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R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 14:03
by beamUp-Art
Hello, since a couple of weeks I ve got problems.
For some reasons I can't play some clips, when RA is on. The only way to fix it, is to replace the clip by the same again and then it works again. Nothing else is affected.
It is quite annoying when it has happened during the last three live-acts. All my compositions are affected, they got usually 4 Decks. I am using *.mov-videos with H246 codec.
After the last show I cleaned the cooling-system of my Notebook & and I made de-fragmentation....seems to be better now, or is it may be caused by Windows-Updates? I am asking because of most of these posts came out in July?
My Specks : I7 2720 16 gig Ram Gtx560m

Thank you in advance

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 20:48
by Joris
Since your problem doesn't seem to be Flash related, I've placed it in a new topic.

H264 is a terrible codec for VJ'ing. Do you also have this problem when you use DXV encoded files? This is our own codec that we highly recommend to use.

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 10:46
by beamUp-Art
Joris wrote:Since your problem doesn't seem to be Flash related, I've placed it in a new topic.

H264 is a terrible codec for VJ'ing. Do you also have this problem when you use DXV encoded files? This is our own codec that we highly recommend to use.
Thank you for you quick reply, Joris.
Well, I did some tests with your recommended DVX-codec last year, but as I couldn't notice any better performance and the clips are four times bigger than the H264 I stopped using it. So up to now I can't say If it runs more stable than the H264. But I keep that in mind for the future. Why do you think that just triggering a clip using H264 gives a problem and DVX not?
Best regards,
B

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:06
by Joris
Why do you think that just triggering a clip using H264 gives a problem and DVX not?
Because I make this software and therefore have some what of an idea on which codec is good for it and which one isn't... ;)

Really, playing a h264 encoded file places a huge strain on the CPU and memory, which can cause all sorts of problems with performance and stability. It's designed for playing a single stream from beginning to end, but not for mixing video.

I'd be very, very surprised to hear you have the same problems when using DXV.

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 13:41
by craftycurate
beamUp-Art wrote:Well, I did some tests with your recommended DVX-codec last year, but as I couldn't notice any better performance and the clips are four times bigger than the H264 I stopped using it.
The fact is there is a huge performance difference between the two, especially at higher resolutions and with multiple video layers.

H264 is highly compressed for an efficient tradeoff between filesize and quality, which is ideal for streaming video, such as online use. However, this means that the CPU has to do a lot of work to recreate the full frames from the compressed data. Also with DXV, most of the work, as I understand it, is carried out by the GPU. Yes DXVs are much larger but the video information I'm guessing is not so heavily compressed which means much less processing to display the frames which means smoother playback.

DId you check your framerate in Resolume when comparing H264 & DXV? If I run a single H264 1080 clip, my framerate can drop to about 20fps without anything else running, but I can run 4 1080 DXVs at 60fps with layer blending and effects no problem and that's on a modest 650M NVidia GPU.

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 16:38
by beamUp-Art
craftycurate wrote: DId you check your framerate in Resolume when comparing H264 & DXV? If I run a single H264 1080 clip, my framerate can drop to about 20fps without anything else running, but I can run 4 1080 DXVs at 60fps with layer blending and effects no problem and that's on a modest 650M NVidia GPU.
I rendered some Clips in DXV meanwhile and I can confirm a huge performance- impact as you as well, while it keeps on 60fps using DXV.

Again, thx a lot for your reply :-)

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 17:24
by beamUp-Art
Btw, ist there a way to make the Thumbnail also visible with DXV-clips like in the H264 ?

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 17:34
by craftycurate
Are you on Windows? If so, Windows Explorer and Media Player cannot extract thumbnails from DXV clips unfortunately - you will need something like Adobe Bridge or possibly some other media browser that can cope with DXV files.

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 18:07
by beamUp-Art
craftycurate wrote:Are you on Windows? If so, Windows Explorer and Media Player cannot extract thumbnails from DXV clips unfortunately - you will need something like Adobe Bridge or possibly some other media browser that can cope with DXV files.
Oooooh! Yes, I am on Windows. Unfortenaly Adobe Bridge is not a freeware, even quite expensive now!
Do have any other Idea?
Thx in advance,
B

Re: R4 won't play clips!

Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 18:46
by He2neg
Xn View is a good Solution for organise your libary... you can preview dxv and move it around as well..