Editing C100 MTS in Vegas Pro?

[Mike Hammond]

Wasn't sure whether to post here or in the "What Happens in Vegas" forum but....

Anyone editing their C100 files in Vegas Pro with ease? I can open the AVCHD/mts files no problem, can even do some work with pretty good preview (full quality for the most part, half quality almost always). Then all of a sudden Vegas just freezes, stops responding. I have to force a closing of the program - sometimes from the alt-ctrl-delete move.

I'm using the data import utility software that comes with the camera to get the clips on my computer. I've tried editing from an external drive as well as the desktop drive. I've worked in full quality preview as well as half and quarter.

I know I can transcode to mpg-2 to edit with no problem, but who needs an extra step? So I'm just wondering what others are experiencing.

Thanks for any info.

[Nicholas de Kock]

Mike I edit C100 footage in Vegas Pro 12 without issues at full quality however Vegas is prone to instability, I built a new system recently & mine in stable now. Turn GPU acceleration off & don't delete clips while ripple-edit is enabled when in playback, this helped me.

[Mike Hammond]

Thx Nicholas. I'll take a look at that and give it a shot.

[Christopher Young]

No problems here with C100 files in Vegas 12.

Only have PAL experience here so maybe different in the US.

What we have to watch out for is 25p files from the C100. Vegas 12 will see the files as 'upper field' in other words interlaced. Make sure you set the Vegas File / Properties as 25p

The C100 isn't native 25p. Its files are PF files, also know as PSF. Vegas sees these files as interlaced because they are in fact two identical fields wrapped in an interlaced wrapper.

Once we worked that out the timelines played better and all was sweet. The native files can also play back with preview set anywhere up to 'Best / Full' with no problems whatsover with good GPU support which we have. Unfortunately a lot of people don't seem to have this working properly for one reason or another. Without GPU support the playback of these files can be problematic for some older CPUs

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Danny O'Neill]

I second turning off GPU acceleration. On our Nvidia rig its always crashing. The one with the AMD card is much more solid but still can be flakey.

[Mike Hammond]

Thanks guys.

Chris - I've made sure to match project settings with the C100 footage I'm editing. But maybe what I'm reading from you suggests I need to make sure that vegas is interpreting the files correctly.

[Christopher Young]

Correct Mike.

If you bring in 1080i files and drag the first clip to the timeline in Vegas 12 it will ask you if you want to set your project properties to match the media. That's fine with 1080i material but if you do this with 25p files, and I have since found out 30p also, the timeline will default to 50 or 60i. Vegas will misinterpret those 25p files as 50i files. In other words don't rely on Vegas auto detecting you footage format. You must manually set your properties as 25p or 30p. Under File / Project Properties under 'field order' select 'None (progressive scan)' and under 'frame rate' select the rate of your media, 24, 25 or 29.970p. Should be good to go then.

Some other NLE software has the same issues with Canon PSF (progressive segmented frames) footage. Sony progressive footage comes in and is detected correctly. One advantage of PSF was that a lot of earlier TVs especially CRT's couldn't handle progressive footage but if fed progressive in an interlace container they could.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Dan McGuckin]

Try resetting the VRAM options if you've messed with that. I boosted mine up since I have 32GB of ram, and it screwed it all up until I reset it back to default.
No problems since, well, I shouldn't say that, we do get the occasional lockup.

[Mike Hammond]

OK. I'll take a look at that too. I do believe I changed them, but thought I went back to the defaults because of other issues that created.

[Danny O'Neill]

Originally Posted by Dan McGuckin

Try resetting the VRAM options if you've messed with that. I boosted mine up since I have 32GB of ram, and it screwed it all up until I reset it back to default.
No problems since, well, I shouldn't say that, we do get the occasional lockup.

What was the default?

[Danny O'Neill]

When working with files in PF25 or PF30 (the progressive format wrapped in an interlaced mess) you need to tell vegas that the clip is actually Progressive as well as the project settings.

You do this by right clicking the clip and selecting properties, then on the media tab change the field order to progressive.

Now, heres the nasty bit. You should be able to click the Save icon and then whenever you add a new clip it automatically sets it to progressive but we've found a bug in vegas 12 where it doesn't remember this. So we have a script we run to sets them all to progressive. We have logged a fault with Sony (as it affects all 5 of our editing workstations) but they seem to have outsourced their helpldesk to script followers and this isn't on the script so they are a little stuck.

This now means vegas will treat the file correctly. Its just vegas and nearly all other editors don't understand how to handle PF files.

[Al Bergstein]

It's absurd to have to turn Nvidia GPUs off in Vegas when the same card on the same machine with the same footage takes full advantage of that card in Adobe CC. Vegas needs to get their act together. I've got no time anymore to be a beta tester for their software for them. Yes, the C100 can be edited in Vegas, as can canon mxf and 5dmkiii, but why bother when there are stable packages out there that won't have you tearing your hair out every 10 minutes. Believe me, I've given them more than they should have gotten of second chances. I offered to let them work with my machine to see that I have reproducible issues that are clearly traced to their software, V11 and V12. Including me buying additional state of the art laptops and desktops. No interest. Finally bought Adobe. Works just fine on those same machines. There will be no upgrade to V13. I'm using that for monthly payments to Adobe.

[Danny O'Neill]

Originally Posted by Al Bergstein

It's absurd to have to turn Nvidia GPUs off in Vegas when the same card on the same machine with the same footage takes full advantage of that card in Adobe CC. Vegas needs to get their act together. I've got no time anymore to be a beta tester for their software for them. Yes, the C100 can be edited in Vegas, as can canon mxf and 5dmkiii, but why bother when there are stable packages out there that won't have you tearing your hair out every 10 minutes. Believe me, I've given them more than they should have gotten of second chances. I offered to let them work with my machine to see that I have reproducible issues that are clearly traced to their software, V11 and V12. Including me buying additional state of the art laptops and desktops. No interest. Finally bought Adobe. Works just fine on those same machines. There will be no upgrade to V13. I'm using that for monthly payments to Adobe.

Ive actually managed to finally get a stable system thanks to Dan. I set the memory pool to 256mb and the threads to 8 (to match my physical cores instead of the recommended double) and since then. Stable (touch wood).

Their support is awful though. I used to always report issues but I only ever got to speak to some outsourced, script reading helpdesk in god knows where who didnt have a script for our problems so they just seem to keep sending emails telling me to try things which have nothing to do with our problems.