Definitive Hardware Setup

[Ken Berry]

If file you want a smart proxy for is not there, then you have to individually - manually - create a proxy file: rt-click the clip, from the context list, choose create proxy file, then OK. And, of course, wait for the proxy to be created.

Just a brief footnote: in both VS 2018 and 2019, you have to enable SmartProxy first in Preferences (either Preferences > Performance tab or Preferences > Smart Proxy Manager > Enable SmartProxy) before 'Create SmartProxy file' becomes selectable in that dropdown menu.

[tletter]

However, my problem regarding Clips playing in the preview panel remain the same. (It's 'choppy' misses out large chunks of playback and quite often just stops)

Sounds like either all clips don't have a Smart Proxy file created or else you're editing 4K clips. To fix the former, select everything in the Edit tab using <Ctrl-A>, then right-click and select the 'Create Smart Proxy File' option from the context menu. With respect to the latter, you're out of luck as VS2018 is a performance pig when editing a large number of 4K clips.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[Desertsweeper]

As suggested, this has improved the speed of boot up and programme loading. It has also decreased VS2018 render time, albeit only slightly.
However, my problem regarding Clips playing in the preview panel remain the same. (It's 'choppy' misses out large chunks of playback and quite often just stops)

Make sure you are not rendering to the same physical drive where the video is stored. For example if you partitioned your SSD drive into a C and a D drive. It will not help to put the videos and D and output them to C because it must read and write through the same SATA pipe. To improve render times the source and destination should be on different pipes (drives). But of course that assumes the bottleneck has not just shifted to your CPU/GPU - which is where I believe your problem now lies. Did you try to remove the nVidia card and only use the Intel? If you try that, as said before, be sure to install the latest Intel Graphics drivers.

[john4647]

If file you want a smart proxy for is not there, then you have to individually - manually - create a proxy file: rt-click the clip, from the context list, choose create proxy file, then OK. And, of course, wait for the proxy to be created.

Just a brief footnote: in both VS 2018 and 2019, you have to enable SmartProxy first in Preferences (either Preferences > Performance tab or Preferences > Smart Proxy Manager > Enable SmartProxy) before 'Create SmartProxy file' becomes selectable in that dropdown menu.

I do have smart proxy enabled and as far as I can see, all of my video clips have smart proxy images on them (some have 2 little images, why is that?)
Also checking through smart proxy manager shows proxy files for all clips.
As per screenshot.
(edited to say I am not using 4K clips)

[john4647]

As suggested, this has improved the speed of boot up and programme loading. It has also decreased VS2018 render time, albeit only slightly.
However, my problem regarding Clips playing in the preview panel remain the same. (It's 'choppy' misses out large chunks of playback and quite often just stops)

Make sure you are not rendering to the same physical drive where the video is stored. For example if you partitioned your SSD drive into a C and a D drive. It will not help to put the videos and D and output them to C because it must read and write through the same SATA pipe. To improve render times the source and destination should be on different pipes (drives). But of course that assumes the bottleneck has not just shifted to your CPU/GPU - which is where I believe your problem now lies. Did you try to remove the nVidia card and only use the Intel? If you try that, as said before, be sure to install the latest Intel Graphics drivers.

My SSD drive (C:) is just for Windows 10 and all programmes. All of my Data including VSP files, Rendered MP4 files and original Clips are all on the D drive.
If I feel bold enough later, I will try removing the NVidia card and installing Intel Graphics Drivers.

Thanks for the input

[Davidk]

You haven't said it, but the your profile is somewhat different to the description of hard capacity at 3Tb. And another source of jerky files playing in preview is a usb interface: especially a usb2 to usb3. One way that this could occur is for one of those large capacity drives for data you described to be the source of video clips, connected as an add-on external HDD using a usb connection. A common approach.

To clarify this, consider:
- the on-board RAM is being used by the OS, disk drivers, the app, and data via transfer caches. The latter via a DMA operation from one memory location to another.
- speed of transfer across a usb connection is controlled by the slower of the two interfaces - a usb2 plug connected to a usb3 receptacle will only operate at usb2 speeds. Or vice versa. Examples: a usb hub or front panel usb sockets are only usb2. Connecting a small external HDD with a usb3 connection to any of these will only operate at usb2 speeds. Often the act of connection like this will get you a windows message saying the device can operate faster in a usb3 socket.
- on transfer from an external HDD, the usb interface copies the data into a cache in RAM, which the app the uses in edit/play, whilst the chipset gets the batch of data from the external drive.
- the jerkiness in playing that occurs from this source happens because the app empties the data transfer cache before the chipset can completely fill it again.
And what you see is a video that plays for a while, pauses but the audio continues, video goes again, pauses for longer progressively until the video is basically completely out of sync: basically play has stopped because VS has lost it.

Ways around it:
- run usb3 to usb3 connections. Doesn't completely alleviate the cache empty before refilled case, but seriously reduces it because the speed bottle neck in the hardware has been mostly avoided.
- if you must use data from an external drive, and the PC has a card reader slot, use that for the data files. The interface from an SD card runs a lot faster than usb 3.
- copy your data files from any external storage source to an internal SATA connected drive, and import/play them from there. Fastest method, and highly suggested, and probably easiest to do.

[john4647]

You haven't said it, but the your profile is somewhat different to the description of hard capacity at 3Tb. And another source of jerky files playing in preview is a usb interface: especially a usb2 to usb3. One way that this could occur is for one of those large capacity drives for data you described to be the source of video clips, connected as an add-on external HDD using a usb connection. A common approach.

To clarify this, consider:
- the on-board RAM is being used by the OS, disk drivers, the app, and data via transfer caches. The latter via a DMA operation from one memory location to another.
- speed of transfer across a usb connection is controlled by the slower of the two interfaces - a usb2 plug connected to a usb3 receptacle will only operate at usb2 speeds. Or vice versa. Examples: a usb hub or front panel usb sockets are only usb2. Connecting a small external HDD with a usb3 connection to any of these will only operate at usb2 speeds. Often the act of connection like this will get you a windows message saying the device can operate faster in a usb3 socket.
- on transfer from an external HDD, the usb interface copies the data into a cache in RAM, which the app the uses in edit/play, whilst the chipset gets the batch of data from the external drive.
- the jerkiness in playing that occurs from this source happens because the app empties the data transfer cache before the chipset can completely fill it again.
And what you see is a video that plays for a while, pauses but the audio continues, video goes again, pauses for longer progressively until the video is basically completely out of sync: basically play has stopped because VS has lost it.

Ways around it:
- run usb3 to usb3 connections. Doesn't completely alleviate the cache empty before refilled case, but seriously reduces it because the speed bottle neck in the hardware has been mostly avoided.
- if you must use data from an external drive, and the PC has a card reader slot, use that for the data files. The interface from an SD card runs a lot faster than usb 3.
- copy your data files from any external storage source to an internal SATA connected drive, and import/play them from there. Fastest method, and highly suggested, and probably easiest to do.

Just to clarify my Disk setup.

At the start of this discussion My computer housed a 2TB hard disk drive (mechanical) partitioned C: for Windows 10 and programmes. The D: partition on the same drive was for Data only. The USB 1TB drive was for backup only.

After heeding advice given, my setup is now a 1TB SSD (C:) for windows 10 and programmes (including VS) and the original 2TB internal mechanical drive holds all of the data. I still use the USB 1TB drive for backups only.