I recommended 2 common codecs in a post above.
 
I asked you which you used in Vegas, in the other thread, to get some insight into your existing work flow.
 
You mentioned you work with HD footage. I was curious to learn what codecs are running smooth on your system... then it might be easy to select one that is relatively lighter for use with SONAR.
 
Are you working with Camera footage or footage that has been exported and sent to you from some one else's video edit suite? I'd like to know the actual codec... and I think I ask each time I've tried to help... maybe I can guess the codec if I can figure out where the source footage is from.
 
You mentioned a SD 720x480 widescreen export from Vegas. Was it the super light weight DV25 codec or was it one of the dozens of other high bit rate SD 720x480 widescreen codecs that are available?
 
Do you have any video acceleration on your DAW? If so is it just the "GPU" or is it a dedicated video I/O card from AJA, Black Magic etc.?
 
If you have hardware that is focused on decoding video than the CPU will have lots of room for SONAR.
 
If you use a codec that specifically tantalizes the instruction sets embedded in the latest system CPUs then you may find that the CPU starts focusing on the video play back while other apps get short changed. If the video or the DAW starts stuttering don't bother looking at Task Manager to see if the CPU had time to tell Task Manager it was real busy. The proof is in the experience you are having with the stuttering or black screen video.
 
A lot of the latest distribution codecs are meant to appropriate the CPU. The player apps play smoothly and they drop frames to make it look like it is all so easy.
 
The edit apps compete with the CPU intensive codecs and the timing gets sketchy.
 
The easiest way to deal with all this is to get used to the idea of knowing what codec you are working with so that you may compare an experience with it with experiences you have with other codecs.
 
 
all the best,
mike
 
 

I asked you which you used in Vegas, in the other thread, to get some insight into your existing work flow.
 
In Vegas I work with 1080P, 720P, HDV (interlaced and prog) mov, png, jpg etc.
 
You mentioned you work with HD footage. I was curious to learn what codecs are running smooth on your system... then it might be easy to select one that is relatively lighter for use with SONAR.
 
I have no playback problems in Vegas unless I use full HD mov or use heavy effects or use alpha channels...then I get dropped frames but it still plays.
 
Are you working with Camera footage or footage that has been exported and sent to you from some one else's video edit suite? I'd like to know the actual codec... and I think I ask each time I've tried to help... maybe I can guess the codec if I can figure out where the source footage is from.
 
As mentioned above Mike I ingest just about everything...it's simply a question of what format X2a prefers.
 
You mentioned a SD 720x480 widescreen export from Vegas. Was it the super light weight DV25 codec or was it one of the dozens of other high bit rate SD 720x480 widescreen codecs that are available?
 
I just selected one of the templates, what does Sonar prefer?
 
Do you have any video acceleration on your DAW? If so is it just the "GPU" or is it a dedicated video I/O card from AJA, Black Magic etc.?
 
no dedicated card, integrated Intel graphics
 
If you have hardware that is focused on decoding video than the CPU will have lots of room for SONAR.
 
The CPU was peaking at 13% in Sonar on playback, how much headroom is need?
 
Mike, if you have no problems with video in Sonar why don't you just tell me specifically what you are using?
 

I have mentioned my preference for both motion jpeg and Cineform numerous times and I mentioned them above as well.
 
Now that I see that you run a 1080 HDV codec I can see that you are running 25mbit/second streams with success so the Cinefrom CODEC is a possible choice for you.
 
I am assuming you are not employing the Vegas low data rate proxy file (a.k.a intermediary codec) system.
 
So 25mbits/sec that should be a good guideline for what you can expect to stream in SONAR.
 
Have you ever tried HDV 25mit/second in SONAR? It's a good balance of picture quality-data rate-CPU strain.
 
.wmv for example; will offer lower data rate and require much more CPU to decode.
 
DV25 (a standard def 720x480 widescreen choice) will use the exact same data rate as 1080 HDV and less CPU.
 
A codec like Cineform Intermediary will provide a better picture than HDV (of course it needs to start with something better than HDV to do that), lower data rates, and lower CPU strain.
 
Motion Jpeg data rates are traditionally defined per frame but they equate to anything from very tiny bit rates all the way up to 74mbits/second. You'll probably want to use something less than 25mbit/second for initial trials.
 
 
Good luck.
 
best regards,
mike