previewing issue

musman wrote on 8/30/2005, 5:03 PM
Been using Vegas for about 2.5 years now and have yet to figure out how to deal with this issue. If I have a complecated project (lots of fx, tracks, etc) I can't get a real preview, even with a RAM render or the shift-m render. Even with shift-m renders there's always something like a pause first then choppy playback that's not good enough to get an idea for what's happening. This problem has existed when using Vegas 4-6 and has been an issue since I first started using Vegas (and my hard drives were much more empty).
My friend uses FCP and even on an underpowered computer once you render a section you can get playback on it w/o the choppy stuff that Vegas exhibits on my computer.
So, now I'm trying to isolate my previewing issues to see if this is just how Vegas works or if the problem lies with my computer (a 3 year old p4 2.4 with seperate hard drives for media). Does anyone else have this problem? Thanks ahead of time for any help!

Comments

Jackie_Chan_Fan wrote on 8/30/2005, 5:09 PM
Frankly, its just how vegsa works. If you have lots of tracks it will begin to studder. Toss in a lot of FX and it will studder even more.

The best way is to prerender sections of your timeline. Unfortunately vegas doesnt do this as well as Avid or FCP. If you change something in the area of the prerendered clips. be prepared to prerender again :)

Also try turning off FX in the monitor view. That may help. Work in draft mode etc.

Vegas is great but when it comes to play back, i think the competition has an edge. Vegas however has a lot more that the competition lacks.

I guess its the nature of things.

musman wrote on 8/30/2005, 5:47 PM
Thanks for that. Unfortunately I guess I did prerender when I did the shift-m thing but I still can't get the playback w/o all the stuttering. Kinda makes it seem a waste of time to bother doing the prerendering if you still can't get a decent preview. Oh well, maybe they'll fix this sometime.
rs170a wrote on 8/30/2005, 5:53 PM
I don't know if this will work in your case (lots of FX, tracks, etc.) but I've found that if I highlight a short section, do a ram render and then loop it, it slowly picks up speed to the point that it's real time.

Mike
Jackie_Chan_Fan wrote on 8/30/2005, 5:59 PM
How does your video play back in a less complicated edit?

Lets say you have 2 tracks of video and no fx, does it work properly?

Are you using lots of compositing modes? If so, it will never play back fast.



johnmeyer wrote on 8/30/2005, 6:58 PM
1. Make sure you don't have Videoscopes displayed. This will slow down preview and cause it to studder, even when the video is prerendered. It actually sucks cycles, even when the video is playing straight from a single AVI file.

2. Try changing the refresh rate of your monitor, even if it is an LCD. I know that refresh isn't supposed to mean anything with an LCD, but I definitely got smoother playback with a 75 Hz refresh instead of 60 Hz. I won't swear by this one, however.

3. The RAM preview seems to interact strangely with all sorts of things, even when you are using the feature. Try setting it back to the default amount (16 MBytes). Again, this may not work, but give it a try.

The one suggestion I am sure of is the videoscopes.
musman wrote on 8/30/2005, 7:27 PM
Thanks everyone for the help. My computer does fine with less complex projects and plays them back fine. The problem is eventually many projects will need lots of tracks for audio and occassionally a good amount of fx.
I preview via firewire to an external monitor and do not have the video scopes running when I do so. I go by just the lcd monitor occassionally but mostly I use the above setup as I believe it's the only way to get the feel for your work.
Long prerender times are a bit of a bummer, but once we do them I think we should be able to get a real preview. This is something that has driven me nuts for a while now and I would think would be a big priority for Sony to do something about. Am I alone in thinking this, or does this issue not get in y'all's way as much?