Very nice example of the benefits of using your graphics card to render videos. I have an Nvidia GeForce 9800GT and the same as your ATI card it really makes a difference.

I can remember when I first started rendering videos a few years ago I virtually had to walk away from my computer and leave it to itself to render my videos and it was soooo slow.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Hardware encoding is fine, but don't use Fix/Enhance!! It had a big effect on my system!!

Interesting screen shots there Fred, PowerDirector8 works fine but gets a bit flaky when you start to push it a bit. I am still trying to get a fix for my 32 bit 2 gig limit per program problem. It looks as though I am going to have to go to a 64 bit system to be able to produce some of my multiple pip videos.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

AAARGH!!!

Another upgrade!!! And a whole NEW set of issues!! But, I think you are right about needing 64BIT. MY 3GIG Quad does fine until I start getting fancy...then it just gets bogged down!

My luck would be..the system I want would only come with Windows 7 on it!! I better buy soon!!

A very impressive demonstration of the improvements ATi compatible cards can make!

I upgraded my card specifically because of this, and have also found that the picture quality is better.

Cheers,

Andrew Alienware Aurora ALX R4 - Intel i7-4820 4.2 GHz - 32GB DDR3 RAM - Crucial 512GB SSD - 1TB Seagate HDD - 3TB WD Green HDD - 4TB WD Green HDD - MSI NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB

Sony HDR-PJ810 and HDR-PJ530

I would expect with fix/enhance turned on that it would push the system hard.

Ideally you want all resources thrown at rendering the video so that it gets the job done quicker, up to the point it destabilizes the system.

I'll go back and add some fix/enhancement and run the test again. There are some speedup effects in the video I did, just to shorten the video length, but it would be good to push it some more.

I also had problems trying to render my video to WMV format. It would crash, but had no problem with Mpeg2 or AVCHD.

Win8 64-bit Pro Retail
Intel i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
MSI Z87-G45 Motherboard
ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II OC 2GB GPU
1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored) Drive Array
Several scratch drives for video, TMP, pagefile.

OK, Upgrade complete..

1. Now have PD8 installed on a new machine, shadow files off, hardware acceleration (CUDA) turned on.

64 Bit Vista SP1
8GIG memory
quad core 2.7 Mhz processor
Nvidia GT 230 card (1.5 GIG dedicated memory)
Build 2220 PD8

CPUs (all 4) still pegged at 100% to about 90% with any video enhancements at all!!!
Drops off to about 70% without enhancements. I am starting to think I need a new Video Editing program!! Shame this is the way.

I have a feeling that I will have to replace the video card, as on this system, even the full-screen playback of videos is "jerky"

Video card technology has really advanced, even though yours is not that old, its generations old compared to what's out there now.

Part of the difference may be the improvements in Win7 architecture. Notice how some of the codec stuff is natively integrated into the operating system now:

Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center in Windows 7
Main article: Windows Media Center

Windows Media Center in Windows 7 has retained much of the design and feel of its predecessor, but with a variety of user interface shortcuts and browsing capabilities.[49] Playback of H.264 video both locally and through a Media Center Extender (including the Xbox 360) is supported.

Some notable enhancements in Windows 7 Media Center include a new mini guide, a new scrub bar, the option to color code the guide by show type, and internet content that is more tightly integrated with regular TV via the guide. All Windows 7 versions now support up to four tuners of each type (QAM, ATSC, CableCARD, NTSC, etc).

When browsing the media library, items that don't have album art are shown in a range of foreground and background color combinations instead of using white text on a blue background. When the left or right remote control buttons are held down to browse the library quickly, a two-letter prefix of the current album name is prominently shown as a visual aid. The Picture Library includes new slideshow capabilities, and individual pictures can be rated.

For television support, the Windows Media Center "TV Pack" released by Microsoft in 2008 is incorporated into Windows Media Center. This includes support for CableCARD and North American (ATSC) clear QAM tuners, as well as creating lists of favorite stations.[50]

A Windows Media Center gadget is included as well.
[edit] Format support

In addition to media support in Vista, Windows 7 will add playback of media in MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVCHD, ADTS, M4A, and WTV multimedia containers, with native codecs for H.264, MPEG4-SP, ASP/DivX/Xvid, MJPEG, DV, AAC-LC, LPCM and AAC-HE.[51]

Transcoding is integrated in the Windows Shell — the necessary conversion will happen automatically when a media file is dragged and dropped on the device icon.[citation needed] A new inbox video encoder will support encoding to H.264 1-pass CBR Baseline profile up to 1.5 Mbit/s, 640x480pixels at 30 frame/s. Audio encoder will support Low complexity AAC stereo at 44.1 or 48 kHz sample rate and 96, 128, 160 or 192 kbit/s bit rate.

Win8 64-bit Pro Retail
Intel i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
MSI Z87-G45 Motherboard
ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II OC 2GB GPU
1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored) Drive Array
Several scratch drives for video, TMP, pagefile.

