huge lag with large DXV files!

[jeff32]

Hi!

I've got this apparently unsolvable problem. My set has four decks with mainly three large large video clips and three equivalent audio clips (wave) that lauch together (but on separate layers), recieving MIDI from ableton.

Each video clip is encoded in DXV, and were exported from Premiere on a PC. They're 5 minutes each.

Now on a VP, when I launch them with only two or three effects i get a huge lag, but only on the VP, not on my laptop screen. If I bypass all effects, its ok.

I also tried on an old TV, with a converter box (VGA --> s-video) and here its lagged with or without effects. On my laptop everything still looks ok.

Has anyone had this before? I'm on a mac now and it looked actually better on a PC. But PC brought me a lot of other problems.

After all the clips are not 'that' huge and we're talking about only 2 or 3 effects, nothing exceptional. It seems weird that the video card (since it's DXV) should overheat with this configuration.

My specs:
Latest MacBookPro 15", Intel Duo 2.53Ghz, internal HD 5400 rpm, all clips on an external disk at 7200 rpm (LaCie D-2 Quadra 500GO) plugged with FW800, 4Gb RAM, Video card: GeForce 9400M.

Thanks for any help!

[Joris]

Hey Jeff

Could you give a few more specifics on the clips you're using, primarily the resolution and which effects you're using? Also an approximation of the lag time could be helpful (are we talking frames or seconds?). Is the output lagging, or stuttering? If possible can you send us one of the clips?

Do you get the same results when you re-encode to another codec (like PhotoJPEG on the Mac, for instance)?.

This will help narrow down the possible sources of the problem.

Joris

[jeff32]

Hi Joris!

Many thanks for your answer!

The clips are all PAL resolution (720x576). They weigh appr. 800Mb each. I exported them from Premiere on a PC (trying the same export from my mac right now, but i doubt thats the problem). I used progressive mode to avoid stripes from an interlaced version. Full DXV quality.

I tried several other codecs including PhotoJPEG and JPEG2000 on the mac but its a lot worse. It lagging more.

Now my english/experience is too weak to know the precise difference between lagging and stuttering. But lets say its more like a frame drop. I would say theres only 3 frames played per second on the VP. But its always fluid on the small preview screen in resolume.

As for the effects, I'm using some blur, trails, audio delay, mirror effect. So I know the blur takes alot of memory, but even when I bypass/delete all the effects and consequently the stream has a better flow (almost like on my laptop), then small clips are still triggered with 0,3 sec latency so its still far from perfect.

The only conclusion i get to is that plugging a VGA display (tried on VP, old TV, flat comp. screen) takes so much memory that everything is becoming slower. Does this make any sense at all?

Finally i should point out the fact that even on my laptop the stream is just a always a little less fluid than when the same clips are played in the quicktime player.

I put a short clip with these specs here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/296515651/train_1.mov.html
(the long one are too heavy to download im afraid)


Thanks for you time!
Jeff

[Joris]

Hey Jeff

We can't seem to recreate your problem on our end. I'm playing your clip with 10+ effects through a 25 meter VGA cable and playback is identical on the laptop as on the projector.

Since you mention the laptop screen is playing back normally, and the problem also occurs with Quicktime Player, it actually sounds like the problem has more to do with your graphics card and/or adapters than with Resolume specifically.

Still, could you try if running the clip from the internal drive makes any difference? And what does Resolume say is the current framerate when you're playing the clips (Output -> Show FPS)?

Joris

[HerrNieDa]

may you have exported the video with audio? but that you should have seen!
my suggestion - it's the hardware
on winxp my clips/decks need much more time to load than in win7
on my laptop with xp, even with esata harddrive for video - i hate laptops (and my x1600 graphic chip won't work correctly on newer windows versions - i should try osx :p )
the new "budget" version from macbook pro with 9400m also is not the best solution i think
maybe your laptop has also a shared graphic memory? never worked with something like this!

[Joris]

Another thing which just occurred to me is that this is the only model MacBookPro that shares its memory between the CPU and GPU. Although Apple claims it will always have 256MB dedicated for the GPU, there's a big chance that this is causing the slowdowns....

Joris