[Nigel O’neill]

[John Skogly] “The material is normal, and the pixels change after 10 seconds, then changes back, and this happens throughout the video. The change is really subtle, but it is easy to see if you focus on it, and looks unprofessional”

Right click the image on the timeline and tick ?

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

[Raymond Pace] “the system will overheat and shut itself off in a matter of 15-20 minutes”

Does this only occur when it is on battery power?

Apart from blowing out the dust bunnies as suggested above, you might want to check out the following:

https://maximumpcguides.com/windows-7/set-the-system-cooling-policy/

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

Just don’t forget to re-enable it if you use that machine for reading emails or regularly downloading stuff, what with the WannaCrypt virus doing the rounds.

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

I used to have all sorts of similar issues using McAfee, Avast, Norton’s etc and miscellaneous firewall products, plus they bogged down my system. I used to get bombarded with alerts. I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials/Windows Defender and Windows firewall for about 3 years now and have to say I am very pleased with the performance and security to date.

You can try disabling McAfee temporarily to see if that fixes the file saving issue. I even get such issues on Microsoft, but only in 1 app (outlook) which has a daily backup on closing. I get a ‘file is in use’ warning, and if I leave it, say, 10 seconds and try again, it does save.

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

[Derek Charles] “Always handheld, always stabilizing every clip.”

Derek, given you shoot handheld, I would have made in built camera stabilisation my main feature priority. I do a fair bit of handheld work and also shoot in environments where any obvious sign of support be it a tripod or monopod is not allowed. I chose to use Sony’s camera that feature balanced optical stabilisation, which yields very good handheld results. It’s not without a few quirks, but if you do a lot of ‘run and go’ shooting, it is good.

If your video camera is small, a gimbal stabilizer might do the trick. Check out the Ikan:

https://www.top9rated.com/best-dslr-camera-stabilizer-steadicams/#tablepress-8

If such a camera is not an option, there are small brackets or handles you can mount your camera on to help keep it steady. I use this bracket:

https://www.lightinthebox.com/yelangu-c-shape-flash-bracket-holder-video-handheld-stabilizer-grip-for-dslr-slr-camera-mini-dv_p5445049.html?currency=AUD&litb_from=paid_adwords_shopping&utm_source=google_shopping&utm_medium=cpc&adword_mt=&adword_ct=151041579748&adword_kw=&adword_pos=1o5&adword_pl=&adword_net=g&adword_tar=&adw_src_id=2141113852_681549968_36542974458_pla-256525916590&gclid=COCEz7Ch4NMCFQonvQodvOUMbA

Even placing your camera on a small wheat bag in the palm of your hand absorbs some handling ‘noise’.

Whilst using software stabilisation is an option, it does so by panning and cropping and does have an overall degradation on image quality.

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

[Mohak Arora] “You have a very good system, which is good for not only editing but somewhat for gaming too. “

I didn’t have much choice. I would have preferred a Xeon based system, but my pockets aren’t that deep :-), plus my system died unexpectedly about 4 months ago. I used to have an ASUS P2T mainboard which in 2009 was a good board. The computer shop I go to knows very well what I use the system for and buildt a system that will perform particularly for video editing.

[Mohak Arora] “I have found that things like Multicam editing indeed work well on SSD, whereas rendering on Vegas Pro makes 0 to very minor difference, no matter the source is on SSD or HDD”

I easily max out my HDD before I max out my CPU. At the moment I/O is my bottle neck. I have done some research since my original post and RAID5 probably is not the optimal setup with SSD’s. The advice they offer is leaning towards RAID10. That still uses 4 drives, but in a stripes data across mirrored pairs. The computer shop I service my system through agrees with me that an all SSD setup will yield the maximum performance.

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

[Gilles Gagnon] “On your 1 hour 1080 video, which bitrate(s) did you use to get it to 3.6 GB?”

I let the plug-in decide. I used the ‘normal’ setting. When I look at the file properties, it is 7855 kbps. Other files I produced for other work have similar data rates.

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

[Gilles Gagnon] “1. Which render template should I use to ensure the best render?
2. How large will this file be?
3. Would a 4GB USB stick suffice?
4. Is there a way to calculate the file’s size given the 720p and video length?”

1. I use Vegasaur’s video for YouTube version 1.4 extension. It’s free
2. I got approximately 3.6 GB for a 1 hour finished project at 1080 using Vegasaur. 720p would be smaller. My source was 1920×1080 50i PAL. You can experiment with different quality settings of lower, normal (the default), higher or highest.
3. Yes
4. Probably is, but I don’t know how ☺

I would do a test edit and render to confirm.

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

I would go all SSD if you can afford to. I currently have SSD as my boot drive, and 4 hard drives (2 in RAID1 and 2 in RAID0 configuration). My ultimate setup would be to replace the 4 hard drives with SSD only and set 3 up in RAID5 with 1 in hot standby. I just need SSD prices to drop and storage capacities in order to give me 5TB of storage I currently use.

I agree with Paul that a fast CPU is also a must.

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

What happens if you simply drag your clips from the Vegas Explorer window onto the timeline? Do they import (eventually)? Are you able to import, say, 50 clips, in groups of 10 onto the timeline? Where do these MP4 files come from?

My system specs: Intel i7 7700k 4.20 GHz, GTX570, 16GB RAM, Gigabye Z170 HD3, Vegas Pro 12 (x64), Windows 10 x64 Pro, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6