Solved Vegas Pro 14 preview stuttering/lagging issue.

I do not know what is going on but for some reason After I add effects to my videos my preview window will stutter and lag. My computer is 5 months old. It has a 15-7400 3.00 GHz, Gtx 1050 8 GB ram and two hard drives a 128 SSD that is only used for the bootup system and my second hard drive which is where Vegas Pro is located is a 3 t Seagate.

Hi Truffleshuffle03,

Could you provide a bit more information so members can assist.....

This is a desktop, correct?
How much available free space is left on your 3 tb work drive?
Have you made any OS or software updates?
Have there been any driver updates?
Have similar projects been running fine and suddenly the stutter just start with your current project?
What is some history of previous projects?
In other words, have you added the same effects to similar source media in the past projects without experiencing the stutter?
Can you use MediaInfo (in text mode) to upload a screen shot of your source media?
Can you upload a screen shot of your Project Settings?
Can you upload a screen shot of your timeline where you have added effect?
Can you list the effects you have added which are stuttering?
Have you layered effects, as in one over the other?
Are all the other programs you run on this computer running normally?
Do you have any programs running in the background?

EDIT: Additional Questions:
What OS system Windows 7, 8.1, 10?
What version and build of Vegas Pro?
End of EDIT:

Those are a few questions that quickly come to mind, some of which may have nothing to do with your issue, but until you have the solution it could help. Please offer any information pertaining to your system and project you think may, even in the slightest, effect your symptoms. The more the better, as it helps to avoid the common question/answer, question/answer, round-about back-and-forth posts as members attempt to help you solve your issue.

Your question is extremely broad, and the answer could be any number or multiple numbers of causes and corrections. The answer may be a simple setting, or several setups and settings that will help.

It is not really unusual for the Preview Window to start lagging after you apply any Video Effect.

This is where the processing power of your CPU and/or GPU has the biggest influence on video lag. More power CPU/GPU's can process faster. Your CPU is fairly average and your Graphics Card (GPU) is low powered.

Here is the simplest way to understand this:
How long did it take to render your project ?
Let's say your project is 10 minutes long and it took 30 minutes to render.
When you play back video on the timeline before it has been rendered, you cannot expect your CPU & GPU to suddenly process 3x times faster in real time, compared to what the CPU & GPU can actually do.

There are two solutions for improving Preview window playback speed.
1. Convert all your videos to Video Proxies using the in-built Proxy Creation Tool.
2. Reduce the Preview Quality Settings to Draft or Preview quality.

I actually made a video about this last year:
www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-vegas-pro/553-sony-vegas-zen-tips-3-preview-lag

Regards
Derek

DoctorZen wrote: It is not really unusual for the Preview Window to start lagging after you apply any Video Effect.

This is where the processing power of your CPU and/or GPU has the biggest influence on video lag. More power CPU/GPU's can process faster. Your CPU is fairly average and your Graphics Card (GPU) is low powered.

Here is the simplest way to understand this:
How long did it take to render your project ?
Let's say your project is 10 minutes long and it took 30 minutes to render.
When you play back video on the timeline before it has been rendered, you cannot expect your CPU & GPU to suddenly process 3x times faster in real time, compared to what the CPU & GPU can actually do.

There are two solutions for improving Preview window playback speed.
1. Convert all your videos to Video Proxies using the in-built Proxy Creation Tool.
2. Reduce the Preview Quality Settings to Draft or Preview quality.

I actually made a video about this last year:
www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-vegas-pro/553-sony-vegas-zen-tips-3-preview-lag

Regards
Derek

Well since my older PC had no problems like this and had a lot lower CPU & GPU I call BS on this "This is where the processing power of your CPU and/or GPU has the biggest influence on video lag. More power CPU/GPU's can process faster. Your CPU is fairly average and your Graphics Card (GPU) is low powered." My older PC was nothing more than a Dell with a second hard drive and a lower graphics card GTX 660 and later upped to a 950. The PC I am using now has higher everything and was build for gaming which It does very well. I can run almost everything on ultra also, It never took 30 minutes to render a 10-minute project and even longer ones never took more than 30 minutes even ones that were over an hour. The max it took was between 10 minutes and 15 minutes to finish rendering and that is with every effect I use on videos 10 minutes or less and 30 minutes on anything else. I have set effects I use which are Medium sharpen, Studio RGB to Computer RGB and slight color correction. My old PC never lagged with any of that and this PC is way better than the old one in both CPU/GPU. I was reading somewhere that magix had a problem working with graphics cards higher than 900 series and I am beginning to think that is what is happening here. Also, it does not matter what Quality that preview window setting is it still does it if using color correction.

