Video performance questions / issues

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Video performance questions / issues

Postby catgoat on 05 Jun 2017, 04:40

Hello, I was looking for some knowledge from people who have experience with mixvibes video plug in. Before I get too detailed, here are the specs of the laptop i am using with mixvibes.

Cross 3.4.0 64bit running on

Acer Aspire E5-573g
Win10 home 64bit
Intel Core i5-5200u @ 2.2ghx (4 core)
*8gb ram
SSD
gfx-Display: intel HD 5500
gfx-Render: geforce 940m (total mem: 6gb, VRAM 2gb, Shared 4gb)

ok, here we go...

I vj/DJ, and use mixvibes on a dedicated laptop for video mixing only, i run other software for music mixing on a separate laptop. so keep in mind all of the issues i am describing will come with no idea what is happening with the sound, just video output. I usually have deck a and b normal and deck c and d as 4 slot sample decks. if those decks are empty, i usually don't notice playback issues, there generally are none if samples decks are empty. often times, though, when I have 4 samples loaded on each deck (small file sizes on these sample decks too, like 50 to 100mb MAX mp4 files for example, either triggered or turned off) i'll notice that my video output framerate drops noticeably. applying fx or transitioning will make the framerate drop even more. most of the time if i unload one deck of samples, i see some improvement, or if i turn off some of the more taxing video fx, output performance improves. When this happens, I am running HDMI to a 2 way splitter. The output performance framerate drops display on the screens as well and the preview windows in mixvibes, but the performance of the PC itself seems to remain alright (I can alt tab or browse files without frame hiccups).

So on windows 10, if i right click the shortcut for Cross i can select which gfx card to launch th eprogram with (launch with integrated or high performance gfx card) I generally launch it with the high performance (geforce940m)., i am going to try using the integrated one at my next chance i get early in the night just to test. i generally run nothing else while vjing, i have set CPU minimum state to 100% all the time, i made sure the usb ports don't go into low power mode, the laptop is on a high performance power plan, it does not go to sleep or shut off hard disks (there is a HDD in it in addition the the SSD, all programs, operating system and video are running off the SSD) i am wondering where the issue might be. i put the laptop into airplane mode while running Cross.

my laptop exceeds the system requirements. Does launching with the geforce card actually make a difference? is/can Cross utilize the performance a geforce 940m can bring? Is the 940m, while good at alot of the games i throw at it, not good for whatever method Cross uses for video decoding/output? Does Cross even utilize gfx cards for video tasks, or does it rely solely on the CPU? is it making use of all four cores? can i force it to do so if it can but is not? is there a preferred video format that Cross prefers? preferred file resolution? are my laptop specs insufficient for the amount of videos i run simultaneously?

does anyone have any ideas on how i can improve video performance? Thanks in advance for your time.
catgoat
 
Posts: 35
Joined: 27 Dec 2015, 23:33


Re: Video performance questions / issues

Postby RoJeC on 05 Jun 2017, 11:23

Don't have all the answers, nevertheless can provide some feedback.

Would suggest to upgrade to 3.4.3. Though don't think this will make a significant difference regarding your situation.

The model you mention isn't the exclusive model code. However based on some of the other models I found it seems the video card used the 4gb of the 8 shared with the CPU.

Given the effort you took to optimize it seems you're running into the issue that minimum specs don't mean max performance. Your way of using means you have Cross using 10 videos + fx + transition. As Cross uses all vid in 'hot standby' (due to responsiveness of like 1ms) it doesn't make much difference if you have the pads active or not. Having pads filled does have some impact.
The main difference with other rendering software is that it's on the fly. So the only option Cross has when stressed is to try to reduce load. So 'skipping' frames is a way to not create a back log, as that would make the result even worse.

Not sure if possible for you, but if you now use 1080p and you would go back to 720p it would save more then 50% in nr of pixels to be rendered.

There are no specific tweaks to have Cross use the hardware different. (or the hardware use Cross different).

Just because you didn't mention it... maybe disabeling anti virus could allows some more performance. If you notice difference you could try to exclude some of the locations Cross uses (so you can keep Anti virus enabled...)
Ronald

Image

Manual alternative link: ? https://www.mixvibes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cross-dj-user-manual.pdf
Audio dropouts? Increase audio 'buffer size' value.
FAQ iOS / Android / PC / MAC http://www.mixvibes.com/help/
Soundcard not available/working? Try the 32bit version of Cross (is also installed).
RoJeC
 
Posts: 4926
Joined: 20 May 2011, 08:55
Location: Bussum, Netherlands


Re: Video performance questions / issues

Postby catgoat on 06 Jun 2017, 02:37

thanks for your reply.

you have provided me some excellent insight into how mixvibes handles video and it supports some of my testing as far as having sample deck loaded, etc, and what you're saying about the gfx card sharing ram makes sense too. I'll have to look into seeing if i can add more to this machine or if i just need to calm down on having so many vids loaded while i save for an upgrade.
catgoat
 
Posts: 35
Joined: 27 Dec 2015, 23:33


Re: Video performance questions / issues

Postby catgoat on 10 Jun 2017, 19:17

i just wanted to post an update about my experience at a gig last night. It think you're right, my system specs are bottlenecking (RAM, gonna see if i can drop in/swap for more). Keeping only 2 samples loaded per deck and dialing back on the use of FX seems to have improved performance.
catgoat
 
Posts: 35
Joined: 27 Dec 2015, 23:33



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