Can you prove this? Not that I doubt you but seeing is always better.

Yes lool sorry I should have said more about it. It s because I m very disappointed. I have tested several codecs and spend a lot of hours on it. The conclusion is that :

SV uses ffdshow well. In the ffdshow settings just make sure the tray icons are checked. Once the video output window launches the ffdshow video tray icon will show next to the clock.

I test different apps that support ffdshow dxva and were able to see its tray icon well. Unfortunately with SV it never appears what prove it s not in use.

If you want to get GPU support you need to pay for CoreAVC which support DXVA and CUDA. The green or red icon (depending on if your GPU is Nvidia or Ati) will appear in the tray icon as well. The best results are given when the GPU support is on as it relaxes the CPU a lot ! The BIG problem is that coreAVC SV support is not good so it launches the codec each time you open a new video. So u end up with as many CoreAVC instances as videos you launched ! So the memory start to mess up and it may crash

You can test it by yourself

Hmm, I'll check it out when I get home.

sure ! :)

It's fun cause CoreAVC first instance uses Cuda then all the next instance will be CUDA less till it won't play any video anymore

Hmm, your right, nothing does show up at the bottom of my screen anymore.
I do remembering it being there in the past......

Perhaps the ffdshow but not the DXVA one !

SV is really shit on PC it's a fact ! free source software are able to handle GPU acceleration without trouble (without quoting VLC or MPC)

Disabling CoreAVC tray icon seems to solve the problem of crashing....i'm further testing right now

The devs should implement a little tweak app that would permit to use this or this codec instead of nasty registry modification that are not sure :

For example try to force quicktime or not.........test it......yes in fact it is hard to see what changed............

When I have QuickTime forced , its hell on my system. FPS drop clear down to around 25/30, it really is unusable.
When I have use direct show my FPS are around 80/85.

can you tell me about your CPU ?

when you use FFDSHOW can you now see the tray icon ? Are you sure it is ffdshow which is used ?

are you using "BEST" settings ? The 80 fps is for which kind of video ? Can you tell me what you get with 1080p + Best settings please ?

Intel core 2 duo, no the red ffdshow box isn't showing up anymore and the 80 FPS is on medium. When on BEST its around 30/35. All my videos are MP4's.

Thanks for the details

I would be glad to be able to force vdj to use LAV filters. I would have been able to exploit the CUVID. Cause when i record with camtasia it makes serato bug on some videos

From what i've understood so far when ffdshow is installed, serato uses ffdshow video decoder instead of using ffdshow dxva video decoder. So it takes power from the CPU instead of letting the GPU to handle it.

What i've done and now works flawlessly is :

- Forced use of my Nvidia graphic card as i have to in the laptop and the other intel one is not compatible. This can be done in the Nvidia display panel in the 3d options.
- Removed all codecs
- Reinstalled latest LAV video codecs (code.google.com) with installer version
- Enabled Cuvid (Nvidia GPU acceleration) in the LAV video decoder options
- Used the disable quicktime script available here serato.com (script that was not working anymore since Serato Video was released and that i helped the staff updating without any sign of thankfulness from them :s :(
- Ensured that LAV decoder was the main WIN7 video codec used for H.264 videos thanks to Win7DSFilterTweaker_5.5 available here codecguide.com
- Installed Nvidia PowerMizer Manager (NVPMManagerUni-1.01.zip) and applied max performance and activated the overheat slowdown override. This permit to avoid framerate that was suddenly droping after a few minutes

At what point does the immense amount of time you're spending on all this surpass the cost of just buying a MacBook Pro which works out of the box?

Just curious...

I find your comment a bit stupid.

I did spend time on this as I already own a PC as i have always owned and as SV is supposed to work on PC there was for sure a way to make it work. I put my results on the forum to help the PC users that might have problems as well as a guide to follow.

If SV was made only for MAC i wouldn't have lost my time I can assure you.

I m working in computing science. When something doesn't work well you try to fix it before thinking of hardware changes etc...

To finish I'll just say that perhaps money is easy for you but as far as i know i MacBook Pro doesn't cost 20 dollars. My PC works well with everything so it would have been hard to change it only because of 1 program not working. You're perhaps a full time DJ that uses its computer only for launching Serato. It's not my case. It is optimized for Serato but not dedicated.


PS : Sorry for my english i'm a french speaker

What are you FPS at now??

Now with 1080p vidz at best I m around 40 fps

How much do you get on "Medium "?
Sorry for all the questions.

Sorry I forgot to test the medium. I 'm now after several hours of video mixing between 720p and 1080p constantly around 60 fps. The 40 fps is when i'm recording at the same time with camtasia

Tonight when i get home i'll tell you how much i get on 80 fps.

I'm not convinced the LAV decoder is used well with Cuvid regarding the excellent performances.

Great research dude. In the early stages of VSL, i myself had this same situation. I wanted to mention tho, that if you do buy a laptop which is Direct X 11 capable (preferably ATI), you should have no issues running serato video. My test with NVIDIA Cards have been unsuccessful, other than to reconvert all your videos to force CABAC OFF, which i hghly do not recommend unless you know what your doing

Do my tricks it s working perfectly 60fps even in 1080p video at maximum settings

I tried the LAV decoder stuff described as above. I found it fixed many buffer drop outs I was having (some videos would count thousands of lost frames per second, which isn't possible). Ran very smooth, set on High, I was running pretty much 60 FPS all night, around 50-60% CPU usage (which is 10-20% better than I was getting with Matroski / FFDShow). I have a NVidia GTX 260M 1GB video card, 2.53 Core2Duo CPU, 6GB RAM. I tried it on Best, which got similar numbers, but most of my videos are 640x360, so there's no much need to run Best. With the old setup, I had weird stuff happen, sometimes my videos would be upside down, flickering strange, etc...

Also, I was running on the latest beta of SSL / SV.

Here's a question though... My friend has a 2011 Macbook Pro 13", Intel HD 3000 graphics, running SV. I noticed his system runs around 24-30 frames per second on medium, but it *appears* smoother on screen than my PC running SV, even though I'm running a much more powerful graphics card and the rendering framerate is way higher.

This because the video rendering is better on Mac. Just compare the waveforms on pc and Mac to see it s also smoother on the Mac. It may be linked with the very high quality of the display

I had already noticed that on day I saw scratchlive running on a Mac. The navigation in the crates through the rotary buttons of a rane 62 is also smoother and faster on the Mac. Apple is very good with video and audio. That is why for example professionals working in photo edition or audio production use Mac

You made my day! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH....finally SV is working like I want it to work with my Windows System....

:) happy that I helped :)

Hi Dj ListenDat, nice post, but do you have a similar tweak for ATI gfx card users instead of Nvidia? cheers...

Dj whiz

Try dxva in LAV settings instead of cuvid. If you have trouble post it here I ll do my best to help you

If your card is Direct X 11 capable you should not be having issues, what ATI card are you running?

Well I finally got around to trying this out and it's a success. On High my FPS are around 55/60 with 2 videos playing!! This has never, ever had that happen for the whole 3 years I've been messing around with this. Thanks for the info, now let's hope it doesn't get broke with the next update.......

Hi i am running 2 x 4870's in crossfire.

Wow sounds like gamer config :). Try the dxva with LAV and let us know.

For lots of people there configuration outperform the minimum requirement it is just about finding the good way to exploit it

Serato Video and video sl does NOT use Direct X it uses Open GL!

You are correct - But it CAN use DirectShow for optimized video decoding. Any card with a sub-par OpenGL implementation will cause problems.

The part that really frazzles me about video playback with any version of VSL or SV - at the strip club we have Virtual DJ running on a random old laptop, 2GB RAM, AMD dual core processor running Vista with ATI Radeon 3200 video (it ranks #1344 on the list of 1881 video cards on the bench mark list). MP4 & HD MP4 videos play flawlessly on it. CPU usage generally less than 20%.

I have a 2010 laptop, 1GB dedicated VRAM, Nvidia GTX260M, and SV / VSL can't perform less than 50-60% CPU usage. If I run Virtual DJ, I can run 20% CPU usage or less. There's something that SV / VSL is doing that VDJ is not doing that I just can't figure out, our mid grade PCs that play 1080p video natively should have no troubling running 640x360 MP4 videos...

You are correct - But it CAN use DirectShow for optimized video decoding. Any card with a sub-par OpenGL implementation will cause problems.

The part that really frazzles me about video playback with any version of VSL or SV - at the strip club we have Virtual DJ running on a random old laptop, 2GB RAM, AMD dual core processor running Vista with ATI Radeon 3200 video (it ranks #1344 on the list of 1881 video cards on the bench mark list). MP4 & HD MP4 videos play flawlessly on it. CPU usage generally less than 20%.

I have a 2010 laptop, 1GB dedicated VRAM, Nvidia GTX260M, and SV / VSL can't perform less than 50-60% CPU usage. If I run Virtual DJ, I can run 20% CPU usage or less. There's something that SV / VSL is doing that VDJ is not doing that I just can't figure out, our mid grade PCs that play 1080p video natively should have no troubling running 640x360 MP4 videos...

Serato uses OPEN GL
VDJ uses Direct X

Thats why VDJ is the best video program to use on a pc.

And thats why pc users need to push and request Serato to make serato Video for Direct X!

Or maybe someone enterprising should make a "MixEmergency" type program for PC. If only Serato would give me the interface information....

Serato Video can work well if it uses the good codecs men.

