Newbie with performance issues

Ultrapurple

Hi all

I'm new here and new to VideoPad (Professional, V6.10), coming back to video editing after a looong break (last software I used was Adobe Premiere 5.1, back when we thought MiniDV was the best thing ever). But I digress.

I'm having severe usability problems with the speed of VideoPad. My PC is Windows 7 running on an i7-4790 (4 core, 8 thread) at 3.6GHz, 16GB RAM, fast-enough SSD [>500MB/s linear read and write, _40MB/s 4kb random read and write], nvidia GTX1070 video and 4k monitor. My project is a four-camera shoot using mixed video sources - two 1080p HD, one 2k7 and one 4k 2160p - and the event I was filming was about an hour. The source files total about 52GB and my aim is to do a non-linear edit to combine the footage, switching from view to view as the event unfolds. All the source files are stored on the SSD.

Editing is taking absolutely ages because the Clip Preview and Sequence Preview windows aretaking up to several minutes to respond to moving the cursor in the timeline (this with just two video tracks in place and no transitions or cuts, yet). The thumbnail previews on the timeline can take ten minutes to render.

I have done the usual thing of setting the preview resolution to low (512 x 288), made sure that the the cache files go onto the SSD rather than a mechanical disk, and so on; Task Manager reveals nothing much going on in the background (VideoPad is typically eating 50-98% of CPU) and Resource Manager shows there are no unexpected disk transfers going on in the background.

Way back with Premiere 5.1 I found the previews pretty much kept up with what I was doing and, even allowing for the fact that there's a lot more data to churn around, my desktop PC is far, far faster than the 20-odd-years-ago machine that I was using then.

Can anyone please make any suggestions about what I should look for?

NB I can't just re-size everything to 1080p because the higher def cameras were chosen and placed so I could pan and zoom in the edit. But I haven't started any transitions or editing yet: I have spent nearly a day trying to sync the start points of just two video tracks, not because of ineptitude but because the system is behaving so slowly. Again I ask, can anyone make any useful suggestions please?

borate

It would be enlightening for developers to test the two video tracks that preview slowly. If feasible, with your project on the time line, please click FILE|SAVE PORTABLE PROJECT. Upload every file that results to DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like. Make the link public and post it here. If there are numerous files, zip them first, then upload the ZIP file.

Three thoughts...

Was the cache cleared prior to beginning the new project? OPTIONS|DISK. Doing so now will make loading slow, of course.

Toggle video hardware acceleration on/off under OPTIONS|EDITING, to see if there's any improvement.

Break up the project into usable 'chunks' - each a sequence. Assemble the sequences later. Bear in mind that a sequence - saved, or dragged into a new sequence from the bin - becomes one continuous clip, combining all the clips it contains.

Ultrapurple

Thanks for your suggestions. Whilst I understand the frustration of not having access to files, the project is a family funeral that was filmed strictly on the understanding that the images would not be published (the video is intended for some close relatives who could not attend). In theory I could create comparable files by filming a clock or something with the same cameras but that might take a while.

The cache is probably not an issue. This was a brand new, clean install. However, I have now tried 'clear all cache files on exit' and re-starting (and turning the option back off again); there was no perceptible effect.

I also toggled hardware acceleration, again with no difference noted.

I understand your suggestion about breaking the project into chunks but I'm not sure that is entirely appropriate here. My initial problem remains that the system is presently too slow for me to do the basic steps necessary before I can even start that, specifically, I can't manually sync the video tracks together because of the speed issue. If I was able to do that I could, probably, break it into (say) 10-minute sections and work on those separately, possibly rendering them as 'final' outputs to be tied together in one final, separate stage. But of course that relies on getting them synced in the first place.

Main audio was recorded by two radio mics separately feeding the L and R channels of one camera, plus there were on-camera mics that picked up other things (such as one wide view that was placed above the organ, hence picking that up rather well, and so on). These need to be in sync - at least to lip-sync quality - because the camera with the best view ironically had the worst audio.

Any and all further suggestions will be very gratefully received.

borate

An alternative to posting the URL to an upload in the forum is the personal messaging feature. No files or links will be made public, but shared only with the developers.

Ultrapurple

That I can probably do (if I can find somewhere that will transfer 50GB for free...)

Please send me a PM with further instructions.

I am in the process of uploading (most of the) files via Filemail - about 35GB total, which will take at least 10-12 hours at my connection speed.

borate

Click the mail icon at the top right of the page, then COMPOSE NEW. Type the user name into the TO field and it will self-complete.

You can send the files, or a portion thereof that exhibits the problem, to me or to c_major (admin).

Ultrapurple

Thank you; I have done so.

I apologise that my request for further instructions was somewhat curt.

Ultrapurple

I believe I have solved this. It appears to have been down to a Windows power scheme setting that - for some unknown reason - had been set to 'balanced' rather than 'performance'. The net result was that the i7-4790 processor almost never went above 800MHz clock even though it's rated at 3600MHz (3.6GHz), 4GHz boost.

I discovered this by running a graphics benchmark. The PC had been behaving fine as a 4K gaming rig (which just shows how much of the work is done by the graphics card) but one of the tests was intentionally CPU-intensive. That revealed what was going on. I checked the BIOS and anything else I could think of but in the end discovered it was Windows 7 trying to be helpful and throttling the life out of the processor.

To fix this issue, go to Control Panel / hardware and sound / Power options / Select a power plan - and then here's the fun: high performance is a hidden option that you have to find via the 'additional plans' dropdown.

Making this simple change has significantly improved the performance of VideoPad but, interestingly, not the GPU-intensive first-person shooter games that I enjoy.