Video Studio pro X3

[smudger]

Is this normal? I'm putting together a short 20 min video, there will be about 80 clips, voiceover and music, have made proxies of all clips but it still takes 2-3 minutes to run the preview after every time I move a clip, alter the volume, touch anything. have I missed something?

[Black Lab]

I would not call it normal, but you haven't told us anything about your clips, so it really is a guess. Right click on a clip and post its properties. Also, what type of audio clips are you using? F/X or filters used?

[smudger]

OK. got properties of an average clip.
File format - Microsoft AVI, open DML
140942Kb
frame rate 29.970
duration 42 sec
data rate 3309.86Kbps
Video compression - DV video encoder - type1
24 bit 720x480 4:3
Audio DV audio - NTSC
32000Khz 12 bit stereo
1372038 samples
and audio tracks I used are WAV files.

[Black Lab]

Wow. You are using rock-solid dv-avi, the most trouble-free type to edit. I don't know. Where did the clips come from, and how did you capture them?

[Ron P.]

Why would you create proxy files for standard definition video, and having a system that should not have problems with that format? Proxy is for high-def video files being run on slower systems. DV (avi) has been around since the days of Pent-1 or 2 computers. It could be that creating the proxy files is what's slowing things down. You might try shutting off proxy file creation to see if that helps.

Also I noticed that you have 4 gig of RAM, yet are running WinXP 32-bit, which will only recognize up to 2 gig of RAM, possibly 3 gig. My understanding is that you need a 64-bit system to allow for more RAM.

[smudger]

Interesting, it was Corel help line that suggested I use proxy files to speed things up a bit but yes it has made no difference. Video shot on Sony VX1000 and captured with Video Studio.
Regards.
Tony.

[Black Lab]

So are you saying you were experiencing this problem before using proxy files, so you contacted support and they told you to use proxy files?

[smudger]

Yes, that's right.
T.

[Ron P.]

This is real strange behavior of the program. Is this slow down occurring after applying a voice-over & music? What format of music are you using, MP3? If so try converting them to WAV, it seems that VS handles WAV files better than MP3. When do you first notice the slow down? You might try using a process of elimination to see if there may be a clip or two that is causing this.

Have you applied any effects or filters to the clips? Some filters can cause previewing to slow down, since it must alter each frame of a clip. Are you running any other programs while editing? Even though your system is more than adequate for editing SD DV video, other programs may be stealing resources from VS. Some photo editing programs can be real resource hogs. What anti-virus, anti-spam, programs do you have and are running? Are you at the same time running a chat, instant messaging program? Try shutting down any program/utilities running in the background. Pull up task manager to see what programs and utilities are using a lot of resources.

I do the majority of my video editing on my desktop, which runs WinXP Home, on an HP machine, (AMD Athlon 64, 3200+ single core). I can load numerous DV clips and work with them without much slow down. I do however use multiple hard drives, and delegate the work among them, so not any one single drive is doing both the reading and writing.

[smudger]

Bingo, removed auto music track and what do you know, almost instant playback from "clip to "project". So how are you supposed use auto music? drop it in when everything else is done or can you disable it when making edits?
T.

[Black Lab]

Also, what type of audio clips are you using? F/X or filters used?

That's why I asked that in the very beginning.

That is one of the reasons I don't use SmartSound any more. My work-around was to get the SmartSound the way I wanted it, then create a sound file of it (Share>Create Sound File). This produces a wav file that you can insert in place of the SmartSound track.

[smudger]

Well thanks for your help guys, I thought it would be something to do with the files I was importing, never crossed my mind it could be files created in the program.
T.