I've tried SEVERAL hours to figure it out you can have look in that forum. The goal is to permit Serato to take advantage of the GPU acceleration so that the CPU utilization drops down. By making sure SV it using LAV with DXVA settings in LAV Decoder option for ATI graphic cards and CUVID for nvidia cards.

Then if you're using a laptop, i figured out that the fps was dropping after a few minutes (perhaps it's not the same for all of you so test it before). It was due to the fact the GPU slowed after a few minutes. With nvidia graphic card using powermizer manager permitted me to avoid this by forcing it to stay in max settings everytime.

I precise my GPU is a little nvidia 620m so you may not have to do anything more than using LAV with DXVA or CUVID if you have a more powerful GPU

Hey Dj ListenDat, thanks for the post on serato video and PC laptops. Could you help me with a link to Nvidia PowerMizer Manager (NVPMManagerUni-1.01.zip).
Can't seem to get one that has the download link. Thanks

rapidlibrary.com

Thanks a heap..You da Man !!!!

Ever since I updated to these drivers, I get green bars on the sides of my videos once in a while - seems like if I go from a 640x480 to 640x360 video, the space that would normally be black, is green instead. Any ideas?

Yup same here, I've noticed that if I try to play it right away then I get the green blocks but if I wait to play it say like 15/20 seconds then it's fine. Even still there has to be a setting somewhere that were missing. I'm gonna go through the LAV decoder and uncheck the boxes until I figure out what it is...

Here is the settings i'm using :

www.homecinema-hd.com

I had same issues 4 years ago under output deselect everything except 420 422 444

It is incredible we never had ANY feedback from the devs....I hope one day we will have an option to force SV to use DXVA

Hi guys,

I'm now on win8 cause i had to change computer. I did some researches again and figured that whatever you're doing SV won't use GPU acceleration and that's why in LAV Video decoder settings the CUVID (or DXVA) is marked as "inactive". I tried with graphstudionext64_0_5_0_1 that permit to see active codecs and when GPU is used it is marked as active in LAV Video decoder settings.

But the great thing i managed to find thanks to that link www.overclock.net is that pushing a bit the nvidia graphic card option can increase performance.

So that's the settings i'm using now that give me around 70 fps with 1080p videos. Apply it for both SL and SV in the nvidia control panel

www.imagup.com

www.imagup.com

Still getting the green blocks on occasion, anybody got a fix for this??

I still get it as well. No one from Serato staff ever come here it'is beautiful......

Your CPU should be relaxed thanks to the GPU. LAV filters + Cuvid should solve your problem

I checked the LAV video decoder properties while Serato is running, it shows that it's available in hardware but not active. Has anyone else checked to see if the hardware decoding shows as active?

I contacted the creator of LAV filters and others geeks on the doom9 forum and it seems it is just a displaying bug. The GPU is used well. Just have a look with the GPU utilization thanks to GPU-z and you'll be able to compare with/without hardware acceleration. So GPU is used with LAV. It is just that serato video is developped in a strange way that make the LAV not showing the active decoder.

I have the same phenomenom one some videos. I just can see my GPU clock decreasing. SV is weird and need a lot of work to support videos in a good way

Try changing your Colorspace setting to RGB only (in the Info tab of Serato Video setup).. It fixed it for me

Hi all,

For those who used my guide, Lav filters have been updated. Now you can have the tray icon. When you open a video in SV the Lav video decoder properties tray icon shows. You can verify and be sure that the hardware acceleration is in used.

For the Nvidia users use CUVID. When you open a H264 video you should now see that the cuvid is in use looking at the active decoder
For the Ati users use DXVA2 copy back.

code.google.com

ps : i use only H264 720p or 1080p videos so i didn't test to see if hardware acceleration is used also with non-hd videos. I'll test it tonight

Having to lower that can damage your machine and it's just one more thing that proves how much of an inefficient job Serato did when creating this on the windows side........... Let's hope that the next update will address CPU usage.

I put 500 bucks that no update before July 2013 and nothing in the changelog will show any kind of fixes in video support. We might have little stuff about the interface itself and functions inside the soft but nothing regarding enhancement for windows ! When the guys tell you to install Mastroska filter on your pc to use a soft that doesn't support .mkv you can't wait for anything good for the pc users........it's like i was telling you that you need to take your umbrella when it's sunny outside !

Lol!! Your probably right........

I have an nvidia 680m with 2gb DDR and still getting crashing and green lines.... this thread is interesting to me, was wondering if you have any ideas on fixes/ how is your computer handling your settings?

Remove every codecs you guys have. Then install the LAV Filters. Nothing works better. Set the Cuvid hardware acceleration if you have nvidia GPU or dxva if you have AMD or ATI GPU.

Force Serato to RGB only helped me getting rid of the green lines. Leave all the Lav Filters as default settings. Don't enable vsync in the nvidia panel. Let the serato handle it itself by its option. Be careful with files conversion as well. SV really seems not to like that. I think they made everything they could to limit the compatibilty as they may have contracts with smashvidz and other (in 2013 as a video player i don't see another reason why it would support such poor files)

LOL you mad


and may I ask which video container and codec is superior to h264/mp4?

wow smdh really... we want help with this situation and there you go poisoning the well..

DJ ListenDat... do you get any crashes with these settings?

This gon be goooooood

I think you do an excellent job here of demonstrating that some people really don't have a right to an opinion.

Your conspiracy throey is pretty ridiculous, given the demonstrated professional ethics of people in both organizations over the years, *and* that several people associated with SV/VJ-Pro have publicly recommended Mix Emergency.

There are a lot of sources of "poor files" that will sound/look crappy and create risk of stability/performance issues, but calling out Smashvidz that way just makes you look like an idiot.

Man that was just humour ! :)

No crashes. Each time i have a file that messes the SV, i just delete it

www.tomshardware.com

The ffdshow video acceleration plugin is DXVA. It won't work with Serato Video as the soft is OpenGL and not DirectX. Again Lav filters is the best (CUVID or DXVA2CB).

Regarding the not well centered video i don't know where it's coming from. I would advise you when you modify a video option in SV to restart both SSL and SV. I have seen that sometimes when you modify something you have reverse video etc...or other bugs which can be solved by restarting.

So is THAT what all this is actually about?

People trying to make their cheap PC laptops play shitty YouTube rips?

Makes sense now.

GTFO.

Lmao!!

i1217.photobucket.com

I think this one would of been more appropriate m1217.photobucket.com

Link fail, it should been the scavenger GIF.....

Unfortunately not all h264 videos are created equal. If you think YouTube rips are an acceptable video format, then GTFOH.

Hey DJliquid, thanks for posting about the updated Lavfilters... i'm in a similar boat as you and agree that this isn't the place for people to get all philosophical about what media we use.

I really reccomend klite mega pack for any PC users... it is really helpful (also contains pretty much every other codec and config file)

But anyway... have you been having success with your settings?

lmao.. ima say it before it gets to that level

IBTL

LOL you mad, bro? geeezzz....

If you really need to use a YouTube rip the least you can do is replace the audio and re-encode it properly. Then you won't have to worry about all kinds o crazy codec packs.



Also nice to see that "controller dj" is being used an insult. About time.

play nice boys...

IBTL

Controller DJ's is such a misused term.


Seems like solid advice.

What kind of software would one who is new to this editing there own video game use. I want to start editing my own videos now, since it is becoming impossible to be a top level VJ without your own custom content. And that is a BS line there. I'm a mac user now and I follow this thread for some self satisfaction in knowing that i made the right choice by switching to mac and not having to deal with these types of issues anymore. </troll>

I really don't understand why people are trolling :s. We're here to help.

@phatbob perhaps you can help. I'm thinking of going on MAC. My question is. I want a 13" that will be able so play 2 1080p at best settings in SV and without lagging (more than 30fps). I want an SSD in it as well. Any recommandation ?

Regarding the Lav filters, lav has its own splitter. So check the lav splitter settings to make sure it is set to handle the format you're trying to read. In fact you don't need haali anymore if you have the lav splitter configured for the formats you're trying to play.

I repeat again guys Lav Filters is the best you can give to your laptop for handling audio and video. Doesn't need K-lite pack

I've tried many things. I even tried different rendring increasing methods thanks to softwares like Smooth Video Project or Lucid Virtu. It can appeared arrogant but regarding all the posts i've seen here i'm not sure there are on PC systems, more than 2 persons that tried as many things as i tried. I created different posts on differents video editing, encoding and decoding forums to share with the man that create the codecs. I did for example forum.doom9.com, shark007.net, www.svp-team.com.

Some of the guys accepted to help me to try to figure out why with my Asus i7 3517u, SSD 256go, 10g RAM @1600mhz and Geforce GT 620m i couldn't get smoother video.
It appears that SV is using a CustomNullRenderer slow render which is not quite good to play smooth video.

So conclusion if you own PC use Lav Filters (after having removed every other codecs (ffdshow, k-lite pack etc....)

regarding the youtube rips. HD 264 youtube rips work well in 95% of time. When it doesn't work well it's in SV cause in any other crappy video player it will work well..........stop saying PC is crap. Is just that SV on PC is crap nothing more !

Making a video software in 2012 that is make to play video, HD video as well cause IMO in 2012 new clips are in HD and shouldn't be in anything less. So making a video soft that should read HD video, on PC, and without using the hardware acceleration means that you don't know anything about PC programming. All the GPU and CPU since 2008 include stuff to improve HD video reading. The Intel GPU with Intel Clear Video technology that evolved to the very performant Intel Quicksync thats blow out anything in video encoding and decoding :

www.tomshardware.com

Nvidia CUDA, Ati OPENCL, DirectX DXVA that evolved to DXVA2......all the tools are there ! Just have a look at how VDJ can play HD video without any single performance problem.....

