No playback at all

normantang wrote on 1/14/2008, 2:00 PM

Hello,

I've recently installed Vegas Movie Studio 8, and I've experiemented in loading AVCHD clips into the timeline. When I try to play back the footage, there is virtually no movement on the little monitor on the bottom left hand corner. I have a 3200 Mhz AMD Athlon 64 processor and more than 1 Gig of memory. Does my PC need to be more powerful than this to even view a second of my clip, even if it's jerky?

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 1/14/2008, 2:48 PM

1. You need the Platinum Edition for HD support, not the plain Movie Studio.
2. You must update the version of Platinum Edition to the latest 8.0c or whatever it's the latest version to get better AVCHD support.
3. 2 GB of RAM is best for HD. I know that some people here will say otherwise, but I have never seen a single instance where 2 GBs were not needed for the best HD editing experience.
4. If all that is done, are you sure you are clicking the "play" button to see "movement" on your AVCHD footage?
5. How old is your PC? 3200Mhz is it REAL Mhz, or that stupid AMD marketing ploy where they call something 3200+ and in reality it's 2.2 Ghz? If that's the case, then your PC is *NOT ENOUGH* for AVCHD. AVCHD requires a lot of CPU power, a brand new machine for example.
6. Make sure your "preview window" is set in the "preview (Auto)" quality. If you set it to "Best (auto)", it's going to be extra slow.
7. Make sure your project settings are correct. Use the appropriate template (e.g. 1080/60i if you are in an NTSC country) or Vegas will get slow. Vegas always requires the right project properties to tell it what kind of footage it's dealing with.

normantang wrote on 1/14/2008, 3:17 PM

Why would AMD call a processor
3200+ when in reality it's around 2 ghz? Is it because it performs as well as a 3.2 ghz Intel processor? I think I should think about getting a new PC. Thanks for your help.

Eugenia wrote on 1/14/2008, 3:23 PM

>Is it because it performs as well as a 3.2 ghz Intel processor?

If you believe their marketing department, yes. If you see the actual benchmarks, no.

Regardless, even on your 3200+ PC you *should* be seeing some movement, slow playback, but SOME playback. So make sure that the rest of my suggestions are followed too.

Chienworks wrote on 1/14/2008, 6:53 PM

To give AMD their due, they *never* claimed that their 4 digit numbers were the clock speed, or had anything to do with speed at all. On the other hand, they certainly tried their hardest to get people to assume that's what the numbers were. Pretty deceptive in my opinion.

AMD's dropped the ball and lost the race. Intel is better, faster, cheaper, and more powerful. AMD isn't even playing catch up anymore.

normantang wrote on 1/15/2008, 12:46 PM

I've just checked the program again - I played back my footage and there is now some movement (very jerky movement) but theres movement and sound! I probably had too many applications running in the background when I first reported no movement.