Problem with HD playback

kjam wrote on 12/21/2007, 10:17 AM
I am trying to create a video using HD film from the Sony HDR-HC3. I am using Vegas Platinum 7.0 software. I have made videos before using the HD film, but now I'm frustrated because I'm having the same problem I have had before.

When I try to watch the playback of the video in the preview window, the picture is very jerky, which makes it hard to edit the way I want. It's almost like it plays in slow motion, but then skips scenes, so I can't tell how the video is moving along.

I know once all the rendering is done and I make my DVD, the picture looks perfect, but I would like to see the video this way in the preview window while I'm editing. Is there a way to do this? Maybe I have something set up wrong in preferences?

Please help! Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 12/21/2007, 11:46 AM
HC3 is an AVCHD camera, which creates h.264 video. H.264 is very taxing on the CPU, and it requires the latest technology CPUs and lots of RAM.

To fix the situation a bit is to open the Project Properties and make 100% sure that all the video settings there are correct. Right resolution, frame rate etc. Otherwise, Vegas will under-perform.

If you have done this and it's still slow, you need a new PC. You need one of the CoreDuos and later technology to best work with AVCHD.
4eyes wrote on 12/22/2007, 7:17 PM
The Sony HC3 is a tape based hd-mpeg2 camcorder.
With Version 7 platinum the preview is jerky. If you read the manual & help files for VMS 7 Plat they explain that HDV preview will be jerky. VMS 7 plat was the first release of VMS that supported HDV video.
This was corrected in VMS 8 Platinum, I suggest to upgrade from VMS 7 plat to VMS 8 Plat, I think it's about $49 - $59 dollars to upgrade. VMS 8 Platinum is pretty good, mine previews back the footage from my HC3 on a 2.8Ghz & 3.2Ghz without problems.
When using VMS 8 Plat make your project settings equal your source video (HDV). The preview should then be OK.

If you don't want to upgrade to version 8 then read the VMS 7 manual & readme files how to work with HDV video. With VMS 7 Platinum they suggest to convert the video to cineform first for editing, then back to HDV or mpeg2 for dvd, cineform files are very large. About 1 gig per minute when rendering at the BEST setting.