Laggy video help!!!

[Megiddo]

Hey guys!
So when I imported clips from my webcam (.wmv), the files get 'laggy'.
What I mean is after I put them onto the timeline and put the selector on 'project' and then press play, it is considerably less smooth
then if I put the selector on 'clip' and press play.
On a side note, when I do 'clip' play for music, the music doesn't play at all. Is this normal?

Furthermore, when I export the file, the files aren't nearly as smooth as the files I imported them from. I tried adjusting fps, but that's not the issue.
When I put the selector on 'clip' and press play, it is the same smoothness as the imported files, but the video gets laggy when I either export it or do 'project' play (these two are basically the same things I'm guessing)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[EDIT]
Before I expect an answer for the rendering, is the 'project' play portion supposed to be a laggy version of the 'clip' play version?
I didn't really try many methods to try to fix this. I assumed that if I could fix the 'project' play version to be as smooth as the 'clip' play, then when I render it,
it would render better. Only thing I tried is messing with the h/w accelerator in preferences but nothing else since I have no idea what to mess with.

[Ken Berry]

I'm afraid we need more information. All we know for sure is that you start with .wmv video from a webcam. But we have no idea what your project properties are, what the exact properties of your wmv videos are, exactly what adjustments you tried to make, and what format you are trying to render to. Towards the top of this forum there is a sticky post labelled PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING -- see http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8959 . Please read it and get back to use with the information it requests and hopefully someone will be able to provide some more informed answers...

[Ken Berry]

I have just seen your Edit, which you did after I posted my last message. You still haven't provided any further details...

But depending on the exact properties of your original video -- is it high definition .wmv for instance? -- it is indeed possible that Project play will be more jerky or less smooth than in Play. In Play mode, VS is simply playing the original video. In Project mode, VS is trying to throw any editing you have done, things you have added etc, together and doing a quick render of it according to the Project Properties. In other words, it is doing a notional render on the fly. Depending on the complexity of the original video and/or editing, this can be a demanding process and the resulting Project play is less smooth than in Play mode.

As for why your music does not play even in Play mode, what format is it? (Right click and select Properties.) If it is in the music channel in the timeline, is it selected i.e, you click on it with your mouse to highlight it, before you click on Play? FWIW, VS does not seem to like some mp3 files produced with certain codecs, notably the LameMP3 one... In such cases we suggest that users convert the audio to standard .wav format.

[pvreditor]

Before I expect an answer for the rendering, is the 'project' play portion supposed to be a laggy version of the 'clip' play version?
I didn't really try many methods to try to fix this. I assumed that if I could fix the 'project' play version to be as smooth as the 'clip' play, then when I render it,
it would render better. Only thing I tried is messing with the h/w accelerator in preferences but nothing else since I have no idea what to mess with.

Try using VideoStudio's "Smart Proxy" feature, which will let you smoothly playback the files in the timeline, even with effects applied.

Goto: Settings > Smart Proxy Manager and be sure "Enable Smart Proxy" is checked.

Then highlight one of the video files in the library, do a right mouse click and select "Create Smart Proxy File..." A window pops to ask if you want to create a Smart Proxy file, so click on "Okay." Depending on the length and complexity of the file, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes to create the Smart Proxy. You can do this for all your raw files, and editing will go MUCH more smoothly. The good news about using Smart Proxy is that you can start editing even before VideoStudio completes making the Smart Proxy files, and it will be smooth until you reach the point where it hasn't yet created the Smart Proxy. It's a little hard to explain but easy to see in action.

It can be time consuming to generate Smart Proxy files for a complex project, but it more than makes up for it by making the editing process much more pleasant and smooth. I don't know if that will fix all the problems you have, but it should fix the laggy playback in the timeline problem.

Bob Kovacs
http://www.bobkovacs.com

[Ken Berry]

One of the reasons we need to know more about the properties of your original files flows from Bob's comments above. In effect, SmartProxy was principally designed to work with high definition video. But all we still know so far is that you are using the .wmv format. And we still don't know whether it is high def wmv or anything else about it.

[Megiddo]

Wow! Thanks for all the replies guys!

For the extra information that I can give
The .wmv is usually imported from a 720p webcam that I have. I guess this counts as high-definition, so I'll try that smart proxy feature that you talked about!
I do have a question. If I use smart proxy, the 'project' play will go more smoothly, but will the final rendered video be just as smooth? That's what I'm mainly going for.

The MP3's that I usually use are just mp3's downloaded from youtube. When I render the videos, the music plays fine though, so there's really no problem here. I was just wondering why it doesn't play on 'play' mode but it does on project.

When I render, I usually do HDV-720p PC output.
I am wondering though, how would I render the files to match the source in everything (fps, height, width, mbps etc.)

Thanks again!

[EDIT]
So I tried the smart proxy but I see no difference :/
I right clicked -> create smart proxy file -> checked everything -> ok
after a little while a new icon appeared on the video thumbnail
I dragged it onto the timeline and pressed 'project' play. Still laggy

[pvreditor]

So I tried the smart proxy but I see no difference :/
I right clicked -> create smart proxy file -> checked everything -> ok
after a little while a new icon appeared on the video thumbnail
I dragged it onto the timeline and pressed 'project' play. Still laggy

Well, it was worth a try... sorry to hear that it didn't fix the problem in the timeline.

I have created 720p WMV files with VideoStudio and it worked fine. However, I don't remember importing WMV files and editing those. It *should* work, but you might try using a conversion program to convert the files to a different, more universal, format. I got a shareware program called MPEG Streamclip to convert some files to formats that are more VideoStudio-friendly. Many of these were cellphone video clips that I needed to incorporate into finished videos, and I used MPEG Streamclip to convert them to AVI files. It worked but it wasn't perfect. It did work, however.

Perhaps you will get more suggestions...

Bob Kovacs
http://www.bobkovacs.com