Video playback choppy/freezes
 

Hello. Yes yes I know PT is the clunkiest, most unstable POS software in the universe, yet it's industry standard so here we all are in the DUC trying to glean one gossamer glimmer of hope to prevent us from burning our entire houses down and moving into the mountains to subsist off of twigs and roots until we die of starvation and exposure which would be a finer experience than trying to troubleshoot GD Pro Tools.

ANYWAY, trying to mix a feature film and round tripping from Davinci Resolve. Video file will not play in PT but all audio tracks perform as expected. I have encoded the video in many compressions and bit rates and frame sizes of the recommended DNxHD codec to no avail. I have also tried DNxHR, H.264 mp4, MOV, etc etc. I have tried to store the video on alternate drives. I have clean installed PT, trashed prefs, tried PT 2018 AND 2019 and attempted to clean install PT 11 but apparently you cannot fresh install that in W10 anymore.

Note: last time I mixed a feature I used PT 11 and it worked fine and even H.264 played smooth as silk. Cool that the newest version sucks worse than the old one! Hooray Avid!

Has anybody gotten the ridiculous video playback engine to work on Windows with PT 2018/19? If so, HOW SWAY?

System specs:

PT version: 2019.5


SiSoftware Sandra

ID
Host Name : DESKTOP-TVELC6K
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Computer
Model : ASUS All Series ASUS MB
Serial Number : System Ser**********
Chassis : Desktop
Mainboard : ASUS Z97-DELUXE
Serial Number : 1408311********
BIOS : AMI (OEM) 1304 07/11/2014
Intel vPro : 9.01.01.1000
Total Memory : 32GB DIMM DDR3

Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz (4C 8T 4.3GHz, 4GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 8MB L3)
Socket/Slot : FC LGA1150

Chipset
Memory Controller : ASUS Core (Haswell) DRAM Controller 100MHz, 2x 16GB DIMM DDR3 1.33GHz 128-bit

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-1600C7-8GTX 8GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-1600C7-8GTX 8GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-1600C7-8GTX 8GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-1600C7-8GTX 8GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Dell Computer DELL U2412M
(1920x1200, 24.0")
Monitor/Panel : NEC Technologies PA243W
(1920x1200, 24.1")
Monitor/Panel : NEC Technologies PA243W
(1920x1200, 24.1")
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (28CU 3584SP SM5.2 1.57GHz/2GHz, 448kB L2, 2.9GB 11GHz, PCIe 3.00 x16)
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (28CU 3584SP SM5.2 1.57GHz/2GHz, 448kB L2, 2.9GB 11GHz, PCIe 3.00 x16)
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (28CU 3584SP SM5.2 1.57GHz/2GHz, 448kB L2, 2.9GB 11GHz, PCIe 3.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (3584SP 28C 1.57GHz/2GHz, 448kB L2, 11GB 11GHz)
DirectX 11 Device(s) : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (3584SP 28C 1.57GHz/2GHz, 448kB L2, 10.9GB 11GHz)
OpenGL : GeForce GTX 1080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 (11GB)
OpenGL : GeForce GTX 1080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 (11GB)
OpenGL : GeForce GTX 1080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 (11GB)

Storage Devices
HGST HDN728080ALE604 (8TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm) : 7TB (B:)
INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4 (240GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD) : 224GB (C:)
Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (500.1GB, SATA600, SSD, OPAL) : 466GB (N:)
2x HGST Hitachi HDS723030ALA640 (3TB, RAID1/SATA600, SCSI-5, 3.5", 7200rpm) : 3TB (M:)
WDC WD80EZZX-11CSGA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm) : 7TB (P:)
WDC WD80EZZX-11CSGA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm) : 7TB (L:)
WDC WD80EZAZ-11TDBA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm) : 7TB (F:)
WDC WD80EZZX-11CSGA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm) : 7TB (H:)
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224FB (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW) : N/A (D:)

