Rendering quality & problems

[Alumnus]

Can anybody help me?
My problem is that when I try to render with Sony Vegas now, if I choose anything higher than preview quality, I get nothing but black video and no audio. It even renders the entire video instead of the loop region I want. Is there any way to fix this?
I'm using Sony Vegas 8.0 and I haven't had this problem before. Even rendering small things makes that same problem.
The footage I have / use is either in AVI or WMV format and both work very well while just in the program but this problem only happens when trying to render.
Also ; Masking? The screen starts to kind of slow down when I try to mask, suggestions? It's like lag, but if I click anywhere other than the actual video area [ like where the settings are ] things will be mostly fine. It's only when I click anywhere inside that movable area.

[Kawatta-kun]

You should really edit with lossless sources. If that isn't the problem, then check if you are indeed editing the part you want, without any mute or stuff, and check you properties. Dunno what can it be.
About masking, easy: framerate. Fps from the footage mas be the same as project properties.

[Nya-chan Production]

About masking and effects: try using RAM Preview, select an area and press Shift + B, it loads that part into RAM and plays it smoothly.

[Alumnus]

What are lossless sources?

[HalOfBorg]

DVD rip. convert clip(s) you want to lossless codec like Lagarith, use THAT to edit.

[post-it]

.. using 8 or 8 pro ? .. I'll load it so we can find-out

[Alumnus]

But what exactly are you losing if you aren't using a lossless source?

[Cannonaire]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_loss

You lose detail and accuracy. Many times, you end up with a lot of blocking and other visual problems if you don't maintain the integrity of your video by keeping it lossless as much as possible. I'll also take this opportunity to say that over-filtering your video can make it look as bad or worse than compressing it a bunch of times, so you always have to be careful.

[HalOfBorg]

Using compressed files can also make masking ...... entertaining. Masks that don't work, scenes that change depending on if you are moving forward or back through the file.

[post-it]

But "what" exactly are "you losing if you aren't using a lossless source"?

A "Lossy" source means the "Picture Is Compressed" ..
. .. example of Lossy/Compressed:


A "Loss-Less" source means that "All The Details Are In Place"
. .. example of "CorePNG" Loss-Less Storage (which is what I use):


. .. example of a "Huffy" Loss-Less Storage:


These three demon-straight the reasons for Loss-Less Image and Video Storage while editing.