Not sure how that relates to this issue, but thanks for the warning about Windows 7!!
Not in windows 7 (yet, but am going). Need a new card...always used nvidia, but I will buy anything that works!!
I understood that this card was a re-branded GT 9800..Wonder what I need??

Just for laughs, download this little hard disk utility that measures your hard disk performance. Run it a few times and see what it says.

http://www.steelbytes.com/?mid=20

Win8 64-bit Pro Retail
Intel i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
MSI Z87-G45 Motherboard
ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II OC 2GB GPU
1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored) Drive Array
Several scratch drives for video, TMP, pagefile.

Well, I have plenty of time to laugh, waiting for a rendering.
Hard drive is pretty fast. CPU pegging is more of an issue!

Here is a screenprint

Quote: OK, Upgrade complete..


I have a feeling that I will have to replace the video card, as on this system, even the full-screen playback of videos is "jerky"

Fred I have a feeling there may be something else going on, If I have a complicated video to render I do notice my cpu go up instead of the graphics card handling it all. I have an old Nvidia 9800GT and my video playback is smooth as. I have a more powerful cpu but am using windows 32bit with 3 gig of ram.

It may be your codecs causing problems also. I have K-lite codec pack installed on my computer which gives you a player called Windows Classic media player. I have also heard FFdshow mentioned by Dafydd.

Have you tried Splash lite a new video playback program. I have found it plays back my videos in better quality also.

http://www.mirillis.com/

Hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Yeah, I think you are right. I had this problem with another system and can't remember what fixed it. Maybe a driver update...Unfortunately...there isn't one for this card....

Grr...just realized that part of the issue is not related at ALL to PD or the card. New system...needed NEW flash plugin for Firefox!!!

Found out by googleing and finding an old flaming post from MYSELF in the past!!! LOL

Still no explanation for the 100% CPU peg when rendering with enhancements.

Quote:
I understood that this card was a re-branded GT 9800..Wonder what I need??

Correct. The GT230 is essentially a 9800 GT architecture but made on a much smaller manufacturing process which allows higher clock speeds and far less electricity usage.

I'm quite confused on how your card is not being able to play 1080p video smoothly. Have you uninstalled your graphics and motherboard drivers and updated them with the latest versions?

I recently built a tiny micro-itx media center PC which has a little dual core 1.6ghz Intel Atom processor coupled with the nVidia ION 9300 GPU, 2gb ram, and a laptop hard drive... and it plays 1080p blu-ray quality video just fine on my home theater system.


As for programs to playback video, I always use Media Center Classic Home Cinema along with the "full" codec pack from here: http://www.codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_full.htm

Make sure you setup your video rendering in MPC to use these settings to get DXVA to work properly.

DirectShow Video: EVR Custom Pres. **
RealMedia Video: DirectX 9 **
Quicktime: DirectX 9 **

Also make sure you select the box which says "process priority above normal" under options as well.

And when setting up the K-Lite codec pack, try and stick with ffdshow for most video formats unless it specifically states you should pick a different option in order to get DXVA working.
Intel Q6600 G0 Quad @ 3.6ghz
EVGA 780i SLI FTW
EVGA GTX 285 FTW 1gb
8gb Corsair Dominator DDR2-1066mhz 4x2048
2x WD 74gb 16mb Raptor 10k
SATA RAID-0
2x WD 16mb 640gb SATA2 RAID-1
Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum
Win 7 Ultimate

Robert,

When you download the K-Lite Codec pack it comes with ffdshow.

Fred,

I also use both the Splash player and Media Player Classic Home Cinema to play my HD videos. As long as MPC is setup properly you can used GPU acceleration. I have no problems playing 1920x1080i AVCHD at 24 Mb/s.
------

My editing computer is a small HTPC with a microATX motherboard. Due to space limitations from the case and MB, I'm restricted to shorter video cards which do not extent out too far. As a result I could not use anything larger than a Nvidia 9500GT. My CPU is a Q9300 at stock speeds. When I render to AVCHD and the video does not have too many fancy effects my CPU usage is about 30%. However, just as Fred observed, once I add an extra video in the PIP tack or add more effects my CPU usage will reach 100%. My operating system is XP SP3.

My video card is still helping since I always see a reduction in rendering time with hardware acceleration even though my CPU is maxed out. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Quote: As long as MPC is setup properly for GPU acceleration I have no problems playing 1920x1080i AVCHD at 24 Mb/s.
------

Hi Jim,

My MPC plays my HD videos fine, how do you set up MPC for GPU acceleration? I couldn't find any settings that mentioned GPU acceleration.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Robert,

Check out this thread about half way down. I included some screen shots for Donald and provided a link you can check out.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/8424.page Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Thanks Jim,

I will check it out, although my MPC must already be using GPU acceleration as I just checked my cpu usage while playing my 1920X1080 video full screen with my tv tuner playing in the background my cpu peaked at 10-12%.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

It probably is. Maybe by chance you had the settings set up properly. Before I did any changes I would get pauses and skips when playing my HD Canon video. Now I get about 5% CPU usage and everything is fine. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT