Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Well, I replaced the psd files with png files, it's a no go. Sigh

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

How large are they? This doesn't make sense. png files handle well in Vegas, provide they are of reasonable dimension, not that I know what reasonable is exactly. I resize all images for Vegas to be no larger than necessary to do some mild panning if necessary. Since my projects are usually no larger than 1280x720 I go no larger than 1500xwhatever maintain aspect ratio. We are supposedly able to use much larger, but I don't just because it drags the system down.

I've put hundreds of photos on my timeline and unless they are of huge dimension they work fine.

So without either png or psd can you verify that then Vegas is then fine?

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

The png files are around 150kbs or so each, and 1440x1080. There around 9 of them total, the project is 3 minutes long.

This is why it is puzzling. I got the psd/file project to render dropping my Dynamic Preview to 0, I'm trying the same with the png files.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

The png files are around 150kbs or so each, and 1440x1080. There around 9 of them total, the project is 3 minutes long.

This is why it is puzzling. I got the psd/file project to render dropping my Dynamic Preview to 0, I'm trying the same with the png files.

Hmm, same project lowered the Dynamic Preview back to 0 and it rendered.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Hmmm, weird.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

More details about my computer


Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz 7.4 5.9
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 12.0 GB 7.5
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 7.6
Gaming graphics 4095 MB Total available graphics memory 7.6
Primary hard disk 702GB Free (931GB Total) 5.9
Windows 7 Professional

System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer OEM
Model OEM
Total amount of system memory 12.0 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 4

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 1863 GB
Disk partition (C:) 702 GB Free (931 GB Total)
Media drive (D:) CD/DVD
Disk partition (F:) 44 GB Free (932 GB Total)

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Total available graphics memory 4095 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 3071 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.17.12.6658
Primary monitor resolution 1920x1200
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Network Adapter Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Network Adapter Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

I don't know Steven, I would check my ram timings, I guess. It is a real mytery and makes no logical sense.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Yep crazy.

I want to buy After Effects, so I will probably get the CS5 Suite when it comes out. I'm so tired of Vegas crashes.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

I have CS5, it's out. I don't understand your crashes, doesn't happen to me. Well it has, but it had nothing to do with Vegas.

Are you running your media off the same hard drive? You do know that is a no-no, right? Not saying it is the issue.

If you are using the same drive as in your old system, get a new drive for sure.

I had some crashes last month, I moved the media to another drive, crashes stopped. It wasn't Vegas, the hard drive had errors on it.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Could be. I use separate video drives, my main drive is brand new like my machine. But it could be the drive, I suppose I could copy the project to another drive and try it there. I don't get the crashes either. By the way, I was going to download the trial for CS5, but it's not available yet.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

You know, you can move the media to your OS drive, it truly doesn't hurt anything, it's just brutal on the drive over time. You might also run disc check on the media drive and see if that helps. That's how I fixed my bad drive. Over time they need it run once in a while to fix errors, don't know why, etc, and some drives never need it, but some drives used for video just get a bit buggy over time.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Yeah Jeff,

That's what I'm doing, moving the project to my os drive. We'll see.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Same crash on my OS drive, now I'm trying to see if it is a specific file. And the hits keep on rollin...

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Here's a quick test to try.
A user on another forum posted this and says it'll give him a "low memory" error on Pro 9 every single time.
I haven't tried it on Pro 7, 8 or 10.
He says that Vegas 6 doesn't give him the error.
I tried it and sure enough, low memory error, on a quad core :(

Open a new project and put anything on timeline (even a still from Media Generator would be ok)
- Render it as MP4 using MainConcept AVC/AAC encoder
- Choose Apple IPod 320x240 template and open Custom panel
- Set Frame Rate to 15
- Set Constant Bit Rate to 192,000

FYI, I tried it on Pro 7, 8 and 10 and it worked as expected.
This tells me, in no uncertain terms, that Sony broke something in Pro 9 that got fixed in Pro 10.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Update:

Well, I took the project moved it to my OS drive and it crashed.

I was thinking the .veg file may be bad, so I copied everything on my timeline into a blank .veg file, and the project still crashed.

I started watching where it was crashing and it seemed to crash on my third to last slide, a picture. Keep in mind I only have a about a dozen picture files on this 3 minute project.

Figuring it was the picture, I deleted it off my timeline and the project rendered. I put it back and the project crashed. I deleted the picture again and put the stock Vegas checkerboard media in place of it, and the project rendered. Thinking now, that the picture may be bad, I turned it in to a png file, it still crashed. I then said, hmm, maybe the drive is still the issue, so I took a nature photograph from my OS drive and placed it in the timeline where I've been having problems, and the project crashed. Thinking that the timeline may have an issue with pictures, I converted the picture into a video file and the project crashed, then I moved it to a different track, the project still crashed. I then took my entire project and moved it way down the timeline, still crash.

