Large video files cause the session to run too slow and stutter

lziblat wrote on 10/3/2014, 8:52 PM

I've been using MEP for about two years.

This year I'm for the first time editing complex videos, meaning: More tracks, and higher resolution. In this case 1080 x 1920.

Currently I am using a session which is supposed to have up 6-10 tracks running parallel. Its a music video and I'm starting with using an mp3 audio track (eventually I'll export it with a wav).

The video in this session is not flowing properly. The music is the only thing that keeps flowing almost perfectly, but the videos get constantly stuck (way too often to be able to work at all).

The files are uncompressed AVI files (30G for 2:26 minutes), which makes it understandable that they might be a lot to handle for my computer, but I had similar problems with significantly smaller mov files (1G for 1:13 mins) .

I tried lowering the playback resolution but this doesn't make any difference (at least nothing substantial).

I don't intend to make this my profession and I can't invest on my computer right now. I just need to finish off 2-3 such video's in the coming months.

Any suggestions?

My system:

Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 5600+ 2.80 GHz
8,00 GB RAM
64 bit system

I'm using 7200 rpm HD's.

Beyond your experience and "dry knowledge" I'd appreciate some creative brain-storming to be able to manage this.

Thanks.

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 10/4/2014, 3:48 AM

In a nutshell your computer is not powerful enough to enable smooth playback in the preview monitor when you have multiple HD video tracks.

However there may be a couple of ways to improve the playback performance - you may not get totally smooth playback with so many HD tracks on the timeline.

If you are using Movie Edit Pro 2014 or later in the projects settings turn on Automatically create proxy files.

Note: when you do this MEP can take a while to create the proxy files - these are lower resolution less compressed files which reduce the load on the processor for playback in the preview monitor. When you export your video the full resolution files are used

If your computers motherboard will take it double the amount of RAM you have - this will take some of the load of the processor when it has to swap data to / from the hard drive - more data is held in memory.

HTH

John

lziblat wrote on 10/4/2014, 5:56 PM

Thank you John

I must admit I'm apparently not very handy, but I can't find this option. I only have "progrem settings" as opposed to project settings as you suggested. I also searched the help file and its not there.

In fact I'm not sure anymore its a 2014 version. I only know it was installed in January 2014.

So: How do I find this out? And if its indeed a 2013 version, does it mean I don't have a parallel option?

Thanks again. I appreciate it!

johnebaker wrote on 10/5/2014, 3:35 AM

When you start the program you get a splash screen which tells you the name of the program - this is Movie Edit Pro 2014's splash screen

You can also find the exact version of the program by going into Help, About Movie Edit Pro...

If you have Movie Edit Pro 2013 in which case the proxy file option is not present,

The jerkiness will only be in the playback of the timeline, when you create a disc or export the movie the video should be OK. Exporting or burning a disc can take a long time.

John

lziblat wrote on 10/5/2014, 9:28 AM

Thanks again.

Well, I don't get a year date on the 'about section'. Only the fact that its version 11.0.6.0. Actually the fact I had to check there speaks volumes because I don't receive this opening window you attached below.

But I did - however - take one first important step, and that is I exported the shots I wanted to use to a much much smaller file. About 90G came out as a 230 MB .mov, and the resolution is the same (1080x1920). I have no idea how this is possible!!!

Its still stuttering but its at least moving a bit. However, I know that this is going to be HELL for me to work with, so any extra tips are still most welcome.

lziblat wrote on 10/5/2014, 9:28 AM

Thanks again.

Its still stuttering but its at least moving a bit. However, I know that this is going to be HELL for me to work with, so any extra tips are still most welcome.