Eagle Six wrote: Hi Truffleshuffle03,

Could you provide a bit more information so members can assist.....

This is a desktop, correct?
How much available free space is left on your 3 tb work drive?
Have you made any OS or software updates?
Have there been any driver updates?
Have similar projects been running fine and suddenly the stutter just start with your current project?
What is some history of previous projects?
In other words, have you added the same effects to similar source media in the past projects without experiencing the stutter?
Can you use MediaInfo (in text mode) to upload a screen shot of your source media?
Can you upload a screen shot of your Project Settings?
Can you upload a screen shot of your timeline where you have added effect?
Can you list the effects you have added which are stuttering?
Have you layered effects, as in one over the other?
Are all the other programs you run on this computer running normally?
Do you have any programs running in the background?

EDIT: Additional Questions:
What OS system Windows 7, 8.1, 10?
What version and build of Vegas Pro?
End of EDIT:

Those are a few questions that quickly come to mind, some of which may have nothing to do with your issue, but until you have the solution it could help. Please offer any information pertaining to your system and project you think may, even in the slightest, effect your symptoms. The more the better, as it helps to avoid the common question/answer, question/answer, round-about back-and-forth posts as members attempt to help you solve your issue.

Your question is extremely broad, and the answer could be any number or multiple numbers of causes and corrections. The answer may be a simple setting or several setups and settings that will help.

My operating system is Windows 10, Not sure what build where would I find that information?. My project settings are Custom (1920x1080, 59.940 fps)-full resolution rendering quality is set to best- motion blur is gaussian-blended fields and disables resampling -and pixel format is 32-bit floating point. It's the very same I used with my old PC that was a lot less powerful than this one and never had an issue like this. Also, I have set of Video FX effects I use which are Medium sharpen, Studio RGB to Computer RGB and slight color correction.

Truffleshuffle03,

You said you have a 128GB SSD, used only as your "Boot" drive. The questions asked by Dr. Zen (Derek) and Eagle Six (George), are very appropriate for what you are doing. If you check out my profile, you will see listed the computer I use for Vegas Movie Studio Suite(s) 13 & 14. Even for this computer, which I am on currently, if I add certain "VFX Effects" or "too much" color correction, and especially a "LUT", it almost brings this "bad boy to it's knees". If you search the posts within the "Hardware" section, you can see I also have a second computer that I use Vegas Pro 14 and Movie Studio Suite 13 on, and that guy is even beefier than this one, along with the extra drives and memory (yes George, put that RX 480 back in that guy, but no extra Monitoring or Overclocking Software, and she be running shweeet! ). Point is, I use that computer for bigger projects, like my Nephew's Wedding, and with all that "Pony-Power", adding some effects, color correction, LUT, etc., if it becomes too much it will slow down my preview. I also run Hit Film Express 2017 and DaVinci Resolve 14 on that one, because of the amount of memory and all the drives, and depending on what I am doing within those programs, can "bog-down" the computer, and even cause it to crash. Both of these computers are running Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit, no Creator Update yet.

So, back to your "Boot Drive". Unless you have arranged the "Properties" of your program to utilize that 3 TB drive, I would start looking at that boot drive. It is small, and it may have a "boat-load" (sorry George, couldn't resist ) of temporary files, all your project files, pre-rendered files, etc. What George was asking was relevant, as what Derek was saying and asking.

Mike "The Chief" O'Sullivan

Actually what I said was that the 128 is boot only and my 3t is my main hard drive where the program is located. Which has less that 1 t used. There is nothing on my 128 hard drive besides booting up files. Every program is on my 3t hard drive and only has minimal GB used right now. Just a few games and video recordings which are about 3oo GB total.

