{"id":333,"date":"2016-03-12T04:21:41","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T04:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.editspecialists.com\/blog\/?p=333"},"modified":"2016-05-19T03:14:21","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T03:14:21","slug":"performance-test-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editspecialists.com\/blog\/index.php\/performance-test-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance test: Codecs and QuickTime on PC."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/div>

I had an aha-moment recently after switching from\u00a0a QuickTime based project on Premiere, to C300>native MXF. The system was all of a sudden snappy, no stalls, a lot more realtime performance and super fast renders and exports.
\nMy system must have\u00a0been struggling with something…
\nA codec that works with low CPU load on a Mac might have a high CPU load on PC.\u202c On Mac QuickTime uses the 64-bit AV Foundations framework but on PC Premiere still uses the\u00a0deprecated 32-bit QTkit framework.<\/a>\u00a0Adobe\u00a0finally wrote an\u00a0unofficial white paper March 2016<\/a>\u00a0about performance.\u00a0ProRes is not supported for export on Windows<\/a>.
\nQuickTime on Mac\u00a0works in\u00a064-bit (use all your RAM), OpenCL GPU-accelerated (use your graphics card for playback, render and export), and support Grand Central Dispatch (use all of your CPUs and cores).
\nWith QuickTime and most codecs on PC,\u00a0I’m\u00a0experiencing \u201cmini crashes\u201d > white screen\u00a0lock ups, plus stuttery, slow performance and slow renders & exports. Why?
\nThe QT-32\u00a0process on PC runs\u00a0in a 4 GB memory space, even when lots of memory is installed. To keep up with playback, the system has to\u00a0keep\u00a0swapping\u00a0banks of memory (pagefile.sys<\/a>) to\u00a0the hard-drive instead of using all installed memory.\u00a0I think the white screen lock up is the\u00a0pagefile.sys<\/a>\u00a0being written or read by Windows from the slow internal HD! (freezes about\u00a030sec)
\nThere is no 64-bit version of QuickTime, primarily because Apple has ceased development of QuickTime<\/a> on Windows (except for security and minor updates). QuickTime has been 7.x for 10 years now, and 8.0 does not seem to be anywhere in the distance.
\nI urge you to spend one hour to do your own tests, on your system with your own media. Figure out what formats and codecs give you the best realtime performance<\/a>. Each of the NLE’s has it’s own workarounds to bypass QuickTime depending on codec used.\u00a0Save yourself and your clients thousands of hours not waiting anymore for renders, exports and restarts.
\n\"mi-smile\"<\/a>Mike
\n<\/a>
\nResources
\n–Security\u00a0Alert uninstall QuickTime<\/a>\u00a0on PC.
\n<\/strong>-Avid’s advice about\u00a0Quicktime<\/a>
\n–QuickTime is deprecated? What does that mean in practice?
\n<\/a>–What is Apple doing with QuickTime?<\/a>
\n\u2013<\/a>How do I speed up rendering, exporting, or encoding?
\n–<\/a>CPU vs GPU<\/a>
\n<\/a>\u2013<\/a>PREMIERE PRO AND MULTIPLE GPUS
\n<\/a>-Adobe\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0smart rendering\u00a0w<\/a>orkflow
\n<\/a>–A Guide to Common Video Formats: Containers, Compression, and Codecs
\n<\/a>-In Premiere> QuickTime for Windows cannot export H.264 on computers that have more than 16 CPU cores due to a problem in the Apple H.264 compressor <\/a>component.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Delivery\u00a0in MXF<\/strong>
\nYou can edit without QuickTime but deliver in Quicktime.\u00a0When a client asks for QuickTime & certain codec, I give them what they want.\u00a0This means keeping a Mac around somehow for ProRes delivery.
\n<\/a>Saving MXF clips to MXF container<\/a>\u00a0in Premiere
\n<\/a>AVID – Fast Import Apple ProRes .mov to AVID Pro Res .mxf Workflow
\n<\/a>Arri Alexa bypassing Quicktime using\u00a0MXF instead
\n<\/a>About smart rendering in Premiere<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is what\u00a0to do<\/strong>
\n1. Set yourself up for testing> press\u00a0Ctrl+Alt+Delete and start Task manager> Resource\u00a0Monitor >Overview tab.
\nMake visible
\n-CPU
\n-Disk
\n2. Observe CPU Usage & Disk I\/O with different codecs.
\nWith an optimized codec like AVID, Sony EX422\u00a0or Cineform your CPU load should be low 5-10% and your Disk I\/O should match whatever the bit rate is of the codec.\u00a0My conclusion is that the QT32 process doubles CPU load\u00a0during playback, render and export. An\u00a0Intra-frame, non-QuickTime codec plays at 5-10% CPU,\u00a0as opposed to\u00a050-60% CPU as QuickTime, while also adding to Disk I\/O. It means that a timeline with filters will\u00a0take twice\u00a0as long to export and playback always stutters.
\nThe most astonishing thing is that a Premiere timeline with an QuickTime codec, rendered green, will still stutter playing back on both Mac and PC! I think that is embarrassing and unacceptable!
\nThe culprit is the\u00a0\u00a0QT32 process multiplying itself for no reason, taking up more and more CPU\u00a0cycles.\u00a0As your project grows and your timeline becomes more complicated this keeps dragging your realtime capabilities down until it literally stops… Restart!<\/p>\n

Below Playback the way it should be: Low CPU load\u00a0and\u00a0Disk I\/O at the bit rate of the codec. Note the files on the timeline being read in the Disk I\/O list.
\n\"1AVID_AVID-MXF_PLAY_NO_FILTER\"<\/a>
\nNow look\u00a0what happens when playing back a ProRes\u00a0QuickTime in Premiere.
\n1. CPU cycles taken up by Premiere
\n2. CPU cycles taken up by the QT32 process
\n3-8. The files on disk being read by the QT32 process including:
\n9. pagefile.sys the Page File it has to keep writing and reading off the drive to compensate for the 4GB memory limit. >Causes “white screen\u00a0lock up” (about 30 sec.)
\n\"PR_PRO_PLAY_NO_FILTER_pagefile\"<\/a>