VS11 Plus too slow...

ottomano · Post by **ottomano** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:38 pm

Hi,
I'm an happy user of VS7 SE Basic and I want to upgrade my VS7 to VS11 Plus.

While using the trial version of VS11 Plus, I tried to create a new project (640x480 PAL) using some brief videos (10 AVI videos of 30 sec each), 2 images (overlay with Chroma Key), 1 minute of intro music (mp3 file) and 15 titles (used as subtitles).

The problem I've found is that VS11 become really slower the more videos/titles/images/transitions I add... I have to wait 3 seconds to shift a title or to select an image!!!
Is it the normal behavior?

My PC is a Pentium M 735A Centrino (1.7 Ghz) with 1GB RAM, Intel 915 Video Card and WinXP SP2 Home.
No other programs (except Antivirus and firewall) are opened during video editing.
Regards,

Nicola Ottomano

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:20 pm

Usually, slowness is caused by converting/rendering the files. The more compressed formats sometimes "take forever" (many hours) to render. Are you saying that VS7 is faster with these same files?

Note that "AVI" is a container format, and it can contain any type of compression. AVI/DV (13GB per hour) is the most foolproof format. MPEG-2 sometimes causes trouble, MPEG-4 (including DivX, Xvid, MOV, etc.) frequently causes trouble. Some MP3s can cause trouble too. Uncompressed WAV files are more reliable.

Sometimes, an apparently good video file will have something wrong (slight corruption) and it will cause problems during editing or rendering. Again, these problems are more common with more-compressed formats.

With the types of editing you are doing, all of the video will need to be re-rendered. If it's compressed, it will have to be decompressed, re-rendered, and then re-compressed... Even if you are not converting it to DVD.

640x480 is not valid for a PAL DVD. If you are making a DVD, it will need to be converted to 720x576. And if the framerate is not 25 FPS, that will bhave to be converted too. All of these conversions add to the rendring time.

ottomano · Post by **ottomano** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:12 pm

Hi DVDDough, thanks for replaying.

VS11 has no problem at rendering time (it is slow, but not slower than other video editors like VS7 or Windows Movie Maker).

The problem appears only at editing time (like adding new titles, images, videos, transitions...).

I cannot try to edit this project in VS7 because I started it in VS11 (and cannot replicate same conditions such as Chroma Key and multiple Overlays).

I've published an early version of the video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O59xa1m_2GM

No special effects... only 2 Overlays (+ Chroma Key), some small videos, titles and intro music.

Nicola Ottomano

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:31 pm

Others will probably argue with me over this, but I too have found VS11 to be a resource hog, and I too have noticed some slowness in its editing operations (not to mention capture). And I have it loaded on a Core 2 Duo 2 Ghz machine, with 2 GB RAM and Vista (which is a resource hog in its own right too!

) This computer originally came with only 1 GB of RAM, but I found that made operations unacceptably slow, so added an extra 1 GB.

Most other programs run very snappily on this machine, apart from VS, so I put the slowness down to VS 11's new architecture. And as Doug has already said, I have to close down unnecessary background programs, even for straight DV capture which previous versions perform effortlessly on others of my computers running XP with no closures of background operations.

But the moral of my story is that though your computer specs certainly meet the minimum system requirements to run VS 11, from my own comparative point of view, you cannot expect Indianapolis 500 performance from VS11 on it...

ottomano · Post by **ottomano** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:42 pm

Hi Ken Berry, thanks for replaying.

I would like to upgrade my VS7 to VS11 but, if it is too slow, I'll remain on my VS7 version or try another software...
I tried Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus... 1.8 GB required to install it and 1 GB RAM to perform simple editing! Too much system resources required...

VS11 not take too much RAM (Task Manager says only 250MB). The problem is the slowness.
In your experience, can you tell if VS10 is faster than VS11? I have no money to spend to buy a Dual Core PC

Nicola Ottomano

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:31 pm

I found VS11 ran about at the same speed as VS10+ when I briefly had it installed on my XP Pro computer for test purposes. It only seems to run more slowly, I'll admit, when on the Vista computer. But the XP Pro computer also has 2 GB RAM and an Pentium 3.0 GHz with hyperthreading processor and is quite fast enough for me (it is my dedicated video editing computer). XP seems to use less system resources than Vista, so I guess it is a combination of VS11 and Vista which are the joint culprits in my case...

The only real indicator I have that VS11 uses more resources on my XP machine is that when I capture DV using VS11, I need to turn off background processes or else I get dropped frames. I never get dropped frames when capturing using VS10 on the same computer...

ottomano · Post by **ottomano** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:00 am

Ok, I will continue my tests until the trial period expires and after I will decide if upgrade or not to VS11 Plus.

Thanks to all people who helped me.
Sincerely,

Nicola Ottomano