Question re: Video Preview

Byron K wrote on 8/20/2009, 11:26 AM

According to the manual Draft should playback the video w/ fewer dropped frames than Preview or Best BUT when I switch between Preview (Best) and Draft (Best) the frame rate is exactly the same except the resolution is really bad in Draft (which is to be expected).

Can someone assist me or point me to the setting to get a higher frame rate in Draft mode?

Comments

mikelinton wrote on 8/20/2009, 1:13 PM

If your project is 29.97 fps and you're playing back at that rate, in preview, best, and draft already that's what you want. This might be stating the obvious, but Vegas won't display more FPS than your project settings (generally, it will be less FPS due to effects, color correction, multiple video tracks etc).

If your project is 29.97 and you are only seeing 15fps playback in Best (for example), drop to Preview - you should get around 20, and Draft should give you close to 29.97 depending on the project, drive performance, and computer performance.

Mike.

Byron K wrote on 8/20/2009, 2:31 PM

Thanks for the rply.

Mike, Your right if I get 29.9 fps I try to play back on the setting that gives me the best resolution.

The thing is, I'm only getting 9-14fps whether the playback is in Preview resolution or Draft at full resoution. Draft should provide me with better fps?

Am I missing something here? How can I get Draft to playback with more fps than in Preview?

jabloomf1230 wrote on 8/20/2009, 5:03 PM

Read here:

http://forums.creativecow.net/archivepost/24/16974

The reason that Draft and Preview are basically the same on your computer is that you are using Full resolution. Your CPU is either too slow to display full resolution, or something else is limiting the preview speed, such as disk access speed or the amount of RAM available. Unless you are doing full screen previews, Preview/Half should give you the best result. If that's not good enough, you need to prerender the small part of the clip that needs Full resolution previews.

Jim H wrote on 8/20/2009, 8:51 PM

I just went through this with my new i7 920 machine with 12 gigs RAM running Win7 64-bit OS. I got some advice from one of our esteemed forum members I will share. Even with the best PC you may not experience full fps playback depending on FXs, pan/crop, etc. John Meyer did an exhaustive study on the render times of various FX which I would guess applies to preview as well:
Results of render times for ALL Vegas fX

Other considerations:
1. You should strive to match EXACTLY the project properties to the media you are using. Of course, if you are mixing media on the timeline you are going to get subpar playback from the media that doesn't match the project properties.

2. Try turning off the "Simulate Device ...." and "Scale Video .." settings in the preview window.

3. Try to "Enable multi-core rendering for Playback" (set in the hidden dialog). Access the hidden "Internals" dialog (press and hold either Shift key while selecting Options -> Preferences). you can find the string by typing "core" at the bottom of the Internal tab so only those preferences which control core utilization are shown.Set "Enable multi-core rendering for Playback" to TRUE (the default is FALSE). More on this subject HERE

Even with my impressive rig (if I do say so myself) I don't get full preview playback most of the time even in Preview. Hope this helps.

Byron K wrote on 8/22/2009, 10:59 AM

I've tried to view the clip in half resolution in Preview and Draft but seem the same FPS. I realize that my processor is a little anemic and am in the process of upgrading my hardware.

Thanks for all the assistance and the link to the Creative Cow Forum thread, very informative. It seem to be quite active over there.

Byron