Working with AVCHD is choppy - Is my system powerful enough?

jeff

Newbie Joined: Jun 16, 2009 19:01 Messages: 1 Offline

Solved by

Jun 21, 2009 21:22

Can anyone please give me advice?

I'm using AVCHD from my Canon HG20. When I start to manipulate the clips with effects etc., it gets very choppy. Video stops and starts while audio continues okay. It takes a while to go to the frame I select etc.

Is my system not powerful enough? Is it the video card?

I have Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E4700 @ 2.60Ghz, 3GB RAM, Vista Service Pack 1, NVIDIA GeForce 9300GE.

Thank you for your help.
Jeff

pjc

Senior Member Location: Aus Joined: Sep 12, 2008 03:48 Messages: 262 Offline

Jun 21, 2009 22:07

Quote: Can anyone please give me advice?

My advice would be to use the search function of the forum. (1st icon below the title Cyberlink Community Forum above)

Searching "AVCHD" brought up 3 of the first 5 hits with people asking the similar question.

But to answer yours : No

BradyB

Senior Member Location: Springfield, Illinois USA Joined: Feb 24, 2007 07:38 Messages: 153 Offline

Jun 21, 2009 23:51

Hi Jeff,

After importing AVCHD files, I usually add them to the timeline, and then let my computer sit for a while. In the background, PD is making a low-res copy of the AVCHD file to work with while you are editing.

I usually monitor this process in Windows Task Manager. Under the Performance tab, you can see the process taking up 40% of your CPU.

When CPU usage returns to normal, PD has finished making these low-res copies and you can edit your video very smoothly.

Hope this is helpful. Your system appears adequate.

Brady

James W

Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline

Jun 22, 2009 07:41

Jeff,

The first thing I would do in your case is to defragment your hard disk after the video files have been copied to your hard disk. After that is complete I would set the preview in PD to low. On the software end you may want to install the K-Lite codec pack. It contains ffdshow and media player classic. That combo has support for almost every video format including H.264 (same as what the HG20 encodes in) and PD seems to run better as well (it helped my 2 GHz laptop). Just be aware that the K-Lite codec pack also comes with several other utilities that you probably never use and that hardware acceleration (video card acceleration for HD decoding) is not used.

For you computer itself I would say it is right on the cutline for today's AVCHD format, but you are limited for future advances. My previous CPU was an E7200 at 2.5 GHz. It was able to play fine in the timeline, but rendering was very slow. I am also using a Canon HG20, but I never tried the camera's MXP (24 Mb/s) settings using that CPU. If these suggestions do not work I would get a lower end quad core (~Q8200-Q9400). Your current motherboard may support such CPUs and you could keep your E4700 for a second computer.

A good deframent utility I use is called defraggler. It was suggested by someone else on this forum and you can find it by a quick google search.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Jun 22. 2009 08:07

Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT