Anyone score for video?

When inserting the marker, check the box "Lock to SMPTE (Real World) Time". You can also right click existing markers to get this dialog.

Hopefully your still around John...any idea why playback is very sluggish in response even though task manager is reporting under 20% CPU usage and 2.5 MB of my 8MB of RAM?
Thanks again,
Randy

Sonar can be fickle playing back video,  and it can be the codecs of your computor/picture and not Sonar sometimes. In the past I would notice sluggish playback on long programs.  Fortunately for me, I can cut my client's videos down into 10-12 minute segments and i would not have any problems.

Sometimes AVI's can be huge.  Is it easy to make a Mpeg1 out of your AVI?  you could try that. 

Jimbo 88


Sonar can be fickle playing back video,  and it can be the codecs of your computor/picture and not Sonar sometimes. In the past I would notice sluggish playback on long programs.  Fortunately for me, I can cut my client's videos down into 10-12 minute segments and i would not have any problems.

Sometimes AVI's can be huge.  Is it easy to make a Mpeg1 out of your AVI?  you could try that. 

Mpg 1 320 x 240 was the first render I tried and X1 reported it didn't support it...then I got the same thing with mp2 so I finally got an .avi accepted.
The whole video is under 7 minutes and the .avi I'm trying to use is 1.8 GB (standard def). 
I run huge HD files with multiple (video) tracks in my NLE (Sony Vegas 10) with no problems but maybe I need to make the file tiny?

Jimbo 88


Mpeg2 has never worked for me.  MPeg1 and AVI under 7 minutes have never given me any trouble.  A 1.8 gig AVI runs very easily for me.

I notice you have 4 harddrives.  Perhaps try it on a different HD.

Good luck..   

Hey Jimbo,
I moved it to my fastest drive and it did seem to help some.

Then I did a save as and closed X1 and then got a windows error stating X1 had some wrong settings but that windows had applied the correct settings and would they take effect after I reopened the program or something like that (yes I should have written it down).
Anyway, I reopened and whatever it did helped a lot and X1 is much more responsive so thanks!

I have found encoding to NTSC DV within avi format to be stable within Sonar,

I'll keep that in mind John thanks!

That may well be variable depending on what codecs you have set up and so on

I would think I have more than most that don't do video production for a living....after the windows message regarding setting up correctly, NTSC widescreen DV seems to work okay.
I just have to get used to not having the control of the timeline as I would in Vegas (ie scrubbing or moving frame by frame as opposed to second by second).

In general, the larger the file size... the less CPU power required to decode or decompress.

In general, our contemporary hard drives can easily play back the larger file sizes without a hiccup while in general, the most highly compressed codecs still tax the CPU capability of even the fastest systems. (unless all you are doing is using that system to play back video)


The term "NTSC DV" could mean a whole bunch of things... For example; is the digital video compatible with Japanese NTSC or USA NTSC?


Is it DV as in 601 digital video? Or is it DV as in Best Buy DV 25Mbit/s type "DV"?

It seems that now a days when someone says "DV" they are probably referring to DV25 but there are lots and lots of DV definitions. DV25 is one of the flavors that are roughly analogous to SONY's DVCAM and Panasonic's DVCPro25 as well as Microsoft's "DV" and Quicktimes similarly named equal.

Apparently, the small DV25 cameras became so wildly popular on the early *internet video* subscription websites and certain DVD collections that DV25 came to be known as DV while all the other flavors of DV have retained their actual specific labels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV

The recommendation to try DV25 is a good one because DV25 is fairly efficient on file size and it decodes quickly with minimal CPU requirements. The downside is the picture looks, well... a lot like DV25.

4:1:1 was a temporary technology.

But it is a solid choice for scoring to video.

It is especially suited for editing because it is not a GOP codec... and so there is no behind the scenes scrambling in the video player to build a frame each time you start and stop.

That makes it real easy on the CPU.

Lately I have been using Cineform's HD codec because it is 4:2:2 and 10 bit so it looks very nice AND it is very light on the CPU. The file sizes are quite large but that hasn't been a problem since even cheap hard drives and controllers became so fast.


In any event... if you want to score to video... you need to choose a codec that you really enjoy and just incorporate the initial conversion into your work flow.


Have fun.


best regards,
mike

Danny Danzi


It pains me to say this Randy, but I just can't seem to use Sonar with video. I HAVE done it, but I just felt like I was fighting with it too much. I would love to use Sonar for everything and I know it's possible...but unfortunately for me, it just doesn't give me the right power like say, Sony Vegas...which is what I use these days. Simple, effective and it really does a nice job on all sorts of video media without any quirks or hang-ups. I very well could be using Sonar improperly...but I just don't have the tools and options I need for what I do in Sonar.

-Danny

I've been using Sonar for composing to shorter clips, and then assembling to the whole movie in Vegas. Neither one can fully take on the role of other I find.

Hey John, you seem pretty knowledgeable about Sonar in the video area. If so, do you feel it could be a go-to video tool compared to Vegas? I just find myself umbling around in Sonar for the right tools/options where in Vegas, it's all so easy for me and I don't even know how to use 1/4 of it like I know Sonar. Every time I try and work with video in Sonar, I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Is it just for basic editing or could you really go nuts with it? Have you ever done any full blown scoring projects in it? Have you ever used Vegas...and do you think Sonar compares? If I could "later" Vegas, I would...I just don't see the options I get with that in Sonar and I really need them. Just curious as to what you take is...thanks...and sorry to hi-jack the thread.

Just curious as to what you take is...thanks...and sorry to hi-jack the thread.

You're not hi-jacking I'd really appreciate some discussion on this.
For me, I would be content to do all the video and VO in Vegas and import the final edit into X1 and just be able to scrub and not have to squint to see the tiny image but I agree Vegas is very intuitive and convenient (ie all the pertinent right-click menus).
But yes, we'd certainly appreciate anyone's suggestions that does this regularly.
Thanks Danny,
Randy

Danny Danzi


It pains me to say this Randy, but I just can't seem to use Sonar with video. I HAVE done it, but I just felt like I was fighting with it too much. I would love to use Sonar for everything and I know it's possible...but unfortunately for me, it just doesn't give me the right power like say, Sony Vegas...which is what I use these days. Simple, effective and it really does a nice job on all sorts of video media without any quirks or hang-ups. I very well could be using Sonar improperly...but I just don't have the tools and options I need for what I do in Sonar.

-Danny

Vegas and Sonar are two entirely different beasts. Vegas is a video editor: it supports multiple audio tracks but doesn't support midi at all. Sonar is music editor (audio & midi) that supports video playback (a bit fussy, but it works) but no video editing. Two very different tools in the toolbox.

Thinking of future potential, I think Sonar would find it easier to incorporate "good enough" video features than Vegas would to become a fully-fledged DAW. It really is something they could increase market share on I reckon.

Couldn't agree more

John T

Danny Danzi


Hey John, you seem pretty knowledgeable about Sonar in the video area. If so, do you feel it could be a go-to video tool compared to Vegas? I just find myself umbling around in Sonar for the right tools/options where in Vegas, it's all so easy for me and I don't even know how to use 1/4 of it like I know Sonar. Every time I try and work with video in Sonar, I just feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Is it just for basic editing or could you really go nuts with it? Have you ever done any full blown scoring projects in it? Have you ever used Vegas...and do you think Sonar compares? If I could "later" Vegas, I would...I just don't see the options I get with that in Sonar and I really need them. Just curious as to what you take is...thanks...and sorry to hi-jack the thread.

I think it depends what you're doing. Like I say, I'm currently using both.

At the moment, I'm working on scoring a two-hour movie. I've got that rigged up as a project in Vegas, and to work on an individual piece, I render that out and get it up in Sonar. Once I've got a sequence down, I export from Sonar and add that to the Vegas project.

To me, it's principally a user interface thing. Sonar's user interface sort of expects you to be working on a coherent piece of music. Tempo and measures and all that kind of global stuff is what it's UI is designed to function around, and everything sort of steers you in that direction.

Vegas, on the other hand, while it does have a basic implementation of that stuff, seems to be more based on the assumption that you're sliding around slabs of essentially unrelated, more-or-less finalised audio.

Just as assembling audio for a full movie is a slog in Sonar, I think I'd find actually composing and recording in Vegas a bit painful. So for the time being, they're both necessary.

Thinking of future potential, I think Sonar would find it easier to incorporate "good enough" video features than Vegas would to become a fully-fledged DAW. It really is something they could increase market share on I reckon.

Thanks for the reply...yeah, doing pretty much the same here. Yeah, Vegas is a bit painful for the recording part, but I've managed to nail that down pretty solid when I need to. I try not to, but it's nice to know it's there if I need to. Thanks again, John.
 
-Danny

wwzeitler

Danny Danzi


It pains me to say this Randy, but I just can't seem to use Sonar with video. I HAVE done it, but I just felt like I was fighting with it too much. I would love to use Sonar for everything and I know it's possible...but unfortunately for me, it just doesn't give me the right power like say, Sony Vegas...which is what I use these days. Simple, effective and it really does a nice job on all sorts of video media without any quirks or hang-ups. I very well could be using Sonar improperly...but I just don't have the tools and options I need for what I do in Sonar.

-Danny

Vegas and Sonar are two entirely different beasts. Vegas is a video editor: it supports multiple audio tracks but doesn't support midi at all. Sonar is music editor (audio & midi) that supports video playback (a bit fussy, but it works) but no video editing. Two very different tools in the toolbox.

Hmm Vegas doesn't have any midi at all? I could have sworn I configured for midi and just never tested it out. I'll take your word for it. I'm going to take a look at what the heck I configured though....I could have sworn it allowed me to configure my MOTU. I'm probably confused with something else. Thanks for the response....but yeah, I was aware they were comnpletely different animals. The reason I asked about Sonar though, was because I've read a few posts where people were using it and have seen a few video's where people used it as well. Yet for the life of me, I couldn't do the things I needed to do in the video area and was wondering just how much these people in the vids, used Sonar for the video part. :)
 
-Danny