Vegas Movie Studio 10 – red screen crash

[Stephen Mann]

[Patrick McKenna] ” I’m wondering if I should increase my Dynamic RAM preview in the Options>Preferences>Video tab”

Only if you are actually using Ram Preview (CTRL-B) to look at a selection.

Two things I would do, to start, is to isolate the section of the timeline where this occurs (if it occurs at the same place in the timeline). the second would be to make sure I have the latest driver software for my video card. If you’re using an nVidia card, look for their latest beta driver.

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

[John Rofrano]

Red frames means you are running out of resources. Movie Studio means you are 32-bit and only have 2GB of RAM to begin with. I would not increase the RAM preview because you don’t have a lot of RAM to dedicate to it. Your project might just be getting too big for Movie Studio. One option is to break it up into smaller projects and then stitch it back together after you render.

~jr

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

[Patrick Mckenna]

Hi John,
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I was thinking that’s what the problem was. I noticed it a few months ago so I starting editing other scenes separately as individual Vegas projects with the intention of, as you said, “stitching them back together”. What would be my best render setting for each smaller project if I needed to bring them back in to stitch together for the overall project?

(By the way, the footage was shot in MOV format at 30fps at 720p, if this helps)

[John Rofrano]

[Patrick McKenna] “What would be my best render setting for each smaller project if I needed to bring them back in to stitch together for the overall project?”

You could render to AVI using a digital intermediary like Sony YUV. Select the HD 1080-60i YUV template and press the Custom… button and change the Frame size to HDV 720 (1,280×720), and the Field order to None (progressive scan) since you said you’re working in 720p. That will maintain very high quality but will produce huge files.

You could also just render to MPEG2 using the HDV 720-30p template. I’m sure that quality will be fine because you’re only adding one additional render.

Try them both and if you can’t see a difference, you the smaller MPEG2 files. 😉

~jr

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

[Patrick Mckenna]

Thanks for the replies John.
What if I were to render them out in MOV format? The camera that the footage was shot on is a Panasonic GH1. I know some people have advised me to stay away from MOV formats or anything to do with Quicktime but I don’t see the problem with MOV. I’ve rendered out smaller projects before in MOV and, even though the files size is huge, the quality looks quite good.

[John Rofrano]

[Patrick McKenna] “What if I were to render them out in MOV format?”

If you want to use QuickTime I would download the free Avid DNxHD codec and render with that. It’s a great free digital intermediary for QuickTime on both PC and Mac.

~jr

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

[Patrick Mckenna]

Hi John,
Just replying to your advice on rendering into AVI using Sony YUV. I took your advice and did all of the above. The only thing is that I left the frame rate at 23.976p. Who I have been coorect to leave the frame rate as this or should I have changed it to 30fps seeing as the footage was shot at 30fps. If you could let me know…
Thanks,
Pat

[John Rofrano]

[Patrick McKenna] “I took your advice and did all of the above. The only thing is that I left the frame rate at 23.976p. “

Well… I said to use the select the HD 1080-60i YUV template which is 29.970fps. If your template is 23.976p then you started from a different template.

[Patrick McKenna] “Who I have been coorect to leave the frame rate as this or should I have changed it to 30fps seeing as the footage was shot at 30fps.”

You should change it to 29.970 since that’s the frame rate of your footage.

~jr

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

[Patrick Mckenna]

Hi John,
Just to say that I really appreciate your helpful replies on this. Just in relation to the render setting that you told me in Sony YUV, I chose the HD 1080-60i setting and changed the frame size to HDV 720 (1,280×720). The automatic frame rate that comes up is 29.970 (NTSC) which I assume is the frame rate you are refering to. I just have one query in relation to this; I’m based in Ireland which is PAL land. I’m just wondering if using this frame rate (NTSC frame rate) would effect the project?

[John Rofrano]

[Patrick McKenna] ” I’m based in Ireland which is PAL land. I’m just wondering if using this frame rate (NTSC frame rate) would effect the project?”

Well here is what I based my recommendation on:

(By the way, the footage was shot in MOV format at 30fps at 720p, if this helps)

So you are using an NTSC 30p camera. Why, I don’t know. I would think you’d purchase a 25p camera if you live in a PAL country.

The answer to your question is… it’s up to you. If you want to convert your 30p footage to 25p then you should. I’m just going by the information you’re giving us when I make a recommendation. It looks like you either bought the wrong camera or are shooting in the wrong mode for PAL.

~jr

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