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I think you're on the right track. If a project file becomes corrupted, a clean save-as won't always bring it back to life (sometimes it does).
It could well be the best option to rebuild it if other projects seem ok. It's a good tip to make a copy of the file first before opening it for work.
Worse case scenario: run a malware check to make sure your machine is clean.
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Not that I'm aware of, I sometimes find that bad unexpected crashes can corrupt the file/script of the project so a fresh re-save sometimes works to pull everything back together.
I have a habit of making a temporary copy of a project files before actually working on them so I can always go back in the event of a disaster. I keep a few hanging about just in case something bad really happens. It's not just PD, this is a grown habit. I also save often.
When you say a bit buggy, can you decribe what you mean?
What's your hardware?
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You can do that by creating a clipping mask/key mask which runs over the layer of the scrolling text.
The mask needs to be blended from white to black and you place the blend point where you want your text to disappear (fades out).
If you are very artistic you could also have a blend point lower down so the scroll text appears then disappears (fades in/fades out).
Whichever colour you key out (black or white) is the transparent point where the scroll text shows through. A bit like having a curtain half open.
You could check the PDToots site for tutorials.
I haven't got one at the moment but that would be how I would do it.
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Hi bean, try what borgus said, if that still doesn't work you could try this from an old post.
Normally when sound only comes out from the left channel I tend to think its mono. I used to have an old recorder that did that.
On trick is to duplicate that left channel on the right channel and, hey presto, you have stereo.
Good luck.
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That's a good idea Barry and I'm think the overclocking or the H264 compression might be causing pixelation but I was thinking if the footage is pretty clear already, noise reduction will only add an overhead to the process of rendering.
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I would be interested to know, if you have the time to spare.
I'm wondering what the performance gain/loss would be of just having the same video rendered using the Intel alone, then disabling it and rendering it using the Radeon as primary (intel disabled).
What's the trade-off, and it might clear up the issue of the flat-lined Radeon you showed before.
If there's very little to it, I'd be really impressed with the power of that Intel.
Thanks. This has been a good conversation.
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Try:
Activate HD shadow file (OFF)
Producer: remove noise with using mpg1, mpg2, h.264 decoder (OFF)
Hardwareaccelation: Activate Open CL technology (ON)
Hardwareaccelation: Activate hardware-decoding (OFF)
and then if you still get pixelation, try:
Activate HD shadow file (OFF)
Producer: remove noise with using mpg1, mpg2, h.264 decoder (OFF)
Hardwareaccelation: Activate Open CL technology (OFF)
Hardwareaccelation: Activate hardware-decoding (ON)
Using an Nvidia card it seems you get better results if you uninstall the NVidia 3D Vision Driver.
I don't have it installed and according to Nina's post here it can cause problems.
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Flush your system out, open the PD file, save it out using a new name and compact it if you can (collect everything together).
Then try again.
Is this for DVD or Blue Ray?
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Frosty, turn off your Overclocking.
Try rendering with:
Activate HD shadow file (ON)
Producer: remove noise with using mpg1, mpg2, h.264 decoder (OFF)
Hardwareaccelation: Activate Open CL technology (ON)
Hardwareaccelation: Activate hardware-decoding (OFF)
Use MPEG2 and see what you get.
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Rob, that's some useful stuff you posted. Thanks.
Russell,
I made that same deduction looking at the Radeon's chart. It's practically flat-lined.
I know you probably thought about this but I'll still throw it your way...
Quote:
In the BIOS, I have to choose the 'onboard' GPU as primary and make sure the monitor is connected to that HDMI port. The HD7870 is installed in PCIe slot.
So does that mean you have no choice but to have the 'onboard' GPU enabled?
You can't disable it in any way? It's always on and you can't set your primary as something else?
What if you de-select it and plug your monitor into the HD7870 ignoring the message?
Will your computer recognize the new setting?
If you remove/uninstall the HD7870, do you still get the same results?
Or is that what you Intel grapho is showing?
If that's the case, I'd say we're seeing the death of dedicated GPU cards as chip makers start churning out ever more feature rich processors that can handle the jobs that GPUs traditionally handled. I suppose that's why Nvidia has branched out into making CPUs and AMD merged with Radeon. Interesting...
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Russel,
Any chance you have access to a cheap $30 graphics card you could throw in and re-test?
