Messages posted by BeFi

Hi Carl,

Good hint. I am usually producing MPEG2 (SD) or AVC HD.264 formats. I record from TV and trim or multi-trim the MTS streams before rendering into a DLNA-friendly format.

I had generated one or two MPEG4 streams also for testing in the beginning without specific issues.

I haven't done ANY extensive editing so far with PD11 - which may explain why I don't need Quicktime.

I read several times in the forum that PD does not work properly without Quicktime. I am running PD11 without Quicktime installed and it does what I expect it to do. Occasional crashes notwithstanding.

I once installed Quicktime to see whether this addresses these occasional instabilities and did find no difference.

Quicktime remains deinstalled.

Rouding up this thread:

I managed to overcome the stability issues posted by first de-installing Catalyst 12.10 - reboot - then installation of 13.1..

Catalyst 13.1 installs over 12.10 without requiring a prior de-install but that option has not worked in my case. it caused PD11 to crash on every second step taken.

No issues with Catalyst 13.1 and PD11 so far in use. No visible advantages over Catalyst 12.10 either.

I had initial stability issues with PD11 after Catalyst upgrade to 13.1 (see my other post on this subject). I managed to overcome the issues by first de-installing Catalyst 12.10 - reboot - then installation of 13.1.. That helped.

I am only using PD11 to trim video streams recorded from Sat TV and render them to either MPEG2 (SD ) or AVC HD 264 (HD). Occasionally multi-trim but no sophisticated editing so far.

Kingsmeadow,

Same state over here (z77 mainboard, i7 3770s, Intel HD4000 integrated GPU, Radeon 7750 discrete GPU, LucidLogix MVP to control which GPU does what). Display attached to Radeon 7750 dGPU.

Lucid allows me to determine that the iGPU is used without physically connecting my display to the iGPU. With that PD11 offers QuickSync and renders much faster.

Without Lucid PD11 only offers AMD HW Acceleration. Works but works about half as fast as QuickSync.

As you I have never seen both iGPU and dGPU in use by PD11. With or without Lucidlogix.

HdEdit.

If you would have read my post you would have seen that I restored my last image backup of my OS partition after deciding that PD and Catalyst 13.1 are not yet friends. I am back to the before-state with Catalyst 12.11.

I saw you making similar comments to several posters reporting problems. You repeat your claim that the majority of users is happy with PD. How do you know? The only feedback we all have is a forum full of posts that ask for help with a program that seems to have a lot of issues.

Hi light487

I suggest you experiment with the graphics driver version for your Radeons. I had good results with 12.11 and frequent crashes with 13.1 (just released).

I share your frustration about PD11. While it often does what it is suggested to do it is the most unstable piece of consumer software I have seen in quite a while. I am using Nero 10,11,12 since years and it is just a different world in terms of stability and ergonomics. The only disadvantage - and that made me try PD - is that Nero isn't flexible in its use of HW-acceleration. PD is fast - if it works. The Ferrari among the video suites

I updated my graphics driver for my Radeon 7750 from Catalyst 12.11 to the 13.1 level released on Jan 19.
Since the upgrade of the graphics driver PD11 crashes permanently.

I recognized that - after loading a video into the EDIT mode - there is permanent disc activity. Also any user activity in EDIT and PRODUCE mode is responded to much slower than on the previous driver level.

After a few attempts to trim video clips unsuccessfully due to PD11 always crashing I restored my image backup of my system partition on AND driver level 12.11. And - forseeably - PD11 is again working reasonably* stable.

Does anybody have similar experience with the latest Catalyst version?

I am running Win 7 64bit on a Intel Z77 series mainboard, Intel core 7 3770, Radeon 7750 GPU.

Bernhard

*) My experience with Powerdirector is love-hate: It has little flaws and glitches wherever I look. Timelines not adjusted. Video-lengths wrongly calculated, no user-specific defaults, unergonomic UI plus the occasional crash when loading and producing. Observing this forum I seem to even be on the lucky side of things. If PD11 wouldn't have the capability to leverage Quick Sync I would already have it dumped from my computer and sold off on ebay.

Jasper,

Catastrophic crashes point to your graphics card and its relation to the power supply.

First measures are

(1) Check that your power supply is properly connected and can actually provide the power required. Specifically if you use one of those GPU monsters. Your symptoms that the system goes completely dead indicate a connection to an overloaded or defective power supply.

(2) update the driver of the graphics card

(3) Update the BIOS of your motherboard.

(4) Rule out interrupt conflicts: If possible try another PCIe slot for your graphics card. Your mobo may have two or even three.

(5) Unplug and deactivate via BIOS anything else including onboard devices (LAN, sound, video, USB). If that helps selectively re-activate each device until the crashes reappear.

(6) If that doesn't help try to swap your graphics card against an alternative model and see whether the crashes continue.

My experience with system crashes related to graphics applications was this:
I once had an - not yet recognized - interrupt conflict between my onboard LAN and something else in my system. The system seemed completely stable unless I started streaming videos via a specific piece of DLNA software. That BSOD'd my system. Same video through another DLNA server worked. I analyzed the BSOD dumps and got clear indication of the interrupt issue involving my NIC.

Good luck and a Happy New Year

I am rendering MP4.ts streams to AVC H.264 format with no performance issues. The performance of the editing process is seemingly independent of the graphics scenario chosen (iGPU, dGPU or Quick Sync via Lucidlogix Virtu).

Hi pvrvideoman,

I suspect that your hard disk layout limits your system.

The RAM can't be it. I have 16 and I NEVER saw more than 3.6 GB of it used. Remarkable as I had set my system to never swap memory content to disk as per Win7 parameter.

Your system spec says 250 GB HDD. Even assuming thats a SSD you seem to have only one disk. In this case all OS read/write AND the heavy read/write originating by video editing would go to that one poor disk. In my setup video IN and video OUT are always going to different disks and the OS and app data are on yet another (SSD) disk not affected by video editing. When I play around with doing everything on one disk the effect on duration of producing videos is VERY visible.

Again - thats just guessing from the system info you gave in your earlier post.

A comment to your XFX video card: Thats indeed a powerful device but to my recent assessment will not really be as efficient for GPU acceleration as you - and I - probably hoped.

I just reverse-engineered similar questions having bought/built my system already and trying to get the most out of it.

See my findings in the following post http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/26138.page

What this seems to indicate is that any discrete GPU is choked by the still relatively slow PCIe connection while the - much weaker - integrated GPU in the intel core i7's brings the desired acceleration courtesy of its fast bus transfer.

You see me wording my findings cautiously as my humble experiments aren't providing scientific evidence.

Superb Dafydd,

Many Thanks.

PD11 has a few glitches of similar nature - each small but annoying in sum:

E.g. PD11 should remember the last profile used for a particular format. Specifically with custom profiles I need multiple extra steps until I can render - select 'Custom', then select my profile then render.

Another one:
PD11 clutters the target directory of a rendering process with three working folders. Cyberlink should consider keeping those folders in the working directory specified.

Bernhard

Hi Bill,

let me respond to your questions one-by-one:

[Quotes] "... looked at Jeff's analysis .... and it looks like it's not even worth it getting the discrete card"
BF >>> I tend to agree. The acceleration in my fast scenarios seems to come solely from the onboard GPU. The discrete GPU only provides the preview support.

"Note that he made no mention of needing to use Lucidlogix Virtu MVP"
BF >>> Thats a big disappointment for me too. The press suggests that 3rd gen Intel CPUs provide native support for Quick Sync. It took me a while to see the first piece of SW able to use Quick Sync on my machine and only with the help of Lucidlogix.

"...do you think it has anything to do with your using the AMD HD 7750 as opposed to an nVidia GPU?"
BF >>> I can't tell.

"Also, from your analysis, the only way to get the time down to 2.5 minutes was to have both GPUs utilized w/ PD11 added to Virtu MVP. I was wondering what your first scenario [the one that took 5 minutes)] would result in if you added the PD11 to Virtu MVP (or does that even make sense?)? Meaning, display attached to HD4000, 0% usage of HD7750, PD11 added to Virtu MVP, see PD11 switch to 'Intel Quick Sync' (does that even make sense in this scenario?) and then see what the time would be (in order to determine if a fast rendering time can be done only w/ the HD4000"
BF >>> I didn't test that as PD11 always offers Hardware Acceleration even without LucidLogix. HW acceleration using the GPU to which the display is attached. I suspect that the scenario you are interested in will not give any advantages as in this case the on-board GPU HD4000 would shoulder all load. There is no headroom to be expected over the scenarios with Lucidlogix - where the onboard GPU had 80% load already.

