Jerky playing of VSP file

Bytheseaside · Post by **Bytheseaside** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:54 am

I have VS8. My VSP files of movies & still images wouldn't play back smoothly & a 1hour project took 10-12 hours to render to mpg, so I upgraded my old slow computer to the machine below. However, I still find that the movies are replaying jerkily & the timecode is jumping odd seconds (playing a VSP file) even with my new superfast machine!
I haven't tried rendering to mpg yet: I hope that will be much quicker.

The images & movies come from my Canon SX10 camera. Before that I had a Canon S3. With the S3, VS8 was much happier & only took 2 or 3 hours to render. The still images from the SX10 are about twice the MB of the S3, but the movies are about the same size (not high def).

Surely I should be now getting smooth playback of my VSP files. Please can anyone tell me what's wrong?

SpaceCube
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU
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2.84GHz. 3.25GB of RAM
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Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:50 pm

Your digital still camera uses the MJPEG codec for its video. Your computer has to have that codec loaded to be able to play the video properly. Have you installed the CD that came with the camera?

Your old computer ran XP. What does your current computer use? I suspect it is not XP. If not, then if you are still using VS8, then that is not compatible with either Vista or Win 7 -- which could also be your problem.

Bytheseaside · Post by **Bytheseaside** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 1:28 pm

My computer still uses XP.

My current camera produces .MOV movie files. The old camera produced .AVI files.
I bought a program to convert MOV to AVI as with the old slow machine I couldn't play the MOV files in VS8 without the picture going extremely jerky & intermittent. At the moment I am playing a VS project that I finished before the computer was changed. I managed that by using very low quality AVI files to edit & then converting those files to high quality AVIs for rendering. Successful, but very slow! It's this hi Q version that is playing jerkily now. I had hoped it would play smoothly after I paid out all that money for the uprated machine!

I will check the Canon CD to see if I have loaded the correct codec.

Thank you.

Bytheseaside · Post by **Bytheseaside** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 6:12 pm

I can't see anything on my Canon disc which refers to codecs - so I don't know if I'm ok there or not.

My computer supplier wondered if VP8 was too old to understand multi-core processors. Could that be my problem? Trouble is, having spent all my money on the new computer, I've nothing left for upgrading the software!!

I had been working from an external hard drive via USB: it was the only drive I had that was big enough. Now I have a new on-board 1TB drive & I've tried playing from that. It does seem to play that way with slightly less jerking, but it still won't run smoothly.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Post by **Ron P.** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:19 pm

My .02 worth...
VS 8 had numerous problems running on Win98 or XP, which is why the numerous patches/fixes released. It probably will run on Vista, but I would not begin to count on it to function correctly. I have read where some older programs will run on Win7, that had problems on Vista. The problem with older programs running on the newer OSs, are the drivers needed.

VS8 is certainly way too old to use any form of multi-core processing. It can only make use of 1. So even if you had the fastest system built, it will not be able to use the resources needed for that speed. It also is limited to the Standard Def formats, no AVCHD, No HDV, and if I recall correctly, you may not be able to edit MPEG-4, which was introduced with VS9 via a plug-in that you had to purchase at $50.

Basically if you can edit with it on your system, you're doing good. Just don't expect it to function as it once done so, on the older systems it was designed for..

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 9:24 pm

It would help if we knew exactly what we were talking about here. Can you please right click on the offending file inside VS (either in the timeline or library window) and copy ALL its Properties here please.

The information I could find on your camera said it used the MJPEG codec -- though that of course could be wrapped up in a .mov extension... The problem is with converting it -- the program you used for that could have been trying to convert apples to oranges...

Bytheseaside · Post by **Bytheseaside** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:58 am

Thank you for your input, Ron. It looks like I won't be getting smooth playback with VP8, whatever I do!
I was getting results by editing on very low quality AVI movies. Judging by the way full quality MOV movies play now, I should be able to edit using better quality AVIs & replace them with full quality AVIs for rendering as before. Hopefully, the rendering will be rather quicker than the 12 hours it took last time!