YouTube rips don't have the proper number of keyframes. This is not a concern with a regular media player.

When you need to skip around using cues, needle drop, or backspin/scratch, proper keyframe spacing is crucial. Stop comparing video dj software to "any other crappy video player", its not a fair comparison.


YouTube rips play like crap on a Mac too, for the reasons above.


Let's not even begin to talk about sound quality with YouTube rips.... amateur hour.

Hey Dj DisGrace,

If you use a youtube grabber in fact the rips are crap. I tested it in the past an agree you. When you catch a video from VEVO with a good soft you can grab the source video in 720p or 1080p format. The format is H264 AAC (720p or 1080p). This works well as it doesn't convert the youtube video but take it straight from the youtube servers. When the artists put there video on youtube on their official vevo channel, i truely beliebe it is the same quality as the one they would put on smashvidz. I don't see why they would create different MP4 files.

What i want to say behind all of this, is that SV is really well optimized for MAC. The PC version is just an adaptation. The proof is that it's very rare to have a video software developped in OPENGL. Most of the soft are built to use DirectX library (so DXVA compatible).

Do you think i could get smooth playback with MacBook Air 13" 256ssd 4go RAM intel HD4000 with 1080p files ? i would like to go Mac but want to stay in 13" and thinest as possible

No no no no no no. No.

The file they put on the server isn't optimized for video dj'ing. Do some reading around here on proper encoding practices for video dj applications.


No. You need a dedicated video card.

Pretty sure the best video dj software (Mix Emergency) does not use DirectX.

nope.
yep

ME doesn't use directX cause its mac only........

And the reason i recommended klite (mega) was because not only does it have all of the codecs, and not only does it allow for direct show switch without a registry edit... but it goes through your registry and fixes any problems. The first time i ran it (on a relatively new PC) it found over 20 registry errors that had to do with video (probably due to all the combinations and methods i used before)

I still have Lavfilters as my default but the klite just helps organize everything

And just so you all know... i'm at the point now with an uber laptop (2.7gz, 16gb ram, geforce 680m with 2gb ddr) That i can be recording sound and video (separately), playing 1080p vids on both sides at high detail setting, for about 1 hour before i get a non fatal crash.
This is a lot of progress from where i've been. And i haven' quite pushed it to see how much longer i could mix vid before a second crash (the first one always freezes the video untill end program is selected... then it would start right back up, with little delay) The second crash however is always a program ender... and the program must be restarted.

If i can get another hour before the crash... that means i can get aprox 2 hours without a crash at high setting with 1080p... or enough time to get a decent sized set in.

I'm not super happy about these results, but the program finally seems to be working after all this time.

What i did...
uninstall all codecs...
Install K-lite mega pack, clicked yes to all registry edits
installed lav filters... used win7dsfiltertweaker to make sure they are being used.
Encoded all vids to 1080p lppa, Apple MPEG4 Decompressor v.30011

thats how i've gotten my best results.... It seems to run a little better (takes longer untill the non fatal crash) when i encode in 720....

And just a time saver... you can drag all of your vids into movieinfobatch straight from serato.... copy the data given into word or some text program... search for h.264 or something that you have problems with to find all your vids in the wrong format....

Lastly... i'd like to say that i think the issue is the software, not as much the videos as many of you guys think..

For example.. if i have 2 different crates with 2 videos in each (one with 2 ripped from youtube, one with 2 taken from beeple's free serato vids).... if i play them on autoplay mode and walk away for an hour... i get the same results for both (crashes after about an hour)...

This is making me think that its not the youtube vids thats the prob, but something in the software. (if they are official releases, the beeple vids shouldn't crash)

Hey, keep it down, you trolling "controller dj" =P

can you idiots stop trolling here? thanks

Are you blind man?


I just wrote about how the beeple vids that serato OFFICALLY RELEASED dont work... so shut up before you actually read our posts

its a bigger problem than just youtube rips... if you have nothing to say that'll help us troubleshooting than please dont post anything... we losing the point of this thread

Every time this thread goes along for a while it comes back to someone with a crate full of YouTube rips.

Or someone who thinks VJ-Pro encodes & Vevo rips are the same thing.

You guys can't help yourselves.

and you're helping?

Yes. We're reminding you and new users that properly encoded videos should be the first step when troubleshooting problems with SV.

For some reason, the only people left on this side of the forum think YouTube is a suitable source for video content.

then what do you have to say to the fact that my beeple vids crash at the same point as my rips?

I would say that helping you get your Beeple loops to work should be a top priority for Serato. But that doesn't make playing YouTube rips any more acceptable.

All i'm saying is you guys are misleading new users with all this codec stuff. They may waste days and weeks trying to get all this stuff to work when all they had to do was get a legitimate source for their videos.



Did you actually download the source file? Or just rip it like a YouTube vid?

i downloaded the zips right off the serato website

Exhibit A:


Seriously GTFOH with that YouTube ishh






You're actually supporting my case with statements like this.



Oh these work ok? Surprise, surprise....

+1

IF I CAN RUN A VIDEO FROM YOUTUBE at 1080p that cant be found anywhere else and looks great and i can mix for a hour without issues... why is this unacceptable? Have you purchased every single MP3 you've used?

And i've been on support with serato staff for weeks.... they dont know whats up... I often feel like i know more about the program than they do.

1- Because it's not encoded to be used for video dj use
2 - Because the audio is garbage
3 - Because a properly encoded SD video looks just as good from 20 feet back
4 - Because you are implying to new SV users browsing the forums that YouTube rips are acceptable

1. but its working for me....
2. its not hard to add an audio track
3. well thats your opinion...
4. Youtube rips are not ideal.... or legal in most cases.... I understand the point... BUT; there is no other such source for VIDEO (thats what we are trying to mix) out there in the WORLD... So...

Yea, sounds like everything is just coming up roses

but like i said before.... i get crashes on beeple clips too... theres nothign DIFFERENT about my rips... they have decent keyframes and framerates

Then the least you can do is re-encode it properly to try and optimize for SV. You guys make it sound like all x264 is equal.

Sure, I've made my share of edits from dodgy source material, but the final product always has proper audio and proper video encoding to make sure they don't compromise my performance.

in fact... my rips work more reliably than my beeple clips

yes... yes... and yes...

all you trolls out there please just give it a rest... you are NOT helping

I do all my editing and encoding on a PC

I'd assume a YouTube rip is probably more reliable than any of these sites

No commentary required.

And have you actually done this? From the sounds of it none of you actually know a damn thing about video encoding.


And this is the problem with the dj game. No work ethic, no pride, no patience.


No, it would not work fine on my Mac. That's the point! Get some real videos, man!

Let me summarize:

I'd rather you do the research on you own and figure out how to do it properly yourself. Then you will realize ho stupid you sound right now.

Stop Tracking LOL

OK i'm only going to say one more thing regarding all the negative posts here... then i'm just ignoring you...

I'm not sure what you guys are trying to accomplish by bullying on these forums and assuming you know exactly who we are and what our goals are with serato video. Not only do you not offer any concrete advise to any of our problems, but you continue to bash us as artists which is just really childlike...

Some people come on these forums very frustrated with the product and their lack of ability to focus on bettering their craft while they spend hours just trying to get the damn thing to work. As soon as a product does not work out of the "box", nothing is easy to do. DJ listendat was one of the first that brought to my attention some of the issues with PCs and SV.. which are not even mentioned in the product info or support (at least let PC owners know BEFORE they purchase.. IMO)

Granted, i tried DJlistendat's prefs and it helped, but wasn't perfect.... i've still never had a crate of vid (from all sorts of sources) that can play on autoplay for over an hour without a glitch or crash.

Getting back to my point: The people coming to this thread need help, not bashing... if you cannot offer some advice that you've TRIED on a PC and list the steps (encoding, codecs installed, comp specs, workarounds... ETC) then you are just trolling and any knowledge that you shove in our faces by claiming you know about VJing is just nulled... you aren't a credible source.

I'm not calling out names but djlistendat and djliquid and a few others are only trying to help... if you dont have anything positive to say please just start your own thread or send a message

The thread that keeps on giving!

The only thing i'll say is that people who critize should go on google, seek something like "H264 video decoding encoding" and see that nowadays video hardware acceleration is present in everything. Even the new office 2013 version include DXVA support for smoother rendering and typing. So instead of making people buy expensive laptop for nothing, they should improve the software. It's for playing video not to play crysis 2. So asking to have a geforce GTX 660 is insane :s

No one is saying that SV for Windows is good. When it comes to serious video djs, not even Mac users use SV.

And trust me when I say that the experienced users around here know plenty about "H264 video decoding encoding". It's not because we're trolls, it's because we know how important proper encoding is.

This is why the first thing we ask is "Where did you get your videos?"

SSL has been prone to crashes with bad files since it's first incarnation. Hell back then, corrupt mp3s could cause a crash even if you never loaded them! I just assume it's the same now with mp4 files.... that and I take pride in the quality of my videos.

"And trust me when I say that the experienced users around here know plenty about "H264 video decoding encoding". It's not because we're trolls, it's because we know how important proper encoding is."

