I found a way to speed up loading of 9d

[Paul Fierlinger]

After updating my QT I noticed that loading projects in Vegas slowed down to the same way everyone has been complaining about. I also got an update of DivX Plus, which I happen to like a lot. So I switched the default file types from QT to DivX Plus and Vegas projects now load as fast as they used to in 9c. I tried this with just two projects and got so excited that I started this thread but I want to warn everyone that I haven't REALLY tested my discovery to any depths.

[Paul Fierlinger]

On further testing I am finding that all my projects load just as fast if not faster than ever before but some files are missing (mostly .wav) and need to be manually replaced -- but that is a small concession to the inconvenience of the snail's pace of loading projects.

[Paul Fierlinger]

It turns out that only my Mp3 files are missing and after reassigning this file type to QT nothing has changed with the fast loading speed -- so this is it; FIXED for me!!!

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Paul Fierlinger

...So I switched the default file types from QT to DivX Plus and Vegas projects now load as fast as they used to in 9c...

Hi Paul - very interesting!

Default file types - meaning, in Windows, you've assigned X extensions that would ordinarily open with QT to open with DivX instead.

And this would be .mov, .aif, .aiff - any others? ...but not MP3

Are your timelines heavy on these file types - eg, Canon DSLR footage?

Your experience starts to answer some questions... and raises others!

Can it really be true that Vegas' use of the QT playback engine is readily subject to user control via windows defaults? How about remapping mov to Windows Media Player, which has access to hardware acceleration? What about the still image types that depend on QT, can they be remapped to another player for better results?

The QT player on windows - so many times it's been suspect in poor timeline performance, and maybe render crashes. Coincidentally, the Epic plugin from DVFilm also seems to remap .mov DSLR footage from QT to Vegas' native MXF playback engine.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Hi Seth,

>>>Default file types - meaning, in Windows, you've assigned X extensions that would ordinarily >>>open with QT to open with DivX instead.

>>>And this would be .mov, .aif, .aiff - any others? ...but not MP3

I am strictly a 2D animator, which means I hand draw all my images via the Wacom tablet into a bitmap animation application (TVPaint) which I export to Vegas as an uncompressed (BGR24) avi, where it shows up with QT icons. But now, after blocking QT from processing my avi's and wav forms (and occasionally an mp3 file or JPEG still images) my avi's show up in the Vegas Project Media window as DivX icons.

Otherwise I see no change in image quality or playback speed or quality. Should I be concerned? PerroneFord on the Sony Forum wrote that Divx is unsuitable for professional applications because it is:

1. Proprietary
2. Outdated
3. VERY lossy
4. Not supported in any professional workflow

To me the imagery looks exactly alike and plays back the same way. I make this judgment just by eyeballing the frames, but since I've drawn every one of them I have a pretty good sense of what is the same as my original work and what has suffered losses.

My last step in my professional workflow is to convert all my Vegas clips into a single PNG image sequence for either filmout transfer to 35 mm film, or beta tape transfer for TV broadcast. Should I anticipate quality problems during this last step?

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Paul Fierlinger

therwise I see no change in image quality or playback speed or quality. Should I be concerned? PerroneFord on the Sony Forum wrote that Divx is unsuitable for professional applications because it is:

1. Proprietary
2. Outdated
3. VERY lossy
4. Not supported in any professional workflow

To me the imagery looks exactly alike and plays back the same way. I make this judgment just by eyeballing the frames, but since I've drawn every one of them I have a pretty good sense of what is the same as my original work and what has suffered losses.

My last step in my professional workflow is to convert all my Vegas clips into a single PNG image sequence for either filmout transfer to 35 mm film, or beta tape transfer for TV broadcast. Should I anticipate quality problems during this last step?

I responded the way I did on the Vegas forums because of how you presented your information. And I still stand by what I said there.

However, in THIS discussion you have presented things differently. You have not encoded your files with DivX, you've simply selected it as the default program with which to view those files. Given that, there is no quality difference at all, and nothing to worry about.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Thanks, Perrone.

I would never accuse anyone on these forums of giving me misleading information and if whatever I said might have come across that way, please understand that it might sound like that only because I am not accustomed (and capable) of expressing myself in proper technical conventions.

So what you are saying is that since QT or DivX are just the carriers of the same content it doesn't change anything for me but that it speeds up the importing of my avi's into Vegas. That is indeed good news for me and I will stop worrying.

Thanks to you both,

Paul

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Paul Fierlinger

Thanks, Perrone.

I would never accuse anyone on these forums of giving me misleading information and if whatever I said might have come across that way, please understand that it might sound like that only because I am not accustomed (and capable) of expressing myself in proper technical conventions.

No problem at all. I understand how that happened and it's happened plenty to me. No sweat.

Originally Posted by Paul Fierlinger

So what you are saying is that since QT or DivX are just the carriers of the same content it doesn't change anything for me but that it speeds up the importing of my avi's into Vegas. That is indeed good news for me and I will stop worrying.

Thanks to you both,

Paul

What I am saying is that the way you have CREATED the file has not changed. Only the tool used to view what you've created has. Thus the underlying file is exactly the same. DivX has an encoding piece. And the impression I was left with before, was that you had used this encoding piece on what you had created. This would have decimated the quality of your original files.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Understood -- so can't this workaround be useful to others who can apply it to the way they import their camera footage? It might indicate that the bottleneck is created by QT, wouldn't it?

[Perrone Ford]

It's a very promising prospect. I am going to give it a shot here in the next hour.

[John Estcourt]

It may help sony to figure out what exactly is going on.
I am still talking to sony tech support and trying to upload files to them as they have requested.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Paul Fierlinger

...export to Vegas as an uncompressed (BGR24) avi, where it shows up with QT icons. But now, after blocking QT from processing my avi's and wav forms (and occasionally an mp3 file or JPEG still images) my avi's show up in the Vegas Project Media window as DivX icons...

Ah well, I'm not quite at the same level of excitement as this morning, but this is still a very interesting insight into how Vegas follows Windows default file type settings.

Not as excited because to my understanding QT should never have been the default for opening your AVIs in the first place. AVI should (default) be opened by Windows Media Player, this goes way back in the history of Video for Windows. I suspect that during install of current or past QT, it asked for every media filetype to be defaulted to it, and you or someone clicked "next". This is normal behavior by QT.

Well, perhaps I am still pretty excited. While I think you could have gotten good performance on your AVIs by just reining in QT (which would allow WMP/VFW to reassert their right to the filetypes), still, this is an important insight into Vegas' handling of files.

I should have time for some testing tomorrow - my first test will be to reset the default player for MOV to WMP, and see if there's any difference in how Canon 5d files play on the timeline.

[Paul Fierlinger]

>>>I suspect that during install of current or past QT, it asked for every media filetype to be >>>defaulted to it, and you or someone clicked "next". This is normal behavior by QT.

Essentially you have it right and it stayed that way because all the preceding Vegas versions exhibited no loss of performance with using QT files. Somewhere in the gray past I must have done just that and today I selected the DivX player only because I like a lot of its preferences which allow me to control its behavior from the buttons of my Wacom tablet -- more controls than the wmp allows. I use these players often in the course of editing to check my work at realtime speed and full, sharp screen, using Preview in Player (BTW a function of Vegas I love).

Anyway, just now, after reading your last post I switched back to wmp to see how Vegas will load a project, and not to my surprise it goes just as fast as with the DivX player. So back to Divx for me and I consider myself fortunate that I have no problems with Vegas Pro 9d whatsoever.

Incidentally, I need to resort to previewing with a player much less in 9d because of the heightened picture quality of the secondary monitor.