At this point, I think the project setup is corrupt somehow and I will have to rebuild this entire project from scratch.

This is what drives me nuts about Vegas, In my opinion, after using this software for 6 years or more, Sony does not pay enough attention to these problems. Vegas needs to do better error reporting. I am not having low memory issues, even though that is the error it's giving me. At this point, I think the build is corrupt.

Ofcourse I emailed Sony and they gave me that 'pat' turn off all other stuff in msconfig. I then thought to my self, if your software is so crappy that I have to turn off everything on a machine this strong, you have no right to call this professional software.

Sigh.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Steven, you will have to find out for yourself what the problem is. You have done an excellent job of narrowing it down, and are to be commended for your troubleshooting methods.

I'm not sure what you mean by build being corrupt, what does that mean?

They tell you to turn everything off because it is a first step in any troubleshooting thing from there point of view. Most people who operate PCs are computer illiterate, and do not have their machine properly configured. Sony cannot know you are not one of those people, so you have to understand their point of view.

I'm really sorry for the trouble you're having. I feel for you. Your build is fine, most likely, unless you have a bad stick of ram or something, etc. What is really sad is the problem is likely something very simple, but it is finding out what it is. I still don't beleive it is the software itself.

It might be a software conflict. I would consider reinstalling windows, installing vegas, and nothing else, and then see what happens.

I recommend this because it is what I would do based on what you've shared.

First thing you should do is run windows disc check and have it check and fix any errors on your C drive. It costs nothing, and this has helped me many times in the past. If the drive is new, you would be surprised. It will only perform after a reboot on the OS drive, so you will need to do it when you can step away from the computer for an hour or two.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

My whole family is hardheaded, and I'm really hard headed. So I took my project, which is on an icydock removable bay and hooked it up to my VISTA laptop, connected it via usb and whalla, it rendered.

So Jeff, I think you are on something, it appears to be software related. I'll start with a reinstall of Vegas first, then I'll run tests on windows.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Well, Steven, as far as you being hard-headed, I'm Irish, so I know all about being hard-headed!


Windows installations are funny, it does not always install right. I've installed it hundreds of times. What I've found is after it's installed, you set it up, then play with it. You change it's settings first, etc., and while your're playing with it or installing your programs, if you see ANY hiccup, I reinstall it.

The only way I've found that is relatively sure is to use a floppy disc and do a format of the hard drive, and I format it about 25% or more, then I reformat it again using the Windows setup program, which is not a complete format, but I do it anyway.

Then I install Windows again. If you install Windows over an old installation, it can get buggy if you do not reformat the drive first. I've reformatted my OS drive three times in a row before installing Windows on occasion.

Good luck, it sounds like you are on the way!

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Steve,

I had this with version 9 a couple years back. Seems to me it had something to do with virtual memory. No issues in 10, yet.

I also use edius 5.0 these days. Vegas is my favorite however!!! even if infuriating at times.


dale

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

That's a good suggestion Dale. Steven, you might try turning off your paging file, restarting, defragment your drive, then see what happens.

If that doesn't do any good, turn it back on, defrag again and try it again. It likely won't do any good, but it is a good practice to do those steps from time to time.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

have been following this thread but can't really comment since the only time i had a similar problem was years ago.... however:

i always use png's, have second (and third) hd's, start most projects as straight tl, ie, no fx etc., and save under new 'ver' names at each stage.

i had a client who had a problem similar to yours - i got him to simply cut and paste the whole tl into a new instance of vegas and save with new name. it worked though ymmv....

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Morning,

Leslie's idea is also good too! I do this with almost every project that is 30 min or longer. I also do any color grading at track level ande then render it. Also using nested shorter sections is a good practice keeping two versions open eachon a their own monitor. Sence I manage my projects better I have far fewer problems in all regards.

Good luck with this!

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Leslie, great idea, but I think he's already tried the cut and pate into a new project (didn't work).

What's funny, is his laptop is handling it but his new desktop is not, which kind of points to a hardware issue, or something specifically related to his PC.

I am anxious to see what he ends up finding out. Very frustrating stuff!

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Well,

I'd love to start this response out with; by the greatest of scientific deduction and computer ingenuity I was able to figure it out, but sadly, that's not the case.

I reinstalled Vegas, and that was what it took to fix whatever in the world the issue was. Since my installation and computer was only a month old, I never suspected that it may be a software issue, especially considering 8.1 was doing fine on much larger projects with much more resources needed.

So that's it. What the specific issue is, I have no idea. Did reinstalling Vegas fix it, yep.


