AVCHD Lagging Preview Screen

[John Rofrano]

[Matt Kirkright] “I have upgraded from a HDR FX7 to a HXR NX5. I was aware of the additional processing power I would need and currently run Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.79GHz, 64bit w/ 12GB RAM. I am using Vegas Platinum HD 10. “

Have you tried the trial of Vegas Pro 10? It might be better tuned for this footage. The HXR-NX5 records AVCHD at 24Mpbs which is a lot of highly compressed data. Try Vegas Pro 10 and see if you get smoother playback.

[Matt Kirkright] “I have seen similar posts regarding this issue all of which seem a bit daunting involving converting clips etc. I am in the process of increasing the RAM to 24GB but am not sure if it will fix the problem.”

Don’t throw your money way. Vegas Movie Studio HD is a 32-bit program and can’t use more than 2GB of memory regardless of how much RAM you put in your computer. Also this is not a memory problem, it’s a CPU problem.

[Matt Kirkright] “Obviously AVCHD is here to stay so what is the solution to this problem that requires the least effort. “

Actually it’s not the only option and wouldn’t have been my option at all. I would have stayed with HDV or gone to XDCAM EX. AVCHD continues to be a nightmare to edit.

[Matt Kirkright] ” Upgrading the whole PC is not out of the question, though I would prefer not.”

A more powerful CPU is about the only thing that will help with Vegas and the one you already have isn’t too shabby so I’m not sure how much better it will get. Like I said, download the trial of Vegas Pro 10 and see if it handles the footage any better.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[Matt Kirkright] “I have upgraded from a HDR FX7 to a HXR NX5. I was aware of the additional processing power I would need and currently run Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.79GHz, 64bit w/ 12GB RAM. I am using Vegas Platinum HD 10. “

Have you tried the trial of Vegas Pro 10? It might be better tuned for this footage. The HXR-NX5 records AVCHD at 24Mpbs which is a lot of highly compressed data. Try Vegas Pro 10 and see if you get smoother playback.

[Matt Kirkright] “I have seen similar posts regarding this issue all of which seem a bit daunting involving converting clips etc. I am in the process of increasing the RAM to 24GB but am not sure if it will fix the problem.”

Don’t throw your money way. Vegas Movie Studio HD is a 32-bit program and can’t use more than 2GB of memory regardless of how much RAM you put in your computer. Also this is not a memory problem, it’s a CPU problem.

[Matt Kirkright] “Obviously AVCHD is here to stay so what is the solution to this problem that requires the least effort. “

Actually it’s not the only option and wouldn’t have been my option at all. I would have stayed with HDV or gone to XDCAM EX. AVCHD continues to be a nightmare to edit.

[Matt Kirkright] ” Upgrading the whole PC is not out of the question, though I would prefer not.”

A more powerful CPU is about the only thing that will help with Vegas and the one you already have isn’t too bad. Try Vegas Pro 10 and see if it increases your playback rate. (it should)

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Nigel O’neill]

Matt

You might want to trying using an NVIDIA graphics card such as the GTX 480 or 560/570 or 580 series, which has CUDA cores that Vegas Pro takes advantage of.

Intel i7 920, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10 (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Danny Hays]

If I’m not mistaken, GPU Nvidia Cuda cores only helps in Vegas 10 Pro and only with rendering AVCHD. Not with Vegas preview quality.
They’re right in AVCHD being the new HD standard, but a home build i7 will edit it fine. I hve a TM700 that shoots 1080 60p in .mts format and it edits that just fine. If your going to edit AVCHD, (very highly compressed format), Then make yourself a computer to handle that type of format. You can still work with AVCHD on a dual core but the preview rate will be very sluggish.
By the way, you can build an i7 for under a grand. That with a $750 TM700 is still less than a lower level HVR-A1 Sony HDV camera alone.
And you have a new high speed computer to edit it’s format and anything else you want to throw at it.

I just had a Sony HVR-A1 eat a tape and got an estimate of over $800 to repair it. ????? No more tape for me.
Hope this helps, Danny Hays

[Matt Paul]

Thanks for the feedback. I just installed the demo of Pro and at a glance it seems better, i.e. runs smooth in the video preview. Slow-mos and long cross fades were an issue with Platinum but this seems to be fixed. Is there a reason why Pro would/should be better?

Nigel, as for the video card I am running a Gigabytpe GTS 450 1GB GDDRS. Is this sufficient/good enough or is it well below par?

[John Rofrano]

[Matt Kirkright] ” I just installed the demo of Pro and at a glance it seems better, i.e. runs smooth in the video preview. Slow-mos and long cross fades were an issue with Platinum but this seems to be fixed. Is there a reason why Pro would/should be better?”

Yea, the reason is that Vegas Pro 10 is a lot newer than Movie Studio 10 so it has enhancements that Movie Studio doesn’t have. Also, Sony has been busy tuning Vegas Pro 10 for the professional formats that it expects Pro customers to be using like the 24Mbps AVCHD from the HXR-NX5 and AVC/H.264 formats from the Canon 7D/5D. You upgraded to a $4,000 camera, it’s time to upgrade to the professional software to go with it. 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Ceasar Belliard]

Render your clips to SD Resolution, Edit them > close Vegas.
Take the folder where you rendered the SD clip and deleted it or move it somewhere else.
Open Vegas ( It will ask you the files are missing search for a new location ) when searching find the folder where you have your Original AVCHD. Now your time line has the edited version in AVCHD.
Note: you must name the SD clips the same exact way as the AVCHD Original or else it wont find it AND IT WILL CONFUSE YOU.
They will drop rite in the Edit.