Well since my older PC had no problems like this and had a lot lower CPU & GPU I call BS on this

I have a fairly decent CPU and GPU (both overclocked and more powerful than your hardware) and I do start to experience lag once I start adding Video FX, depending on the complexity of the project - each extra Video Effect added is going to basically double the load on the CPU/GPU.

The No.1 question that all beginner video editors ask is: why is my Video Lagging in the Preview Window. Because this is the No.1 most common question, I have made various tutorials about the topic over the years.

When lag starts to occur for experienced video editors, the process of elimination begins - medication, booze or lots of coffee may be required.

There is no black and white simple answer/cause, because there are a large amount of variables that can cause this problem, most of which I listed in this FAQ article. I am always adding new things to the check list as I learn about new problems others have discovered.

A few random examples of common causes, in no particular order:
1. GoPro video - using raw GoPro video is notorious for being laggy in any video editing program, so converting to something like Cineform is what you should do.
2. Setting the Preview Window to Best/Full - this will definitely cause lag once FX are added - reduce the setting!
3. Working with 4k video - you MUST convert to Proxy Videos when working with 4k, unless you have a fast 8x Core CPU. There is no debate about this!
4. Incorrectly not Matching your Frame Rates can cause massive amounts of lag - times this by a factor of 10 if you are working with 4k video. I will admit that #4 often ends up being the cause of lag for myself, when I am working with a video coming from a different source to what I use to.
5. An X-file - something on your computer (not the program) has changed and is affecting how Vegas works.
6. All the questions/suggestions that George and Mike asked.
7. The list goes on and on...

www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-vegas-pro/553-sony-vegas-zen-tips-3-preview-lag

The only FX that lags me is the color correction which I add at the beginning before chopping up the clips because I can't do a group add with it like I can on the sharpen and levels and it takes a lot of extra time to individually do color correction change to the clips. Once the color correction is added the video turns choppy and laggy even if it's the only video FX I use.

DoctorZen wrote:

Well since my older PC had no problems like this and had a lot lower CPU & GPU I call BS on this

I have a fairly decent CPU and GPU (both overclocked and more powerful than your hardware) and I do start to experience lag once I start adding Video FX, depending on the complexity of the project - each extra Video Effect added is going to basically double the load on the CPU/GPU.

The No.1 question that all beginner video editors ask is: why is my Video Lagging in the Preview Window. Because this is the No.1 most common question, I have made various tutorials about the topic over the years.

When lag starts to occur for experienced video editors, the process of elimination begins - medication, booze or lots of coffee may be required.

There is no black and white simple answer/cause, because there are a large amount of variables that can cause this problem, most of which I listed in this FAQ article. I am always adding new things to the check list as I learn about new problems others have discovered.

A few random examples of common causes, in no particular order:
1. GoPro video - using raw GoPro video is notorious for being laggy in any video editing program, so converting to something like Cineform is what you should do.
2. Setting the Preview Window to Best/Full - this will definitely cause lag once FX are added - reduce the setting!
3. Working with 4k video - you MUST convert to Proxy Videos when working with 4k, unless you have a fast 8x Core CPU. There is no debate about this!
4. Incorrectly not Matching your Frame Rates can cause massive amounts of lag - times this by a factor of 10 if you are working with 4k video. I will admit that #4 often ends up being the cause of lag for myself, when I am working with a video coming from a different source to what I use to.
5. An X-file - something on your computer (not the program) has changed and is affecting how Vegas works.
6. All the questions/suggestions that George and Mike asked.
7. The list goes on and on...

www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-vegas-pro/553-sony-vegas-zen-tips-3-preview-lag

I am not really a new user as I have had Vegas pro since 2011.
1.I do use best preview window or I had on my older PC Had no problem with it and changed it to draft on this PC when the lagging started.
2.I don't edit go pro videos I use Geforce Shadowplay for gaming
3.I don't use 4k
4. My Matching is the same as what it's recorded in. 60 frames
5.Nothing has changed in the computer it's only 5-month-old and only used for gaming and editing the videos recorded.
Also I can add as much FX I want to without lag but if I just use color correction it laggs.