Or we can go with the conspiracy theorists and say that it had something to do with the death of OBL. Naaaaa.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Great Steven, a simple fix! Congratulations.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Thanks Jeff. It was a journey.

Vegas 9 low on memory... I'm another lucky one
 

I have been using the 64 bit Sony Vegas 9.0d for over a year now to render HD videos without any issue. The source format of my videos (straight from a JVC GZ-HD7) are MPEG2, with about 25M bitrate. I've edited and rendered countless weddings, some video short films, etc. and never had any problem with Vegas.

Several months ago, I purchased a smaller camera- a Kodak Playsport that has source videos encoded in H.264, around 8MB bitrate, and a .MOV format.

Just recently I went through my normal process of adding the video to the timeline in Sony Vegas 9d and added the .MOV files to the project. I added around 30 minutes of footage (roughly 8 or so videos), a title, and some background music just as I've done many times before... Within about 10 minutes of rendering down (to a 720p format) I got the dreaded Low Memory error.

I've been scouring many sources and have taken a lot of the steps mentioned in this thread including just about everything but re-installing. However, since Vegas still works fine with my other MPEG2 HD videos I am not sure if a reinstall will do the trick. Also, after applying many of the "fixes" I now get the low memory render error immediately, as opposed to 10 minutes later.

Does anyone have experience fixing the Low Memory issue in my scenario (H.264/.MOV files)? My computer has plenty of memory and cpu (i7-920 and 6GB of ram). While rendering, the memory usage never goes above 2.3 GB or so, and I have 6GB total. Memory usages starts around 1.8 GB and then immediately jumps right up to around 2.3 GB. I am thinking it may be some kind of codec issue but I am not sure what I'd do to fix that.

One other point- I was able to render one video individually without getting the low memory error. That particular video was only about 3 minutes of footage. I have not tried with longer videos (some are over 10 minutes). Of course this is not an ideal solution...

Thanks,
Greg

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Yes yes, this is an issue with Sony Vegas that is worthless asking them about it. The sony noob techs will read something like, 'have you updated, maybe you need to format your computer.' So, count my wasted time with Sony as your own. lol What I ended up doing once was copying my project to another pc and rendering it on that machine. Same files, worked on a different machine. Dumb Vegas. You could try that, just copy the whole project to a different machine. That's the only way I ever got around it.

I have a target on my head and seem to get the stupidest errors from Vegas at least once every six months or so. Forgive my attitude, but I've wasted days on Vegas and it's stupid crappy error reporting. It sucks. If it would just accurately error report. The low memory error is a generic error that has almost everything to do with Vegas not understanding the stupidest things. I got the error one time because I was using a specific jpeg/image. Take out the picture, no error, put the picture back in, error. Sigh. Yeah, that' took me 4 hours to diagnose.

I'm no help, I'll stop venting now.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

no, venting's good for the psyche, but pretty useless for repairing software.....

as i wrote earlier. i would never dream of working with some 'new' or 'non-standard' codec*, nor large images other than png. if you do i think you're opening up yourself to countless problems from low mem through to system crashes.

*this is from sony's vegas pro advert:

Vegas Pro 10 software has extensive capture, import, and export support for video and audio. With the Vegas Pro 10 collection, you can efficiently edit and process DV, AVCHD, HDV, SD/HD-SDI, R3D and all XDCAM™ formats in real time, fine-tune audio with precision, and author surround sound, DVD and Blu-ray Disc™.

i see no mention of .mov, .mod (jvc), etc., yes, you can edit them, but....

Re: Vegas 9 low on memory... I'm another lucky one
 

Vegas has never liked .MOV. That's why I immediately render any .MOV to an intermediate before putting on the TL. In case even that simple project stalls, kill vegas from Task Manager and you'll probably find that you at least have a partially complete rendered file. Put that back on a new top track, and select all after its end point and render again. Keep doing that until you have a complete intermediate set of clips.

Then render the entire set of intermediate clips in order to get one complete intermediate file.

You might get longer renders if you render only the video (you can use the original audio when you create your final intermediate).

Which codec? I use Cineform. But the free DNxHD is pretty good. You might try it.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Larry, thanks for the suggestion. I finally found a way to get around my issue. Since Vegas can't seem to handle .MOV files very well, I thought try to find another way to convert them. After trying several different conversion programs, I went back to my old standby- Ulead Studio. I was able to do a batch convert from MOV to MPEG of all the files. Of the 20 or so MOV files, it crashed about 3 times but eventually got through them with acceptable quality and no audio syncing issues. I then started the project, replaced the MOV files with MPEG files and everything renders perfectly now in Sony Vegas!

My hopes were that Vegas could handle everything, but it seems there is also something about these particular MOV files that PC's in general don't like. A few converter programs I tried out along the way said I had "B-frames" in my video that affected stability... so maybe the issue is more related to the implementation of .MOV in my video camera.

