This is feedback to Roxio re EMC 10!!!!!!

I just finished a large project using this product. It was a video of my vacation using pics and video clips. I created a VW project for each part of the tour (14) then used MyDVD to write out a DVD by loading all the dmsm files. I also used VW to write out high resolution mpg files and loaded all of them into VW to write out a high qaulity wmv file...my other result which is available thru my website. The pics are high enough resolution and the video clips are mp4/avchd to both support HD output at a later date. The video runs about 70 minutes.

Overall I'm very happy with the results....both have great video quality....this is the best part. Here is some feedback where I think things could be improved.

It would be nice to be able to set up project defaults for audio such as music tracks and the native audio on video clips so that your preferences re volume and fading could apply to all audio that is loaded into the project.

It would also be great to automatically lower the volume on the music track when a video clip is playing...this is availbel in at least one other product I have seen. You can set the % the music is lowered by.

It would be nice if MyDVD would also write out video files...as well as DVDs. There is no other product that assembles dmsm files.

A nice feature would be supporting metadata/exif tags in pics and being able to use that data for captions...its great to have your captions in the jpgs and to be able to automatically show them in a video.

It would be really great if this product supported the new technologies on graphics cards such as video acceleration, etc....the card takes over processing duties for rendering and playback. I have such a card on my computer but this product doesn't use it...another product I have does use it and it works well in offloading the CPU. With more HD video files coming this is a mandatory. From the ATI website:

"improved Unified Video Decoder – View and manipulate the latest Blu-ray and HD DVD content with a dedicated hardware video decoder that leaves your CPU free to perform other tasks."

I'm sure there's a few more small things but I can't think of them. I've been searching for the best package, have tried many products and keep coming back the this product.

cheers

Just thought of one more.....it would be great if during the rendering of a video there could be a pause button. For those long renderings when you need to get something else done.

Possibly a bit late - there won't be any further improvements to EMC 10

The current version is Creator 2009 (not EMC 11 as anyone would have expected)

Feel free to add a wish list for Creator 2010. but don't be surprised if you hear this:

otown: Some good ideas, hope someone from Roxio will see them…

Last paragraph, about your card. Software has had this since V7 and it is called Hardware render. It helps but video just takes time. On one of my PCs (actually it doesn't have a video card!) but 1 hour AVCHD took 5 hr to render on Software – 4 1/2 on Hardware and 12 1/2 on another PC…

It is under Tools – Options – Render.

Thanks for the replies.

WRT EMC10, I appreciate this isn't the latest software from Roxio, but maybe some of these features could be added to their next version. I'm assuming Roxio reads the comments in this forum...if not, is there a better place to send these comments?

WRT the graphics card, for rendering, I understand the new features on graphics cards are different than what gets turned on under Tools-Options-Render.....not too sure here. For playback in the preview window, MP4 video clips wont play back smoothly....definitely not using the new features in the graphics card here.

If they playback isn't smooth it is due to the graphics card not the program!

You need to find were your hardware acceleration is and throttle it back! That is what screws up playback…

When I play the MP4 in preview mode in VW, they don't play back smoothly. I checked and the CPU utilization is near 100% when I do this. When I play the same MP4 with a player that doesn't support the graphics card features, its the same jerky play back and the CPU is near 100%. When I play it back with a player that does support the graphics card features, the playback is smooth and the CPU is 10-15%. I'm concluding from this the VW doesn't support the new graphics card features.

Does this sound reasonable?

If the CPU is running at 100% it could be other apps are running in the background - did you check on those?

Also, what is your CPU speed?

Sounds more like Apples to Oranges logic to me.

As I said, Hardware Render has been here for years. Your Wonder Card may have some really cool stuff for games and video players but that has absolutely nothing to do with Rendering Video.

Want a test – repeat mine! 1 hour AVCHD, HQ to folder. Do it with HW Render then repeat with SW Render.

What video card do you have?

I have an ATI Radeon HD 3400...I just got it. There are no other apps running during the tests. Re the apples and oranges, I'm talking about playback, not rendering. As I mentioned earlier I'm not sure about rendering but am reasonable sure about the playback. The player I have that supports the video card's UVD is Media Player Classic Homecinema.

Forget graphics for a moment

You say your CPU is running at 100% - you still haven't said what the clock speed is, what other apps may be running or anything else.

Specifically the process related to the video playback software is running at near 100%. When VW is playing back my video in preview mode its the same. There are no other processes running that are using any CPU. The processor runs at 2,4GHz.

Running VideoWave in Hardware Render using the same file in 3 formats I found this:

AVI – 11 to 21%

mepg – 21 to 28%

WMV – 15 to 25%

And any mouse movement spiked 80 to 90%

Software Render the results were similar but the percentages were higher. But never exceeding 50%

So even with my lesser (6 year old) graphics card I am getting better results. You have something else going on there.

Yes my numbers are higher than yours for the MPG files....over 90% for hardware render going to an MPG file-best quality for DVD, and and MPG file-HD 720p. The latter taking a lot longer to render. I searched the Internet for a sample file from the same camera as mine and found this. http://www.btco.net/video/MAH00023.MP4
You could try this on your machine to see what your numbers are.

The solution for me is a new computer with a quad core CPU. We'll see....

Don't try to change the test!

I reported the values for playing the file in VW, not for Rendering it…

But for that 10 second clip my CPU goes to 80 – 90% and there is a little jerkyness in preview but that is moot since it won't be in the final output.

So everything seems to be coming in about the same and pretty much as expected.

In my world I have to deal with MP4s so my test includes those. If you check the posts above you will see I'm referring to MP4s. W/o MP4s I would have no issues. If at some point you start using MP4s, you too will haave the same issues. Things are NOT as expected.

You are not paying attention – I used the mp4 you linked to for the last test…

I was objecting that you kept referring to Playing the file and as soon as I ran those tests you start talking about Rendering.

So with the same file I get nearly the same results and considering how close our systems are I find no surprise. ~ Yes everything is as expected.

Okay I see where the confusion is. I do need a new computer. It seems my new graphics card isn't going to make up for that...at least not in VW, playing MP4 files. It does when playing the final HD file with a player that supports the new features in the graphic card.

To partially close the loop on this, I did get a new computer and both EMC 10 and Creator 2009 support multi-core processors well. I haven't found a Video Card monitor that supports UVD so I can't comment on the use of the UVD by Roxio software.