Stuttering Audio on Preview

pjetheredge wrote on 1/16/2004, 12:25 AM
I'm just starting to create my first video file in Screenblaster. When I do a preview, the song occasionally stutters and skips. I checked the .wav file and it is fine. I have done the things suggested on the help page (zoom out, press F5) but it's still happening. I only have 2 tracks going, the video and the music. I'm not too concerned about this unless it's going to show up on the final DVD. Does anyone know anything about this? Also, this will be approximately 20 minutes long, with 4 different songs, so the file will get quite a bit bigger. It's only a couple of minutes long now.

Also, I've noticed the program seems to run pretty sluggishly--does anyone else have this problem? I have a super powerful, fast computer which should easily be able to handle this.

I should add that I am RE-DOING an 18-minute video I had almost, but not quite, completed in Pinnacle Studio 8 when the software went completely buggy. I have 7 days to re-create this tribute to my mom before her memorial service! Aaagghhh!


I really appreciate any help you can give me! Thanks!

Comments

allyn wrote on 1/16/2004, 12:39 AM
i just had the stuttering audio (aka choppy sound) for the first time tonight myself. previous postings on the subject indicate that the processor is getting bogged down, usually with video fx. also high-resolution still images that need to be resized on the fly can cause this.

i verified that i heard the audio stuttering on a very complicated sequence involving a 6MP still image, with a video fx beveled edge, a pan/crop that zoomed while a shaded title faded in and out. this worked fine without audio but apparently adding the audio was too much for my processor to handle in real-time. the stuttering started right when the text started to fade in.

i created a dvd and the stuttering was not in the final project so don't worry about it.

i get very good performance from movie studio on my athlon 1900+ with 512MB ram running xp pro. the only slow thing is loading the project and i am having a problem with dropped frames while capturing dv but i haven't had a chance to look into that yet.
IanG wrote on 1/16/2004, 3:50 AM
You can probably confirm that it's a performance issue by muting the video track and playing the audio on its own. Don't forget to switch the video back on before you render!

Ian G.
djcc wrote on 1/16/2004, 5:29 AM
Pre render a portion, or all, of your project then play it back..... I'd be willing to bet the choppyness will disappear for that segment (until you modify that segment again).

It is irritating, and happens to me for nearly every project. My computer is a 2.4Ghz P4 with 512 Mb RAM, so I would think I have enough resources to handle it! It can be somewhat reduced, but never eliminated, by making sure no other applications are running... especially virus protection, internet connections, etc.
kgresko wrote on 1/16/2004, 6:59 AM
I might suggest a free download from I think PC Magazine or PC World, called End It All. It allows you to shut down non-essential applications so that most of the resources are dedicated to the video app.

djcc wrote on 1/16/2004, 8:04 AM
Here is the EndItAll utility:

EndItAll

I looked at it once, but did not think it offered much more than the task manager. It does not indicate that it works with WinXP, but that could just be due to the age of the application for all I know.
kgresko wrote on 1/16/2004, 9:43 AM
It does Work with XP. I have it installed on 2 XP systems.
allyn wrote on 1/18/2004, 11:29 PM
thanks for the pre-rendering tip. i pre-rendered just the one section that has choppy audio (so far) and now the audio plays just fine.