Quadro CX, Prospect HD and PPCS4:

[Simon Zimmer]

Hello,

Right now I am using Prospect HD and PPCS4 and the playback on the timeline is quite slow.

My computer setup is as follows:
z600
12GB
2 quad cores (2.0GHz)
Nvidia Quadro NVS 295
Windows 7

I am wondering if I upgrade my graphics card to the quadro CX, if the playback on the timeline should improve dramatically?

I know the Quadro CX is expensive but I need to improve the performance somehow. I can't think of any other solution at this point.

Simon

[Simon Zimmer]

By just playing a video (1080-30p), my cpu is running at 98%.

http://www.aguayuda.org/Uploads/CPU_Overloaded.png

This explains the slow playback in PPCS4 but why is the CPU so overwhelmed by such a simple task.

Any ideas?

Simon

[David Newman]

If that Z600 fitted with i7 based Xeons? If so something is very wrong. My single quad i7 (3Ghz) plays 1080p only using 20-25% CPU within CS4 (while CS4 is still a hog, that gives smooth playback.) I noticed you have red on your timeline, yet I can't see any filters. So other reasons for high CPU load :
1) You are mixing frame rates 24.0fps with 23.976 or 30.0 with 29.97 (and frame blending is active.) The slight rate change makes Premiere do too much extra work.
2) You have clips flagged as interlaced on a progressive timeline.

The Quadro CS will not likely help.

[Marty Baggen]

Simon.... are you playing HDV or CFHD clips from your timeline?

HDV native captures are not an edit friendly format, so I wouldn't be surprised if your system's CPU was taxed heavily with playback if that is indeed the case.

I've never done an A/B comparison, but I am certain that CFHD clips are much easier on the CPU.

So far as the graphics card... Premiere (at least not until CS5 and the Mercury Playback) does not benefit from any GPU acceleration.

[Simon Zimmer]

Yes, they are the Xeon ones. Not sure what I am doing wrong either.

All the clips are cineform .avi's and all are 30p.

Not sure why the red either. Most do not have a filter. A few do.

:(

I will try to turn off the frame blend.

If I render, I still get the messed up preview in the monitor.

Any ideas?

Simon

[David Newman]

Check with interpret footage for the precise frame rate, and whether it is set to progressive, can if needed. You have something wrong in Premiere if red is shown without filters.

>> If I render, I still get the messed up preview in the monitor.

I know nothing about this, have you reported that to support?

[Simon Zimmer]

Hi David,

I just sent support an email about it.

So David, are you telling me with your system you are able to use PPCS4 and Cineform just fine except for the missing RTE?

You can export movies and everything?

No issues at all?

Simon

[David Newman]

Yes, CS4 works fine, other than its resistance to being accelerated. I use CS4 for my personal projects, while CS3 is still faster, is doesn't like large projects which are better in CS4.

[Simon Zimmer]

Wow! I had no idea.

Hopefully, support can help. They are working on it. :)

If I could render files and view the timeline, that would be great. Though I did try to export a movie via media encoder and it got stuck there too. sighhhh!

I just can't win.

Simon

[Simon Zimmer]

It works!

PPCS4 had another bug if you can believe that.

Error: "Encoding Failed. Could not read from the source" (Adobe Media Encoder CS4 on Windows)

But the solution worked!

Wow! I am actually editing and exporting in CS4 with cineform.

Scary!

Thanks David and Jake for the support!

:)

simon