Working with HD files slow?

MofoDude wrote on 12/9/2008, 5:58 PM
I have a twin quad-core with 4gb ram, nvidia quadro fx1700 running vegas pro 8. (I won't put the 8.1 update on cause I find half my projects crash) (running vista ultimate)

I find the same files playback on a macbook better than my desktop.
Is this a windows thing or a Vegas thing?

Is Vegas 9 going to compare?

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/9/2008, 7:24 PM
I play HDV footage in Vegas 8c no problem. Even can do some FX w/o slowdowns. What are you using for source?

BTW, playing back in a media player isn't the same as editing. Many times you can play something just fine but it edit's slow.
quoka wrote on 12/9/2008, 10:49 PM
I also have a new twin quad core Xeon, Vista64, with 8GB RAM, same graphics card.... and guess what..... my older dual core w/ XPx64 plays back files better as well.

What have Intel/MS done that we get faster/more cpu's but slower playback.... very confusing/frustrating.
MofoDude wrote on 12/12/2008, 5:51 PM
Source files are from a Sony HDR-FX1. When the file is played from the timeline, the preview window is choppy. The same file plays in FCP on a Macbook super smooth....even when there is a lot of editing going on. I'm assuming its because Vegas 8 wasn't written to handle the hd m2ts files. When I edit anything that has been down-resed to regular DV, Vegas is awesome. If Vegas 9 doesn't fix it then I have to move to Mac. If that happens then I will videotape myself smashing alot of brand new expensive PC stuff. The money that it costs me to move over to Mac could have been spent on a new EX-1 from Sony....oh well ya snooze ya loose.....even if you're Sony.
johnmeyer wrote on 12/12/2008, 6:06 PM
This may or may not be useful:

Slow HDV (m2t) playback
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 12/12/2008, 6:20 PM
Mofo, would you be a little bit more specific?

(Vegas is optimized for HDV and plays back full framefrate on my quad, and I'm running 8c)

What are you doing when you work on your clips that is causing tem to slow down? are you running them off of the drive that is being accessed by soomething else? running several fx? changing the opacity? nothing but tossing it on the t/l?

A good way to make sure that it can play hdv clips raw is to play it back from the trimmer because it won't be affected in any way0 if you get full framerate playback with the clips that way, then something in your project or your project dettings are causing the slow down.

Ì know that other editors can push great palyback through either hardware, or forcing you to keep everything in one format that it's highly optimized for.

You could get gearshift from VASST and just work with proxy sd, DV files, and it would be like dealing with other editors that force you into one codec if you want full framerate playback. That would be more like $50 rather than a new EX-1.

just a couple ideas.
Sebaz wrote on 12/12/2008, 6:21 PM
When the file is played from the timeline, the preview window is choppy. The same file plays in FCP on a Macbook super smooth....even when there is a lot of editing going on. I'm assuming its because Vegas 8 wasn't written to handle the hd m2ts files.

That's very weird. I checked your camera, and it's a beautiful one, and HDV format, a format in which Vegas definitely excels as opposed to AVCHD, for which Vegas is mediocre. For the kind of machine that you have, Vegas and HDV should be a breeze. I have only one Qaud Core with 4 GB of RAM and HDV is absolutely smooth, and it was even when I had a Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of RAM with Vegas 8.0a.

I think there has to be something wrong with your Vista installation, like too much crapware running in the background if your PC is one of the major brands. If you assembled it yourself and installed Vista from scratch, still there's something wrong there. Your PC should fly with Vegas and HDV.

One thing I would suggest is to use "Good/Half" as preview quality, and setting up a layout that will make the monitor 960x540, which is half the size of HD. That should help a bit, but regardless, your machine should handle HDV more than well.