Resolume Forum

does anyone regularly use mpeg2 video in Resolume? I'm having all sorts of trouble getting it to work properly, trying various different manufacturers' codecs.

This is really pushing it I expect, but has anyone encountered the D10 or similar 'pro' mpeg2 codecs, that supposedly use only keyframes, for edit purposes?

I wouldn't recommend MPEG 2 for resolume - it is much more suited to DVDs or media player devices.

For resolume you really want more of a performance codec such as indeo or cinepak.

What we do is to create our videos in a lossless codec then use virtualdub (with the batcher) to convert them to cinepak or indeo and tmpgenc to create MPEG2 files for our media player.

Dan.

thanx Dan

Thanks Dan, but I've been well aware of all that since beta. I have good reasons for wanting to put mpeg2 through Resolume along with my usual Indeo511 files.

Sorry to sound a bit uppity Bart but it's not helpful to dish out the same old 'use cinepak and be quiet' line every time someone asks for help with codecs - that's in the help file anyway. I wouldn't touch Cinepak with a 10-foot pole and I'm amazed anyone puts up with such low quality, except perhaps for clips with very simple colours.

Does anybody have experience with getting mpeg2 to work, or is Resolume simply not able to handle mpeg2 files? (not putting Resolume down at all, it's the business and it's the core of my rig every time)

hi guys,

i think this is more of a "how fast is my computer" issue than a "what will resolume play" issue.
if u have the right codecs installed on your machine resolume will play them, right? but anyways ill be glad to test some movies to find out whats the bottleneck. mail me a link for download, or the movie itself (probably not).
when (or if) u do plz mail me the specs of the machine aswell...
needless to say im very interested in ways to put out higher resolution clips without sacrificing the ability to flash clips realtime without a substancial delay...
so if we can exchange ideas or if i can be of any help...

Greetz SuperficiaL...

What are your reasons for wanting to use MPEG 2 (a format that is designed for forward play at a constant speed) with resolume (software that is designed to play clips in different directions and at different speeds?

If the reason is quality then I would suggest that you might want to look into alternative AVI codecs (hey, if you have a fast enough hard disk you could even use uncompressed video).

Or is there some other reason why you simply have to use MPEG2?

hi syzygy,

good point... don't know about wes, but my interest is more in higher resolution than that i MUST use mpeg2...
i gues higher res. avi is good also...
ill post my findings on high res from second internal hd soon..
because i think my bottleneck is the ext hd (firewire 400), ide is faster right?

Greetz SuperficiaL

long rambling post approaching! might be useful though
Basically I'm getting obsessive about having the highest quality video possible, whilst still being able to use the lovely Resolume system I've had enough of 320x240. I've been doing heaps of tests with all sorts of codecs at full PAL. Here's a very basic summary, relevant at any resolution:

- DV - good quality, very fast playback, huge files. Native cam format, very limited settings.
- Indeo511 - good quality, fast playback, large files. Stutters/sticks.
- PICmjpeg - very good quality, very fast playback, midsize files.
- MS wmv - good quality, fast playback, midsize files.
- On2 VP4/6 - ok quality, slow playback, small files.
- HuffYUV - perfect quality, very slow playback, xtra-massive files. Perfect master&edit format.
- mpeg2 (TMPGEnc encoded) - excellent quality, fast playback, midsize files. DVD compatible, no keyframe/frame, can't get Resolume to play it smoothly. grr.
- PIC wavelet - shite quality, slow playback, tiny files. Forget it.
- Xvid (keyframable divx) won't play in Resolume.
- Cinepak/Midivid - shite quality, very fast playback, big files.
- Realmedia - won't play in Resolume
- Quicktime (various codecs) - won't play in Resolume

I'm coming to the conclusion that mjpeg is the general purpose codec of choice. Having slagged off Cinepak mercilessly I'm wondering if it might be perfect for animated masks and mono/duotone stuff as others have said. More tests!

The mpeg2 thing is about getting premium quality at a reasonable decode speed and filesize. mjpeg and others are fine for general video mash-ups, but take finely-rendered computer animation such as logos and idents with smooth gradients and razor sharp edges and do the comparisons - mpeg2 is far better than all of them. When focussing the attention on an ident or animation I don't need random access - but I'd still like to do it within Resolume if I can. If it can't be done then it can't be done, I'll get over it one day :'-(

Please correct/flame/educate me!

i,m starting to feel sory about even supporting mpg and quicktime (quicktime does play with the correct render settings ie non-streaming) maybee we should have done it right or not have done it at all ...

we know that mpg playback is not perfectly optimized in resolume and one of the reasons for that is that mpg is not build for vj-ing (as said before) so we did/do not really bother ... and the oter is that not many people acutaully use it ...

so your frustration is fed by two factors, one mpg is not suitible for what you are trying to do, second mpg playback can be better in resolume ...

please correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe most of the issues with high resolution/good framerate playback are hardware based not software (as mentioned by superficial).
If you have a fast processor PC with a high quality video card (eg. Matrox Parhelia or P-series card) and a RAID array hard drive, you shouldn't have too much trouble getting higher framerates+good resolution (using maybe DV or a highres mjpeg codec).
While many harddrives have high data rates, bear in mind that they will still be significantly slowed by the nature of video mixing - ie. playing several video files simultaneously.
When working on professional editing workstations, one of the big issues is getting real-time playback on several video streams - most systems require a RAID array or similar high speed disk system to achieve this.
I have done a few quick tests on an edit machine at my work (with a Parhelia card) and have run 3 layers of 640x480 in resolume (cinepack avi) with good framerates - but i don't like my chances of the boss letting me take that PC to a gig...
The good thing about all this is that PCs are getting faster and cheaper (fast serial ATA is on it's way) so i believe that before too long this won't be too much of an issue.
Thanks wes for your info on codecs
Big ups to Bart and Ed and all resolume freaks out there!