CPU spikes with video

[PoliticalBonobo]

Whenever I add video to a DP project, CPU jumps about 50%. Brand new project will idle <5%, then adding a 20min standard definition reel causes it to idle at 50%. As you can imagine, this kills my real-time recording on fully-loaded projects, which bring me up to ~90% cpu with a video.

I have two graphics cards that should be more than capable of handling this. Video drivers are updated. I think DP isn't offloading video to the graphics cards and is running off the CPU instead.

[kdm]

What video cards, and what is the setup? Since you have two, are they setup in a crossfire config? There are caveats with some motherboards for running dual graphics cards (such as tying up more of the cpu's lanes).

Have you checked to be sure your audio card isn't sharing with one of the graphics cards?

I've run 30 HD reels with my full template on my i7 system. Graphics card is a GTX 960 (I know DP doesn't run well on mid to lower end cards).

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Re-export to a smaller rez video file might help. Also, are your videos on a separate drive than your VIs and app? It might be drive access is clogging the works.

[PoliticalBonobo]

I've got 2 GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448core graphics cards, not running in SLI mode. CPU is an overclocked i5 2500k @ 4.3ghz. Not the most powerful processor, but between that and the GPUs, it should be plenty for SD video in DP.

Have you checked to be sure your audio card isn't sharing with one of the graphics cards?

Do you mean my interface (UR44) audio card or onboard sound (or even graphics card audio)? I just tried completely disabling my onboard sound but to no avail.

Thanks

[PoliticalBonobo]

Re-export to a smaller rez video file might help. Also, are your videos on a separate drive than your VIs and app? It might be drive access is clogging the works.

I've got DP running off the system SSD, and the project, VI's, and video file running off another SSD. I just tried moving the video to the system SSD where DP is, but same spike.

I could certainly try to reduce the quality, but I just tested with a different video file that is 1080p, and the resulting spike in CPU was the same. However, audio playback is glitchy at 128 samples (48k/24bit). According to LatencyMon, that's apparently the USB port...not much I can do there and probably a separate issue.

[kdm]

Yes, the UR44 could be sharing with one of the video cards. Check the board's manual to see if that might be the case, though with USB it's a bit harder to sort out.

Try removing one of the 560s. It is possible DP is eating up cpu trying to manage video through both (and try to use one in a slot that isn't on the same IRQ as the UR44's USB port, or move the UR44).

You might also want to call MOTU and see if the 560 is on their list. They have a narrow range of cards they say they support, though I don't think they've tested that many. That at least might help narrow things down. It does sound to me that most likely the video card isn't sufficient. I had a 750 and couldn't run video in DP, hence I went with the 960 on this build (and to eventually run a 4k display).

What format video are you running? I've been running mostly mp4 without issue. Video location won't really affect performance that drastically, but you already have it on a separate drive (I've had to keep video on the same drive simply because there is a bug in DP that it will, in some cases, forget the video file location if on a separate drive and not in the DP project folder).

[PoliticalBonobo]

Thanks for the help troubleshooting. I tried disabling each graphics card one at a time, but there's no apparent difference. Also note, my interface is plugged in via USB on a dedicated USB 2.0 PCI card.

I'm still dumbfounded that a 560 Ti wouldn't handle simple video playback in DP. My fear is that getting a 960 (looks like they can be had for $200) will still result in a +50% spike in CPU. Maybe my expectations for professional audio workstations are severely off base....

[kdm]

I normally wouldn't recommend buying hardware to troubleshoot as I'm sure you also want to avoid, but in this case, if you can get a 960 locally where you can return it easily, it might be worth trying (got mine from Best Buy for just under $200).

My 700 series card was hitting about the same loading - 50-80% with any video, with overload spikes. It was pretty much useless. With the 960, video adds minimally to DP's loading. I do drop resolution down to 720 or 480p with my scoring template just because the template hits DP for 30% load already.

Unfortunately I think DP's video handling on Windows isn't very efficient - hence the high powered GPU requirements. DP seems to require more GPU power than most average frame-rate video games - a somewhat unusual scenario for a DAW. I ran PJPeg 720p and higher in Nuendo on 600-700 series cards for years with barely a blip in ASIO loading. It's been a bit of an adjustment having to sink $200 into a video card just to get DP to keep video load impact reasonable. I don't think your expectations are off base - rather I think DP is a bit far from optimal performance compared to other Windows DAWs.

[PoliticalBonobo]

Thanks for the insight, that experience is super helpful. I think I'll limp along finishing this movie, then get the upgraded gpu on the next build (which I'm planning early next year).
Next question, how does Cubase video compare? Just kidding. I'm determined to score a whole movie on DP, and I love the film scoring features. But stuff like this happens......(now I'm just venting)

[kdm]

I hear you. I wanted to like DP on my old system, but video performance made it impossible to score anything. It isn't without some quirks and issues on my new system, but I agree, the film scoring features make it worth any tradeoffs over other DAWs (Nuendo is my other main system, and I've used ProTools as well for scoring).

Audio performance (and video) isn't quite on par with Cubase/Nuendo, but I found quite a few minor key command, window and mouse conventions in Cubase/Nuendo simply become more time-consuming than DP, so I switched. I still prefer Nuendo's GUI (easier on the eyes, but getting a bit busy).

I finish my last score in DP because Nuendo started having MIDI issues (stuck notes) - I really had no choice. DP saved the day, and my sanity. It was really a joy to work with, despite some crashes (though DP starts, and quits, faster than Nuendo even from the same SSD).

You could try some alternate codecs for now just to get through this project - PJPeg, MJpeg might work, though I don't think I had any luck running them here. If you have a Mac lying around you could always run a video slave with NLA's Video Slave.

[HCMarkus]

What format video? Perhaps try using a format that is uncompressed. ProRes?

I've had issues with video as well, and am looking into this now.

[PoliticalBonobo]

What format video? Perhaps try using a format that is uncompressed. ProRes?

I've had issues with video as well, and am looking into this now.

Each video I tried is mp4, ranging in quality from SD to 1080p. I tried re-exporting the videos from Quicktime using photojpeg or mpe-4. The pjpeg didn't play in DP, and the mpeg-4 cut down on the spiking a little, but the quality was horrendous and unusable.

The video files were supplied in .mp4, so I don't think I can really try uncompressed at this moment.

[PoliticalBonobo]

If you have a Mac lying around you could always run a video slave with NLA's Video Slave.

I actually do have a Macbook lying around that might work. When I get some downtime, I might look into video-slaving it to my desktop workstation (if it's possible to slave it to a Windows PC).

Edit: Just noticed the $320 price tag. A GTX 960 will be a cheaper route.

[HCMarkus]

Just wondering if one could run DP, video only, on a second machine and slave to the master Audio Computer. VideoSlave on the cheap...

[sndmarks]

You won't get all the bells and whistles of VideoSlave, but DP and PT definitely will do it. I'd imagine any other pro-level DAW could handle it as well.


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