Hi fongaboo!
I have exactly the same problem. OSX and XP and how to deal with performance issues
There is the suggestion to use MJPEG and AVI on Windows; PHOTO JPEG and MOV on OSX. And I think that's the way to go! Yes, encode the footage twice!
I did tests on
Windows with some PAL footage (768x576). I used MPEG Streamclip to transcode my footage (100% quality, de-interlaced). Later loaded the file into 3 layers and played them concurrently. files were hosted on an external HDD 7200rpm via eSATA. (However out of curiosity I copied them to my notebook's internal HDD and I could not see any difference in respect of fps)
Here the results:
1) Apple MJPEG-A in AVI --> ~35-39 fps (files are a bit bigger than with Photo JPEG)
2) Apple Photo JPEG in AVI --> ~35-39 fps
3) Apple MJPEG-A in MOV --> ~22-25 fps
4) Apple Photo JPEG in MOV --> ~24-26 fps
So for me it looks like, that playing AVIs on Windows is better than playing MOVs. Maybe that's related to the implementation of Quicktime for Windows? (I've tried to change some Quicktime playback values, but could not see any performance change)
the Testsystem:
Windows XP SP3 / GeForce 9500M 512MB / Intel Core2Duo 2,2GHz with 3GB RAM
Do you think ~35 fps is a normal value? or should it be higher (maybe mod the driver for the display card?)
Is there any other file format than .MOV which could be used on a Mac?
What about frame rates on OSX - some measurements? (I could not check that so far)
