Hello Everyone!
I have a customer who is using this program, unfortunately he is encountering some issues where it seems that after previewing 2 or 3 videos, the VRAM is full, and it just black screens the following videos in the preview window.
I tested in Premier Pro trial version, and there i can preview as many as i would like, as it seems it clears them out of VRAM after the preview is over.
Any help is appriciated!
Hi and welcome
Do you mean he is clicking on the play symbol in the Media Pool at the top right and previewing several clips from there, as I did see something like that happen myself.
We would need to see the specification of his computer including the video card if he has a separate GPU installed, and also his version number of MEP as in Help>About from the top menu.
Peter
I believe that is what i mean.
Xeon Silver 4108 / 1.8 GHz
HP NVIDIA Quadro P400 2GB GDDR
32 GB RAM
256 GB NVMe+ SSD
1TB 7200rpm HDD
Version: 20.0.1.65
Hi Mikkel.
I think the Xeon Silver 4180 does not have an inboard Intel GPU and the clock speed is slower than the recommended minimum. I'm not sure how well that Quadro card is holding up either with only 2GB of memory. I had to swap out to a 4GB graphics card when I was running a 2GB nvidia card. I suspect it's a combination of the two items. Also if the 256 GB NVMe is the C: drive, make sure it has sufficient free space for MEP to load the project to and move files around.
What is the resolution of files being used? You would be stretching capablities at 1080p or higher.
Ray.
Hi @CubeAce
The issue is not performance though, as i said, it works fine in Premier Pro.
What seems to me, is that it the program just doesn't clear VRAM.
When i use preview in Premier pro, and i monitor the VRAM, it fills up, but it seems like it's clears the VRAM when i choose a new video.
Unlike on MAGIX Movie Edit Pro Premium, where it just fills up, and when attempting to load next video, the screen is just black.
Ofcourse correct me if i'm wrong :)
Hi Mikkei.
Even for Premier Pro that system is just meeting minimum specs and they also suggest using a card with 4GB of vram but what we have found (The users on this forum) is that some Graphics cards that on paper look like they meet the minimum spec for MEP don't work too well. It's also exacerbated by not having an Intel GPU. If you look at the MAGIX specs page (It hasn't changed much since using the newer Infusion engine) and see the graphics cards they recommend and think of that as a starting point.
If you want to test this out, within MEP go to File \ Program \ Import/Export and untick the Hardware acceleration for playback if possible and see if the problem persists. If it doesn't persist but then is sluggish in use then I'm on the right track. It could also be the drivers or operating system is not up to date but I suspect the system is underpowered.
This is my personal opinion based on what other problems we have seen other users report in the past and my own experience, but I could still be wrong and other members may step in with other suggestions.
Ray.
Hi @CubeAce
I think you are on the right path, but it still confuses me.
I turned off Hardware acceleration like you said, and it seems you were correct.
It does not seem to persist, and the vidoes are sluggish.
What i am still confused about though, is how it works on Premier Pro? It is neither slugish, nor does the preview window turn black after opening af few of the videos.
Also watching the videos in VLC, also seems to work fine.
Hi Mikkel.
I'll tackle watching videos first. Basically it's much less intensive on the whole system than playing in a video editing program. it just reads the file straight from disk.
An editing program will place the file in a new location (on a slower system you can sometimes see a blue line go across the base of the program window as it loads) that file is then normally placed in memory or the C: drive. It is also using it's own program to display the image in the programs video editor monitor.
The differences between MEP and Adobe are probably in the coding used between the programs. They would be different probably because of intellectual property rights on software or because they deliberately chose one method over another for their own technical reasons. Of that I can't be sure but whatever the cause it is mainly down to the new Infusion engine MAGIX has developed to deal with the increasing demands of editing higher resolution video content and seems to have had an impact on the system requirements.
I have my own theories as to why this has happened but can't really back them up. Some graphics cards with similar specs work while others don't and I've seen a correlation between them that seems to point to how many pixel shaders a card has at their disposal and how well they work with Direct X. The NVIDIA Quadro P400 you quoted seems to be quite small in that department. Adobe on the other hand may have a different approach to how their software renders video.
Ray.
Hi Ray/@CubeAce
Thank you very much for taking time out of your day to answer my questions.
