Videostudio X8 awful performance / Smart proxy doesn't work

[bumonbox]

Alright, I am bordering on fuming here. I've been using VS for ages, but I only recently started working with 1080p video. And it is just not usable.. So let's start with the details:

Computer
AMD FX 6350
8 GB Ram
Radeon HD 7750
Primary drive 120 gb SSD (where VS runs)
Second drive (where video is stored) 7200 RPM 1 tb drive
VS 18.6.0.6

File format?
AVI, VS shows AVI - Open DML
Video compression it shows: ffdshow Video Decoder
Audio shows: AAC Audio

It's worth noting that I had a bear of a time finding a good codec that wouldn't mess up the audio on these files. I tried h.264 Codec packs galore, but non ever worked. However, they played fine in VLC, so I eventually downloaded the VLC codec pack for windows, and all was well in windows, and VS could finally encode the files correctly. but editing is still bad.

So, first off, at no point during editing, or encoding, or any of that does CPU usage seem to creep over 50%, so it's not killing the processor. I have yet to reach over 75% ram usage. It doesn't seem to be overtasking the system, but the application itself runs like garbage. I have turned on hardware acceleration for decoding and encoding for editing and file creation.

While editing, video playback is extremely choppy. The application will randomly hang for a minute at a time (windows does not see as not responding, but you cannot click on or close anything). Often times when I hit play, the audio will play, but the video will not (stopping and starting fixes this usually). It's just not good.. So - of course, just enable the Smartproxy right? If only. I have tried toying with the templates to change what it encodes the files to, to see if the encoding process is the issue. But no. When I manually ask it to add a file to the smart proxy, it shows up in the queue, and a file shows up in the directory. After which the file disappears, and nothing is in the library.

This is just killing me - seems like given the lack of demand, the system should be able to handle it, but nothing has helped. If I could get the smart proxy working, I'd be happy. But I really don't want to have to convert my existing files, just to get smart proxy working, then convert them again upon completing the project. I know the smart proxy can handle other files, but seriously, if the bloody program can encode the video into a final product, how on earth can't it convert it for the smart proxy?

At the rate this is going, I may finally part ways with VS altogether. (Especially considering they have the newer versions saddled with that atrocious Smart sound replacement)
Any suggestions would be welcome.

[asik1]

Sad to read such report but just short Q,
When you write "While editing, video playback is extremely choppy." is this when playback plain source clips or with 2-3-4 FX's ?

[Ken Berry]

I'd also like to know where that video comes from. It seems a bit strange to me that it is AVI and linked to ffdshow, but is obviously high def...

[bumonbox]

It's generally bad with plain source. It's not consistent. With plain source, and no effects or changes, it will sometimes smooth out, but then will become unbearably choppy. Of course, if you throw in ANY FX, and forget about it. You'll be lucky to see more than a 3 frames of that FX.

As for the format - the camera was a Toshiba Camileo X100. The format has always vexxed me. If I view the codec details in VLC, it shows the Video is H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) H264. and Audio stream is MPEG AAC Audio (MP4).. So, from that end, I would think these are really MP4 files despite the AVI extension.

Now, as a side note, I tried renaming one of these files to MP4, and it did actually create a proxy file, I would have been perfectly happy with this, however there was no audio. So it failed to recognize that. I really don't want to resort to repeatedly encoding these files before I get to the final product. But, it will work I am sure.

[canuck]

Can you upload a 30 sec clip or so of a problem video to a site such as Dropbox or other? We could then do some testing on it.

avi really doesn't mean very much since there are hundreds of variations of that. A google search of that camcorder indicates that it gives poor quality video and programs have all sorts of problems with it

[bumonbox]

See what I can do - and yes. I have since done away with the camera, using a newer Canon, and that one is working just fine. But this format is killing me. And I am still perplexed as to how VS can encode the final thing, but pukes on encoding it for smart proxy.