WINDOWS 10 HOME / INTEL CORE i5 2310 2.9ghZ / 64 BIT / 8GB RAM / nVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti / 128GB FREE OUT OF 1.35TB / WINDOWS VERSION 1703 / VIDEO FILES MP4 / MAGIX VIDEO PRO X VERSION 15.0.4.176 (UDP3)

The film is a comedy designed to raise autism awareness. It will raise funds for charity... and these crashes are the last thing I need. Any advice will be much appreciated.

Hi Mark,

I can see a couple of potential problems although it would help to know what you are recording at apart from just MP4. What bit rate, frame rate and is it full 4k or UHD?

Looking at your specs, I would suggest that your PC is on the borderline for working with 4K footage. 8Gb ram is not a lot for the much higher processing requirements of 4k and an Intel i5 2.9Ghz is also not up there with the i7. I would also be concerned about only having less than 10% of your total hard drive space remaining for working with, due to possible fragmentation of the files.

For my own 4K work, I have an Intel i7 3.4Ghz quad core 8 thread CPU, 16 Gb DDR ram and keep at least 25% of my hard drive space available at all times. I find that with 4k work, things can start to slow down with lots of effects and processing and I feel that my Ram needs to be increased to at least 32Gb.

937Gb of files is a hell of a lot of files for one project. For a typical 3 camera wedding shot in 4k I would expect to end up with a third of that size as a maximum.

When you say that it is taking up to 30 minutes to get into the software, do you mean loading a blank VPX project, or a complete loaded timeline? My system will load to a blank VPX project from shutdown in about 45 seconds and a two hour 3 camera timeline will take around 60-90 seconds to load depending on numbers of effects, from an already running system.

Roger

Hi.

I suspect that a combination of your total file/folder size, 4K video, a "relatively" slow CPU, only 8GB RAM and only 128GB free on your HDD are all combining to produce the problem you have! Have you tried reducing playback resolution (click the lightning symbol below the program monitor or press P)? Using this will lower the demands on VPX and your PC whilst you are editing but export will still be at your chosen full resolution.

Would creating more folders and sharing the footage out improve performance?

I doubt this will have any real effect since the bottlenecks are undoubtedly in the processing speed etc. of your computer.

Jeff

Hello Roger and Jeff. Thank you both for your advice.

It takes 30 minutes to load my project, which has a full timeline (currently 90 minutes). Plus audio and FX.

I have clicked the lightning button. Thanks.

I've already nearly-emptied my PC of other contents. Pix, videos, docs, have all gone to external hard drives. So the only way I can free up more space will be to delete the unused footage (yes, everything we shot is in the folder). So, can you help me by answering these questions...

1: Am I right in thinking there is a way of 'cleaning up' the folder by automatically deleting unused footage?

2: If so, where is it and is it safe?

3: Someone today suggested an external graphics card. Any use?

4: Should I get the RAM increased?

5: Or buy another PC?

Mark

Hi Mark.

Unfortunately, I think the major bottleneck of your PC is the amount of RAM and the speed of your CPU. So, although clearing space on your HDD could help you I fear its effect will be minimal.

The only safe way I know to "clean up" your source folder is to have VPX create a Project Folder into which it will put a copy of every file you've used in your project. Once the project is completed, but not before, you can then delete all folders associated with your project except that Project Folder. However, should you find you need to return to the project in the future (e.g. to carry out further editing) you would have to accept that all your "unused" files are now deleted.

There is, under the File menu, a "Clean up wizard"; I have never used it but I suspect it is designed to do the above tasks for you.

I can see no benefit at all in adding an external graphics card (I'm not even sure what one is!). You would be, in effect, adding another processing stage for your PC to handle.

Should you increase the RAM? Yes, if your motherboard etc. can/will support it. I run with 32GB.

A new PC? Yes, but a higher-spec CPU (e.g. an i7 if your current motherboard will support it) might be a "cheaper" option.

Jeff

There IS a project folder showing in the bottom right hand corner. But where is that on my hard drive? Essentially, I have chosen the footage needed for the film. Further, everything has been retained on SD cards, so deleting footage from my PC would not be an issue. Perhaps I should take the plunge and use the clean-up wizard? I will definitely consider upgrading my PC (if it can be done). But, meanwhile, do you think a PC like this one would fit the bill...

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/pc-specialist-vortex-fusion-le-gaming-pc-10164419-pdt.html

There is one other possibility. If your final delivery is to be in HD rather than 4K, you could convert your footage to a lower resolution. For instance if you import no more than say 30 minutes of files at a time, you could convert them to mp4 at 1080x1920 at perhaps 20,000kbs which would allow you to maintain HD quality and vastly improve your editing speed. Because it was shot in 4k, it will still have better colour rendition and dynamic range than if shot in HD.

Roger

Good point. But the film is to be screened in a cinema, big screen... and the guy there reckons they can handle 4K. So I was hoping to keep that for the best results. But only if practical.

There IS a project folder showing in the bottom right hand corner. But where is that on my hard drive? Essentially, I have chosen the footage needed for the film. Further, everything has been retained on SD cards, so deleting footage from my PC would not be an issue. Perhaps I should take the plunge and use the clean-up wizard? I will definitely consider upgrading my PC (if it can be done). But, meanwhile, do you think a PC like this one would fit the bill...

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/pc-specialist-vortex-fusion-le-gaming-pc-10164419-pdt.html

That would certainly do the job, but you could save money by going to a private builder. I did that at the end of last year and saved over £300 with a similar spec to the one you linked to. The other drawback with a retailer PC is that they are pre installed with totally unnecessary bloatware that will slow things up a bit a keep giving you regular reminder popups.

I had an nVidea GT7400 installed when mine was built, but after taking advice on this forum found that in fact with the i7 cpu the graphics on the cpu are actually faster than the nVidea card with VPX, so I have now removed it and could have saved a further some of money. I am having a 2nd editing PC built in the new year and will not bother to have a graphics card in it at all.

Roger