[Stephen Crye]

I’ve grown to hate the xvid codec. Xvid files always give me fits with Vegas. It is waaay to compressed. I’d recommend converting the file to another format.

This link sums it up nicely:

https://www.foolishpassion.org/vidding-tips/vegas-won%27t-open-avi.html

Good luck!

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi Dan,

Why are you running 10c? 10e is out and has a LOT of bug fixes.

Welcome to Vegas Pro! Expect a bit of a learning curve, I’ve had it for two years and am still learning things.

Also curious – what is your target audience that requires .wmv? I’ve pretty much given up on WMV – I mostly do .mp4 for YouTube.

For settings, this fellows recommendations are pretty good:
—————-

by Bruce Quayle on Nov 6, 2011 at 2:23:08 pm

Hi Rob,

You obviously need a solution rather than others’ tales of success…so here is my 2-bits worth (forgive me if it was the first thing you did!):

Check your program properties to ensure that they conform to your video and audio as well as being the best for your project.

Do this by clicking: File>Properties. This opens your Project Properties window.

I shoot my material on an EX1r and have the following VIDEO settings:
Template: Custom (1920×1080, 29.970 fps) (By clicking on the folder icon, you can browse your files for a file of your original material and clicking this will set the correct template for you).
Width: 1920 / Hight: 1080
Field Order: None (Progressive scan).
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0000 (square).
Output Rotation: 0 (original)
Frame Rate: 29.970 (NTSC)
Pixel Format: 8 bit
Compositing Gama: 2.222 (Video)
Full resolution rendering quality: Good (NOTE: I have been advised that using “Best” slows down your rendering process considerably and is unnecessary for almost all applications).
Motion Blur Type: Gaussian
De-interlace Method: Blend
Ticked – Adjust source media to better match project or render settings.

My AUDIO settings are:
Master bus mode: Stereo
Number of stereo busses: 3
Sample rate (Hz): 48,000
Bit depth: 16
Resample and stretch quality: Best

Once you’ve checked all that, try clicking Options>Preferences to open your preferences window. Click on your VIDEO tab and make sure that you have the maximum number of rendering threads displayed that your processor can handle (Mine displays 16 threads with my i7 840Q processor). I have my dynamic RAM preview set at 200MB. Also check if your graphics card is showing up in the GPU acceleration box. I only have a NVIDIA GForce GT230M (kind of low end) and it shows up now, since I installed the latest version of SVP 11 (https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/updates/vegaspro), as well as the latest NVIDIA drivers.
——-

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi Bruce – question. You said ” … Full resolution rendering quality: Good (NOTE: I have been advised that using “Best” slows down your rendering process considerably and is unnecessary for almost all applications).”

If I *ALWAYS* want the best, crispest possible rendered file, don’t I have to set this to best? (I want to make sure I’m not confusing the result file with the preview window).

Thanks,

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

I know this won’t help much, but for my simple projects, until 10e was released, Vegas 10 was a total crash-fest. 10e is WAAAAY more stable for me than was 10b,c, or d.

BTW, I have only one computer and it is used for everything – it has layers of crap on it, but such is life.

I plan to buy 11 next month, but will not use it for any critical projects and will make sure I create safe copied of any 10 projects before I open them in 11. I would expect at least six months before 11 is stable if my experience with 9 and 10 applies to 11.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

Dave, thanks for this tip – I will try it ASAP: ” …I’d make sure there’s a RAM preview buffer set up… while this is supposedly just for RAM previews, I’ve experimentally found this is used for buffering during renders, too (which is precisely what it should be used for). ”

I’ve been keeping the preview buffer small, thinking that would speed things up! BTW I’ve experimented with up to 16 MB RAM on my Dell T3400, but discovered that going down to 8 GB with the proper rank-order was faster (slightly). When I render, I am cpu-bound (use Sysinternals Process Explorer with all the little graph windows enabled – great utility).

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Wow … this great stuff. I really appreciate your insight. I’ve been reading up on GoP and 4:2:0 and some of it is starting to gel in my mind.

What puzzles me is why the problem is worse in dim light. I can kind of understand why it would be worse with 60p, but the little HDR-CX550V at HDFX (1920×1080 60i 24Mbps) looks sooooo much better than the NX70 does in side-by-side low light tests, with both cams set to the same rec mode.

That Canon looks amazing, but at $20K it is not even a fantasy. I’ve been considering sending the NX70 back (but I want to like it!) and getting the Canon XF100. Problem is the reviews seem to show worse low-light than the NX70, and it also has the MPEG-2 LongGoP thing (which I don’t fully understand). Help me out here – is 50 Mbps 1920×1080 60i at 4:2:2 with MXF wrapper better or worse for an amateur like me using Vegas 10 (soon 11)? The Canon has a lot of great features, the intervalometer and the color adjustments appeal to me, but the thought of expensive CF cards and crappy low-light would be a big problem for me.

Thanks again, really appreciate the reply.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

I’m getting lonely posting to my self … is anyone out there?

I’ve uploaded another video specific to three big problems with the NX70U:
1.] iAuto (or Auto white balance in general) does not work reliably, particularly in twilight conditions.
2.] The auto-focus hunts WAAAAY too much! The CX550V does not have this problem.
3.] Manual focus, when set so that the little distance indicator shows “infinity”, results in the image being slightly out of focus. The problem is worse when Active Steady Shot is engaged. To get the image to really be in focus, I have to set the focus to 50m … 200m instead of infinity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cEHhvpfhos

The clock is ticking on my return window … I really, really need other NX70 owners to chime in and let me know if I have a faulty unit or if their cams have the same problems …

Thanks!

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

I’ve posted a vid (sorry it is so long) of the problem, also shows some pretty bad problems with color balance and muted (not vivid enough) colors. Side by side comparisons with my HDR-CX550V as a reference. YOu will need to watch in 1080 to see the pulsating blur problem. I’m wondering if it has something to do with any GoP or CODEC mods that were done in the NX70 to support 60p and 24p.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e33EN-Ubi3Y

BTW the dissimilarity of the zoom is due to the overall slightly wider lens on the NX70 – oops.

I’ve started the return process, but can halt it if anyone can help with a practical solution to the muted color and other problems.

Thanks!

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Thanks, Brad!

I really appreciate the response. Been feeling all alone with the problems I’m having with my new NX70U.

Could I please trouble you to check out this thread I started? I’m very worried; you are the only person I know with an NX70.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/298/861
Thanks,

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

One more thing – Aside from these two problems, I love my NX70 – man I hope I can solve them. I would hate to have to always also carry the CX550V with me for low-light shots.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400 MultiTB SATA 8 GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2 Sony HDR-CX550V