Performance Issues with VS11

[Legion]

Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Formula
Graphic Card: evga 8800GTX
Sound Card: Onboard
Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
Hard Disk Drive: 3x 500GB Seagate 7200.11
Memory: OCZ 4GB DDR2 800

I am pretty new to video editing. I downloaded the trial of VideoStudio 11, and it just seems to be VERY slow while I'm trying to put together my video. Sometimes Vista will even say (Not Responding), then a few seconds later its working again. I am just taking clips with fraps in World of Warcraft, and putting them together with music in the background. The file format on these videos is .avi and they are all pretty much between 100MB to 500MB.

What I find wierd about the situation is VS11 doesnt seem to be using any of my system resources. My processor might reach 30%, RAM is normally between 50%-70% (which is usual for Vista), and my hard drives dont seem to be doing anything either. It just seems like this program is hanging itself up.

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forums!!

If I recall correctly, Fraps uses its own specific video format. As you note, it uses the '.avi' extension, but as you become more familiar with video editing, you will find that there are literally dozens of widely divergent video formats which also use .avi as their extension. In other words, .avi is merely a carrier or wrapper extension which covers a wide variety of formats (and often a wide variety of sins! ) True or uncompressed .avi, for instance, is huge -- running at around 65 GB (yes gigabytes!!) per hour of video. Then you have DV/AVI from a mini DV digitial video camera, which has some compression applied but is largely lossless, which runs at about 13 GB per hour. At the other end of the spectrum, there are some highly compressed -- though still high quality -- formats which also call themselves .avi's, such as the mpeg-4 formats DivX and its its open source cousin XVid.

Anyway, my basic message is that some of these formats, particularly at the more compressed end, are mainly meant for display and not editing. I haven't used Fraps myself, but it is highly likely that not only is it using its own codec, but it is of a variety which is more demanding for a video editing program like Video Studio to handle. In any case, video editing is never a quick process.

To find out exactly the properties of your specific .avi, could you right click on a Fraps file within Video Studio -- either in the timeline or in the library pane -- and copy all its properties here please.

If you look at my system button, you will see that I also have a Quad core machine, though running Vista Ultimate 32 bit. However, the type of response and system resources used which you cite are not dissimilar to my own. VS was of course not written specifically to take advantage of either 64 bit Vista nor the Quad cores... On the positive side, though, it means that you can do other things while the video is being processed.

As for the 'not responding' messages, I am glad you have learned that early on in the piece. I have quite a few times on this forum over the past 6 years reminded users not to get impatient, but to sit back -- even go and get a cup of coffee!! -- and let VS do its own thing in its own time. I learned this the way you did, often thinking nothing was happening and clicking on other buttons and getting the Not Responding answer. On one such occasion, I even tried closing the program but it continued not to respond. Rather than do a hard reboot, I went away in some exasperation to cool down, only to come back ten minutes later to find that 'Not Responding' had really meant "Leave me alone to get on with my job, and if you continue clicking those d*mned buttons, I am simply not going to respond to them"!! Well, excuse the anthropomorphism but that is what the end result was, and it had in fact worked as advertised while I was away cooling off, and had produced a fine and perfect video for me...

[Legion]

Hey thanks for the quick reply!

I dont see anywhere to upload a jpg on the forum, and at the moment I dont have a ftp server to store my own. I'll just type out what is on the properties page for one of my fraps videos.

File
File name: E:\World of Warcraft Video Project\Videos\Intro.avi
File format: Microsoft AVI files
File size: 318,576 KB
Frame rate: 30.000 frames/sec
Duration: 38.867 seconds
Data rate: 8195.21 kbps

Video
Compression: Fraps Video Decompressor
Attributes: 24 bits, 960 x 600
Total frames: 1,166 frame(s)

Audio
Compression: PCM
Attribues: 44.100 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo
Total samples: 1,712,384 samples

I kinda figured VS11 wasnt really made to take advantage of the quad core CPU or 64 bit, I just figured I should give you all my specs in case there might be a compatibility issue I've learned about the not responding issue using other software, I've worked on computers a lot Microsoft should make their messages more accurate though lol

Thanks for all the help
-Legion

[Ken Berry]

As I thought, it uses its own video codec ('Fraps Video Decompressor'). What is more, the frame format is very much its own creature. I am assuming that your intention is to make a DVD of your video, though your confirmation of intentions would be useful. However, a video DVD can only use a fixed range of frame sizes under the international DVD standard: 720 (or 704) x 576 for PAL and 720 (or 704) x 480 for NTSC (or fractions of these for half frame video). So Video Studio has to work overtime to reduce your unusual 960 x 600 frame size to the standard format. This will take time, even for a Quad. Moreover, it has to convert the entire video format from the Fraps/AVI one to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 -- another demanding task.

If you are indeed trying to produce a DVD, I trust you are doing these various steps sequentially, rather than trying to do everything (i.e. rendering to an mpeg-2 and then burning) in one single step. Even though a Quad should be up to the job, it's still a big ask, particularly when using that special frame size and downsizing it is involved... Instead, I would be doing the editing (any trimming of your clips, transitions between them (?), and adding the music, as a first stage.

Then I would convert this to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 by going to Share > Create Video File > DVD. Let VS do its thing in however long it is going to take. Then save and close your existing project by going to File > New to open a new project. Don't worry about giving it a name -- the objective is merely to clear the editing timeline. Once that is done, go to Share > Create Disc > DVD to open the burning module. Manually insert your new mpeg-2 ("Add Media" button in top left of the burning screen). Click on the middle of the three icons in the bottom left of the burning screen and ensure that there is a tick in the box beside 'Do not convert compliant mpeg files'. This will ensure that no further rendering of the mpeg-2 takes place during the burning process. Build your menu if you want one, then burn.

Note that many of us here will usually "burn" a DVD folder or even an ISO image file, rather than an actual disc. That is because you can play a DVD folder back on a software DVD player like WinDVD or PowerDVD and see if it is exactly the way you want it. You can do the same thing with ISO files using certain programs or by "mounting" the image file on a virtual drive using a program like PowerISO, and then viewing it. Beats wasting blanks... And once you are satisfied you can use a program like Nero to burn the DVD folder or ISO file to an actual disc. (Note that VS comes with a little utility that will burn ISO files, though not DVD folders.)

[Legion]

I havent really planned on creating a DVD really. I was just going to save it to a file to share with a few friends, and upload it to youtube. What you say makes sense, I'm guessing VS11 is just being held back doing all the extra work, I dont think the limit is on my CPU though. Not even one of the cores have gone above 70%, they usually stay between 20%-50%.

*Edit* It seems if I zoom way in on my timeline everything runs faster.