximum bit rate : 15.6 Mb/s Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.201 Stream size : 14.9 MiB (100%) Writing library : Zencoder Video Encoding System Encoded date : UTC 2016-05-18 07:56:03 Tagged date : UTC 2016-05-18 07:56:06 Color range : Limited Color primaries : BT.709 Transfer characteristics : BT.709 Matrix coefficients : BT.709 Codec configuration box : avcC
George Dean
December 29, 2018 at 6:22 pm

Hi Michael,

I suspicious of ‘File 1’. This is what I would do as a quick experiment…..Start Vegas and load the ‘problem’ project. Make sure ‘Auto-Ripple’ is turned off. Then remove all the events on any of the tracks of ‘File 1’. Remove ‘File 1’ from the ‘Project Media’ bin. Of course every place that ‘File 1’ was on a track is going to be black now, but that is OK for this test. Then save this project with a different name such as simply ‘Temp Test’. Close the project and shut down Vegas, start Vegas and load the new project ‘Temp Test’. If this project acts normal, we have narrowed it down to ‘File 1’.

‘File 1’ is ‘Variable Frame Rate’ and Vegas often doesn’t like variable frame rate source media. If this is the case, there are ways to get around this, but first we need to determine if ‘File 1’ is the cause. Even though a previous version of Vegas had no problem with this variable frame rate file, doesn’t mean that Vegas Pro 15 will not, and this test should quickly determine that.

Best Regards……George
Michael Hoogasian
December 30, 2018 at 2:24 am

Hmmm OK. Should I test it with or without GPU accel? Probably with so as to limit the variables?
Also, sometimes when closing Vegas while nothing is open, it crashes – which makes no sense at all…..
George Dean
December 30, 2018 at 3:35 pm

I would test it with whichever and if no success, try the other way. Once in a while I get the crash on closing as well. As I was done with the project at that point, I never pursued why.

Best Regards……George
Michael Hoogasian
January 2, 2019 at 9:57 pm

Ok, will do. FYI It may be a few days before I’m able to test.
Michael Hoogasian
January 23, 2019 at 3:05 pm

I’m so sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you, I’ve just been really busy ☹

So, as stupid as this is, when I tried to perform organized tests to isolate the problem, I couldn’t reproduce it anymore!

However, today something even stranger than the red screen & hang happened: a red screen without a hang. There was only one file in the project at the time, and literally the only thing I had done was drag it onto the timeline, sleep the computer, and then when I woke it back up Vegas was showing the red preview screen without having hung.

Here’s the media info for that one file:

General Complete name : *****.MP4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media / Version 2 Codec ID : mp42 (mp41/mp42/isom) File size : 165 MiB Duration : 2 min 48 s Overall bit rate : 8 217 kb/s Encoded date : UTC 2018-03-17 19:23:04 Tagged date : UTC 2018-03-17 19:27:02
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : High@L3.1 Format settings : CABAC / 1 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, RefFrames : 1 frame Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30 Codec ID : avc1 Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding Duration : 2 min 48 s Bit rate : 8 091 kb/s Width : 1 280 pixels Height : 720 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Variable Frame rate : 29.970 (29970/1000) FPS Minimum frame rate : 28.571 FPS Maximum frame rate : 30.000 FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.293 Stream size : 162 MiB (98%) Title : Core Media Video Encoded date : UTC 2018-03-17 19:23:05 Tagged date : UTC 2018-03-17 19:27:02 Color range : Full Color primaries : BT.709 Transfer characteristics : BT.709 Matrix coefficients : BT.601 Codec configuration box : avcC
Audio ID : 2 Format : AAC LC Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity Codec ID : mp4a-40-2 Duration : 2 min 48 s Source duration : 2 min 48 s Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 128 kb/s Channel(s) : 1 channel Channel layout : C Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF) Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 2.52 MiB (2%) Source stream size : 2.52 MiB (2%) Title : Core Media Audio Encoded date : UTC 2018-03-17 19:23:05 Tagged date : UTC 2018-03-17 19:27:02
George Dean
January 23, 2019 at 6:10 pm

Hi Michael,

If you start a new project and import only this file, does it work OK or do you get the red preview? I would turn off sleep mode, as that may disconnect some of the resources Vegas needs. If this problem file will load and preview normally, I would render it out using a render format something like Sony XAVC Long (it will be a large file) and then bring that into your original project replacing the original problem file.

Best Regards……George
Michael Hoogasian
January 23, 2019 at 9:57 pm

[George Dean] ” I would turn off sleep mode, as that may disconnect some of the resources Vegas needs”

Well, that’s not really an option for me as I daily use sleep mode because I keep a lot of things open and I don’t want to leave my computer on 24×7. Besides, Vegas really shouldn’t have any problem with sleep mode – sleep mode keeps everything in RAM. I’ve written a few desktop programs and Android applications, and I literally had to do NOTHING to ensure compatibility with sleep. It would be utterly disgraceful if the Vegas software engineers didn’t bother to test their software to make sure it works with sleep mode.
George Dean
January 25, 2019 at 6:01 pm

Hi Michael,

Have you been able to repeat the red screen since your last reply?

Best Regards……George

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