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loganwhite  
#1 Posted : Tuesday, November 19, 2013 12:29:35 AM(UTC)
loganwhite

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Hi there,

First off, congrats on having such a great product! I've had the opportunity to put a vMix trial to the test on various projects from live streaming events to all day multicorder event recordings. I've encountered a few small issues (described below) and would like some advice on diagnosing them and finding out if they would be addressed with certain computer hardware upgrades. Here's the current computer setup:

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 motherboard with Intel i7 2600k processor
Samsung SSD for OS/Software
PCIEX firewire card to use a digital mixer as the audio interface

Blackmagic Decklink Quad (Connected to two cameras and recording at 1080i 29.97 with the Decklink AVI codec in multicorder and final output)
4x2TB Seagate 7200rpm Barracuda drives in RAID 10 using the motherboards built in Intel RAID.
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 driving two 1080p HD monitors.

These are the various issues I've encountered, all during a two day event recording: (vMix version 10, output recording and multicorder with 2 cams to Decklink AVI on RAID 10 array described above, no streaming, captured in about 1-2 hour segments)

- There was an instance where I switched Windows 7 to another program during recording (file explorer or audio mixer/sound card controls) and one of the camera inputs went black. Multicorder continued to record but reported every frame as dropped during the entire time the input was black. This happened about 20 minutes into a one hour recording. I was not able to restore the connection while the recording was going - only after I restarted vMix. The final multicorder recording does have audio. (Needless to say, I didn't switch windows or click around vMix very much for the rest of that two day event recording gig in fear of having unusable video) The issue didn't occur again... vMix seemed to react better when left alone to record vs. tweaking overlays or input color adjustments.
- During various 1-2 hour multicorder sessions, sometime there are no dropped frames, sometimes there are hundreds for each camera.
- There was one instance where the the vMix inputs froze completely until the recording was stopped and vMix was restarted. The recorded files were completely intact.

I do know that my current card (Quadro FX 4800) is great at CAD/3D and works well in Adobe apps and Resolve, but has a low benchmark. I was looking at a GTX 780, 780Ti or Titan as a replacement if my current GPU is an issue.
My current RAID 10 setup is clocked at about 225MBps write and read in Blackmagic Disk Speed test.

I'd put vMix through controlled testing with my computer to try and replicate the problems, but my trial has expired. I'm hoping to resolve the issues and purchase vMix instead of resorting to a hardware switching and recording solution.

Do these sound like GPU or HDD issues? or both?

Many thanks,

Logan White
www.popeyemedia.ca

h2video.nl  
#2 Posted : Tuesday, November 19, 2013 9:55:34 AM(UTC)
h2video.nl

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hi logan,

i record the multi corder tapes/ card on camera directly. so i have a backup at all times, even when system fails or somebody trips over a cord or something.

sound i input in the camera and thus i have a full master. when i use two cameras i can double it easy ( also with the sound input). sound and video are input through hdmi or sdi.

so this way is safer than multicorder, and even so i would recommend it as a backup - it saved my ass a number of times when system fails...

bm is very picky and i had a number of freezes lately because input settings were not aligned... it remains an adventure.

as a system i now use an AMD A10 series chip, with build in GPU. this works very well and is cost effective for recording. i am now testing it with up to four bm inputs and recording high quality. i usually record mpeg 720p 8 mbit because it is easy to handle and enough quality for my use on youtube.

i use two ssd in raid with tremendous speed.... thats not the problem. the main issue is to have all inputs on camera, on bm cards and in vmix input and recording, external aligned for smooth endles yrouble free recording and streaming.

good luck, stefan
loganwhite  
#3 Posted : Tuesday, November 19, 2013 11:10:46 PM(UTC)
loganwhite

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Thanks for the tips, Stefan.

I took a closer look and it seems that a frame rate setting caused the issue:

10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, Version: 10.0.0.59
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, Size: 1920x1080
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, System: NTSC 59.94i or 29.97p
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, Codec: Decklink MJPEG Compressor
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, AudioDevice: vMix Audio
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, AudioFormat: Default
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, AudioDelay: -84
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, RestartInterval: 0
10/3/2013 8:44:49 AM, StartRecording
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, StopRecording
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Duration: 01:59:07
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Frames: 205082
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, DroppedFrames: 9105
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, DueToSourceFrameRate: 9105
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, DueToHardDiskOrCPU: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, DroppedSamples: 1
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, MissedSamples: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, SyncedSamples: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, AudioOffset: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, AudioDelay: -84
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, AudioEngine
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Running: True
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, SampleRate: 48000hz 16 Bit
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, MixingErrors: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Streams
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Stream0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Samples: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Dropped: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Latency: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Stream1
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Samples: 388055
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Dropped: 0
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, Latency: 2
10/3/2013 10:43:55 AM, AudioInputs

However, I still have reservations about my current GPU - I'll do some stress tests and monitor it's usage stats.
h2video.nl  
#4 Posted : Tuesday, November 19, 2013 11:41:08 PM(UTC)
h2video.nl

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hi logan,
your welcome.

try to start simple and keep an eye on the little details. i have had some issues recording until i changed the setting on my camera from 1080i to 1080p. i don't know why but it made a difference... but it took me some time to figure that out.

it's all about testing and keeping variables manageable. so start modest.

what are you producing for? what is the end product? start from that point and move backwards to all related settings. keep system, camera, recording and streaming setting inline...

good luck... and you'll probably find that even with modest hardware when all is aligned vmix will do the magic with a very small footprint.

stefan
thanks 1 user thanked h2video.nl for this useful post.
loganwhite on 11/19/2013(UTC)
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