CPU power question

[UnknwnProd]

I am running speed edit on a Duo Core 2GHz (4GHZ) with 4 Gigs Ram, Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit. Nuvidia 7500 LE card.

I captured SD DV footage via firewire from a Sony Camera. The CPU monitor shows the percentage almost topped at 90-100 percent throughout the capture, running the bare minimums on my computer.

If I shrink the SE to the timeline while I am capturing it drops to 20 percent! (The little preview window is maybe an inch and half.)

What would cause this?

I will be capturing HDV footage this weekend from a JVC HD100U. and from a 1080I camera on Monday.

Am I going to have problems and dropped frames?

Jason

[wvp]

...If I shrink the SE to the timeline while I am capturing it drops to 20 percent! (The little preview window is maybe an inch and half.)
Jason
If I understand, you are making the SE program window the same size as the timeline -correct? or Are you making SE just show the timeline view (closing the storyboard or filebin view)?

I ask because I wonder if when capturing you have a window or window pane open that is causing SE to generate its little preview clips while it is capturing.

[Lightwolf]

Hm, strange. I recently captured 20 hours of HDV in a dual core Athlon running XP Pro wihout a single glitch... and I just kept the SE UI as I would when working with it.

Could it be a Vista issue?

Cheers,
Mike

[UnknwnProd]

I open Speededit like usual. Start new DV project. Open the capture window and start the capture.

If I hit the "-" sign and send SE to the taskbar (while the capture is happening) my CPU drops huge! From near 100 percent to 20 percent.

In any other program I capture from, Vegas, Premier Pro, or Avid Xpress Pro I am at the 20-30 percent range.

I will be capturing from HDV on Monday. (With the Client there!) Luckily I've worked with him a hundred times, so he's cool if it doesnt go well. I can always capture to another program..... I just want to use my SE.

Jason

[eracer]

I open Speededit like usual. Start new DV project. Open the capture window and start the capture.

If I hit the "-" sign and send SE to the taskbar (while the capture is happening) my CPU drops huge! From near 100 percent to 20 percent.

In any other program I capture from, Vegas, Premier Pro, or Avid Xpress Pro I am at the 20-30 percent range.

I will be capturing from HDV on Monday. (With the Client there!) Luckily I've worked with him a hundred times, so he's cool if it doesnt go well. I can always capture to another program..... I just want to use my SE.

Jason

I've been testing out HDV capture for the first time today.

To preface, DV capture from a Sony deck is no problem at all. I use DV preview, and all normal UI windows open.

I tried capturing 720p clips from a JVC GY-HD100 camera and it didn't work well at all. SE kept losing communication with the camera and locking up. I suspect that this is a problem with the way this camera handles IEEE1394. I've heard complaints about this before. A shame, really, because it's an awesome camera otherwise.

I captured 1080i clips from a Canon XH-A1. This worked OK (no lockups or communication issues). During capture the VGA monitor in the capture window was VERY choppy. But the clips captured and played back fine.

I noticed a significant loss of general interface fluidity when editing the 1080i HDV clips, versus the 480i DV clips. The interface was very fast and very fluid when only DV clips were on the timeline. Put HDV clips on there, and it slowed down. I should say it was really bad when I imported 1080i/60i clips into a 1080i/24p project. Once I selected a 1080i/29.97 project, it was much better, but still slower than DV clips on a DV timeline. Hope that makes sense.

And I could forget about typing text in the title screen if I first positioned the title underneath clips on the timeline. I had to put the title clip off to the side where there was nothing else present. Then I could type the text. I then moved it underneath the clip(s). Not exactly ideal workflow. And I need to figure out why the preview window looks so awful.

Intel D975XBX2
Intel Dual-Core 3.0GHz
2GB RAM
ATI X1900XTX
LACIE Two Big SATAII 1TB array (Hardware RAID-0)

During renders both cores are running at about 60%.

[SBowie]

During capture the VGA monitor in the capture window was VERY choppy. But the clips captured and played back fine.

I noticed a significant loss of general interface fluidity when editing the 1080i HDV clips, versus the 480i DV clips. The interface was very fast and very fluid when only DV clips were on the timeline. Put HDV clips on there, and it slowed down.HDV and DV file throughput demands are identical, suggesting that the difference in display during capture and editing is probably processing related - gpu or cpu. It would be interesting to know where the bottleneck you're hitting is. What sort of system are you running?

[cholo]

Are your drives running in DMA mode?

[eracer]

HDV and DV file throughput demands are identical, suggesting that the difference in display during capture and editing is probably processing related - gpu or cpu. It would be interesting to know where the bottleneck you're hitting is. What sort of system are you running?

It's listed above. I don't think it's a file bandwidth issue, since, as you point out, DV and HDV are both 25Mb. The DV files are saved as .avi, while the HDS files are saved as .m2t.

Another thread talking about slow interface issues seems to be focusing on icon generation. I'm reading those posts now and trying to understand them.

I have turned off the audio subsystem in the 975 board, since I heard that the Intel audio chipset is a real resource hog. I'm using a Creative Audigy.

BTW - I'm using the IEEE1394 port on the Audigy card to capture. It shows up as an OHCI compliant device in Device Manager.