Permit me to have doubts when i see that here it is recommanded to use ffdshow for example instead of lav filters. I can put my hand on the Fire that here before i mention Lav filters no more than me knew it and had tested it. Permit me also to be doubtful as i think i'm the only one who pointed out that the GPU video power wasn't use well with SV (not to say at all). If i could i would have make a poll to ask how many users saw big improvements using my recommandation instead of the serato staffs one. Being objective i'm sure i would get lots of users. The advices given here regarding users who have troubles are not the best i saw. Some time they are asking people about SV options to check on their PC instead of first wondering which codec the person is using for example. And thist when it's not a simple "go Mac". So again permit me to doubtful

Maybe I should have put more emphasis on encoding

Do I need to mention why we don't bother with "decoding" options... We use Mix Emergency.

And yes, I commend your work on getting the correct codecs for PC users. My problem is when people on here imply that webrips and dodgy video sources are fine. Those are prone to problems no matter which platform you use.

as do a lot of guys. so none of us are trolling we are only making sure the CORRECT information is given to new people.


now your just being picky. I sure everyone making there own edits tests everything before they go out and play them. So i bet half these guys do test SV on a pc.



How is it not the point! You just proved Serato Video can and does work on a PC, when you do all the necessary to have it work correctly. The mac advocates on here advocate macs because the work required to have it function properly is far less. Noob users (which are the source to 90% of the issues we see) get this idea that PC's can and will be a piece of cake to work. I'm glad you PC guys started this thread to show how much work is involved in getting a PC to function correctly. All of us Pro VJ's are violently opposed to hacks stepping in not willing to spend the money and time needed to really be a VJ. We don't support or help the flybynight Youtube'ers. Now getting you Beepl clips to work is vaild point. and maybe serato should have tested them a little more. But those beeple clips where nothing but a free bouse with no implied or explicit warranty. You say you want video to work without all the work, then join the mac club.

I feel like all of you guys are bitching that the band-aid (pc) is no holding back all the blood from your half severed arm when the perfectly good solution, amputation (mac) is sitting right that waiting for you to give it the ok to be used. Not all software is created equal some platforms run programs better than other. Do hardcore FPS gamers bitch that there is no mac support for the latest and great FPS. No they don't, they all know PC is better for gaming and leave it at that.


None of us are bullying. We have a common viewpoint that is accepted by the industry as a whole and trying to educated the "new" people to the game as to how things are done and why they are done like this. Its that way in every industry, Pros set the standards and everyone plays by the rules pro's use are they play there own game.


I have not seen any art from the PC users.....



Preaching to the choir! Read my older posts, I was a die hard PC user and then I decided I need to work on my craft and not be tech support for myself at every gig. So i bought a mac and started playing with the pro's on ME.



Does a car manufacturer force you to use one type of gas and tell you about every little thing that could possibly go wrong..... Do i agree with serato's stance, maybe, thats another discussion, but do i blame them now. If you want to be a pro VJ, pro's in all fields know they need to do there research before you start down a path.

Disagree.


Let me plus 1 that. What research you guys are doing to get PC's to work is amazing!

My view is it is commonly known by the long time users that serato video and V-sl where and are not "great" programs. They have flaws & drawbacks, could they be programmed better, maybe I don't code, I will take it for truth that serato video is not efficient at using GPU power. This doesn't mean they are bad programs. They are programmed todo a job a particular way that way works well in the Apple ecosystem and not as well in the Windows world. Who is to say what serato has done is wrong or bad. thats they way the decided to go and many of us are very happy with there products. All of this BS saying serato show program for this and that. WHY I ask? their company their vision and directions. We are nobodys, we don't count all of us. Until your CEO or share holder no company has to do anything you think they should do.

I wish all of the PC and mac users would come together and just say this it the tool we have to work with (serat) . We choose to use this tool and this tool requires we do things this way, even if we dont like it.

Code:E... thanks for being productive with your comments... i completely get where you are coming from.

static.quickmeme.com

www.quickmeme.com

lol... its just frustrating for me because i have legit videos and ripped vids and they fuction the same exact way in SV... same crashes, same time until crashes. Totally independent of which ones i use.

what would you do? (dont say buy a mac... i cant afford one; just bought this bad boy)

And it is true... i came into Serato Vid as a newbie... that does not mean i dont have a vision for what i want to accomplish; that doesn't mean i wanted to just cut corners to get bang for the buck...

In the 150+ hours i've spent troubleshooting this damn program i *have* learned a shitload about video; stuff i had no idea about before.

I dont claim to be anywhere near pro; but i do want to have a baseline of free videos to just work with to get my midi mappings correct and my style going.

Why should i shell out money for vids if i have no evidence of alt sources having better results with my setup... as far as i can tell... SV does not work reliably on PC....

Sounds like a temperature issue. All the Mac guys override the SMC fan control and run full blast all night. Someone had a comparable issue with their HP and found a patch to independently control fan speed.

i'm monitoring GPU temp and its normal... as much as i try to work the program i never go above 25-30% use

honestly what i did..... I stopped doing video for a year or use Virtual DJ when I had too, and saved for a mac.... I have said it before Virtual DJ is a great and powerful tool. I still like it this day. I used in with my 2 cdj2000 in HID mode and everything was great for doing video But then i decided to make video a big deal and a bigger part of my show, so after reading and relizing i fucked up my buying a PC, I started saving for 17 mac. I was broke too But i saved for the most expensive MBP i could buy.

So option 1, buy a mac, or option 2 use Virtual DJ.


Oh dude you have no idea what is possible until you go mac. Syphon is the greatest thing ever, Fuck running serato video use ME ans syphon video from resolume. Have resolume receive MIDI from you mixer and time your clips and video EFX with midi. Plus all the benefits of being able to use ME. Or map your video output with Madmapper and create a real interesting video display. You might have Vision and want to learn to be better. take it from the people who have been done this path. the PC ecosystem is lacking OSX is the way togo...
I think thats a poor attitude and bad way of looking at it. Everyone is so used to getting this for free nowadays. Video is an expensive game and you are going to have to pay to play.

Trust me... i'd LOVE to run VDJ but i use the rane 62 mixer and they aren't compatible unless i bought ANOTHER SL unit....

and about the free vids.... come on, dont you get at all where i'm coming from? I spent 150 on this program and 150 hours of work trying to get it to work.... No matter the source of my vids i get crashes.... so why would i spend even MORE money to get more vids that dont work?! i have no way to tell if they will or not?

can someone send me or link me two "perfectly" encoded vids to see if i have problems?

Syphon for windows (some what) www.vmix.com.au or www.splitmedialabs.com

I to was a windows user and I struggled forever. I even used the LAV filters and things started to run better but it never ran perfect,, green blocks and videos wouldn't resize right. So I switched to a Mac and it has made a world of difference. I still use VDJ but these here have taught me so much that I can't begin to Thank them enough.

So if you have to use a pc use VDJ otherwise save for a Mac and enjoy......

really? Virtual DJ doesn't support that card inside that mixer? I'm sure they will update that soon.

no it does... but the USB line is all internal so all you hear is the beep from the control record through the main mix while the video is effected

i cant figure out how to have it use the control tone for placement but send sound back through another line....

For the LOVE of ... all that is good. If you HAVE to use YT for your source, grab the stinking 1080p version. Grab the audio you need to retrack it (because usually the audio bitrate on YT videos is 192k or less and sounds like a swishy mess) and encode it to 720p while setting the proper # of keyframes in your encoder.

If you can't even manage to invest in your hobby or job enough to pull off that workflow, you are going to be made fun of.

If i cant play the beeple clips that are on the serato website then how can i expect that the videos i invest in will work?

The only way i can get vids to play relatively consistantly is if they are converted to less than HD quality.... Wondering why this is...

No. You need a dedicated video card.

I've been seeking on the internet and i'm not sure your answer has proofs. It seems to be an answer like "intel GPU can't be better than nvidia GPU".

Have a look here :

www.presence-pc.com

Intel did a big job on Ivy and Sandy bridge architecture to give very good video decoding and encoding performance. So i would like to have a true feedback from someone who tested it cause i also read on some forum that people had better results in their video editing softwares that what they had with a MBP with nvidia geforce 9600

Look on the internet all you want.... I know for a fact from experienced users that an integrated graphics card on a 13" MBP won't cut it with HD video. It will get you buy with SD, but not much beyond that.

Video editing is not video dj'ing. 3D gaming i not video dj'ing.

There are plenty of threads on the forum with "true feedback" that back me up on this.

Why is it always such a battle with you PC guys? You finally agree to get a Mac but now you want to argue about which graphics card is needed... You need a 15" MBP with dedicated graphics. /thread!

I think it's hard for a lot of people to think the hardware the plunk their money down on won't do the job.

You see the raw specs on most PCs laptops do run circles around MacBooks, but to Apple's great advantage their limited hardware ecosystem makes drivers for their hardware a lot easier to write and KNOW it will work.

I did....


And I agree PC's spec vs spec kill almost all macs. Yet macs are faster more stable and benefit from the ecosystem limitation you mentioned.

if only macs weren't so damn expensive :/

oh and PS to all the people that were going back and forth with me....

I've caved, bought a big sack o vids... i'm getting much better results... you can say you told me so but... the thing that killed me was that my rips were working, just sporadically...

*IF* you had to use a vid that you could only find on youtube, what would you do to make it as stable as possible to add to a show? I've searched a bunch of the pools and they are missing many of the vids i had already ripped but were not encoding properly...

Thanks guys, (i'm learning)

I would play a high-quality audio file alongside some kind of visual loop.

ahhh thats a good call...

Oh and lastly... i'm using a crate of all legit vids now but i still am having a little bit of a decoder prob.... my vids that are shaped more like "landscape" are sometimes buggings and being off center vertically...