Logical Storage Devices
Burn It All (B:) : 7TB (NTFS, 4kB) @ HGST HDN728080ALE604 (8TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm)
Recovery : 499MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4 (240GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD)
Hard Disk (C:) : 223GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4 (240GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD)
CACHE (N:) : 466GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (500.1GB, SATA600, SSD, OPAL)
RAID 1 (M:) : 3TB (NTFS, 4kB) @ 2x HGST Hitachi HDS723030ALA640 (3TB, RAID1/SATA600, SCSI-5, 3.5", 7200rpm)
BACKUP 3 (P:) : 7TB (NTFS, 4kB) @ WDC WD80EZZX-11CSGA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm)
BACKUP 2 (L:) : 7TB (NTFS, 4kB) @ WDC WD80EZZX-11CSGA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm)
BIA backup (F:) : 7TB (exFAT, 1MB) @ WDC WD80EZAZ-11TDBA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm)
BACKUP 1 (H:) : 7TB (NTFS, 4kB) @ WDC WD80EZZX-11CSGA0 (8TB, USB3/SATA600, 3.5", 5400rpm)
Hard Disk : 96MB (FAT32, 1kB) @ INTEL SSDSC2BW240A4 (240GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224FB (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller #1 : ASUS 9 Series Chipset Family Z97 LPC Controller
Audio Device : ASUS 9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi 0900
Audio Device : EVGA GP102 HDMI Audio Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS ICH8R (ICH8) SATA RAID Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS Asmedia 106x SATA Controller
USB Controller #1 : ASUS 9 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Controller
USB Controller #2 : ASUS 9 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller #3 : ASUS 9 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI Controller #1
USB Controller #4 : Renesas Tech uPD720201 USB 3.0 Host Controller
USB Controller #5 : ASUS ASM1042A USB 3.0 Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller #1 : Syba Tech TSB82AA2 IEEE-1394b Link Layer Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller #2 : Avlab Technology XIO2200(A) IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
SMBus/i2c Controller #1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Send to Microsoft OneNote 16 Driver (1200x1200, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft Software Printer Driver (300x300, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer v4 (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft Print To PDF (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Amyuni Document Converter 400 ()
Printer : HPOJ6950_Fax_Driver (300x300, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : EPSON ET-3750 Series (300x300, USB, Colour)
Printer : Adobe PDF Converter (4000x4000, Colour)

Scanners and Cameras
Scanner : EPSON ET-3700/3750 Series (Scanner, 1200x2400, USB)

Peripherals
Media Player : WD My Book 25EE (7.28TB)
Media Player : WD My Book 25EE (7.28TB)
Media Player : WD My Book 25EE (7.28TB)
Media Player : WD My Book 25EE (7.28TB)

Network Services
Network Adapter : TAP-Windows Adapter V9 (Ethernet)
Network Adapter : Intel(R) I211 Gigabit Network Connection (Ethernet, 1Gbps)
Network Adapter : Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network) (Ethernet)
Network Adapter : Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I218-V (Ethernet)
Wireless Adapter : Broadcom 802.11ac Network Adapter

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 10 Professional 10.00.17134
Platform Compliance : x64

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

Avid support recommended re-encoding the video with MPEG Streamclip and I tried that , with multiple codec outputs including DNxHD and others, to no avail. Same problem.

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

I have also opened old projects that played video just fine on PT11, same computer, same OS, same everything. Before I "upgraded" to the Pro Tools subscription plan (2018/19) aka a huge mistake, apparently. These projects now exhibit the same choppy playback on video so it's definitely a symptom of the new versions of PT and not my machine, not my video encoding, not anything other than "something is screwy with these new versions".

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

Breakthrough! Of course it's a frustrating and annoying breakthrough because Pro Tools, but the issue is that Pro Tools, by default, wants to use my Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4k i/o video card and that is gumming everything up. I disabled that card, restarted and now video is playing smooth as silk in PT. On the video track in PT in the I/O column there are three fields: resolution/frame rate, quality and output settings. With the i/o card disabled, output settings is greyed out. When that card is enabled, it's active and clicking takes me to the card's settings utility. No matter what setting I put it on the choppy video is there.

But it's VERY inconvenient and stupid to have to disable my i/o card every time I want to use PT for a video mix, especially because I am using that card for Resolve monitoring.

Is there any kind of way to tell PT what video device to use or ignore? I can't seem to find any setting.

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

After going round and round with Avid support and getting past their usual "Herp derp please install the latest version of Pro Tools and learn to count to 10 and be able to tie your shoes" garbage they finally said to install a 2 year old version of Blackmagic Desktop Video for the i/o card and lo and behold that works. Video plays smooth in PT and the card still works for Resolve.

Sigh.... Avid...

Anyway, if anybody else runs into this issue, download the blackmagic desktop video version 10.9.6 which apparently is the newest ~tested~ version that works with PT. Here's a link so you don't have to hunt it down like I did:

http://esd.avid.com/ProductDownload.aspx?id=1722

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

It sounds like you are having an issue with the Black Magic Desktop Video software rather than an issue with Pro Tools and Avid but I'm pleased you managed to solve it!
I have Desktop Video 10.9.11 installed for my Intensity Pro card (non 4k), with Pro Tools Ultimate 2019.5, and it's very stable.
Good luck with the rest of the mix!

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

Well, I choose to blame it on Pro Tools because Pro Tools is so worthy of blame for so many things! The current drivers for the Blackmagic card only have problems with PT and PT only works with a 2 year old driver so... typical Avid!

But yeah, works (for now) so I can actually do the job.

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

that's funny. Tech support to ld me to use version 10.9.5 of the BM driver. (didn't fix my issue BTW. ... still have to do a full system restart after a few hours to get the video engine to work).

Re: Video playback choppy/freezes
 

It wouldn't be Pro Tools if it didn't have massive contradictions, maddening problems and issues that make you want to gouge your own guts out with a Nestle Quik Bunny spoon!