Video performance on usine hollyhock

[joffo78]

Hi . I try to make project with basic video events on this. I know my config is very low (macbook pro 13inch with very poor graphic card) . But i use to work with resolume or millumin. i have no problem to read 1 HD flow. On usine when i load a video player all my workspace lagging very strongly.
any idea to optimise a little ?
Thanks.
JF

[x.iso]

my guess would be that you need to have Nvidia (or AMD) hardware decoder setup as default for video codecs used in your footage and hardware acceleration turned on in Usine as well. But I think Usine processes actual pixels from decoded video when you apply effects and output it futher, which affects CPU as well. at least I think that's how it works.

[TimTight]

"But I think Usine processes actual pixels from decoded video when you apply effects and output it futher, which affects CPU as well. at least I think that's how it works."

Hmm, I thought of that too.

[x.iso]

Also I've noticed that uncompressed footage is less CPU intensive and it was the same with Resolume for me. So I've decompressed any footage for VJ-ing purposes beforehand.

[joffo78]

Interesting. And what format are you using ?
I manage To have only 19fps with only one flow in 1280/720

[x.iso]

I tried different formats and results vary quite a bit, I'll compare later to tell which was performing better.

[joffo78]

Thanks !

[x.iso]

Here's properties of footage with worst performance:

Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1024x576 30fps 12419kbps [V: DataHandler [eng] (h264 constrained baseline L3.2, yuv420p, 1024x576, 12419 kb/s)]
Audio: AAC 44100Hz stereo 150kbps [A: DataHandler [eng] (aac lc, 44100 Hz, stereo, 150 kb/s)]

and here's typical properties of footage that performs best at 1280x720

Video: JPEG 1280x720 30fps 60783kbps [V: Apple Alias Data Handler [eng] (mjpeg, yuvj422p, 1280x720, 60783 kb/s)]
Audio: PCM 44100Hz stereo 1411kbps [A: Apple Alias Data Handler [eng] (pcm_s16le, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 1411 kb/s)]

as you can see, one with no compression performs better even at higher resolution than one compressed at less resolution. both are mov files, that doesn't really matter, same with avi.

for middle ground, footage with following properties performed well even compressed (but not exactly HD resolution)

Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1024x576 24fps 7538kbps [V: DataHandler [eng] (h264 constrained baseline L3.2, yuv420p, 1024x576, 7538 kb/s)]
Audio: AAC 44100Hz stereo 152kbps [A: DataHandler [eng] (aac lc, 44100 Hz, stereo, 152 kb/s)]

as you can see it's mostly the same as the worst one, but bitrate is considerably lower and framerate is also less. so I guess if you're going to have compressed video, it's better if it's more compressed? I don't know if that's how it works.

another example, but with rocky performance (stuttering a bit from time to time dropping frames, but otherwise going smoothly)

Video: DivX 6 1280x720 25fps 2991kbps [V: mpeg4 simple profile, yuv420p, 1280x720, 2991 kb/s]
Audio: PCM 44100Hz stereo 1411kbps [A: pcm_s16le, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1411 kb/s]

[x.iso]

Also I've noticed that stutters may occur regardless of video compression if UI is too busy. Since Usine takes priority for audio over GUI.