Killing computer but still slow preview

[Norman Black]

[Graham Bernard] “Well, now, we’re needing to look at the Quick Time Codec.”

Vegas bypasses quicktime for MOV files with AVC video and PCM/AAC audio. They publicly state this on their website, aka native support for…, and I can load my DSLR file without Quicktime installed.

You can tell if Vegas is using QT by looking at the file I/O plug-in Vegas will use to read the file. From the project media window, right click, select properties, then go to the general tab and scroll to the bottom.

For the DSLR file it should be using compoundplug, it it is using QT it will be qt7plug.

[Graham Bernard]

Thanks Norman – I’ll never understand this, even when it says:-

“Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : QuickTime
Codec ID : qt ”

Grazie

Video Content Creator and Potter
PC 7 64-bit 16gb * Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core 3.40GHz * 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti
Cameras: Canon XF300 + PowerShot SX50HS Bridge

[Norman Black]

Yes, that is what MediaInfo says about a Quicktime file.
A little further down in MediaInfo we see this for DSLRs/digicams
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

The only items I know for sure Vegas bypasses Quicktime when given a QT MOV file is when the video is AVC and the audio is PCM. My Canon 7D DSLR, Canon digicam(s) and a downloaded GH3 file all confirm this.

In Vegas for Canon 7D and Panasonic GH3 files in the media properties, general tab, Vegas says…

Plug-In
Name: compoundplug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 12.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\compoundplug
Format: Sony AVC
Version: Version 12.0 (Build 770) 64-bit
Company: Sony Creative Software Inc.

With I load a Quicktime ProRes file I get
Name: qt7plug.dll
Folder: C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 12.0\FileIO Plug-Ins\qt7plug
Format: QuickTime 7
Version: Version 12.0 (Build 770)
Company: Sony Creative Software Inc.

Quicktime is a PITA so it makes sense to bypass it for the most common formats, which Vegas already has internal support like AVC. Just about every DSLR and digicam out there tends to output MOV files with AVC video.

[Norman Black]

I cannot find any 5D mkiii 1080 All-I video to download and test on my machine.

I can render an XAVC Intra 1080p30 file and that plays fine with a gaussian blur effect on Best Auto.

This file is very close to the 5D specs, but of course not exact.
114Mbps (a fair bit higher than 5D), CABAC=No, All-I, 1080p, 29.97.

[Philippe Gaudens]

Hello,

I’ll try to share a 5DIII video.

I want to specify that playing back a 5DIII is not the problem. My problem is when I have FXs like blur transition (GPU optimized) or when I have a text event with moving shadow (also GPU optimized), it can’t play flawlessly at 30fps, it goes down to 5-6fps until the FX or the moving text is finished… Then it plays normally on a part of the footage with no FX.

With my dual-GPU card, I was able to select only one of the two GPUs, as it was two different cards.

With GPUMonitor, I can see that playback and FX calculation is handled by the GPU, but not really fluid.

[John Rofrano]

[Philippe Gaudens] “My problem is when I have FXs like blur transition (GPU optimized) or when I have a text event with moving shadow (also GPU optimized), it can’t play flawlessly at 30fps, it goes down to 5-6fps until the FX or the moving text is finished… Then it plays normally on a part of the footage with no FX.”

This is totally normal and expected. If you want to preview these transitions at full frame rate, use Ram Preview (Shift+B) to temporarily built a RAM preview of these FX. You can also use the Selectively Prerender Video (Shift+M) option to keep these renders around. Like I said, my ATI Radeon HD 5870 plays these back at full frame rate on the Sony “Red Car” demo while my NVIDIA Quadro 4000 cannot. The ATI Radeon cards seem to be better at timeline playback than NVIDIA cards.

If you want to create a small project with one small piece of source video from your camera and some transitions and upload it to DropBox or something, I’d be happy to down it and test it on my systems and see what frame rates I get.

[Philippe Gaudens] “With my dual-GPU card, I was able to select only one of the two GPUs, as it was two different cards.”

Like I said, Vegas Pro does not support dual GPU’s.

[Philippe Gaudens] “With GPUMonitor, I can see that playback and FX calculation is handled by the GPU, but not really fluid.”

This is a mystery to everyone. I am very unhappy with Vegas Pro’s inability to leverage my hardware both CPU and GPU. I’ve had stuttering playback where Vegas is using 25% of my CPU and 40% of my GPU and sat their and wondered why I bought such a powerful computer if Vegas isn’t going to take advantage of ALL of it. So far, there is no answer. 🙁

~jr

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