Any ideas? (prob more PC issues)

I think the quote from steve jobs was "it's not that macs are more expensive it's that PC's are cheap" and really they are.

or get a great audio file strip the videos audio file, re sync them, and re encode them properly.

well its more than just the price of the laptop... its the hole you fall into when only apple can supply your hardware, fixes, and compatible software (to an extent)... And not that i recommend it.... but there is a lot of free software you can get on a PC ;)

free im this game nothing you want to use.

I think, the problem is not Mac or PC. I've read here from a lot of Mac Users, having the same problem like Milkcraate. I also think, that the problem comes not from Youtube Videos, because I have the same problems with self encoded DVD's (with Handbrake an Serato Preset) and the Serato Beeple Content.

I think, that Serato Video may have a problem with different Video resolutions wich have to be scaled to the different Monitor resolutions.

I was just asking a question to be sure of my choice. To have a true feedback as i know that here there are lot of djs but perhaps not lot of people who have real knowledges in computing science. But it seems you guys are angry here....you should learn not to react childish and give a true help by trying to understand people instead of judging.....

If you want opinions from users with countless hours of real-world experience week-in-week-out, then this is the place.

On the other hand, if you wanna go talk theory with some computer scientists I'm sure there are plenty of places online you can do that.

yeah, something is really fishy....

Back on the subject of Lavfilters vs FFDshow....

I've given up on lavfilters... and i think i ACTUALLY have solved all my issues...

Back with FFDshow, klite mega pack, i never actually changed my registry back to quicktime but i think the klite pack automatically did.

I've spent much more time on my encoding, going video by video and seeing what i'm working with.

So yeah... PC working great with 80+FPS on best setting, i haven't tried anything over 720p yet though.

Based on the fact that they only recommend ffdshow, it might not be worth going down the lav filters route, the crashes are so intermittent that you might feel like you can figure it out... after countless hours i'm back with FFDshow with no problems so far.... at all....

BAM

Can you launch a WIN7DSFILTER and tell me which codec is used for the H264 ? Cause 80 fps at best without GPU assistance is big . Or perhaps you have a i7 core 4K serie CPU........

FFDshow

2.7ghz, 16 gb ram, nvidia 680m with 2gb ddr.... and my GPU is being used, only at about 20% but when i track it you can tell its workin

with lav filters, GPU went up to about 30%, but crashed all the time

Can you tell me which CPU you have ? I mean the model. In my previous mail i meant "intel i7 extreme edition"

I have found an old thread of you :

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3740QM CPU @ 2.70GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.7GHz

In fact you have a strong CPU that's why ffdshow is far enough to play H264 well.

FFDSHOW + Haali might be enough in fact in your case. I still don't get why you had trouble with Lav as even when you install the k-lite now it gives lav as default as it is know to be fast and stable. Anyway the more important is to have SV working :)

lav filters at the MOST reliable would work for an hour and then crash, every time

Do the official Beeple Vids work for you without crash? (DJ ListenDat)

I don't have any crash. One time i had crashes but it was due to another soft that was recording at the same time

how did you encode the beeple vids? (did you?)

Not sure if this might be the reason... but after switching my default encoder to FFDshow i never ran the registry edit to default to quicktime

After reading all this I tried to find the problem in my system and I think, I can say I found it:

The only way to play all Videos without any problem on my system seems to be the Haali Media Splitter. Since I switched all Videoformats to ffdshow AND Haali, my system works. Switching back to LAV or Quicktime shows my old problem, also the combination from ffdshow / LAV-Spliter make problems.

Its no coincidence... those are the serato recommended packs :/ It is pretty obvious that SOMETHING is really funky between PCs and SV; but its best to just stick to what works rather than try to get everything to work; in my experiences.

I cant say that my attempts to work lav filters and familiarize myself with video encoding were in vein, but damn its nice to actually get some work flow going again.

It's weird LAV doesn't give you good results as it's now considered as the best filters. ffdshow is more used as it is older and because it has plenty of image quality treaking (post-treatment, sharpen, etc....)

But yes the most important is to have somethink that works well :).

Milkcraate, you had tried LAV filters after having removed everything then use CUVID ?Cuvid is the only setting that needed to be changed.

i meant tweaking not treaking.......sorry i'm french

One question, if your using a PC Why even bother with SV? I mean it's pretty basic plugin..... Why not just use VDJ, it great with timecodes, has a ton of features, easy to use, can map dam near anything hell you can even record your video sets..... So Why go through the headache of trying time get a plugin to work that was clearly made for a Mac.

And Yes I have with a Mac and PC but I still choose VDJ. ...

Because i'm a long time serato user and VDJ isnt' compatible with my Rane 62 mixer

Any plan of developping dxva support ? it would permit lower CPU usage and better perf

Also, I am utilizing the 32bit versions of FFDShow Tryouts and LAV Filters. I will try today to use 64bit. I was having issues last night with the 64bit but it could of been due to out dated drivers.

Serato is 32-bit so using 64 bits ffdshow or lav shouldn't work in 64 bits........32 bits will be used i think

That is correct ListenDat. I tried the 64 bit version of FFDSHOW and it didn't work until I went back to the 32 bit version.

Serato should just really add these to the installer and make our lives that much easier.

Listenthat I used the lav filters and got better results back when you started the thread. I don't use youtube rips often if I do it's because I can't get it any other way meaning it's old hip hop. For me PC or Mac I have never had a crash using a ripped video which I have only ripped 4-10 but as stated above I replace the audio. Most times those videos are mono and hell I just want it to sound better you can tell a ripped video by audio.

The filters do help pc a lot no matter which videos are being used trust me on that. PC is just a fudgin pain to get smooth and if you own a PC you will always want to get smother. The Lav filters did that for me. So this is a good tread.. Now that you guys smached the youtube guys its another learning lesson.... We all learn everyday.

Okay so i also patched serato dj and serato video to use more than 2gb of memory and that helped quite a bit.

I set seratos filters to utilize rgb 24 and rgb32 and the standard yv12 and that increased performance a little. Meaning i deselected every other option available.

Also in settings menu for serato video i set recording to 360 and quality to medium (though high works fine).

The reason why i think this is such a success is because its an intel hd3k card. An nvidia or ati card should run miles around this baby.

A few more updates to serato video and i may ditch the macbook pro for an alienware

Also have a look at the interesting Razer Blade 14 !!! If i was to by a gamer/vj laptop i'd buy something like that :)

Regarding your comment do you mean that as it's working fine it is that QS is used ?

Because of the fact you need a RANE hardware that have a recording option to record with SDJ (SL2 not ok for example) i still prefer the solution of using Mirillis Action !

For information you can even record games like Crysis 3 (which definitely make the machine suffer lot more than SDJ+SV would) without loosing a single FPS ;)

No no quicksync is needed then.

don't understand neither :p

I give up

ps:i'm french. I just learnt english at school so don't understand everything

Now he question is, can any of you computer wizzes make this work, vvvv.org

If you can you'd be a legend!!!

Seems a bit complicated for me loool. I have never used resolme. I promise if i was interested by that i would have look and try to understand it but the possibility to fade the video is enough for my usage

At present the only extensibility I can see are in the form of shaders which means that wouldn't be do-able IMHO Huey.

? How did you patch it.... I would love to do this..

It's a windows only application I believe. Please use at your own risk. Serato already is working on a build to help fix the memory issues which has shown positive results

4gb Patch -> www.ntcore.com

Large Library Invite Beta -> serato.com

Thanks Culprit..... I like that disclaimer in my mind what's the worst that could happen I have to re-install the software. Blah but then again it might change in registry requiring me to find it somehow in regedit. Lol either way even if I have to do a fresh install of windows I am willing to do so.... But I get your point...!!!!!!!!.

Ha.... it creates a backup of the original file so you simply have to rename it or even delete or uninstall serato to go back to the way it was. Thanks again as there are many other helpful tools on the ntcore site....

Well I set SDJ and SV up this weekend on internal with audio reactive effects going in all 4 slots then I had the echo, delay and a filter going for both decks. Then I pitched everything up 50% and hit auto play for about 8 hours. Video buffer was set at 2gigs and the SL3 was set at 2 ( I don't think that matters since I was internal anyways).

I would come back ever few hours and scratch or mess with the effects and it wouldn't drop out. For some reason though the light is always on but never any dropouts (at least while I was sitting there).

I set video to "High" and keep a steady 60/65fps. When I checked task manger and looked at memory usage, it said I was using 3.5 out of 7.something.

I still don't understand why that light was on so I might start a help ticket on that.

I will say video runs a hell of a lot better on the PC side now.

Yep it's night and day now. I get a new budget for a laptop in 2015 for work so I may consider either a refurbished mid 2012 mac book pro's or a refurbished high end Alienware 14x laptop.

Intel Quick Sync or with your discrete GPU ?

Nvidia 745m with 2 gigs I think.

nice

nice thanks

Still can not figure out why I keep getting the light but never a drop out. It only turns on once I start the video though......

I am having same issues as well

Well I updated my video card drivers and that has seemed to help some. The light now will go out where as before it would always stay on but never any dropouts.

Now all my visuals are MOV format (Resolume doesn't play mp4's) but I noticed tonight that whenever something was loaded out of the Media crate my fps would drop down into the 50's and with 2 MOV's playing it got as low as 45. Not sure if its the new driver or the videos or because Serato is basically playing 4 different files at once (2 mp3's and 2 MOV's from the media crate). Still that stupid light was on but never any dropouts.

Can someone from Serato chime in and tell exactly what that light means and what determines it to come on??

