V.11 - Playback and sound synch after adding brightening

Housepiglet · Post by **Housepiglet** » Sat May 26, 2007 1:36 pm

Hello,

I've made some progress towards getting v.11 to run on my PC. It all seems to be more or less okay now until I try to use any sort of colour correction. At that stage the playback deteriorates and the sound synch is lost. Rendering helps, but doesn't entirely solve the problem.

Changes I've recently made include:
- installing a faster processor
- installing a 256mb AGP graphics card

I can live with things as they are if I have to, but naturally I'd rather be able to use colour correction without experiencing this problem. I'm therefore wondering whether adding some extra RAM is likely to help.

I've got 1GB of PC2700 RAM in 4 x 256 sticks. I see that my mobo will take PC3200 RAM, up to a maximum of 4GB. I'm thinking of taking out my existing ram and replacing it with 2 1GB sticks of Crucial RAM. I'll happily do it if it's likely to help, but a friend who knows more about computers than me says it's unlikely to make a difference.

I've tried to research this on the net, but keep coming up with conflicting info. One thing I have tried is going to Task Manager/Performance whilst running Ulead. The 'peak' suggests that I've not used more than 638MB RAM at any stage, and I'm not using more than 50% of the CPU. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know whether I can simply take those things at face value as suggesting that I already have enough RAM and processor power. I'd be very grateful for any insights from the people here.

I'm also wondering whether it might be worth changing my graphics card again. My original card was an ATI Radeon 9600 with 128MB. The one I have now is an nVidia GE Force FX 5500 with 256MB. I'm told by my computer's manufacturer that the onboard graphics are ATI, and somebody suggested disabling them. I've not yet found a way to do that (via the BIOS, I know - just haven't sussed it out yet). Again, I'm not knowledgeable enough to know whether there might be a conflict or simply a lessened degree of compatibility adversely affecting the graphics, but I suspect that somebody here might know.

p.s. I'm using compressed AVI files. I know that they're not ideal, but that's what I've got. I'm simply trying to do the best I can with the files I'm using, and I'm wondering whether the changes I've suggested above (RAM, graphics card) might help.

p.p.s. I found and have followed a very useful article on here about optimising a system for video editing, which involved creating a new profile and making sure that nothing unnecessary was starting. I've tried Ulead in that new profile but the problem with colour correction remained.

As always, I'll be very grateful for any constructive suggestions, and advice.

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Sat May 26, 2007 2:37 pm

I have an off-the-shelf Dell system that has similar specs as you (P4 3ghz, 1gb ram, etc...).

It runs VideoStudio fine here, but my .avi files are dv .avi (from a dv camcorder). What type of compressed .avi files are you using (divx or xvid have been know to be problematic in some case).

You might do better by separating the audio from the video, rendering an audio track to its own file. Rendering a video track to its own file. Then combining the separate tracks (either on a timeline, or during the authoring step).

Regards,
George

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Sat May 26, 2007 4:53 pm

This person also had a problem with uncompressed avi video.
I don't know if tech supports solution will help your problem.

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=23260

Housepiglet · Post by **Housepiglet** » Sat May 26, 2007 5:17 pm

Hello George - thanks for helping.

Windows Explorer tells me they're:

MPEG Layer-3
23 frames per second
Data rate - 139kbps
Video sample size - 24 bit
Video compression - XVID

I didn't have this problem when I used them in v.10, which is why I'm thinking it must be some sort of resource problem. Some difference between the way v.10 ran and the way v.11 runs on my PC, in any event.

Do you think a further RAM upgrade might help at all? Graphics card??

Housepiglet · Post by **Housepiglet** » Sat May 26, 2007 5:18 pm

Hi etech6355 - thanks for helping.

Mine are actually compressed rather than uncompressed. Thanks for the link anyway, though.

Housepiglet · Post by **Housepiglet** » Sat May 26, 2007 5:22 pm

GeorgeW wrote:
You might do better by separating the audio from the video, rendering an audio track to its own file. Rendering a video track to its own file. Then combining the separate tracks (either on a timeline, or during the authoring step).

Hi again,

Sorry - I forgot to reply to this part.

I'll see if I can work out how to try that, thanks. I've not done anything like that before. The bit that matters most to me really is the deterioration in playback quality when I add brightening, rather than the sound issue (although that's certainly irritating). I'm not sure whether that's an issue that could be solved by separating the tracks out, although maybe it could. It's for that reason, though, that I'm wondering whether it's a resources/graphics card issue. All is fine until I add the colour correction.