Comments

Sonata wrote on 7/9/2009, 7:04 AM
Do you have your preview quality set to "Best"?

Is your computer powerful enough to handle it? There are some effects that computers simply cannot preview smoothly, no matter how powerful they are.
Eugenia wrote on 7/9/2009, 1:29 PM
Do not use "best" for preview quality, it is very slow, not the default mode. Here's how to setup your project and preview screen: http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/12/19/sony-vegas-hints-and-tips/
Dashadoo wrote on 7/9/2009, 9:54 PM
Thank you for the advice. The preview is still a little jumpy and the audio cuts in parts. My computer has 3GBs of RAM so I am not sure what is going on. Thanks again
Eugenia wrote on 7/9/2009, 11:04 PM
What technology is your CPU? Model, Ghz?

Any modern CPU, dual core 2.4 Ghz and faster, after you follow my suggestions on that link exactly (e.g. preview quality, project properties, no transitions/plugins etc), should playback AVCHD in real time.
Dashadoo wrote on 7/10/2009, 1:09 AM
Thank you for your reply. My computer is a Intel (R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.40GHz. That should be fine yes? I followed all of your instuctions but i am not too sure about no transitions/plugins. Thanks again.
Eugenia wrote on 7/10/2009, 2:02 AM
No, this is not a current tech CPU. You need the new Dual/Quad Core CPUs to playback AVCHD in real time. Your P4 is just about 30-40% faster than mine. Given that my P4 at 3Ghz does AVCHD at 4-5 fps, you might be able to do 8 fps. The fact that it runs at 3.40 Ghz is irrelevant in this case, as the new tech CPUs are much faster without having to run so high in the Ghz frequency. So a 2.4 Ghz Dual Core runs ~3 times faster than your P4 at 3.40 Ghz.

So, no, your PC is just not fast enough for AVCHD. Either downgrade to an HDV camera (tape-based) that use mpeg2 instead of mpeg4 and consequently require less CPU speed to playback smoothly, OR, buy a new spiffy PC if you want to keep your current AVCHD mpeg4 camera.

In any case, do follow the tips in the link I gave you above, they will help a bit no matter what PC you use.