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Additional afterthought:
I'm doing a bit of research on this as well because of another thread... you might already know this but here's what I've found out:
Depending on the type of Intel processor/platform you have (Sandybridge, IvyBridge or Haswell) it supports a newish technology called "Intel Quick Sync Video". Unfortunately, my cpu is an old Lynnfield from 2009 so it doesn't have that. Anyhow, "Intel Quick Sync Video" is a catch-all accelerator for all kinds of video/image/games type application which might benefit from it.
I found these links:
Link to Intel Quick Sync Video (and lo and behold, on that same page near the bottom) link to PowerDirector's 11 page marketing its support for Quick Sync in the blurb.
I think what it comes down to is this:
If your computer is older like mine and doesn't have anything to accelerate video editing, then a high end Geforce/Radeon card is useful, otherwise stick to the capabilities of "Intel Quick Sync Video" if your system has it (mileage may vary depending if there are different flavours of Quick Sync since different CPUs perform slower/faster).
Is there an option to disable "Quick Sync" somehow and re-test using your HD7870, I think PD is using whatever pathway for rendering that Windows is dishing out and it could well be that the shortest path is to Quick Sync (bypassing your HD7870). If you can force Quick Sync to stop then PD has no other option than to use that HD7870 you got, if you know what I mean. Close that gate and see what results you get, would be interesting to find out. This might even be a setting in the BIOS, guessing.
Problem is, I don't think you can multi-GPU using different technologies (your HD7870 linked to Intel Quick Sync somehow) but I do know that you can multi-GPU using same technology like Crossfire for AMD Radeon and SLI for Geforce (I'm not saying you can multi-GPU Crossfire and SLI together, just saying you can if you only use Radeon cards or only use Geforce cards).
Last little bit:
Nvidia uses its CUDA cores to leverage the OpenCL capabilities of an application (like PD offers) while AMD does the same with its line of Radeon multi-core GPUs.
To me it sounds like PD will perform pretty well so long as you have a newish computer setup that supports "Quick Sync" (the higher end the better) or you use a Radeon/Geforce card with plenty of horse power.
Just so you know, OpenCL was started off by Apple although lots of people use it.
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Hi Hellebauer,
I understand what you said but as much as PD might not share workload with a GPU, that video data still has to run up and down between CPU and GPU. That's where the bandwidth comes in useful.
Having a wide bus and plenty of bandwidth is the difference between having a hose-pipe to let the water run through and a drainage pipe. Like a country lane and a motorway. It still helps.
As you say, the GPU may not be working too much but the graphic data is still a lot to be transferred between CPU and GPU.
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What borgus said plus you want your trims to snap back to the end of the previous one. Also check the start (00:00:00:00) to make sure you have no emptiness (black) or voids in your clip.
Eg: (timeline)
[xxxx][--------------][xxxxxxx][-----------------------]
When you zoom in the timeline you might spot a gap (black void) where you used to have [xxx] video clip. So make sure:
[--------------][-----------------------]
<----snap it back
...your clips are back to back.
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If it helps anyone, I found the specs for the HD4600 here. Compared to the GeForce760 (GTX 760) I'd say don't use it. For one thing, these Intel cards tend to share RAM, which isn't such a good idea for rendering.
I base cards specs on two main features, the memory bandwidth and the bit/bus.
Compare the two and you see the Geforce is miles ahead, 192Gb/s bandwidth riding on a 256bit bus (memory interface width). The intel has 26Gb/s riding on a 128 bit bus. That for me alone would make the decision for me to buy the Geforce.
Everything else is just gravy. The more memory on the board the better. The higher the clock cycles the better.
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Thanks acg, I'll keep in touch.
10-20 sec AVHCD files would be brilliant if possible.
I think I could handle downloading that.
Looking at your quote options, I know you've got an SSD in there but what about a separate drive for rendering?
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Yours is the model with DDR3 so it's got 12Gb/s bandwidth.
I know you've done this a million times already but before you get into panic mode:
1. Double triple check you haven't got any malware. Run malware bytes checker, it's free and very good.
2. Clean out your registry with something like CCleaner, you can also set it to get rid of temporary files from PD renders but you have to set this up manually once.