[eracer]

Are your drives running in DMA mode?

My system drive is a SATA RAID-1. I don't think they use DMA like an IDE drive does. If they do, I don't how to change it in XP.

My video drive is an eSATA RAID-0 running on a PCI-e controller. Again, no DMA possible as far as I know.

[SBowie]

It's listed above. I don't think it's a file bandwidth issue, since, as you point out, DV and HDV are both 25Mb.Sorry, I did look, but missed that somehow.

[KiloWatkins]

BTW - I'm using the IEEE1394 port on the Audigy card to capture. It shows up as an OHCI compliant device in Device

I would use the PC 1394 port. Did you test capture from the PC port? If the SB is the only FWire port, use SB software to capture, or go buy a FWire card.

GoodLuck

[KiloWatkins]

After a little more 1 brain cell activity, I bet the SB FWire is sharing an IRQ. I use these 24bit cards, but mine have no FWire. Depending on how advanced the SB software is will determine if you can capture HD/HDV. You can check start>run>dxdiag be sure the WHQL box is checked on the main screen, then goto the last tab and MSinfo to see your IRQ's, and if the FWire and SB audio is sharring the IRQ, would likely cause the problem with your SE Capture. Try the SB software for capture, hope you will report it will capture HD/HDV.

GoodLuck to ya. Not sure if Vista>Control Panel>System will show a 1394 tab and allow you to assign a new IRQ, if you find it is sharing with other SB combo functions.

[eracer]

After a little more 1 brain cell activity, I bet the SB FWire is sharing an IRQ. I use these 24bit cards, but mine have no FWire. Depending on how advanced the SB software is will determine if you can capture HD/HDV. You can check start>run>dxdiag be sure the WHQL box is checked on the main screen, then goto the last tab and MSinfo to see your IRQ's, and if the FWire and SB audio is sharring the IRQ, would likely cause the problem with your SE Capture. Try the SB software for capture, hope you will report it will capture HD/HDV.

GoodLuck to ya. Not sure if Vista>Control Panel>System will show a 1394 tab and allow you to assign a new IRQ, if you find it is sharing with other SB combo functions.

Thanks Kilo (and others), I think I'll just get a Pyro card and be done with it. I don't run SB software (spyware) just the drivers.

[edmellnik]

Are your drives running in DMA mode?

Should we not be in dma mode? If not how do you turn it off?
ed

[eracer]

Should we not be in dma mode? If not how do you turn it off?
ed

I believe that there is no DMA mode for SCSI or SATA drives. I'm pretty sure of this.

You should have DMA enabled for your IDE drives (usually default). The method for enabling it is different for different OS.

This will help XP users:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7625

[kleima]

Eracer/UnknownProd

I use the JVC GY-100U exclusively now, with both SE and VT[4] and both on a WinXP workstation and a WinVista laptop. Have not had any of the problems you describe, so I don't think it SE, or the camera. There must be a conflict on your system of some kind. Are you using the disc version of SE, or the previous download version?

[eracer]

Eracer/UnknownProd

I use the JVC GY-100U exclusively now, with both SE and VT[4] and both on a WinXP workstation and a WinVista laptop. Have not had any of the problems you describe, so I don't think it SE, or the camera. There must be a conflict on your system of some kind. Are you using the disc version of SE, or the previous download version?

I'm using the disk version.

I'm going to try using an nVidia card, instead of the ATI card I'm using now.

I've learned that 90% of all Newtek problems can be traced to either:

A. VGA drivers
or
B. VGA drivers

[KiloWatkins]

LOL, you'll put the ATI back in! LOL It tickles me when I see nVidia postings, because I can't reproduce their problems. Lets see, I've used ATI since 8megPCItuner cards on 486DX. LOL I've just stayed with what has always worked for me. But yes I've built nVidia systems, just not for my own use.

GoodLuck

[kleima]

I've used both with Newtek products. Haven't had problems with either. Though now, I use nVidia.

[eracer]

LOL, you'll put the ATI back in! LOL It tickles me when I see nVidia postings, because I can't reproduce their problems. Lets see, I've used ATI since 8megPCItuner cards on 486DX. LOL I've just stayed with what has always worked for me. But yes I've built nVidia systems, just not for my own use.

GoodLuck

Thanks. It's good to hear somebody saying that it's not ATI's fault!

I hear too many people say that Newtek doesn't play nice with ATI, that you should only use nVidia, etc. Who really knows, SINCE EVERY SYSTEM IS DIFFERENT!

[KiloWatkins]

Be sure to check add and remove programs, that NetFrameWorks 2.0 is installed then check with ATI for upgrades. Net2.0 needs installed first. This stopped some render freezing, and I use the x550ES VGA/DVI on SE/VT and SE only and 9000 VGA DVI on server.

The VT/SE is original MCE and SE only, where I had problems, is MCE2005. Since I have 0% VT/SE problems with render freezing, I knew it was drivers for MCE2005.

Your not the guy with a SB 1394 problems, correct? Be sure to look for running Services that you don't need.

GoodLuck

[kleima]

ATI and nVidia are the two graphic chipsets that are recommended by Newtek for both SE and VT.