VideoStudio User Tip

[Sonic Fields]

Nowadays with the upsurge in use of powerful laptops and the proliferation of relatively cheap 1-2TB portable HDDs, there's a tendency to pair these up, using portable HDDs for backup or project file storage, to avoid quickly filling up the inbuilt HDD; especially whilst working with large video files which easily requires upwards of 140GB for just 15mins of rendered film.

However there is a catch, which can cause frustration whilst using video editors such as CVS, where software is often blamed for jittery previews, slow timeline loading, freezing, slow rendering, unresponsiveness etc. These portable USB-connected HDDs just cannot keep pace with the machine-based software processing speed, resulting in long delays and unresponsiveness, as the software struggles to read these large external-based files.

A dramatic increase in performance (x5 ?) of the software can easily be achieved by making a working copy of the project (including all AV files) on the machine itself, so the software does not have to read/write to/from external sources and then synchronising to the external portable HDD for backup at the end of each session. It's surprising just how much difference that makes to using the software, making it a pleasure to use, rather than having to sit there cursing it!

[Ken Berry]

Since most of those small external HDDs these days are USB 3.0, I wonder what happens if they are connected to computers which also have USB 3.0 ports...?

[Sonic Fields]

Since most of those small external HDDs these days are USB 3.0, I wonder what happens if they are connected to computers which also have USB 3.0 ports...?

Currently using USB 3.0 ports with USB 3.0 devices, when synchronizing files they seem to top out at about 110 MBS with the normal maximum being at about 80-90 MBS, even with these CVS takes about 15-20 mins to load my current project from the portable USB 3.0 drive, and about 3-5 mins when all the files are on the machine.

Another really noticeable delay using the external HDD is when moving the timeline along, as the program reads the files to update the clips showing in the timeline, the worst thing is to stop moving the cursor before the editing point is reached, as once stopped it becomes deactivated until the visible part of the timeline has been updated, so the trick is to keep the cursor moving! But none of this is a problem when working from the internal HDD, it's really a breeze!

[Ken Berry]

Hmmm... I don't have USB 3 ports on any of my computers, unfortunately, yet I have 3 of those external USB 3 drives, and so they are connected to my USB 2 ports. And in fact, I use one of them almost exclusive, as you suggest, as my editing external hard drive -- containing both the video clips and the VSP project file. And sure, a project will take possibly a little more time to open from that drive. Most of my projects are between 15 and 25 minutes long, and rarely longer. But even so, they only take 2 to 3 minutes to open from the external hard drive, while they take around a minute or so to open if they are all on my C:\ drive or other internal drive. Certainly nothing in the order of the 20 minutes you are suffering -- though you don't say how long your projects are...

I also don't recall having the problem you describe with scrubbing along the timeline. It might have happened, but I just don't recall it, or rather, don't recall getting annoyed if it happened...

[canuck]

SonicFields, what do you mean by loading a project? As far as I can tell, the video file is not loaded completely into "memory" at any time so I don't see why it would take ~20 minutes to load a project. I have had several of my video files (60 minutes in length) on external drives and it never takes more than a minute or so before I can start editing. Usually though I will have all my resource files stored in a "project folder" on my system drive.

[Sonic Fields]

SonicFields, what do you mean by loading a project? As far as I can tell, the video file is not loaded completely into "memory" at any time so I don't see why it would take ~20 minutes to load a project. I have had several of my video files (60 minutes in length) on external drives and it never takes more than a minute or so before I can start editing. Usually though I will have all my resource files stored in a "project folder" on my system drive.

When VS first initialises it appears to go through the process of reading data from the original source files [what data it reads, I wouldn't know, but would guess it's running some form of check, to make certain those files have not been altered in any way from those logged/referenced within the project - but this is irrelevant!], the source files being read and % progress completed being displayed on the loading bar. Once this initial 'read' has been completed the program will display both video and audio waveform in the timeline tracks, but only for that section of the timeline which the user has made visible, so if zoomed in for a single clip no problem it can quickly process that, but when zoomed out it appears to take a while, having to build the timeline tracks for all those clips visible. Whatever data it requires [no doubt from the proxy files], I wouldn't know, but at some stage the program has to check that the proxy files are still related to the original files, if not we would end up with some funny looking renders.

The length of time taken to load a project and scrub along the timeline is not totally dependant upon the length of a video file, it's more dependant upon the file sizes and complexity of the project, and whether or not the data transfer rate is being throttled down by USB ports [hence the reason for this user tip].

Your project consisting of 60min video file may 'load' quickly, if it's a single file (or 2 files), when compared to the likes of my current 30min project edited from 265 source files having a total size of 128GB, [cutting ratio of approx. 8:1] and all the other associated CVS data required for transitions, SFX, audio, etc.