Lool they never say anything here since the post was created in 2012 so i doubt you'll get any answer........you should start a new thread you'll get more luck (i hope they won't come here to say "yes listendat is right create a new thread" then never answer on it :p lool it looks definitely like what they are used to doing here :p

Hey all.



Scratch Live: The light would be red when you already have an actual dropout.

The light works different in Serato DJ than it used to work in Scratch Live:
Serato DJ 1.5.2. and above: it turns red when your computer fails to process certain things in half the time of the currently set buffer size.

So as an example, when your buffer is set to 2ms, the light will go red whenever your CPU fails to process certain audio things in less than 1ms. This is obviously not necessarily a dropout yet, but you are now closer to a dropout than to a "no-dropout" due to running out of audio buffer. Also, other things like bad USB connections could in theory cause dropouts as well, but we can't warn you from those.
So the light is a tool to warn you from one potential source of dropouts, but not anymore an indicator of a dropout that has already happened.

We believe the new way is better than telling you "hey you just HAD a dropout", because it means we warn you before you are in trouble, and not when you are in trouble already (dropout). You would probably have noticed a dropout anyway due to the sound cutting off, and they are also logged in the dropoutcount log file.

Simply put, the light now warns you earlier, so there may still be a little bit of headroom to a dropout, but you should consider increasing your buffer size, as you are living on the edge.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Cheers.

Karl

Hey Karl Thanks for that, makes a lot more sense to me now.
I'll try increasing my buffer size and go from there.

Thanks for the time an info.

You could also thank me as i wrote the way i wrote to improve the Serato staff ego to answer :p

i meant to touch their ego so that they answer

Dude, your ridiculous man.. who gives a rats ass who wrote what. Numerous forum user's have been seeking answers for common questions from Serato staff for years, they don't go around bragging about it. If you want, you can thank me for this annoyed response as well.

I didn't understand your answer well(i'm not native english speaker). Anyway i hope i got what you mean. I was doing a little humour to point out that since this post was created at 5:56 PM - 26 October, 2012 the first participation from the staff came at 11:57 AM - 2 April, 2014

Now Cluprit!!!!!

i have the Alienware 14 and experiencing a ton of problems with SDJ + VSL using a ddj-sx

Have you opened a support ticket with serato yet?

support.serato.com

Let's trouble shoot some basics. Make sure you got the latest software of course to date (1.7)

serato.com

Also make sure you got ffdshow and haali media splitter installed, of course restart after installation

serato.com

You can try lav filters as well but it's not recommended or supported officially by serato at the moment

forum.doom9.org

I recommend installing the 32bit versions since the primary application, Serato DJ, is 32 Bit at the moment.

While Serato does work on the PC much better then it has in the past now, Id still use VDJ on a Windows based machine and heres why, instagram.com

Syphon just isn't a Mac thing anymore.................and NO LAG!!

Everyone trashes vdj8 I think its a great program

The day they will give an as good timecode support as Serato they will IMO become the number one program !!

Quick guide to go video without problems for you :

- Use Video from Legit sources or recompressed in H264/AAC with a software who has made its proof like Handbrake. Encode in H264 using Intel Quick Sync. It's blazing fast and you want be able to see differences in quality compared to encoding with CPU as it's video clips you're using and not 4K demo contents

- Use FFDSHOW with Intel Quick Sync as H264 Decoder

- To avoid resizing problems that can sometimes happen in SDJ when videos are from different aspect ratio, enable the fit to screen resolution resize :webtrickz.com

With that you should be able to play well without problem

www.google.fr(H264-VC1-MPEG2)&h=478&w=1127&tbnid=uR8OXOiYZdc7DM%3A&zoom=1&docid=IGGq0W9XqMRMIM&ei=8vEfVKeAO8TdatDVgpgE&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=2648&page=1&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=0CCIQrQMwAA

How to set Intel Quick Sync as decoder for H264 in FFDSHOW : s3.postimage.org

Give it a try now ;-)

I saw lots of posts of discontent on the vd8 forum regarding the timecode part...seems it's still not as accurate as Serato........the pitch value can't stay precise......

Hey just wanted to say thanks for all the responses! I've been swamped but will give these all a try soon and report back!

I submitted 2 request (couldnt find the 1st one)

Ok so i've been dabbing with video-sl now for about 2 months. I have a dedicated internal drive for all my videos.

I am on windows 8.1, 8GB ram, NVidia GTX 765M, i7-4700MQ processor.
HDDS:
1 SSD - OS + Apps
1 7200rpm - music for serato
1 7200rpm - video for serato

using a Pioneer ddj-sx

I noticed adding the videos to my catalog is making SeratoDJ more unstable. It has crashed a number of time. I have analyzed, removed anything corrupted and so on.

I am also getting green bars (randomly) on my decks (but when I switch the same file to the opposite deck the problem differs).

I read about using all these different Codecs/LAV filter and so on.

I guess in the end I know my Laptop is up to par to be able to run this application properly. What can I do about the stability? What are the right codecs to use? How can I get rid of the green bars?

AND THE SECOND POST
**I thought I posted this last week but I cannot find the thread and I was able to take some pics this weekend of my issue!**

Recently i started playing Videos using SDJ (1.7) with Video-SL. I have had a number of issues (where I see individual posts about them but none of their solutions seem to work for me).

1 - Green bars: I attached 2 pics to show the green bars i am getting. sometimes the bars on on both deck and sometimes only on 1 deck.

2 - frozen frame: I noticed this for the first time this weekend. My right deck had a frozen frame from the Katy Perry - Dark Horse video. I was unable to resolve this. See attachment.

3 - Stability: So my PC specs are:
Win 8.1
8 GB ram
i7-4700MQ (2.40 ghz) processor
NVidia Geforce GTX 765M.

I am also running 3 HDDs
1 - SSD for OS+Apps
1 - 1TB for music for serato
1 - 1TB for videos for Video-SL).

In the middle of playing SDJ will freeze and quit. This is random and I cannot tell what is causing this issue. I am using a Pioneer DDJ-SX for my video playback.

4 - Codecs: So i have been reading that Windows does not use its GPU the same way as Macs so this can contribute to my output issues. I have tried using the LAV filters and running a tweak posted about dedicating the GPU for H.264 formats. I have not been able to seen consistent output for video (some have green bars).

5 - Right approach: Is there a preferred setting for Video-SL. What would you say is the best way to address my current library and adding new videos in the future? I have using handbrake and the Serato preset but the green lines are still there.

I know this looks more like a shopping list but at the moment all of these issues are happening and I am trying to enter into this market.

thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any replies.

i appreciate the links. I'll go thru them soon!

also wondering about the "green bars". Are those re-sizing issues?

Quick Sync does not apply to you because you are not using an intel based hd card, please ignore that information as he did not take the time to read your specifications correctly.

I will have a guide for you to check to trouble shoot in the next 2-3 days. It will be a direct show coded registry file.

Will do. Thanks for the update

Except if I can t read anymore his processor is i7-4700MQ (2.40 ghz) processor so he does have Intel HD 4000 with it so quicksync.... So please for yourself do follow the instructions I gave to you as it may give you the best overall result

@Lolyfe try to follow my instructions then come back to me for any questions.

I took several time doing whatever possible tests with Serato video I also think I m the only one who subscribed on Intel forum etc... To ask information about quicksync. I also contacted Eric egur the developer of the quick sync decoder used it ffdshow and lav filters to ask help with SV almost 2 years ago..... I had also weird resizing bugs when I was not playing 16/9 videos so I had asked help to ffdshow Geeks to have a solution. Using the fit to screen function of ffdshow solves it. I always adviced lav filters over ffdshow cause, before I almost everyday wrote to Serato staff so that they inform themselves about power of quicksync so that they enabled Intel support, we couldn't you quicksync with ffdshow and Serato because of the lack of Intel support. On Mac gpu hardware acceleration is natively used but not pc. You can t run Serato video well without using gpu hardware acceleration. Except some rare gaming laptop like yours, cpu isnt enough to handle HD videos + the program itself. It needs help of gpu. So you can trust me....

And even with yours you may not have fluid performance with HD videos if you use only cpu

ark.intel.com you have hd4600 so even better than hd4000 so it should rock with ffdshow and quicksync. You can even try to force your nvidia gpu to use SDJ and you Intel one to use SV in the nvidia panel configuration and see if you get better performance than using the Intel s everywhere. It will permit the Intel s gpu to be used only in SV and for video decoding thanks to ffdshow quicksync. The SDJ program itself will be handled by the nvidia gpu... Let us know

Culprit you vexed me dude. You could have said that i just didn't read correctly.....but not that i "didn't take time".......you and i have been the firsts to talk about quicksync here and regarding all my posts on this forum you could have taken time to wonder if i had really said wrong things before saying this.........

Sorry for the english i remind that i'm french plus i'm writing from my phone in the metro :p :)

Cheers

I only stated the truth, I work with alienware laptops all the time and I looked up his specs. This is not a contest I am trying to give him the correct information, and yes we all know you helped SERATO understand quicksync but you don't have to keep bragging about it. I was a video SL beta tester I dont keep bring it up on every post.

Also, I did not mean to make it sound offensive ListenDat, just trying to let him know that the intel hd based card is 2nd to the NVidia Geforce GTX 765M, much more powerful. That's why they built that laptop with that video card in it obviously or else they would of just kept the Intel Card in there alone with it.

Culprit make a test if you have Geforce gtx and Intel HD. Make an encoding using Cuba and another one doing quucksync....

