Freezing video clips during movie preview playback

Donmeister

Newbie Joined: Oct 12, 2009 10:26 Messages: 7 Offline

Solved by

Oct 12, 2009 13:00

Just running this past everyone to see what they think. I'm a PowerDirector 8 n00b here, but I catch on to things pretty quickly. Just this one problem I've been having since yesterday is really starting to bother me.

I've been editing a bunch of .avi files recorded by fraps. I started having issues where in movie mode when I want to preview my movie, maybe like one or two clips play, then on the next clip, playback freezes. However, sounds in the video can still be heard, along with the audio track that I have loaded. Once this happens, I press the stop button and the program just seems to hang for a few seconds then comes back. When I click on anything in the PowerDirector window, it snaps to the desktop and I have to go to the taskbar to bring it up again. One interesting thing that I noticed is that if I put the clips back to back without trimming anything from the video clips, it plays fine. It only freezes when the clips have been trimmed. Has anyone ever encountered a problem like this?

System specs:
Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
8GB RAM Patriot Xtreme Performance
EVGA GTX 260 Core 216
Soundblaster Xtreme Music sound card

I've updated gfx card drivers to the latest. Installed a new codec package from ffdshow. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. Also, let me know if you need more information about the problem. I think I covered the bases pretty good, but I could have left something out that you all might be able to use to help me solve the problem.

Overall, I love the software and the features. Just want to get this annoying bug/issue out of the way. Thanks in advance my fellow video editors!

Also, just to mention the fact that I've read all about the tasks to carry out and whatnot. I'm at work now, and be advised, I will try these things when I get home. I just want to get a head start and see if anyone else has experienced this and how they resolved it.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Oct 12. 2009 13:06

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Oct 12, 2009 17:09

You seem to have a capable system, however, for a start, try lowering the quality of the preview window.
Click on the icon under the window, 4th from the right.
A defrag might also be helpful.
And...what are the clips' properties? HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Donmeister

Newbie Joined: Oct 12, 2009 10:26 Messages: 7 Offline

Oct 12, 2009 19:30

Thanks for the reply. In response to some of your suggestions... I already tried adjusting the preview quality. I think the last thing I tried was selecting non real-time playback. Which it played through, just stuttered a lot. And it's not too helpful as I kind of like some of the footage to be right on cue with the music. Helps being able to see the movie as it's going to be produced you know?

As for the defrag, I defragged my video storage drive before I installed it. I'm going to defrag again considering that quite a few videos have been added to the drive. Maybe you're on to something because it worked fine the first night I used it. The next day, a bunch more videos were added. So that's actually a good point.

Video clip properties. See images below.


Filename	file properties.jpg	Download
Description	File properties
Filesize	73 Kbytes
Downloaded:	234 time(s)

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Oct 12, 2009 20:27

I'm not the expert here, but the info you provided may help in an answer.
Have you installed the ffdshow codec, I think there are posts saying it helps with playback. Try a search up top of this page. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Donmeister

Newbie Joined: Oct 12, 2009 10:26 Messages: 7 Offline

Oct 12, 2009 20:43

Ah, well the defrag had no effect on the problem. I installed the ffdshow codecs last night. I'm getting ready to try a reinstall, but I'm rather skeptical at the moment as to whether that'll work or not. Here's to crossing my fingers...

Donmeister

Newbie Joined: Oct 12, 2009 10:26 Messages: 7 Offline

Oct 13, 2009 07:53

Here's an update:

The reinstall did not work. But here's something I tried that seemed to fix (knocking on wood) the problem, as last night, I edited and previewed with no problem whatsoever.

Seems I remember a while back before I installed fraps on a new installation of Windows Vista, I had problems playing recorded videos in Windows Media Player. I researched the problem and realized that Fraps needed to be installed to play the videos. I discovered this only after I had tried installing a codec pack. I mean, these are .avi files, but seems like Fraps has got something proprietary about their .avi files. I don't know. That's just my take on it. Because after I installed Fraps, the files would play fine.

So last night, in an experimental mood, I tried converting them using Super Video Encoder to I guess you could say your standard uncompressed .avi file? I can't remember all of the settings I used. + I'm still a video editing n00b. Either way, I had way better luck editing the videos than using the .avi files directly recorded by Fraps. So, I'm just letting everyone know. If I had a choice, I'd rather not have to take that extra step, but the encoding doesn't take that long. I'm glad I've got a quad core system! As long as it works, I'm happy.

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Oct 13, 2009 09:31

If you are using FRAPS as a screen recorder, try TIPCAM from UTIPU.
It highlites the mouse cursor, can record flv or avi, and works to capture the preview window even on computers without separate graphics cards.
The avi's can be edited by PD. It's free.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 13. 2009 09:32

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Donmeister

Newbie Joined: Oct 12, 2009 10:26 Messages: 7 Offline

Oct 13, 2009 10:45

Cool, thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to check it out! Thanks for your suggestions and everything.

tomantrim

Newbie Joined: Jul 15, 2007 09:01 Messages: 15 Offline

Oct 13, 2009 18:07

You might check to see if the shadow files are ready or still generating. The "ready" files will edited just fine where as the "as generating" will be slow or freeze. After you import the files to PowerDirector check it out.

Donmeister

Newbie Joined: Oct 12, 2009 10:26 Messages: 7 Offline

Oct 14, 2009 21:25

Thanks tomantrim, i'll look into that. However, I've produced my first video and it worked out great. I didn't have any probs after converting that fraps .avi files. Will keep everyone posted if something else crops up!

tomantrim

Newbie Joined: Jul 15, 2007 09:01 Messages: 15 Offline

Oct 14, 2009 21:38

I clicked on the triangle box with the white triangle center under the editing window that will display the Screen Snapshot. Click on the Non Real-time Preview and the video's being edited will slow down but will not freeze up any longer. I have no trouble with non HD video's but it seemed to have cured the HD video's which froze up.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 14. 2009 21:42

Andy - XL

Senior Member Joined: Jan 24, 2007 11:28 Messages: 162 Offline

Oct 16, 2009 16:00

I researched the problem and realized that Fraps needed to be installed to play the videos

Can someone elaborate on the step-by-step installation of "Fraps"? My computer system is exactly the same as Tomatrim's and I did have issues with HD file playback - stattered/jerky video. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

Donmeister

Newbie Joined: Oct 12, 2009 10:26 Messages: 7 Offline

Oct 16, 2009 19:25

Andy, are you unable to install Fraps? Or do you have it installed, and have the same issues I had when importing them and then editing them in PD8?