PDW-700 XDCam HD422 performance question

Thomas Video wrote on 11/4/2008, 11:52 AM
Hi!
I experience a strange performance Issue on my edit computer (I am not an expert in Computers but it is something like a Dual Core+ HT 3.1 GHz, 2 Gig Ram, a NVIDIA 7900 Graphics card and Windows XP SP2)
I run Vegas 8.0c and Avid Liquid on this machine. Both perform really well in SD and HDV.
Now I have to edit 1080i material from a Sony PDW700 XDCam HD422 Camera. (Pal side of the world: 25 FPS)
While the “old” Avid Liquid runs fluent with this Material with full 25 FPS I get a maximum of about 10 FPS in Vegas when I play the same material (funny it is a Sony Software and a Sony Camera). And the frame rate doesn’t change significantly when I change the quality options in Vegas playback.(Btw: The Proxy Files generated by this camera are playing fine in Veags with 25 FPS)
One could say: “So use the old AVID Liquid!” I would, but Liquid can not handle the 24bit sound sampling of this camera… So I could only make a “silent” film.
Is this normal? Where does the performance of my Computer go, when I start Vegas??? And why can outdated AVID Liquid handle the same Video on the same Machine so easily and so much better? Is there any way to tune up Vegas? Or do I simply have to replace my Computer?
Any suggestions?
Thanks for any answer!
Thomas

Comments

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 11/4/2008, 12:00 PM
updating your machine is not a bad idea, but the fact is that liquid does pre-rendering in the bg all the time, so it is basically playing back a rendered file in a format that liquid can handle very well.

Vegas is reading the MPEG 2 File off of the timeline. Now with regards to the HD422 XDCam files that Sony Makes, I'm not sure if Vegas is optimized to work with that but, I would be that on a dual or quad core ( I don't think any dual core procs have HT, but I could be mistaken, there were quite a few Dual Core procs at the beginning ).

I know that standard XDCamHD files that aren't the new HD422 format are able to play back full speed on my dual core 1.83ghz laptop w/o any real issues unless I start filtering it up.

So, in the end I'd say it's one of two things, Vegas is not optimized to handle the 422 files yet, or it is optimized to handle it if you have a core 2 duo proc or above.

Just guessing though, I'm not certain.

Dave
Marco. wrote on 11/4/2008, 12:01 PM
I think Liquid does not use these files natively but do a background render to an intermediate. You could do same in Vegas - just not as a background rendering.

Vegas can use the XDCAM HD 422 files natively. On my laptop (dualcore 2,8 GHz) this works well with full 25 fps framerate.

Are you sure the Vegas project properties are properly adapted to the HD 422 files?

Davon ab - kennst du schon unsere deutsche Vegas-Community - www.vegasforum.de und www.vegasvideo.de?

Marco

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quoka wrote on 11/5/2008, 12:05 AM
I'm using XDCam HD422 files on a system spec'd like yours(its a dual core opteron). I can playback at 20-25fps in preview mode.
I turn the Video RAM to "0" so its not trying to put any video into it. I also have read off a local 4xscsi drive striped array.
I have been watching the cpu's and they never seem to go above 50% - this could mean that only one cpu/core can be used at a time(it makes sense).
As we all know XDCamHD422 compression is heavily crunched down - so it takes a lot of grunt to decode and display.
I use 2 x Dell 24inch LCD's, but like to run my project and Video preview window at 1024x576 (this may possibly help with decoding & fps - not sure though) - this gives me plenty of image to look at without having to sit back from my desk to view the entire screen. I also pump the image out via "video preview on external monitor" - via SDI Decklink to a SDI CRT - this gives me the best of all worlds.
Good to hear about others using this camera/workflow.
Now if I could just get XDCam HD422 - 8.1 - 32 bit colourspace - Decklink - all working without freezes ......... nirvana.
Thomas Video wrote on 11/5/2008, 3:39 AM
Hi! Thanks for all this Imput.
I will try all your sugestions as soon as possible and also check my project settings.

Btw: My Avid Liquid is handling the MXF Files natively - samle like Vegas. I know the background rendering - there is nothing like this going on when I throw this HD422 Video onto the liquid timeline. Liquid simply plays it nice and native .... without sound.

P.S. Danke für den Hinweis! Ich werde mir die Deutschen Foren mal ansehen!