Choppy AVCHD file editing VSP X2

tt2ride · Post by **tt2ride** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:31 am

Hi!

I am just wondering if there is anything else external to VS (e.g. DirectX, Java, etc) that can can affect the choppy video playback at the project and clip level. This is happening to even a small 2 minutes 71MB AVCHD file.

History...
Prior to OS upgrade, with the same hardware configuration, I was not having this problem at all. I was able to get smooth video playback for project that was almost 1 hour long. Playback at project and clip level was smooth. I upgraded to Win 7 but found VS to crash too many times and decided to revert to original Win XP Pro. Now I am stuck with the choppy problem. The major difference is I had a lot more programs installed on the computer previously. Now it is clean with just VS. Not sure if some of those programs actually helped with their drivers.

I have a reasonable good system and I even tried upgrading the video card to GF 9800 GT 1GB DDR3, but still having the same problem. So I ruled out hardware issue. I have DirectX 9.0C and even made update at Microsoft site. Still no help.

I have tried:
-Playback method = High Quality
-Smart Proxy = Enable
-Increased virtual memory to 8G

My hardware profile is up to date. Please provide any suggestions. Thanks!

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:22 am

For starters XP can only read 3GB of memory so you are already wasting 1GB of RAM let alone the 7 GB of virtual memory.
remember the preview screen is what it says - a preview. Even set to High Quality it is a preview. AVCHD is one of the most demanding formats that can strain even the most powerful computers.
To see how your video really looks you need to go to the [Share] tab and select "Create Video". Let VS do it's work and then view the newly rendered edited video.
If you have gone to all the expense of purchasing Windows 7 then rather than waste it, create yourself a dual boot Windows XP / Windows 7 system.
Use Windows 7 for your "Day to Day" stuff.
Use XP for Video editing and tweak XP as per this guide
Creating a Video Editing Profile. with a dual boot system where XP is dedicated to video editing you can miss out the part relating to hardware profile - just do everything else i.e. disable all unnecessary services, no internet, no anti-virus and so on.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:37 am

Did you actually use SmartProxy? I know you said it is enabled, but did you give it time to generate the proxy file -- this can take time.

tt2ride · Post by **tt2ride** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:13 am

Thanks for the replies.

Steve, I was just trying all options to duplicate what I had going (good) before. I even tried installing some of the previous video/graphic software to see if I can get the "lucky settings back.

The rendering and final clip appears to be fine. Just the editing choppy part that is annoying. Actually I loaded the Win 7 64 bit evaluation copy to try out VSP. I saw the problem that everyone was complianing about missed align create disk buttons. I fixed it with the new Win 7 patch. But VSP was consistently crashing everytime I load a video file to the timeline. So, I revert back to XP Pro.

Ken, I used Smartproxy but my problem is with the editing part not final rendering. I "was" able to have smooth editing play back. If I had never experienced the smoothness of the edit mode, I'd never bother spending more time on this. I really like VSP and I am still hoping to find that fix.

I did a lot of re-installing of software including video card driver. One thing I noticed was the choppiness became worst with generic video driver. Once I installed nVidia video driver, it improved but still choppy.

Thanks guys!

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:03 pm

Hi

Is High Quality Playback and Smart Proxy a bit of a contradiction.

High quality playback creates single files of the project, saved to the Preview¡¦ folder, and uses them to play the project, effectively playing in clip mode.
Smart Proxy creates small files to represent the originals.

So with both selected which option is going to be used for playback,
I assume Smart Proxy.....
If its High Quality thats taking preference then thats effectively overriding Smart Proxy
Just a theory..........

I would suggest you switch to instant playback.
Check Smart Proxy Queue/File Manager that your clips have been included.
An icon shows on the clip thumbnails.

Post by **Ron P.** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:46 pm

That is a good question Trevor,

The main differences would be that Smart Proxy creates smaller frame sized files. For example instead of working with a 1440 x 1080, you could set it to use 320 x 240.

High-Quality playback just uses your clip or project properties, and renders a temp file of that. No resizing is done. The interesting and unknown is, if you are using Smart Proxy, and HQ Playback, does VS render a temp file of the smaller file size? I haven't really used Smart Proxy, to see if the temp file created during a HQ Playback is the size of the Smart Proxy or the source clip..