3. Defrag again.
4. Make sure *you're not* rendering to your Toshiba USB3 drive.
5. Disable all automatic updates.
6. Disconnect from the internet.
Once you've checked all this run this test:
First: Downsample (reduce) a 1 minute AVHCD video to an "Uncompressed AVI" using NTSC* SD quality, if it's 16:9 widescreen, you want these presets (if you live in the USA it's NTSC, otherwise use PAL):
For video:
-DV NTSC @ 29.97fps
-720 x 480 (pixel size 1.2121 for 16:9 wide screen)
-Progressive
For audio:
48kHz (48000) 16 bit audio
Next (and keep an eye on PD's performance when you do this):
1. Start a fresh project using the NTSC settings as before.
2. Re-import the Uncompressed AVI back to PD, adjust its width/height to accomodate frame if needed. (Should import fine by itself).
3. Run a voice over on it like you do for your projects.
4. Save.
5. Render it out like an H.264 using these settings:
NTSC 640x360 Progressive 29.97fps widescreen 16:9
Maximum bitrate should be 600.
When you're done get back to me and tell me how it went, and what the output is like.
NB: What you've done is reduce quality of things to test if your machine can handle the edits and there's a faint possibility you might run out of disk space.
edit: Overclocking only makes the motor and wheels spin faster. It doesn't widen the pipe where there could be bottle necks. With video editing there are two major common bottlenecks: how data travels between CPU and GPU, and how fast data travels between CPU and Hard Disk. Just bear in mind that AVHCD video is gargantuan in size. It packs so much data for the hi-definition, frame rate and frame sizes involved compared to old standard SD video. Using H.264 compression for output helps retain most of the quality even though you've downsampled the video.
Also, just some other thoughts, can you explain a bit about your office setup. Is this computer networked to a server, for example, does it have Microsoft Office installed and running some kind of 'synchronizing files' gimmick each time you shutdown/log-off/restart?
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Anything is possible. Each new Radeon card that comes out has 'enhancements' of some kind or other. Faster chips, more ram, different architecture, better bandwidth, new features in the software (Catalyst), etc.
The features you mention sound like they affect the PC as a whole unless it's saved as a profile for a game or a particular software application.
I would switch off each feature one at a time, check its effect against your user experience (in PD in particular), then decide if you need it or not.
Things like edge enhancement are more to do with font rendering, icons on the desktop and image quality in games. Any feature you disable means you're freeing up graphics card cpu time for your videos.
Just make sure to keep a check list of what you disable so you can always go back.
Disabling video sharing alone should give you an almost instant improvement.
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I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase but how old is your card?
Also, can you double triple check your graphics card really is a Radeon HD 5450?
If it is, I have what might come up as some bad news for you... I don't think it's up to scratch for editing AVCHD video.
Looking at this Radeon HD 5450 link your GPU has a memory bandwidth of 6Gb/s, maybe 12Gb/s (look at Speeds and Feeds down at the bottom) depending on the model. According to some websites it was released some time in 2010.
Just for comparison, my GPU is from 2009 (and I'm not saying go out and buy one because they don't make it anymore) Nvidia GTS250 and has a much wider bandwidth of 70Gb/s. It's the pipe that any video/rendering/game has to travel through to get any work done. It makes a huge difference. I'd say some kind of stuttering during editing/rendering could really be to do with a bottleneck at this point.
Any chance you could borrow a different/higher spec card just to test?
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Hi acg,
Quick question re your 8mm films.
How did you keep them from going mouldy?
Did you store them somewhere special or just leave them in their tins?
Would be great to see a short sample of what that Retro can do once you've got it all up and running.
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More than likely it will be a setting on your Radeon's Catalyst widget next to the clock. If you can't see it find the Catalyst control panel through your Start button or control panel and dig it up there.
Catalyst is part of the software that came bundled with your graphics card and works like a control panel.
Good luck.
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Have you fixed this yet CJC?
Reason I ask is because I just spotted that your Radeon is sharing RAM (4gb) with the system. Try disabling that so your PC has the full 8Gb to itself.
AVCHD video needs RAM.
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Also, if this is on standard PAL (4:3) the pixel size should be 1.094. If you use the Targa format for pictures there's a setting to adjust that.
For 16:9, the pixel size should be 1.33 but I can't remember straight off the top of my head.
I think the cause of your 'crops' is a square pixel size (ie: 1.00 setting).
Try, test, try again... and if you haven't tried a pixel size of 1.00 try that even.
Oops... just had a thought... if you're showing zoomed pictures on the TV perhaps someone accidentally pressed the zoom button on the TV remote at home or the setting is 'stuck' somewhere along the disk burn process. Worth a check. Double triple check.
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