Then I don't say the GTX isn't less powerful. In game it will be but not in video transcoding. Serato video needs gpu hardware acceleration to give good results. We know it. The thing is as ffdshow doesn't use dxva with Serato for unknown reasons you can t take advantage of the nvidia gpu with it. Lav filters can use it but some resizing problems can happen. So the best solution may remain to use ffdshow with quucksync. He seems he didn't have good results with lav filters that s why I was advising him to use ffdshow.

Culprit make a test if you have Geforce gtx and Intel HD. Make an encoding using Cuda and another one doing quicksync.... Then told me what you think is best overall

Then I don't say the GTX is less powerful. In game it will be but not in video transcoding. Serato video needs gpu hardware acceleration to give good results. We know it. The thing is that as ffdshow doesn't use dxva with Serato for unknown reasons you can t take advantage of the nvidia gpu with it. Lav filters can use it but some resizing problems can happen. So the best solution may remain to use ffdshow with quucksync. He seems he didn't have good results with lav filters that s why I was advising him to use ffdshow.

Sorry for my speech about my help here. I was talking about it just to make him confident about the advices as I don't have anything to win talking about that again and again except making Serato optimizing qsv usage and help people. Old macbook can t do airplay mirroring because of the lack of quicksync. Even those with good nvidia gpu. QuickTime player use it since lion with latest i5 and i7 macbooks as well as final cut X in with single pass h264 encodings and the results are better with macbooks than Mac pro with xeon processors which on the paper should have been better.....

Cheers guys

Why would I encode using cuba? I encode using x264 which is software based anyways. Were not encoding video's here, were decoding using serato video, correct me if I am wrong. The arguments might be valid for encoding videos, but were decoding for playback, two different things going on. GPU Encoding is obviously fast, but overall the quality of x264 software cpu encoding is by far my most favorite method. I have done it all, believe me. Ive been encoding dvd's since 2007.

I also recommended ffdshow as well, with haali media splitter, as that has proven to provide the best results for me on a pc laptop with an nvidia graphics card. The Lav Filters is a secondary approach, a use at your own will kind of approach.

I don't understand where the conversation took a turn to encoding though, but if so there are many many many other threads on that in the forums.

fellas first off I would life to thank you all for your answers. to be honest you have all provided me more answers in a quicker and more educated manner than Serato (who still hasn't given real answers to my support ticket).

I know you have a difference in opinion but that is good for educational reasons and leaves room for us users to be open minded and appreciative that you guys have spent your own time to make this product work beyond its abilities on a windows platform out of the box.

Again I am fortunate to have you provide your answers along with your own experiences.

Mmmm ok i understand you don't understand what i want to explain. I'll try again.

Culprit, i count on you do be open-minded. The story is that people have for a long time been doing cpu encoding (x264) because it brings the best quality. Then GPU encoding arrived but wasn't giving nice results. But since i'll say 2 years, GPU brands improve their drivers a lot to improve quality of GPU encoding which is faster than CPU encoding. Right now it's very very very difficult to see a visual quality difference between a CPU x264 encoding and a GPU accelerated H264 intel quick sync decoding.

If you have a nvidia GTX and an intel HD GPU, please, but really please take time to make a comparison of :

- Software encoding
- Nvidia encoding (it will use CUDA)
- Intel Quick Sync (QSV) encoding

Take a full HD video clip (here, as djs, we're not encoding high bitrates 4K videos, and rarely use clips more than 1080p 10000 kbit/s)

You will be able if you're fair and accept that you can be wrong, to the test and see that in fact Intel Quick Sync is the best option nowadays for our usage

Why am i talking about encoding ? To point out performance of QuickSync. It will be the same result in decoding (what SDJ is doing) ! On the firsts i5 and i7 laptop people couldn't decode a 4K video using cpu decoding cause it was too weak to provide fluid results. This could be achieve using Intel Quick Sync which was invented in that purpose ! Decode and encode H264 in the best conditions possible !

Nowadays you can make a test. Open Media Player Classic and configure it so that it uses ffdshow with x264 (CPU). Then launch at the same time five 4K videos. It may lag than never before. Then make the same test but that time configuring ffdshow to use Intel Quick Sync.....it won't lag and you'll be able to see your CPU usage something like twice what it would be using cpu decoding. Cpu decoding which likely make the CPU reach 100%

As SeratoDJ is already using CPU to handle its tasks (handling library, real-time audio with minimum latency, etc....) adding the video decoding to this will make the CPU usage increase even more and that's when problems of dropouts and performance will arrive. Especially with HD content. That is why leaving the decoding to the GPU here, to the specialized intel quick sync which was invented and designed especially for this task, will permit to reduce CPU usage and avoid slow downs etc.......

I things it's very clear and i really hope if you don't want to believe this you'll test it.

My goal is to help. I shouldn't be trying to convince you to test this but i'm doing it as i want to help.

Cheers

Are you sure?

Definitely.

Decoding is a process which costs a lot less ressources usage than encoding

Here is a little link that explain a few things about gpu transcoding :

forums.vso-software.fr

It's pretty simple to see it by yourself and without going in too many difficults technicals explanations anyway..........try encoding multiple videos at the same time VS decoding multiple videos at the same time............and see ressources usage........

Someone's missing the point, either me or you. And I am not sure why you are bringing up the decoding issue.

The question was, whether QuickSync also means that the GPU is decoding.

Quicksync is just the name of the GPU hardware acceleration of the new intel hd graphics........it used to be intel clear video.....it's a bit like cuda for nvidia. The nvidia has cuda cores but the gpu hardware acceleration is just usually called CUDA

Everything is explained here : en.wikipedia.org

Are you avoiding to answer the question what decoding has to do with encoding? ;)

Where did you ask this question ? Thought i had answer to your questions..........did you read the quicksync stuff ? Do you understand better ?

Ask me precisely the question you want me to answer as i thought i had answered to what you asked...........

perhaps you still don't understand i talked about encoding just cause the big performances of quicksync will be easier to see during encoding tasks as encoding uses lot higher ressources than decoding..........

Sorry for being unclear.

What does encoding have to do with decoding in this context?

Remember, you said "Why am i talking about encoding ? To point out performance of QuickSync. It will be the same result in decoding (what SDJ is doing) !"

Again i talked about encoding cause it will be easier to see that quicksync offers better performance doing an encoding task rather than a simple decoding task. Again man just make the tests by yourself. You can test both encoding and decoding. The goal of what i've been explaining again and again is to convince to use quicksync cause it offers best performance overall with excellent quality considering as dj the clips we are using are seldom over 1080p @10000kbit/s

So make a test. Launch the task manager or whatever too that show cpu and memory usage and do :

- Encoding H264 1080p video CPU x264 vs Intel QSV (you can do it with handbrake for example)
- Decoding multiple 4K videos at the same time. Use media player classic with ffdshow with x264 used for H264 decoding VS Intel QSV used for H264 decoding

Decoding uses less ressources that is why i precise to open multiple 4K videos at the same time cause

All of this just to make you realise by yourself (as it seems you don't trust the multiple videos around youtube on quicksync and the multiples articles and tests on the internet) that for our dj usage (and i would even say video editor usage) using quicksync is more interesting than using cpu for transcoding/decoding/encoding/redering

We're not talking about encoding.


Why? Again.. I am not interested in encoding. I agree with Culprit and would rather use a software encoder to get the best results. But then I have to admit that I don't know enough details about how the encoding process goes. Does the GPU use macro calculations by itself, or does it do micro calculations which has been offloaded by software? I don't know the details. But honestly.. I don't care at this point.



Encoding? We're not talking about encoding.


[sounding like a broken record...] but that's not the topic here ;)


Ah, now we're back on track ;) That is the important part.


... that I shouldn't worry about it, because I use a Mac when using SL/SDJ + SV/ME ;)

you answer makes me sad........honestly.......i see it as dishonesty :(

Mac for the win. I myself use a mac as well its the easiest way to go. I always try to help a pc user though as in 2008 when I spent 2k on my Alienware just to realize the software didn't work and.. it scarred me.. i was a soo sad.. And I feel for people who struggle with it.

@ListenDat

It's cool dude, i'd say agree to disagree.

I don't need to test, Nik does not need to test. We both would be going backwards as, both of us have experience in this encoding debacle. Before there was a standard, we were trying to figure out the standard, trying to figure out how to properly encode vob's to mp4, trying to figure out how the hell did smash get such good damn quality video's, batch encoding and tagging, i can literally go on, but i wont, because it's just not that big of a deal.

Intel has a great product now with qucksync and the hd cards, I did not say they did not, but quicksync is not the answer to every pc video problem. There are other options for people to try, and that's the message I am trying to relay to others out there.

No more kicking a dead horse though, back on topic. He has your solution Listendat, I will provide mine shortly, and maybe he can get his Serato Video working on his PC.

You're saying " I agree with Culprit and would rather use a software encoder to get the best results " but you've never made the test dude ! So you're talking without having tested it and make your own opinion! You kinda try to make people see me as kind of jerk here which i could understand, but at least make tests before doing it !!!! It's like if someone was explaining to you that you would get better performance using LTE phone but you were saying "i'd rather use my old GPRS mobile".........it's really sad........We are in 2014 ! not in 2009 !!! things are evolving and even if some old stuffs can remain good others can be optimized !!!
I'm sure you understood straight from the beginning what i was trying to explain.

Anyway you have a macbook ok so perfect. Open different 4K videos with vlc. Make the test on a side without gpu hardware acceleration and another side with it and give me a feedback about which one gave best overall performance...........

