I got the Vegas lag blues!

[Jeff Wisener]

I shoot with 2 cameras (My A and B cameras) and insert clips from both the edit a video on Sony Vegas. My cameras are a Canon M50 and a Sony A6400. When I insert video clips with the Canon, it is slow but bearable. The Sony is just painfully slow, literally click the forward key frame by frame because I won't hardly play. I cant fully understand why the Sony lags so much more.

On my Canon M50 I shoot 1080p FHD 29.97 fps (IPD)

The Sony, shooting XAVC S HD 100P 100M.

I assume the file format is the issue on why the Sony files lag in preview? Any suggestions? Yes, l looked up all the tricks on how to prevent Lag in Vegas , they don't seem to work. I am running 32 GB of Ram.

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by Jeff Wisener

Sony Vegas.

Wow, that is a very old version. Sony stopped developing Vegas long ago.

But you would get more help if you mentioned what specific version you are using.

[Jeff Wisener]

Vegas 17 is my version.

Update: I rebooted my PC after ,after making preferences changes from suggestions on YouTube on how to reduce Vegas lag time but still the Sony camera video files crawl compared to my Canon files.

[Edward Troxel]

VEGAS Pro 17 is by Magix. Magix purchased it at version 13 and all versions 14 and later are Magix.

Could you please list the specifications of the file that is having problems playing back.

You might also test out VEGAS Pro 19 which has expanded on the ability to play back files.

[Jeff Wisener]

Edward:

First of all thank you for your help, I appreciate it!

On my Canon M50 the video settings I shoot are 1080p FHD 29.97 fps (IPD). It plays much smoother. My Sony A6400. I was shooting XAVC S HD 100P 100M and was having the biggest lag issues. Since my original post 3 things have happened, all improvements.

1. I changed my from Sony A6400 video settings from XAVC S HD 100P 100M to XAVC S HD 50P 50M (Not sure if I needed to do but did in hopes of reducing lag) and honestly, not that sure of how much reduction in video quality occurred due to this.

2, I watched numerus YouTube videos (see link below) all claiming to have the magic solution in settings. Example, used the settings recommended on this video starting at 1 min \through 4 mins. I did not select the last option, past 4 mins because I did not want to to reduce the video quality as he was suggesting. Note than I did not see a significant improvement until I rebooted.

YouTube (Short URL)

3. Now, I am able to review video playback with preview set to Draft > half on canon clips without lag and the slower Sony A6400 clips at Draft > Quarter. This is a big improvement from where it was at.

Questions:

1. Is it normal to have to run Vegas in Draft > quarter to prevent lag?

2. Do you additional suggestions to improve lag? Honestly, not sure what's normal for Vegas and maybe it is as good as it gets, not sure.

See below for my computer specs (if that info helps):


Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3500 6-Core Processor 3.59 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 20H2
OS build 19042.1083
Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3530.0
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti

Thanks again, Jeff

[Edward Troxel]

Some file types are harder to read than others. I did not look at the video you listed. I do know that some formats have actually read "faster" if you go into the preferences and use the "legacy" options. Not sure about your specific video formats but it might be worth checking both ways.

I will also say that you're a couple years behind in the changes made to VEGAS to be able to better read more formats. It really might be worth testing VEGAS Pro 19 to see if your particular format perform better today.

[Jeff Wisener]

Well, when I can afford it, will upgrade to Vegas 19. Thank you!

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by Jeff Wisener

Well, when I can afford it, will upgrade to Vegas 19. Thank you!

Meanwhile, if the only problem is incompatible file types, the free ffmpeg can convert just about any video file format to any other (audio, too). It is a command line program, so you may need to look up the proper command line parameters, but ffmpeg conversion is what I use when Vegas cannot digest something my cameras spew out.