My config:
ASUS Z77 V-PRO Deluxe mainboard
Intel Core i7 3770S
Prolimatech Genesis cooler with 2x120mm Noctua fans
16GB Memory (of which I never see beyond 4GB in use)
Seasonic x560 power supply, semi passive
Sapphire HD7750 (passive cooling)
Fractal Design R4 case, two Noctua 140mm fans front/rear
Samsung 830 SSD for Win 7 Prof 64bit
Intel M25 SSD for app data
2 WD Green 3TB each for big data
TBS Sat TV card
The result is a normally silent yet powerful system when required.

I find it rather cumbersome that PD11 Ultra always starts in full-screen mode. That requires two additional clicks and drags every time I want to quickly render a video stream.

Dies anybody have a hint how to modify the start-screen size?

Thanks
Bernhard

Hi metazone21,

I just reverse-engineered the same question havong bought/built my system already and trying to get the most out of it.

See my findings in the following post http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/26138.page

My comparison seems to provdie strong evidence that the integrated GPU is much more efficient than a powerful discrete GPU.

I presume that the higher-end Intel GPUs (i.e. HD4000) are faster than their lower end siblings (i.e. HD3000) in the lower-end core i's.

With Intel QuickSync my ASUS Z77V-Pro / Intel core i3770 Win7 64bit-based system is stunningly fast in editing and rendering HD video and rock stable. I have not overclocked any of my hardware. So I can recommend this combination.

Cheers
Bernhard

I experimented a little bit further with VERY interesting results:

Initial config as reference:
Display attached to discrete AMD HD 7750 GPU
PD11 uses only the discrete 7750 GPU. 7750 GPU 80% load, HD4000 zero load, CPU load app. 15%
The acceleration offered by PD11 says 'Hardware Acceleration'.
Sample video (MPEG4.ts, 20min stream length) renders in 7min

And now the scenarios I went through

(1) I attached my display to the on-board HD4000 GPU -
Result:
PD11 uses only the on-board GPU (HD4000). HD4000 GPU 80 load %, HD7750 zero load, CPU load app. 10%
The acceleration offered by PD11 says 'Hardware Acceleration'.
Sample video renders in 5min (!)

(2) Now I added PD11 to the list of apps in Lucidlogix Virtu MVP (the Graphics virtualization layer) - display still attached to Intel HD4000 onboard graphics. Restart of PD11.
Result: The acceleration offered by PD11 suddenly changed to 'Intel Quick Sync'.
Both GPUs under load. HD4000 - 80%, HD7750 - 2-7% dependent whether preview is used or not. CPU load app. 8%.
Sample video renders in 2:30min

(3) Finally I attached my display back to my AMD HD7750 GPU as the qualityof screen-display is visibly better. PD11 still defined as an app to be accelerated in Lucidlogix Virtu MVP. restarted PD11.
Result: Get the acceleration option 'Intel Quick Sync' presented.
Both GPUs under load. HD4000 - 80%, HD7750 - 1-7% dependent whether preview is used or not. CPU load app. 8%
Sample video renders in 2:30min

NOW THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR - both GPUs employed for superfast rendering.

Question to Cyberlink remains why PD11 is unable to leverage both GPUs natively - i.e. why Lucidlogix is needed. The PD11 product specs explicitely say 'mullti-GPU enabled'. That would warrant a response from Cyberlink!

PD 11 Ultra seems to not use both GPUs in my case. This is were I need help.

I have just installed PD 11 Ultra on my Z77 / core i7 3770 platform. My machine has a on-board Intel HD4000 and discrete Radeon HD 7750. I am using Win7 Prof 64 bit. My monitor is attached to the discrete Radeon but the on-board graphics is explicitly activated in the BIOS.

My PD11 is version 11.0.0.2321.

I verified that PD 11 utilizes CPU and discrete GPU (Radeon) when rendering videos but I could not see it using the on-board HD 4000 as well. I monitor the load on my GPUs with GPU-Z.

Even with the effects marked 'AMD accelerated' it always only uses the Radeon.

Any ideas?