Yes, i changed name to playback acceleration. And yes i feel some improvement in h264 rendring. So why dont they implement it into playback if they already can accelerate rendring which is same thing.

So, let me get this straight, there is GPU acceleration for AVCHD - how about HDV? I think everyone would agree that we really want smooth, full quality preview for an HD timeline.

I tried to anticipate which technology the NLE apps would support in the next development cycle and I must have guessed wrong - I bought ATI HD 4600 series. Sony chose CUDA which is an exclusive nVidia technology. Don't you just love standards?

I recently used HDV on VMS8 Plat and I got a full 25fps at best quality in preview. What is your problem?

Ivan123, KenJ62 described his problem: he has an ATI video card, which Sony Creative Software decided needlessly to ignore.

KenJ62, standards can be great (re: CUDA-only GPU acceleration), but it's important that the software developers choose the correct standard. Here's the thing, Sony Creative Software chose the WRONG standard. There is another standard, called OpenCL, which is FAR superior to NVIDIA's proprietary standard, CUDA. OpenCL is free, open, and works with all brands of GPUs (meaning, ATI AND NVIDIA). For the same time, effort, and money Sony Creative Software invested in writing CUDA code, they could have instead written OpenCL code. If they had, AVC acceleration would work with all GPUs rather than just NVIDIA's. Using CUDA was simply bone-headed. Using OpenCL is a no-brainer.

KenJ62, I also bought an ATI video card (just a couple weeks ago, in fact), but I didn't choose wrong. Sony Creative Software certainly did, though. I use my computer for more than just editing videos. I require OpenGL 4.0 for my work, but anyone that wants DirectX 11 is in the same boat, and can either chose between the $280+ NVIDIA Fermi (GTX 400) series of graphics cards, or the full family of ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards starting from under $50 all the way to $750. I'm not going to pay nearly $300 for the cheapest NVIDIA card that meets my requirements when I can buy an ATI card for a fraction of that that also meets my requirements, just so I can also have accelerated AVC encoding in Vegas Movie Studio 10.

It really annoys me that Sony Creative Software would needlessly alienate a large percentage of their customers because they apparently don't employ anyone that knows anything about GPU acceleration. (OpenCL 1.0 was released 1.5 years ago.) And, given that they don't know anything about GPU acceleration, it's doubtful that they implemented their CUDA code well. It's just not professional to leave out half your customers; that's what you'd expect from an amateur software developer.

Hi David. I appreciate the discussion. Before settling on Vegas 9 Platinum I tried out other competing consumer NLE software and found that a number of them are now supporting GPU acceleration although they are doing the very same thing as SCS - either supporting nVidia CUDA or, surprisingly, supporting both - but not at the same time. You have to set the configuration for ATI or nVidia. I share your concern about the graphics "standards." Do you think there are politics involved in this? <hmmm - scratching chin>

It is obvious to me that SCS is being quite conservative, supporting their now mainstream AVCHD camcorders with faster renders. Sure would be nice if they sped up the preview.

Speaking of preview, it appears that some folks like to be provocateurs. I use a 15 inch HDTV fed via the ATI card HDMI jack as my preview screen which works rather nicely. I keep reading in several forums that everyone editing a complex HD timeline experiences preview lag. So, it appears my experience is normal - and one of the most anticipated improvements in Vegas is preview acceleration. I am editing for community access television and 24p is out of the question - does 24p really preview smoother? I am one of those that really never cared for the 'film look.'

I was a release coordinator for a large software project and I know how difficult it can be at various decision points. A wrong decision can screw things up for a long time afterwords. I think the evolution of these standards has tripped them up. There is a tendency to try to ace the competition but you can not only screw yourself but the entire industry and user-base! They call those development cycles 'death marches' for a reason. CUDA is probably the best current implementation but I think they must be locked into that implementation because of earlier decisions. And we all suffer for several years until new hardware designs become available and get them out of the jam they are in.

HDV runs fine all then time on my PC, but its dead format...
I am going to wait a few months and then i buy nvidia gtx285 and going straight for premiere.
What we need now is cca 4 layers of 1080p + color corections in realtime.... I cannot run single layer in fullHD in Vegas..

HDV runs fine all then time on my PC, but its dead format...

I think I may be dead before DV/HDV is dead. Tape will be around for quite some time.
HDV is MPEG-2 with transport stream overhead applied - likely will be here for a long time.

Yes it will be here for a while, ofc I wish it would be smooth too.
I just have an experience that companies push new codecs instead of optimizing old one..

Milos, I just noticed your earlier post about multiple high definition events play back. Last month I used VMS9P to edit a three camera on-location interview and was able to use the Platinum edition to select from all three simultaneous events on my timeline using the composite envelope method with negligible slowdown. Typical for Vegas it was only after applying filters that smooth preview required reduced resolution.

This problem is common for all video editors since editing and playback modes have differing requirements on the PC. GPU acceleration will likely alleviate the problem but the implementations are in their infancy - witness the rival development ATI and Nvidia are using rather than agreeing on a standard.

Being retired and doing editing as a volunteer means I can't afford the latest hardware so I built a new rig last December which has a Core 2 Quad Q9400 @ 3.2 GHz and 2 Samsung 500 GB HDD. I used the previous generation of tech which only cost me about $400 usd and I am very pleased with the performance as an NLE. If you can afford more than me then I suggest you get the best i7 rig available. I think it will be another year before accelerated preview really gets going.