With all this headache my solution may be to finally give in and switch to a Mac, which everyone tells me "just works" when it comes to video issues and drivers. If that is the case maybe it is worth spending 4x the price for one. (OK I'm getting a little off topic here I know)...

Thanks,
Greg

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

When you get your Mac, please report back and let us know what you think.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Tongue in cheek? A little? It is indeed frustrating to run into these roadblocks.

Macs do not "just work" with video issues, unless you use a rather limited set of codecs and wrappers. Yes, I've hung various mac apps, including FCP.

Anyone who has had a newer camera with a new codec would share that FCP has consistently been late to the party with native use of codecs on the timeline. Having said that, once converted to ProRes422 intermediate codec, life can be very good.

All these comments based on FCP7, I've not yet spent any time with FCP-X, a different product entirely.

I'm unsure how to apportion my irritation about QT on the PC. Should I be blaming Sony or Apple? With Vegas Pro 10 (or was it 9?), Sony stepped away from QT and supplied their own decoder for many dSLR AVC/h.264 codecs. QT is flakey for me on the PC outside of Vegas, too, especially with Apple's implementation of AVC/h.264. I get mac-created clips that won't play on QT on the PC, or play off-speed, or just plain scrambled; very frustrating. Greg H. has achieved happiness with a new camera codec by taking his MOVs to an intermediate codec - sound familiar?

Not that I want to disrespect Macs. I work on them all the time, they're well-engineered, and work well. But, to believe they "just work", with the implication that PCs somehow don't, is to believe hype, drink the Kool-aid, and join the cult.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Seth, thanks for the info. My comment was definitely tongue in cheek :) I would hate to spend that kind of money and still have the same issues. It is frustrating that there are so many factors that can play into instability issues- video formats, codecs, bad implementations of standards, etc. In the end it's always the end users / consumers that get to feel the pain.

This experience has taught me a couple of things:
1. As long as I am using Sony Vegas, avoid file formats that are QT based- I didn't even pay attention to that when I picked it up my low cost portable video camera yet I probably invested more than 10 hours trying to troubleshoot and eventually get my workaround.
2. It would be much more cost effective to pick a more "sony vegas" compatible camera for than to choose a new platform to do video editing on. (Sony brands?)
3. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater thinking the new baby will be a silver bullet. (ie, FCP vs. Vegas). I am doing a lot of research and finding similar frustrations. Also seeing a lot of hoopla about the new FCX vs. FCP and how a lot of the more professional users are frustrated.

Having said that, I'm still shopping around because I have other reasons for getting a Mac, but I am not ready to give up on Vegas just yet. :) Jeff- thanks as well, I'll be sure to post again once I move forward in that direction and see the pro's/con's.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Hi Jeff,

I thought I'd come back to this thread and reply back since you asked. Good news on the Mac!

My el-cheapo kodak camera downloads the video just fine without any issues. I don't get any lock up or stutters on the Mac while playing or editing it. Since the camera outputs .MOV, which is a format widely used on the Mac, I am not surprised it works so well. On the PC I couldn't find a single program that wouldn't lock up when dealing with the weirdness of the camera format.

I have also been using the Mac and Final Cut Pro (FCP) for my higher end camera and I can tell you it is a big improvement. One downside is that I have to convert MPEG to .MOV to work in FCP, but that is easily done with a free utility called MPEG Streamclip. One thing that I've noticed is that the Mac allows you to easily control the video format across applications. Fortunately, the conversions are fast and quality of the video is preserved without any degradation.

In general I am very happy I made the switch over and now use it for my video editing needs. I found that making a transition from Vegas 9 to FCP for basic video editing was extremely simple... I found a few web sites that helped me understand the basics and it didn't take long to be productive.

The biggest down side is the cost. I opted for the 17" Macbook Pro, upgraded the HDD's but still have some components to buy. I've already spent $3000... (I also had a few other reasons for switching than just Video Editing). I am quite happy with my purchase and think the productivity and reduced frustration (no lock ups, stutters, out of memory issues, etc) far outweighs the cost. Lastly, I can still run Vegas with VMWare if I ever want to go back, but haven't had a need yet. I still use the PC to do imports from the higher end camera, and hold all the RAW video... It makes a pretty good combo with the Mac and gets me working without tying up a machine.

Hope that helps!! I would recommend the switch to anyone if they have the means to do so. It's really not that painful and I think most people will like the seamless / fluid experience compared to what is on the PC. There is also the iMac that can be had for about half of what I spent and has similar specs and a huge screen. I wanted something more portable so I chose the macbook pro.

Re: Vegas 9 is low on memory
 

Glad you're happy Greg, nice to have a good editing experience.