I will mark one of your answers as the Solution.
Hi Mikkel.
I noticed you have ticked my reply as being the solution. Don't give up hope completely just yet as there are at least another five regular members here with much more experience than myself who may yet have other solutions to consider. I hope I'm wrong.
Ray.
Alright
I will give it some time before I mark one of your answers as the solution.
Hi
. . . . What i am still confused about though, is how it works on Premier Pro? . . . .
Depending on the version of Premiere Pro, it is using the 'CUDA' - actually the NVCUVENC driver module - for video playback rendering or if the latest version the dedicated NVENC module within the P400.
Movie Edit Pro, should be able to use the NVENC for preview acceleration, however there would appear to be an issue with clearing the buffers, this appears to occur when 'flicking' through video clips in the media pane when you do not stop the currently playing clip before previewing the next, or jumping around the timeline.
This may be due to a 'race condition' where the system attempts to perform two or more operations at the same time which should be done in sequence, eg clear the buffer of video data, start loading the new video data - the result of the race condition could lead to the loading new video data starting before the clear buffer signal is sent and because this is new data the buffer clear signal is ignored.
I would suggest you raise a Support Ticket here.
John EB
Forum Moderator
Hi @johnebaker
After reading your message, I have attempted to let the vidoes play through, as well as using the stop button before i choose the next video to preview.
Which sadly has not helped in any form.
I will make a support ticket.
It seems i can't make a support ticket without a vouch. And i don't have one.
I have looked through all mails recieved from Magix.
Hi
. . . . sadly has not helped . . . .
That would suggest MEP cannot use the P400 or there is a definite bug.
However still raise a support ticket Magix may have a solution.
John EB
Ah! if you can log into the user account you shouldn't need one.
Ray.
I am not on the account the product was purchased from, I assume that is what you are getting at :)
Hi
. . . . sadly has not helped . . . .
That would suggest MEP cannot use the P400 or there is a definite bug.
However still raise a support ticket Magix may have a solution.
John EB
Is there any way to know which cards can?
Hi yes. That was what I was referring to.
I'm using an nvidia GTX 1650 super with no problems but still worried about the CPU clock speed as possibly being a contributory factor. John may have a better understanding of that second point than me.
You see, by not ticking the 'Hardware acceleration for playback if possible' you have forced MEP into only using the software and running everything through the CPU. While adding a new graphics card may help it is really the use of an internal Intel GPU that makes the main difference and the supporting clock speed of the CPU.
May I ask the spec of your system that is not having problems?
Sorry I'm a bit sporadic in my replies but we have our young grandchild over today.
Ray.
Hi @CubeAce @Scenestealer and @johnebaker
Thank you all of you for the help.
We found somewhat of a solution to the problem.
The customer remembered that it started happening after an update.
This lead to us looking at a laptop where it seems to be working on, and finding out that, it is running version 18.x.x.x , while the other PC was running 20.x.x.x
So we found an old installer, on the older laptop. And installed the program from here.
This resulted in us getting Version 16.x.x.x
From there we updated to 17, and then to 18.
Which seems to be working alright, a few issues with stutters, but no more black screens.
The customer might attempt to update to 19.x.x.x at some point, to test if that is better, but for now, he is on 18.
So again, thank you to all of you 😄
Have a good day.
Hi Mikkel.
Yup. Pre the new Infusion Engine update the specs for Movie Edit Pro was less demanding for sure and there has not been that much in the way of new features that would make it a deal breaker not to have if you are not used to them. Glad you have found a cheaper solution to your problem.
Ray.
Hi
MEP 2020 (v19) should be OK, although it was the first version to use the new Infusion (1) Engine, it cannot utilise the Quadro P400 so should behave like MEP 2019 (v18) which also cannot utilise the Quadro P400.
MEP 2021 (v20) with the Infusion 2 Engine is the first version to utilise a modern Nvidia GPU for Hardware Acceleration for Previewing.
Do note: if the customer is working with 2.7K, 4K UHD, or higher video sources, or intends to, then the PC is well below the minimum specs required and will require a system that utilises an Intel i5 or i7 processor with a minimum UHD 520 integrated or better integrated GPU.
John EB