Small performance-issues

UlfLaursen wrote on 1/12/2006, 10:18 AM
Hi,

I'm totally new to Vegas, but I like what I se so far. I have experienced a few minor issues, that I would like to shar if someone might know if they could be illiminated.

When I play back my timeline with external preview, I sometimes get a few framed dropped or something; a few times in a few seconds, every aprox. 5-10 min. If I play back the same thing over again there is nothing. It is plain playback of DV PAL footage with no filters, transitions ect. I have tried to render to a new AVI (the org. come from Pinnacle Liquid Edition), and it is the same. Have set the previw to best (full) too.
I tried to adjust the RAM setting for "video" under preferences from def. 64 MB to 256 - still the same.

It's on the machine in my profile with 2 160 gig SATA drives striped. Graphicscard is Nvidia quadro with 128 MB and drv. 67.22 the firewirecard is ADS Pyro TI-based, and the AV/DV converter is Canopus ADVC 100.
I tried my TRV19 and used it as aonverter as ell, and the problem is the same.
When I render to AVI there is no problem at all - the quality is outstanding, so if there is nothing to do about it, I can live with it as preview, but you always try to get the best, right.... ;-)
Thanks in advance, and thanks for a great community - I like it here.

Rgds.

/Ulf - Denmark

Comments

rmack350 wrote on 1/12/2006, 3:40 PM
You do indeed try to get the best.

You could be having problems with other processes interrupting the data flow frrom time to time, I suppose. Network traffic, printers, even things like power management features can cause a glitch.

I think it's a good idea to run the windows task manager so you can pay attention to CPU and Page file usage. If the page file is growing as you play back video this could be a culprit. Setting your RAM Preview setting too high will usually force Windows to start paging out data. To solve it, lower the setting.

Vegas tends to cache frames as you play. This is why you might see a glitch on first play but not on a second play. Normally Vegas just caches enough frames to make subsequent plays smooth.

As far as Best output goes, Best does bilinear interpolation which really comes into play when you are moving or resizing a clip. If you aren't doing that then Best preview quality isn't needed, but then again if you aren't doing these things then Best is probably no more of a CPU load than is Good. It probably won't hurt.

Graphics cards don't currently have an affect on Vegas. Maybe they will in some future version, but not yet.

Rob Mack
UlfLaursen wrote on 1/12/2006, 9:28 PM
Thanks for your reply, Rob - I'll look into monitoring the PF and CPU during playback...

/Ulf
UlfLaursen wrote on 1/14/2006, 9:59 PM
Hi again,

I tried your surgestions. I put the preview to "good (auto)" and brought up the performance-monitor at TL playback. It was the same problem. CPU usage was 0-2% and pagefile usage was 256-260 MB all the way.

Could it be a conflict between the two 1394 interfaces (one on the Audigy 2 ZS onboard, and the ADS pyro card)?

Thanks.

/Ulf
UlfLaursen wrote on 1/14/2006, 11:24 PM
Ok, now I tried something else. I installed the trial of Vegas 6.0C on another system that is similar to this one:
Intel 925 board, 3.2GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, ATI X600 Pro PCI-e, 1 sata sys.drv. 2 x 200 GB striped for media, onboard sound, win XP SP1.
Tried def. settings except I changed to PAL template, tried both standard and DV. Preview setting is def. "preview (auto)"
The problem is the same. Within the first 2-3 min. I get one litle jump in the video (6-10 frames) and after a while I get this for 10-15 sec. and it stops. Audio and video is still in sync, and everything else seems ok. It's strange.....

Now that I see this on two quite different machines - could it be a setting somewhere, or a specific PAL problem?

But as i said, I can live with it as preview - the final render is crystal clear, but it still puzzelz me why it is like this.

Thanks for any comment, and have a great weekend.

Rgds. Ulf - Denmark
farss wrote on 1/15/2006, 12:43 AM
It might be something really simple. Try zooming the T/L right out.
What happens is when the cursor gets to the end of the current view of the T/L Vegas redraws the T/L and that gobbles up a bit of CPU time and I guess AGP / PCI-E buss bandwidth.
Bob.
UlfLaursen wrote on 1/15/2006, 6:06 AM
Thanks Bob.

Tried it and there is a difference. The number of jumps seem to be decreasing, and they do not appear for so long time any more, but still there.
It is defenatly not a showstopper, so I can live with it, as long as I know the final render is ok and it seems so.
rmack350 wrote on 1/15/2006, 12:55 PM
This may be totally unrelated but you should check to make sure the 1394 cards aren't also acting as network interfaces. If they appear as network devices, disable them.

Rob Mack
UlfLaursen wrote on 1/15/2006, 9:20 PM
Thanks Rob Mack.

I tried to disable the 2 1394 networkdevices in the devicemanager, and well, it seems to get a little better after this, so we move in the right direction. I still use the setting "Preview (auto)" for my preview.

/Ulf
UlfLaursen wrote on 1/17/2006, 11:32 AM
It actually both comes when previewing internal and external. IMHO I think it could be a vegas thing somehow, because when I play back a final render in windows mediaplayer in full DV quality, I can play the whole file 2o min. w/o problems - totally smooth playback. A last thing I'll try on another P4 3.0 GHz with an ATI AGP card one of theese days.
Ok now, I think I will leave it as it is for now. It is not a showstopper at all and the final render is ok, so no harm really but a ligt irritating thing once in a while during playback.

Thanks to thoose of you who have surgested things to try - I'm still open to tests, just out of curiousety it could be great to find out what is causing this, but not so eager anymore.

I love this NLE more and more and ike this comunity too.

Rgds.

/Ulf - Denmark