Is anyone experiencing laggy video performance and stuttering while using demanding sessions? I’m playing back a full size Apple ProRes file, which SB claims is the best file type for video performance. Even if I use a 2nd instance of cubase as a video slave, it still stutters. Wondering if ProTools as a slave would perform better.
Can’t help a lot, but I’m setting up a film project now. I noticed in the Task Manager that for workprints downsized with DaVinci Resolve, a 1080 DNX file loads down Cubase about 10 to 15% (and sometimes much more), whereas a DaVinci-defined 'Youtube 720p" H264 file hovers just under 1%, maybe 2% max peaks. “Vimeo 720” is in between those 2. That’s on my generation one i7-960 system. Any one of those formats flows nicely for me with about 20 tracks of Play 6 and Kontakt, with a total CPU load around 35% at times. I can see the difference in image quality, but the H264 quality is more than OK and nice to look at. I’ve got a 4gb Nvidia 760 series card, X58 motherboard. It’s a 29.97 project, haven’t checked 23.976.
I think the bottom line is that video and audio compete for similar resources that vary somewhat with video format and the particular sub-version thereof, it’s more than just a muscle power thing.
The thing to remember is to use a lower resolution proxy video for scoring purposes. You can mate up the score audio to the master video in your video editor at a later time.
I have just imported a 1080 H.264 .mov file into a so far pretty lightweight project. 6 - 7 tracks of EW Play and some HALion tracks.
And the performance is awful. Unusable. It plays for about 3 seconds, then a stutter turns into a freeze.
No audio glitches. Increasing latency doesn’t help.
The funny thing is, I can run MPC or another program playing the exact same video file SMOOTHLY while CUbase is playing back my project. This is exasperating!
(Some specs: i7 920 (1st gen), 16 gb ram, Nvidia GT740. Latest Cubase Pro 9.5, latest HALion, latest EW Play)
So glad its not just me. I have a session of a film I scored about 2 years ago with earlier versions of Cubase. When I open this session in Cubase 9.5 the video just freezes and ASIO meter is through the roof (still plays back fine, but yikes…)
The new video engine isn’t really comparable to the old. But it is possible to convert videos to a format that is ‘lighter’ for Cubase.
Check out this app written by Nuendo users for this purpose: Audio Spot - Convert Video, Replace Audio in Video, Converter | audio spot
avoid long gop formats. use dnxhd36 or prores proxy
Great post. Thanks for sharing the tips and ideas.
Yes, this. There’s no need for guesswork. Prores Proxy is free, too.