platinum 9 / computer quality

harrry wrote on 1/26/2010, 1:06 AM
Hello there,

I used to use Platinum 8 with the output from my Sony HC1 camera with great success. The camera was then stolen and the nearest equivalent I could afford to replace it with was a Panasonic HDC-TM300. I down loaded Platinum 9 as 8 refused to accept AVCHD from the Panasonic. The preview with plat 9 was so choppy as to be unusable. I replaced the computer with one with the following spec:- AMD Ilx4 620 processor coupled to 3.25 780MHz ram running XP and a GeForce 9500 with a gig of video ram and a 1 terabyte HD. That was useless too so I downloaded the demo of Pro9 which was just about usable though nowhere near as good as Platinum 8 with the HC1 output. Bear in mind that this was a brand new computer with no clutter.

After loads of Emails to and from Sony tech support and no improvement I gave up and decided to await new developments.
All of a sudden I have been fired with a desire to get back to editing and my local supplier has agreed to upgrade my computer for a very decent price with the following spec:-
Mother board Bio Star TP55 (i5750 i5 compatible) with ATX socket 1156 and 4 Ram slots- without integrated graphics.
Processor Pentium 4 i5750 quad core processor running at 2.66 per core.
3.25gig RAM.
Same GeForce 9500GT with 1 gig video ram pci express and same HD
I run a dual monitor system (preview on one and timeline etc. on the other) using the digital and the analogue outlets from the graphics card.
Tech support refuse to advise me any further and have suggested that I contact this forum.
Is there someone who knows enough to give me an assessment.

Yours in hopes

William Ridsdale

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 1/26/2010, 1:54 AM
AFAIK, Vegas is better optimized for Intel CPUs, so you might see improvement. I got a quad-core 2.4 Ghz, and AVCHD runs real time when the right project properties are used, and I don't use more than preview/auto or preview/full quality.
Byron K wrote on 1/26/2010, 10:27 AM
Sorry to hear about your camera being stolen and the job situation. ):
Choppy AVCHD playback has been an ongoing issue even in Pro 9 land. I just built an i7 860 machine and though it plays back AVCHD much better than my original P4HT machine, it's not silky smooth and begins to get real choppy when I edit or add the smallest effect or transition, so throwing horsepower at the problem may not be the ultimate solution.

The another cheaper option is to create lower resolution, smaller "proxy" files using a number of converter softwares like Super, MediaConverter, Format Factory, Squared5. Make proxy files that match the extension of your original files and save them in another folder. When you're done editing the proxy files do this:
1. close Vegas
2. change the name of the proxy folder
3. change the name of original folder to the old proxy folder name
4. reopen Vegas and render.

It will take some trial and error to get this to work right so be patient.

I've just read that Corel Video Studio X2 Pro has an auto proxy function for large AVCHD files which eliminates all the steps above and it offers more video tracks at $60 on-line. This may be another solution for you. I'm not a spokesman for Sony or Corel and I've never used Corel's Video X2 Pro so don't have any idea how it works but the feature set is pretty nice. Sony needs to wake up and observe the competition.