I've just installed Vegas 15 and am beginning a new episode in my long running project. At this point I do not have very many tracks, or much on the time line...three Green Screen tracks with the GS turned off, and some colour gradient tracks. I've put some quite small transparent png files on the timeline and have found there is a lag of perhaps half a second behind when they are supposed to play.

I don't recall ever having a lag like this so early in an episode, though have had it on occasions in earlier versions when the project is getting stuffed full of material towards the end. It is very annoying as I can't actually fine tune my timeline by sight. I have to correlate it with the audio track which is fine in some situations but a pain in others...

I thought I would try opening the file in V14 to see if it did that same in that version but apparently I can't open v15 files in v14.

Something is snarling up the works and slowing down the processing. Any ideas on what it could be?

When I look at Options/Preferences/Video, GPU acceleration gives me no options, Apparently I have no devices which can use this.

Renton

Do you still get the lag if you remove the png files?. If the png res is too high, that could be your problem, off the top of my head.

+ 1 chris's suggestion.

what codec(s) are you using?

Thanks guys.

1. I have no idea what codec I'm using...I never have...have never got a grip on codecs...
2. png resolution: The png's were produced in Illustrator and exported as png's (300dpi, though some have been 600dpi) to Photoshop, then had the canvas size changed and it seemeth the resolution ended up at 5315 x 2991...actual file sizes are quite small. I have used plenty of similar (same res though file sizes different) pngs already and they haven't, as I recall, lagged the program quite like this. The lag occurs immediately the pngs are hit. I guess the res is quite high but I have been zooming in on some of the images quite a long way, thus the high res. The images I'm using this episode will not be zoomed in on much if any...
3. My graphics card is a Nividia GEForce GTX 570. It appears in Vegas v13, but not in v14 and not in v15...so it appears I am not making use of its capabilities...
4. We fiddled with Dynamic Ram...originally 200mb, flipped it up to 2000mb, thought we got an improvement, then thought perhaps we didn't. Have 15257mb of ram available. Are there any (other) such preferences/settings that can help or hinder performance?
5. I have plenty of room on my HD...though I got it full and that slowed things up...have moved a heap of stuff off it to free up space.
6. the HD is defraged automatically...
7. I have an SSD as C drive with programs on but have my videos and graphics files on a regular HD.

Renton

1. I have no idea what codec I'm using...I never have...have never got a grip on codecs..

where did the camera footage originate from?
.
2. png resolution: .

file size is relatively unimportant - however, size can be a problem, if you're not zooming in / around much try and keep more or less relative to output, eg. hd res.

3. My graphics card is a Nividia GEForce GTX 570. It appears in Vegas v13, but not in v14 and not in v15...so it appears I am not making use of its capabilities...

not sure how much you're missing re. video card. i worked with numerous 'basic' cards on student pcs with no ill effect.

4. We fiddled with Dynamic Ram...originally 200mb,

i NEVER fiddle with dynamic ram - vegas sets it - i leave it at that.

goodluck...

You found the problem yourself, Renton...."The lag occurs immediately the pngs are hit."....take the png files out and the lag will stop. That would be the number one fix for me, especially at that res!!