Preview to External Monitor Stutters

Videocanuck wrote on 12/8/2005, 2:38 PM

I have a P4 2.0 GH computer with 1 GB RAM and am using Vegas 6.0c on Windows XP HE. When I preview clips either from Project Media or the timeline with no effects over firewire through my TRV-900 to my external monitor, the video is not smooth, it tends to stutter (even at the lowest setting). If I play the video clip on the preview window on the computer monitor, it plays back fine. I used Vegas 5 on Windows 2000 previously and never had any problems with the preview on external monitor. I make a point of shutting down unnecessary processes such as Norton Antivirus. What could be causing the problem on the external monitor? Any suggestions on what I could try to resolve the issue?

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 12/8/2005, 3:17 PM

When you are viewing the video on your external monitor, the main Vegas preview screen should be blank. Does it say "frame recompressed?" If so, there is something between your pristine video and the firewire output. Track motion? A track level accidentally "bumped" below 100%? An opacity level for an even slightly nudged below 100%?

Another possible cause is the videoscopes display. One of the stranger "gotchas" in Vegas is that if you display the videoscope and enable the "update scopes while playing" button, this causes frames to be recompressed. The even more subtle thing is that, apparently, Vegas applies a broadcast-legal fX when the scopes are enabled, and this is what causes frame recompression.

Videocanuck wrote on 12/8/2005, 4:30 PM

Thanks for your reply. It happens on raw footage even when playing from Project Media. "Frames recompressed" is not coming on, except during crossfades when playing the timeline, etc. I expect some stutter there, but not on raw footage. This happens on all projects. I can't play any video footage without some video stuttering happening on the external monitor. When looking at the playback rate, it indicates that the video is playing at full rate even as it is stuttering. This problem only occurs on the external monitor. When previewing in the small window on the computer monitor, there is no stutter. No scopes are being displayed, no track motion, no opacity level accidently bumped down. Any other ideas?

smhontz wrote on 12/8/2005, 5:50 PM

By any chance, was you footage captured using DV Rack? I can take the exact same footage from the tape, and it plays smoothly. If I use the AVI files captured by DV Rack, they stutter a bit - like a little pause every 2 secs or so.

johnmeyer wrote on 12/8/2005, 5:53 PM

Check RAM Preview in your Preferences. If you have changed it, try setting it back to the default (16MB).

MUTTLEY wrote on 12/8/2005, 10:22 PM

I've had the same deal happen to me, still would love to know what it is. And on mine with dual AMD's and 2 gigs of ram, when I've tried everyone's suggestion of setting RAM Preview to 16 are a nightmare, totally chugs and the external will intermittently go to blue, like it does if Vegas looses focus except without loosing focus.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com

Videocanuck wrote on 12/8/2005, 11:01 PM

I have the RAM Preview set to 64 which is the default setting. According to the info balloon, this is the minimum setting that the RAM preview should be set to. Odd that this happens to your dual AMDs and 2 gigs of ram, too, Ray.

No, I don't use DVRack (not yet anyway).

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/8/2005, 11:52 PM

If you're experiencing a blue display or blocky grey, it usually indicates problems with the buffer or problems with the converter device. This used to be extremely common with some early converters, and a few hardware cards such as machines with Promise controllers.

DavidMcKnight wrote on 12/9/2005, 6:03 AM

Are the media files that you're playing on a local drive or across a network? (for those more in the know, would that even make a difference? I experience the same thing at times and thought it was the network access)

MediaRob wrote on 12/9/2005, 9:25 AM

If you are previewing video across a network you will most likely experience jitter problems, unless it's a gigabit on both ends or a very well configured network with no other data being accessed (Internet, VoIP) through that gateway.

Videocanuck wrote on 12/9/2005, 9:47 AM

No network. In this case I use 4 of my hard drives: an OS drive, a partition on a second drive for a page file, a 3rd drive for the project files and a 4th drive for the video files. The page file drive, project files drive and video drive are on a Windows XP Maxtor Ultra ATA 133 IDE Controller. My mobo is an ASUS P4S533. When I was using Vegas 5 in Windows 2000 Pro on this setup, I did not have any preview to external monitor issues. This problem started with Windows XP HE. I installed both OS's as a dual boot system when I built my computer with the plan to edit in Windows 2000 (that was in 2002). Since I purchased LCD monitors (within the last year), I only work in XP.

MUTTLEY wrote on 12/9/2005, 11:58 AM

None of the files are on a network but I do have a Promise card to handle the extra hard drives. Though this happens regardless of which drive the source file(s) I'm working with are on, even if they're on the C: drive.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com

Videocanuck wrote on 12/9/2005, 12:50 PM

I don't get a blue display or blocky gray. It's more like the video on the external monitor can't quite keep up, so every once in a while it skips to catch up.

zcus wrote on 12/9/2005, 5:23 PM

I've had this problem before... It has something to do with sound?
Try disabling all audio tracks and see if the problem is still there.

If disabling the audio works - your sound card is likely sharing IRQ's
You can check to see in the "device manager"

Another thing is your source audio's sample rate is likely 48,000Khz, but Vegas defalts to 44,100Khz - so your audio is always being resampled.

Videocanuck wrote on 12/15/2005, 12:51 AM

I've been trying various options and suggestions to resolve my issue, but no joy. I have tried:
- taking stuff off the drive and defragging
- changing the firewire cable
- disabling the internet connection
- shutting down various startup stuff
- disabling Norton AntiVirus (which I have always done)
- disabling the audio track as suggested by zcus

One thing I'm considering is updating the Windows XP Maxtor Ultra ATA 133 IDE Controller driver (the driver's manufacturer is Promise Technology.) The most recent driver has the following feature: "This driver has an added enable/disable cache flushing feature accessible from Windows device manager." Does this sound like a feature that might address my external monitor stuttering preview problem? Keep in mind that the problem doesn't show up on the little preview window.