Link to do it : feepk.net

Pc i'm also on MAC now cause of better perfs

Dishonesty? Towards whom or what? I never signed a contract that I have to use a PC (or a Mac or whatever).

Fact is.. I still use a PC a loooot. But not when using Serato Video or ME (obviously...). When I was using audio only I had no problems with my Windows PC and I was laughing about my colleagues cursing about their Macs crashing - I never had a single Serato/SL crash with my Windows PC (using final releases). ;)

When it comes to encoding I might care about Windows if I was encoding myself. Nowadays there are only a few vids I am encoding, because I mainly use the great sources from VJ Pro/Smash and Xtendamix.

Just like Culprit (said) I spent a lot of time with the encoding stuff

serato.com <- click

But nowadays it's not that interesting anymore.

Decoding is interesting, because that still affects me. And that is what this thread was about, right? :)

Decoding performance test : Open differents 4K videos with VLC on your MAC. Make the following test :
- on a side without gpu hardware acceleration
- Then another side with gpu hardware acceleration

In both test measure CPU/GPU/RAM usage and overall video aspects (choppyness? fluid ?)

give me a feedback about which one gave best overall performance...........

Link to set VDA on vlc mac : feepk.net

I won't say anything more here i'm done. Perhaps you won't make the test as it will be to hard to admit that i was right even if it's not my goal here as i don't give a damn about being right. I just want to see everyone having the best performance and be happy !!

You keep kicking this dead horse for some reason. It's like dead, its done, Drop it bro. I already explained to you why we don't want to test your method.

Let's jump back to encoding.. for some reason.. since you brought it up that x264 was so 2009..

www.tetrachromesoftware.com

It's been tested, it is faster (hooray, no one was arguing that it was not faster with you) but is limited to 4k birate (booo.. what? 4k birate? your kidding me right?), and fall's behind going forward from 1080p (like really bad, like off the map bad, like why do you keep pushing this issue bad..)

The quality does not match x264, unless your encoding at a smaller birate (wait, why would we encode at smaller birates when we are playing videos? were not uploading web content, were playing videos live.. hmm..)

This mean's actually, when utilizing the quicksync technology, you trade speed for quality. I did not have to do one single test, nik did not, you did not, because why? google, that's why.. Google'd it. There is even a reddit thread that pops up with people telling you that

"x264 is quality, quick sync is speed".

Can, we stop kicking a dead horse here please? I have not ranted like this since 2009 i think.. I stopped my rants because it's not cool for people to argue on threads like this. It's not helpful, at all.

/endrant

Ryyyyte.

If it makes you feel better: You are right :)

Can we move on now? This thread was about decoding I thought. SV does not encode.

However, since it is your thread you're entitled to go off topic as much as you want ;)

REally, let's relax here.. No one cares about who is right or wrong. Let's just get the facts straight for all users who don't have time to research as much as we do. :)

Funny......

Nik39 saying let's stop talking about encoding...culprit who starts again......
Culprit who sees my word "4K" as 4k bitrate whereas i was talking about that :en.wikipedia.org as it's the resolution which will progressively replace 1080p in the future........anyway it's fine guys. I see that you just didn't understand why i was talking about all that shits.

Nik39 you keep saying "This thread was about decoding I thought. SV does not encode" even if i told you to make a decoding test on my last post" but it's fine i've understood you didn't get why you should do this test.

Guys you want to go to the facts ? Here are the facts :

Fact 1 : Do you know why VDJ is better in video than SV in terms of overall performance ? Why the videos are so fluid even with HD and full HD video ? (here by HD i mean 1280x720p and 1920x1080p). Why playing two HD videos at best with SV may cause lags whereas no one on VDJ ?

answer : VDJ uses GPU hardware acceleration

Fact 2 : Regarding the content given by the dj pools and especially the bitrates of the video clips which are pretty low (compared to a bluray for example), it will be almost impossible to see with the eyes even on the biggest output screen ever, the difference between cpu decoding and gpu decoding (this using Serato Video and FFDSHOW)

Fact 3 : If the image quality is OK the second thing a vj doing live will want is smoothness. He doesn't want to see its output video window playing with 10 FPS ! He wants at least 30 fps to ensure smoothness.

Fact 4 : FFDSHOW + intel quicksync gives better framerate than FFDSHOW + software decoding

if the famous video pools (VJ-PRO etc....) start tomorrow to offer Ultra HD and 4K (not 4k bitrate, i mean 4k resolution en.wikipedia.org) content you won't be able to use SV anymore cause you CPU won't be able to handle SDJ with real-time audio, big sound library etc...+SV doing ultra high definition clips at the same time ! But perhaps at that precise moment you will remember "oh this listendat shit had talked about gpu hardware acceleration that could solve my performance problem let's give it a try"..............

Instead of having this debate (which i won't call stupid cause nothing is useless in life everything has a purpose and make things evolve) you should have made tests then help me convince Serato staff thay they should allow Serato Video to use natively gpu hardware acceleration as VDJ does. At that moment we would have made something constructive to make this software evolve. But before convincing Serato staff to use gpu hardware acceleration the people who want to convince others have to be convinced themselves........and you are obviously not convinced.

It's like the discussion about the waveform which is smooth on mac and choppy even on the most powerful pc.............on mac it's gpu hardware accelerated.....on pc it's handled by cpu.........but we all know that everything about opengl and 3d will be handled way better by GPU.......

Perhaps here nik39 won't understand another time that the goal of this is to say again that Serato has to use gpu hardware acceleration to improve the performance. Decoding nik39 decoding..........

I think culprit hopefully understands what i mean.

Cheers

Bro, seriously?

I know the difference between 4k resolution and 4k birate.

Tread lightly, with your responses. I already showed you a test from google.

what's your deal? Can't read? Blind? Don't understand?

We been here longer than you have trying to help Serato with Video SL

Anyways, your stuck on this topic like a hamster in a wheel stating the same stuff over and over and over. After we like, basically said drop it, even yourself said drop it..

That horse is dead yo, seriously..

It is not coming back..

Sorry I hadn't seen your link. I have just had a look at it. So it comes confirming my thoughts and what i'm saying IMO :

for a Serato Video usage on PC with the configuration given by LoLyfe and the fact most video pools offer videos that don't go over 1080p @5000kbit/s, the best choice to mix in good conditions with minimum lags and ressource usage is FFDSHOW + quicksync

Are you high?!?

I'll laugh when I have some spare time, KTHXBYE.

*Sigh* Any more words are wasted energy.

:) you guys :) funny as hell.......This is why I normally PM people...... Nik39 and Culpurt I have learned a lot from as they been around a long time on these forums so I tend to roll with them they haven't hurt me ever and always help me. Yet Listen Dat gives you food for thought and hasn't hurt me either and he is helpful too,,,,,,his flaw is that people think he has a desire for acknowledgment for what he has contributed thus why people handle him they way the do. I assume he wants you to know that not just a troll and has some validity at least that's how I take it. He's a good guy trying to help give him a break!!!

If I have learned anything from these forums is you can learn from everyone and can take parts from all and get your stuff to work. NOW if someone can remote in to my pc and figure how or why I can't get my quicksync to work I would be grateful. LOL HP can't get it to work nor can I. Blahh but it's not about me its about LOLYFE.....

There are many ways to skin a cat as it come to using PC and Serato. LoLyfe if none of what you read works try this.... use the force direct show reg edit serato.com
Delete all your codecs then install the latest K-Lite_Codec_Pack and set all to Lav for default.
if you have QuickSync working then choose it during setup. For me it was not working so I tried DXVA Copy Back but my PC got hot so I changed to DXVA2 and still got good results and the pc cooled down. Each PC is different so I suggest you try them all to see what works best for your frame rates. If what I am saying is not clear is it pertains to LAV Configurations. wiki.team-mediaportal.com

I think it comes with Win7DSFilterTweaker if not download it will helps you make changes really easy.

Last in Serato settings uncheck Vsync and Frame Blend

Also be sure to check power setting to be sure your forcing it to use the better card.... you may still be using intel and not even know it.

If you have any questions PM me I will help you anyway I can...


FYI I am not using Quicksync currently and I get very good results 80 frames. I have 2 macbook pros and a PC laptop I much rather use my PC because it's 17inch and has 2 hard drive bays as well as 4 usbs ports and much more. Why I use a mac well hell no issues and ME honestly if ME was on PC I would not use a mac and would sell all my macs.. I have been using PC's with Searto for a long time and I must admit you will have to try many things in order to get them to work and most often you can if you have motivation. What I recommended has helped some people and did nothing for others but it never hurts to try. Just so you know I get a good frame rate and can do everything to include record and this is without quicksync. I even recorded at 1080 with good results. My suggestion will take you the least amount of time...also note that K-Lyte will remove or repair all broken codec to include crap that was still there that you did not know was there. You will see this when you install it. Last I had windows 8 working but down graded to 7 because I don't have a touch screen so it worked both versions.

FYI I never Tried CUDA but I don't have problems as others do with the resizing of video on out put either.

Yeah, I have been trouble shooting with him. He is working with Windows 8 at the moment so were going through some difficulties.

Yeah Windows 7 would be better for me if he had it just because I don't use 8 at all.. I hate it.. : ) but if I had a touchscreen it might be a diffrent story. From what I can tell its codecs but could be memory, heat or issue with his videos. His laptop is same as mine specs wise other than his vidoe card so I see him getting it to work with some work... All of us can get him over the hump.... so we can have one more pc that works...

that's the goal!

Feeling super special. Lol. Thanks again guys for all the help.