Now that DSLRs like the Canon 7D are reaching a critical mass, more and more filmmakers are having to learn a whole new workflow for dealing with the large clunky files that they spit out. One will quickly notice that dragging and dropping the native H.264 files coming off their compact flash cards onto the NLE timelines will afford little more than stuttering playback at best. The solution is to transcode the files to an intermediate codec like Apple’s ProRes or Cineform using $99 dollar software like NeoScene. Even though Adobe showed off their awesome new Premiere update in CS5 Production Premium that allows drag and dropping of these native files onto the timeline using their new 64-bit Mercury engine, Adobe’s suite is still a very expensive update at best, and so the hundred dollar Cineform solution is still a good one.
So now you have gone to Videoguys.com (not an affiliate link) and purchased a license for NeoScene, you have transcoded your Quicktime files to Cineform AVI’s and dropped them onto you Vegas Pro 9.0 timeline, but you are still getting program hangs and crashes – what’s going on?
Well the problem (and solution) might be simpler than you think: are you still in the habit of working towards the highest quality and so you have set your project settings to 32-bit video levels? Even using a fast playback codec like Cineform, by using 32 bit instead of 8 you are actually quadrupling the amount of data your CPU and memory have to handle.
The solution? Switch your project settings to 8-bit while editing and then back to 32-bit for your final render.
Oh and while we are on the subject, don’t forget to right-click on those clips in your Vegas timeline and disable that silly Smart Resampling default setting!
To read more about the Cineform playback topic check out this thread at boardreader.com
One final note: at this time, the latest Sony Vegas 9.0d update seems to be having difficulty with Cineform files leading to the software freezing up. Your best best is to stick with or revert to Vegas 9.0c. We were able to repeat this problem and after reverting to 9.0c everything was working beautifully again.
If you need to download any version of any Sony Media Software, visit the version download archives.
