resolume arena 4 and 5, video stuttering, gtx 970,i7

[Oaktown]

Just a thought: I don't use audio in my comps which may be one of the reasons why I don't experience the kind of stuttering that's described in this thread.

[cosmowe]

Oaktown, are you using BPM sync with your clips? Or are you always use the timeline mode?

If you always use timeline mode you will get a much much better smoothness. But if you use BPM sync with all or some of your clips but don't have any sound output from your machine.. I guess you set your audiobuffer size to the lowest possible?!

Hint for all I guess... When you use BPM Sync for your clips but never playback sound...you don't need a good external soundcard... just lower the audiobuffer size in Resolume to the lowest value possible to get the best "possible" smoothness.
An external or internal audiocard does not affect clip smoothness which are in timeline mode!

For those of you who are using sound...for example in corporate shows (Trailers..ect.) do not merge video and sound into one clip...place the uncompressed wav in the layer underneath your trailer clip and trigger via column trigger to get the best smoothness "possible".

Best wishes
cosmowe

[Joris]

The problem with discussing problems with stutter, is that the term 'stutter' is just too vague and means different things for everybody. So far it has led people with simple solvable problems to accuse us of rigging our fps meter, having secret private builds and all sorts of other fun tinfoil hat conspiracies.

Playback has indeed been problematic in the past. We never denied this and openly discussed it at length. These are the discussions that Supernova is referring to.

With the 4.2.0 release, we made a huge improvement in playback smoothness. This fix solved most smoothness issues for most people.

Of course, there are still small issues. For instance, because we're first and foremost VJ software, our playhead positioning behaviour is designed for improvisation and playback at variable speeds. The playhead positioning behaviour of for instance Quicktime Player X is designed for linear playback. This is why it only offers incremental speed options (2x, 5x 10x, 30x, 60x). As you can imagine, perceived smoothness is one of the reasons why this behaviour is limited this way.

Of course, a lot of this depends on your definition of smooth. I'm confident that the current version of Resolume is able to play back a 1080p talking head video without noticeable stuttering on a pre-retina MBP. If you see a noticeable difference with other software, or would require additional hardware to get the results you want, we'd love it if you contact us directly, with examples of how we can see what you're seeing.

[Oaktown]

Oaktown, are you using BPM sync with your clips? Or are you always use the timeline mode?

All my work is done with timeline mode and I never use BPM sync for any of my clips. Actually I DREAM of the day when Resolume Arena will be able to include a global timeline where I can manage my work in real time but that's part of a totally different thread!

This brings up a good point though! if one uses BPM, the clip is more than likely played at different rate than the original clip's frame rate which as far as I understand would introduce normal stutters when 1) the clip frame rate and the BPM can't sync in real time or 2) when there is not enough frame to support the BPM. Resolume doesn't have a live blending engine (regular, motion-blur flow, optical flow) that interpolates the missing frames so it's bound to skip at some point introducing stuttering.

Even though I use timeline mode, I take great care in preparing the clips I create to make sure they play smoothly which is I why I always use 30fps ND. Now if I use media that was created by someone else, I will always rerender at the original frame rate.

For those of you who are using sound...for example in corporate shows (Trailers..ect.) do not merge video and sound into one clip...place the uncompressed wav in the layer underneath your trailer clip and trigger via column trigger to get the best smoothness "possible".

Corporate shows are the only time I would use audio on clips but unfortunately there is usually no time to extract the audio from the clip. Quite often there is barely enough time to re-encode to DXV3 but I guess one could place two iterations of the same clip, remove the audio from one and the video from the other and trigger them at the same time.

Playback has indeed been problematic in the past. We never denied this and openly discussed it at length. These are the discussions that Supernova is referring to.

My main issue was the fact that Supernova described the stuttering as an unavoidable fact that everyone experience when it's not so.

[Supernova]

I am glad you found the magic recipe. Others of us have not been so fortunate.

[Joris]

If you see a noticeable difference with other software, or would require additional hardware to get the results you want, we'd love it if you contact us directly, with examples of how we can see what you're seeing.

@Supernova, this last bit was specifically directed at you. Help us help you

[Supernova]

Thank you so much Joris. I would greatly appreciate some help. Is there a number I can call?

[Joris]

It's probably best if you just contact us via mail@resolume.com, as you did before. Preferably with an example of the stutters.

I'm not doubting that you're experiencing stutters. It's just that we don't. So either we have different definitions of stuttering, or you are seeing something different than we are. Either way, we need some way to see what you see. And a phone call is not the best medium to communicate something visually.

[Jorunas]

Problem persists
Help needed

[Joris]

As mentioned above, it's best if you contact us via mail@resolume.com, preferably with an example of the stutters.