If I found the money to upgrade my VP8, which version should I be buying, bearing in mind I have quite a few VSP files I might want to return to? Are there any second-hand versions somewhere out there that would suit me?

Project properties given as follows:

File Name: E:\Other Data\Kenya09\Master Prog HiQ.VSP
File Size: 7.5MB
Version: 8.00

PAL (25 fps)
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-PAL), 4:3
Video data rate: 6000 kbps
LPCM Audio, 48 KHz, Stereo

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 11:37 am

Hi John

I ran a quick test on Project Playback using Mov Mjpeg 720 x 1280 (Panasonic Lumix TZ5) 19 second file.
Running Xp and quad processor.

VS 8 managed 24 seconds A little jerky
VS 9 and 10 did it in 21 seconds still jerky but acceptable.
VS 12 X2 did it in real time 19 seconds. I was impressed with that.

Playback gets worse with editing. But VS 10 onwards provides a Smart Proxy option, creates smaller files of the video to use for playback. (turned off for my test)

There are no problems in opening older VSP¡¦s in newer versions.

Do a search of Corel in US, NZ, AU to find best deals for download versions, UK was a little expensive when I bought my X2. (£20from US)
You never know what deals are about during Xmas.
First download the trial version of Video Studio X2, gives you 30 days to test, then it January sales.

Bytheseaside · Post by **Bytheseaside** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:13 pm

Thank you Trevor for your hints & ideas. I've just downloaded VS12 X2 Pro from the Corel website - & I still have jerky playback!!

The file I'm playing with at the moment runs for 1hr 10mins - our holiday in Kenya. It's mostly stills, but with several bits of video included, all from my Canon SX10. There are captions & an effects sound track.

To make editing possible on VS8 & my old slow computer, the plan was to use very low quality AVI copies to edit the project - which worked, except some of the movies were so blocky it was difficult to make them out! The movie clips were converted using a high quality converter from MOV to AVI files. After editing was complete, I renamed the source files of the movies so the project used the super high quality AVIs instead. This was fairly successful, except for a couple of sections where I'd split the sound track, so I had to re-insert those. I then successfully rendered the whole project - though it took about 10-12 hours! The result was a nice good quality DVD.

My previous project had been made using movies & stills from my last camera, a Canon S3, which produced AVI files directly. I had been able to edit the whole project directly using VS8, with only a few halting moments. The rendering had taken about 3 hours or so, I think.

I thought upgrading to a quad core computer would enable me to play the project in high quality mode without all that file swapping, & render it much faster.

Using the new trial X2, I tried playing my project. It was not bad up to & including the first movie clip (only very slightly jerky), which was actually a MOV file version. I had replaced the HiQ AVI with the original MOV to see if it made any difference when using VS8 on the new computer. However, when I got to the first HiQ AVI file on X2, the playback was just as bad at had been on VS8, playing only a few frames before sticking for several more. Does this mean I'm missing some bit of codec software or something? Should I go through my project, replacing the AVI files with the original MOV files (a rather tedious process)?

Before I download VS12 X2 I checked I had the required playback software as recommended - RealPlayer, QuickTime etc. There doesn't seem much point in paying out for the new version if it still won't play my movies!

Merry Xmas.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:38 pm

Hi John

A few comments
Once you open and save the project in X2 you will not be able to open in VS 8.
Make a copy your VSP¡¦s using Windows Explorer, this will preserve the VS 8 project, use the copy in X2.

Both camera¡¦s produce Mjpeg compressed type video to 640 x 480 (4:3) a highly compressed video format, there are loads out there and VS does have problems with some of them. Right click the clips in the timeline and select properties, check them out.

Smart Proxy
X2 has smart proxy which does improve playback, but it is activated when inserting video above 720 x 576.(default)
As you use Mov 640 x 480 VS will not auto generate the proxy files.
You will have to tell it to create the files or change the options in File ¡VPreferences-Smart Proxy tab. An icon is placed on the thumbnail when proxy files are used.
Playback of the original files should improve.

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