I recall testing my office PC's X1650Pro in my video PC and was getting choppy/jerky motion with Vitascene and DVStorm, here's my post.
So I'm very reluctant to do any video card upgrading with the DVStorm unless I know some one that is using Vitascene with the DVStorm without any problems. I was even thinking about the GeForce 8800GTS but I don't want to buy it unless I can return it.
Right now with Vitascene v1.0.33 has fixed my overlay and crashing problems, plus it has given me better performance with X800XL that also works with Xplode in RT.
Using OHIC HD 1080i or 720p timelines I don't get RT with Vitascene with the X800XL. This is where a nVidia 8800GTS would help, the only question is +640MB of VRAM needed for 1080p or is 320MB okay?
JFYI, I received an email from ProDAD about video memory: For HD-Video do you should have 512MB graphics memory.
Normally, 256 is enough, but this is the minimum.
They told it to me, too. But if i watch Everest during playback m2t files with Vitascene transitions from the
Edius Timeline the used Video Memory of my 8800 GTS 320 MB is maximum 200 MB. In most cases
80 - 120 MB. Old Movie uses only 40 MB!!!
I’ve done some testing with the short time I had my brother-in-law’s XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320MB that is has 500Mhz GPU and 1.6Ghz memory clock (looking at the specs). Comparing to my ATI X800XL 256MB with 398Mhz GPU and 493Mhz memory.
XFX 8800GTS loaded with ForceWare v163.71 and also loaded XP32-bit DX9c_ang2007. The Driver DX3D was setup with 8x AA, Supersampling AA Transparency and set vertical refresh to always OFF. Edius/DVStorm’s overlay works set to UpdateOverlay.
ATI X800XL used Omega Drivers 7.0.9.1 (based on ATI’s catalyst 7.9) with 6x AA, Adaptive AA Quality and vertical refresh to OFF. Edius/DVStorm’s overlay setting works set to NONE.
For HD editing and previewing with OHCI, ATI wins this one. ATI’s Theater Mode gives me full overlay on my 720p HDTV with step-by-step frame accuracy from Edius’ timeline. It’s not perfect like NX that gives you true audio and video synchronizing from Edius’ timeline, BUT a good “poor” man’s HD out. Nvidia’s video-out there was no overlay out; cloning was the best I can do, which was totally useless.
For filter and transition testing I used Vitascene’s Film Look #177, Border #342 and Glitter Wipe #279 (5 sec transition). Xplode Pro4 I used the Ripple transition (5 sec transition).
When it come’s to RT Xplode the X800XL did it all the non-Vitascene filtered video footage in RT with the buffer staying full from 480p to HQ HDV timelines. The 8800GTS with lacking support from Xplode could not compete one 5-second Xplode Por4 Ripple effect, stopped about midway.
So far X800XL beat 8800GTS in HD video-out and RT playback with Xplode Pro4; more to do with the lack of support. I also have to say that the OmegaDriver’s also have a better looking overlay then the ForceWare drivers.
I did test different sized footage and any scaling lowered the performance and will not be shown has the chart as it will get to complicated for one chart. So I’m going to keep the chart very simple with 480p footage shown on a 480p timeline and so forth.
DVStorm and OHCI 480p timelines had the same performance with the OHCI having the option for a large buffer which increases the wait time to pre-fill the buffer. On the other hand the DVStorm offers perfect Edius AV playback.
HQ_480p = HQ 480p footage on a DVStorm 480p timeline
HQ_720p = HQ 720p footage on a OHCI 720p timeline
HQ_HDV1080i = HQ HDV 1080i footage on a OHCI HDV 1080i timeline
Transition competing without stopping will be shown as RT otherwise Render.
Rendering video filters will indicate if the effect is playable in RT by having a value of 1.00 or greater. The value will be shown for “X800XL / 8800GTS”.
Being that I’m still editing with the DVStrom with 480p footage the cost to upgrade to an 8800GTS doesn’t offer the performance gains within Edius 4.51c.
If I were doing a lot of HD Vitascene with a NX card I would skip the 8800GTS and go for the 8800Ultra with more pipes/processors and memory bandwidth as the performance for the top-of-line 8800Ultra would double the performance of the 8800GTS, IMHO.
I just put in a request to ProDAD for RT preview to external monitor; for example it's difficult to properly adjust Film-Look colors. I did get a response that they are going to look into it and will take a few weeks.
Comment