Watchout 4 and Windows 7 - video media files stopping on diplay computers- please help

[eytech]

I have a 4 screen Watchout system running version 4 on windows 7 professional - 32bit

When I am playing back .mov, wmv, avi video files the display computer starts playing the video file then pauses and stays frozen.

 

I am just playing 1 file per screen ,

 

the resolution of the image is 1440 x900 at 29fps

My knowledge of video encoding is limited so please bear with me... I am looking for possible causes

files are 8.1MB in size

video datarate 2796Kbps

video sample size 24bit

WMV files

 

The computers themselves are powerful enough with Intel I5 processor, 10K RPM drives, 1GB video cards, 4GB DDR3 memory @1666Mhz.

 

I have read in this forum many different reasons for watchout 5, but nothing on watchout 4...just wondering if any one has any useful suggestions on what I could do to cure this? or what encoding I should suggest to the editors in order to get this going.

 

thanks in advance

[JJ Myers]

A lot of your encoding info seems really odd, but perhaps some of it is a typo. Either way, I'll comment on what looks suspicious to me :

 

1. 29 fps. I'm assuming you mean either 29.97 or 30 fps? 29 fps would definitely not be a good frame rate to use in W/O.

 

2. 8.1 MB in file size / 2796 Kbps. That is extremely low. Those data rates are more applicable for web. Whenever you combine low data rates with a high quality setting on your encoding, you are ultimately placing more strain on the processor when decoding on the playback side. With your provided specs, you are barely even utilizing the 10K RPM drives, because pulling 2796 Kbps of data from the HDD pales in comparison to what you are asking the processor to do. I recommend something more along the lines of 10,000 Kbps - 20,000 Kbps.

 

3. Video sample size 24bit. Not sure if I'm clear what you are reporting here, but most likely, what we refer to as 8 bits per channel for a non-alpha supported encoded video. If so, this has - most likely - zero factor in the problem you are experiencing.

 

4. WMV. Possibly the biggest part of the problem. I used to use WMV. Then I started using MPEG2 for my encoding, using Telestream's Episode w/ custom settings, and I've never looked back. Some people still use WMV and swear by it, but if you bench mark the performance efficiency of WMV vs. MPEG2, I believe that MPEG2 will win that battle the majority of the time.

 

Best of luck,

 

JJ

[eytech]

thanks for the info....I stopped using the WMV files and went with Mpeg4 ---just converted the ones I had to Mpeg4 and it all plays great now...seems like the WMV's were the issue.

...its great to have someone respond with such useful info...thanks again!