Having trouble with video playback on 720p footage recorded from Hauppauge HD PVR1212

S

selftaught

Member
I have a Hauppage HD PVR capture device - for anyone not familiar, it's basically a capture card used to record 720p/1080i footage from your television. I purchased it to record video game footage.

My problem is this: When I export the MP4 clips into premiere cs4, the video playback isn't smooth. It starts out fine, but it's as if the bit rate is too much for the program and the footage becomes quite choppy.

When I export the footage from cs4 as an MP4, it plays on my VLC player just fine, smooth as ever, but it's a big hassle trying to edit these clips in the timeline when the video will frequently jump around like it does.

Here are the clip specs:
type: XDCAM-EX movie
1280 X 720
59.94 frames per second
data rate: 1.0 MB per second

I placed it in a preset sequence (XDCAM 720p 60fps) and was given this default playback setting:
interlaced frame (2:3:3:2)
and this default display setting:
60fps drop-frame timecode

Finally, when I play back the footage in the timeline one frame at a time, it has a very odd pattern, something like: frame, drop, drop, frame, drop, frame, drop, drop, frame, drop, drop, etc. It's not very consistant.

Here's my questions:
- Is the playback funky because I chose the wrong fps play back? Should I be running this in a 30fps project?
- Is .m2ts a better file format to edit with instead of MP4?
- Are my playback and display settings correct, or should I change my 720p footage to "repeat frame (ABBCD)"? Does the 60fps non-drop/drop timecode matter?
- Is my computer not good enough to smoothly edit this stuff? The files aren't big at all, and I have a duo processor with 2gigs of RAM and a good vid card.
- Is it the program? Is there software out there better fit to handle this file type?

I appreciate anyone who can take the time to help.
 
I hear that Sony Vegas 8 has an option to match clips to media settings so that the video playback is smooth - is there anything like that for premiere cs4?
 
You're using the wrong sequence settings. 2:3:3:2 applies a special pulldown removal, but your footage is progressive.

Use a custom desktop setting instead of one of the presets, although "AVCHD 720p/60" preset should be similar. 720p / 59.94 / progressive

You didn't include your computer specs, so it's tough to say if that maybe contributing as well. You need a quadcore for realtime or greater >1.0 playback. Faster is better.

NLE's add significant overhead over media players. You might get 100's of fps capability for playback in a mediaplayer but less than real-time in a NLE.
 
avchd

avchd

Ok, if I need to use the AVCHD preset, I think the problem is this: The Hauppage records in either 1080i (won't record 1080p) or 720p. I figured 720p is better (can someone confirm this? I'm new to HD) so I recorded in that. Now, the only two options in Premiere CS4 that I see for AVCHD are: 1080i and 1080p, nowhere do I see an AVCHD 720p. So, in order for this to work, I have to set my xbox to 1080i, record that way, then edit with AVCHD. Just strange, when I ask Premeire what kinda file my clips are, they tell me they're XDCAM's, and I have no idea what an XDCAM is.
 
Also interesting - for kicks, I selected AVCHD 1080i for a 720p clip - I had to render it right after I placed it in the timeline (which is an option I didn't have in the XDCAM project settings - once placed in the timeline, I could render it all I wanted, it was still choppy), and after I rendered it, it played back smoothly, but since it's 720p footage, the frame measurements are all off. So maybe I'm onto something with this 1080i business...
Is there a significant difference in 1080i and 720p?
 
Yes there is a big difference. Resolution and interlaced vs. progressive

There should be a preset for AVCHD 720p/60. Make sure you have all updates. Or maybe your install is corrupted - try uninstall/reinstall
 
Do the premiere updates and you'll have the 720 presets under AVCHD, Or you can make a custom desktop setting . The latest version of premiere is 4.2
 
Ah, that would explain things - I shall update to 4.2 and report back, thanks for the replies everyone. I love this site.
 
Well, sadly, that didn't work. I downloaded the update (I know 4.2 is available, but I was able to find 4.1 quickly, so I nabbed that one) and saw the AVCHD 720p preset, loaded one up and I get the same result: choppy playback, and it's not something I can just render to play smoothly. The thing is, I want to say it's my computer that can't handle smooth playback, because the clip starts out smooth but gets choppy as it goes along.
Now, someone mentioned I needed a quad core setup - I thought I had this, but can someone confirm? Here's what my device manager tells me:
Processors
- Intel (R) Core (TM) 2 CPU - 4300 @ 1.80GHz
- Intel (R) Core (TM) 2 CPU - 4300 @ 1.80GHz

I'm not too handy with hardware-speak, but it looks like I have two of these things that have "2 cpu" in the name, so does this mean I have quad core? If the answer is yes, then I don't know what's going on with the playback and wish it would just fix itself...
 
Ok, sorry for the multi-posts - I'll post, try something, and then find new info.
I figured I'd run a little test, so before I hit PLAY on my premiere cs4, I brought up my PC's task manager. The percentage of CPU Usage sat around 5% unsolicited, but once I hit play in Premiere, it jumps to 97% immediately. So this means I need two more processors in my computer?
 
selftaught said:
I downloaded the update (I know 4.2 is available, but I was able to find 4.1 quickly, so I nabbed that one)
Click to expand...

You're impatience is making things harder for you. You really do want 4.2 to accurately judge performance. Also, make sure your Viewer and Canvas are set to Highest Quality.

I recommend you try these before giving up on your current system.

Oh, and best of luck with having it just "fix itself" :grin:
 
A 1.8 ghz dual core system probably wont cut it without transcoding but you can try :)

Just use Adobe Update Manager to update your premiere up to Version 4.2
 
A friend built the computer for me - Would it be possible just to buy more processors and simply throw them in there? My experiences with PC's would tell me no, nothing is that simple...
 
Core 2 processors use the LGA775 socket and will accept any Core 2 Duo processor, Pentium D processor and depending on the mother board, it may also accept a core2 quad.
 
Forgot to mention, you need to buy as new processor,

At the moment, you have ONE processor, which has TWO cores in, it is DUAL CORE,

LGA775 motherboards only support a SINGLE (ONE) processor.

So if you need a quad core, then you need to replace your processor.

Talk to your computer friend about it and see if he will do it for you.
 
Smifis said:
Forgot to mention, you need to buy as new processor,

At the moment, you have ONE processor, which has TWO cores in, it is DUAL CORE,

LGA775 motherboards only support a SINGLE (ONE) processor.

So if you need a quad core, then you need to replace your processor.

Talk to your computer friend about it and see if he will do it for you.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I had a computer friend (different from the one who built it - couldn't reach that guy) check out the motherboard to see if we could possibly add another dual core. He says I can't with the board I have, so are you saying I can simply replace my dual processor with a quad processor? Will the rest of the system be ok, or do I have to change something so I don't freak it out and fry it?
 
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