Diagnostic help please - severe lag in editing

dazzab

Newbie Joined: Dec 10, 2011 02:55 Messages: 5 Offline

Solved by

Apr 06, 2012 21:31

I've been using PD since version 8 on a fairly high end system. I'm having problems with PD10 that I just haven't been able to solve. I'm a fairly advanced user being a Unix Sys Admin and actually the head of a tech support team myself. Every test I've done leads me to believe that PD10 is the issue, not the hardware. So I'm stumped and could use some assistance.

When I'm editing in the timeline I can click the preview to start playing the video. Then if I stop it and move the pointer to another section of the timeline there is no response for about 30 seconds. Eventually I may be able to press the play button again but again nothing happens for about 30 seconds when the display may or may not begin.

This happens to various degrees with different projects. Most I can still edit with but this one project is simply not working and I'm about to miss a deadline because of it which is very frustrating. I even went to the extent of removing my SSD drive and reinstalling the OS and PD10 on a hard drive to ensure disk access wasn't the issue. Needless to say the SSD worked faster so that test hasn't helped.

I've attached all the files suggested in the FAQ so maybe someone can here can see what the issue is. My next test will be to try a different video card but as you can see I have two very high end cards in the system so I can't see how that would be the issue.

Thanks in advance for the help. Really appreciate the time people put in to these forums.

Cheers. from downunder.

Filename	DDB_DxDiag.txt	Download
Description
Filesize	33 Kbytes
Downloaded:	259 time(s)


Filename	PD10_SC.jpg	Download
Description
Filesize	41 Kbytes
Downloaded:	125 time(s)

Filename	DDB64_DxDiag.txt	Download
Description
Filesize	51 Kbytes
Downloaded:	193 time(s)

Cranston

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Aug 17, 2007 02:26 Messages: 1667 Offline

Apr 06, 2012 22:10

Hi dazzab,

I’m sure some of the more tech astute guys will be by shortly.

But till then, I noticed that you have the Shadow Edit files option turned on. With your rig’s specs, you shouldn’t need to use that option, and it may be a contributing factor to your issue.
You might try turning this option off in Preferences, to see if that cures the delay you describe.
Alt-C > General > Enable HD Video Processing (shadow file)

Also, do you have the latest version of Quick Time (player) installed?
Do you have any third party codec packs that include FFDshow?
Both may help.

Members will also want to know the source and format of the video files you are working with.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 06. 2012 22:12

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ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Apr 06, 2012 22:28

G'day dazzab (also from downunder) -

Yes - that 's a mystery! Your PC, on the basiss of hardware specs, should perform a little better that mine... same CPU, 8GB RAM & a modest Nvidia GTX 260.

There's nothing I can see in your DxDiag that would indicate a potential for lag.

Something odd about the shadow files. In your screen shot, the first clip has finished generating its shadow file & the second one hasn't started. I'd definitely follow Cranston's suggestion & give those shadow files the flick!

Cheers - Tony
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dazzab

Newbie Joined: Dec 10, 2011 02:55 Messages: 5 Offline

Apr 07, 2012 02:52

Thanks for the feedback guys. A couple of your comments made me start thinking about what's different in this project to others I've done.

First of all, I have turned off shadow files before and it didn't make a difference. I got tired of PD nagging me about it so I turned them back on.

However, the main difference in this project than any before it is that this is the first time I've used two cameras so I could get two angles and cut between them. One camera was a DSLR which produced files in .mod format and the other camera was a video handy cam that produced .avi files.

I just disabled the .mov track in the project and lo and behold it now works as I would expect. Still a bit slower than I thought but certainly now at least useable.

So I'd say there's a codec issue or something wrong with the .mod file. I might convert the .mod file outside of PD to .avi and then see how things work.

Thanks heaps for thinking about this as your comments really helped me to think about some other things. Hopefully some Cyberlink gurus will get back to me with more info as well.

Cheers.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Apr 07, 2012 03:53

Did you say .mod or .mov? Probably .mov if it's from a DLSR.

One thing you could do, if you think the combination of video formats is part of the issue, is to render (produce) each clip - unedited - into your desired output format/profile... then use those clips for editing your final video.

I doubt whether a codec issue is the cause here. The files are being read - just ridiculously slowly!

You don't need shadow files at all. You'd be better off turning that off in preferences, as Cranston suggested. Once that option is unchecked, & the one highlighted below, PD won't nag you about it.

Cheers - Tony
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dazzab

Newbie Joined: Dec 10, 2011 02:55 Messages: 5 Offline

Apr 07, 2012 04:04

Quote: Did you say .mod or .mov? Probably .mov if it's from a DLSR.
Cheers - Tony

The file from the DSLR is a .avi and the file from the video cam is a .MOV. It's the .MOV that seems to be causing the issue. I tried to convert it to .avi with NCH Prism Video File Converter but it looks terrible and it doesn't look like the free version does entire files.

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Apr 07, 2012 04:15

What is your intended output format?

I'd just insert the .mov clip(s) in the timeline & render it/them to whatever that format/profile happens to be - same with the AVI.

In fact - strangely - that is almost what PD does with shadow files - creates lower res mpeg-2 files so that editing is smoother.

Alternatively, you can do the same conversion with the free FormatFactory... & it will convert the whole file. I definitely wouldn't be converting from .mov to .avi unless there was some particular reason for having .avi files.

http://www.pcfreetime.com/

Cheers - Tony
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dazzab

Newbie Joined: Dec 10, 2011 02:55 Messages: 5 Offline

Apr 07, 2012 04:44

Quote: What is your intended output format?
I'd just insert the .mov clip(s) in the timeline & render it/them to whatever that format/profile happens to be - same with the AVI.
Cheers - Tony

That was a great idea and led to the 'palm to forehead' solution.

I rendered the .mod file out to a .wmv with PD10. Interestingly enough it was only 3 mins in length although the video is 10 mins. This was the same length that output with stand alone video converters I was trying outside of PD10. I thought it was just a conversion limitation of the free software.

So I went back to where I download and store files after I finish a shoot and copied the original file back to my working directory. I imported that in to PD and even as a .mod file it's working perfectly now.

So it looks like file corruption of the .mod file was the issue all along. Whew, not I can finally get back to work.

Thanks very much for your time and assistance. I think that without someone else bouncing ideas around I would have kept going down the wrong path and just become more and more frustrated.

Cheers.