Smooth Clean Feed Video Playback in Fairlight

Hi,
Could we have higher-grade video playback in the Fairlight screen?

From what I've seen so far the video playback resources allocated to Fairlight aren't the same as the Edit / Cut screens. I get quite jumpy playback of video (with tearing and a noticeable delay) on both the mixer viewer window and the Clean Feed window when using Fairlight.

I find myself having projects passed to me by editors than have substantial lip-sync issues and Fairlight would be the ideal place to deal with those. Unfortunately, with the current playback issues I experience I can't do that and instead I have to switch over to the Edit screen where the video playback becomes completely smooth.

With the Clean Feed option I'd be quite happy to see the mixer-screen video preview disappear or be overridden by the Clean Feed option being activated.

Thanks very much,

Daniel

While Fairlight does prioritise audio playback over video, a little more detail may be useful.

Are you experiencing the video playback performance issue on both Windows and Linux?

What is the system spec?
Does playback performance improve with Colour Grades and Fusion bypassed?
Which codecs are used? Timeline Resolution?

Playback performance with Video Clean Feed enabled, Fairlight Preview, and DeckLink output are identical on macOS 10.14.4 with Resolve Studio 16.2 (055).

Hi Reynaud,
Thanks for your reply. Sorry it's taken a while to get back to you, I've been doing some more testing.

The project I'm working on at the moment is a fairly simple edit and mix so nothing done in either Fusion or Colour. It was handed to me in an MP4 format primarily so to help Resolve along I rendered out a 1920 x 1080p .MOV version of the video with keyframes on every frame. (This is what I would do if I transferred the project across to another audio program so I figured I should do it for Fairlight as well.)

Playback of that render and even of the MP4 version in the Edit screen is completely smooth both in the Output Viewer window and the Clean Feed. When I switch over to Fairlight the Clean Feed immediately becomes jerky and lags with tearing. The mixer-mounted viewer is better but still not as smooth as the Edit screen.

This system is Windows 10 64bit, Intel S5520HC Dual XEON X5675 with 24GB DDR3 RAM and an NVidia Quadro K2000 2GB (which admittedly is getting a bit old but this system is really only meant to be for audio work)

I don't currently have an 'approved' Centos install running. I have a Centos 8 system running with an NVidia GTX1070 (8GB). That system is built on an HP Z800 board with dual XEON and 24GB RAM. I tested the project on that system and also found that the Fairlight screen gave lower grade video playback than the edit screen.

Final test was on a i7-960 (LGA1366) X58-based system running macOS Mojave (Hackintosh) with an AMD RX580 (8GB) Graphics card. Again, video playback on that system even via a Decklink card was less smooth than on the edit screen.

So for me, somehow, it's 'three for three'. I did also try converting all clips on the timeline to MXF ATOM at their lowest level video quality and I still got the same result. I don't think it's the project itself. It's a very light project and, as I mentioned, totally smooth playback in the Edit screen.

Anyway, thanks again for you reply.

Daniel

Could we have higher-grade video playback in the Fairlight screen?

I think the priority is rightly uninterrupted audio playback, including real time effects. If the system can't do that and play back all video frames, then a more powerful system is the proper 'solution', I think.

Dan, thank you for the additional detail.

It was handed to me in an MP4 format primarily so to help Resolve along I rendered out a 1920 x 1080p .MOV version of the video with keyframes on every frame.

Any change with ProRes media?

If possible, you can DM a link to a sample to test on my system.

Playback of that render and even of the MP4 version in the Edit screen is completely smooth both in the Output Viewer window and the Clean Feed. When I switch over to Fairlight the Clean Feed immediately becomes jerky and lags with tearing. The mixer-mounted viewer is better but still not as smooth as the Edit screen.

This is with Resolve 16.2 (055) Studio?

NVidia Quadro K2000 2GB (which admittedly is getting a bit old but this system is really only meant to be for audio work)

This is definitely the weak link in that particular system.
Even for HD work in Fairlight, Resolve 16 requires a minimum of 4GB for good performance.

Could we have higher-grade video playback in the Fairlight screen?

I think the priority is rightly uninterrupted audio playback, including real time effects. If the system can't do that and play back all video frames, then a more powerful system is the proper 'solution', I think.

Hey Jim,
I guess the point for me is that these systems all play back flawlessly from the edit screen. The same processing that's applied to Fairlight is also active in the Edit screen but in Fairlight the video playback isn't smooth and in the Edit screen it is. On all systems I tested.

The main system I'm using is a dual hex core 3.2Ghz with Hyperthreading so it's effectively 24 core with 24 GB of DDR3 RAM. This was the same system I used to mix the feature I was working on a few months back and in Nuendo 10 I had a project that at one point had 1280 tracks of audio and in general was running around 450 audio channels. Video playback from Nuendo under those conditions was totally smooth.

This current project I'm working on is a single track of 25fps 1080p H.264 with 4 x stereo tracks of audio and only one of those tracks playing back at any time. All FX appied are Fairlight internal FX but even when I switch those off the Fairlight video playback issue is still there.

So I really don't think it's the system. It could be a codec issue, which is what I'm testing today. If I had to guess I would say that the GPU-based video decoding that's active in the Edit screen is not active in the Fairlight screen (at least for the Clean Feed). The look of playback in Fairlight is very similar to if I deactivate Hardware Decoding in Preferences and then play back on the Edit screen.

Thanks for your reply.
Daniel

Dan, thank you for the additional detail.

It was handed to me in an MP4 format primarily so to help Resolve along I rendered out a 1920 x 1080p .MOV version of the video with keyframes on every frame.

Any change with ProRes media?

If possible, you can DM a link to a sample to test on my system.

Playback of that render and even of the MP4 version in the Edit screen is completely smooth both in the Output Viewer window and the Clean Feed. When I switch over to Fairlight the Clean Feed immediately becomes jerky and lags with tearing. The mixer-mounted viewer is better but still not as smooth as the Edit screen.

This is with Resolve 16.2 (055) Studio?

NVidia Quadro K2000 2GB (which admittedly is getting a bit old but this system is really only meant to be for audio work)

This is definitely the weak link in that particular system.
Even for HD work in Fairlight, Resolve 16 requires a minimum of 4GB for good performance.

Hi Reynaud,
Today I've jumped back onto the hackintosh and rendered out the project as 1080p ProRes (Proxy quality). Results on all systems are the same.

I've also done an additional test on my Windows system (which I trust the most) with output via an Intensity card. (I didn't previously have a monitor that the Intensity card would talk to because of HDCP issues but I've managed to get one hooked up).

In Fairlight, the only smooth playback is via Decklink. Clean Feed and Preview Window both lag, stutter and tear while output via the Intensity is super smooth. In Fairlight the Clean Feed is worse than the Preview window but both viewers have lower performance in Fairlight than they do in the Edit screen.

This confirms for me that the video resources allocated to video playback in Fairlight are different to those in the Edit screen. I think the hardware video decoding function is being dramatically down-graded in Fairlight. For now I'll keep my Intensity running the extra monitor for lip-sync. Hopefully BMD can at least get Clean Feed to operate the same as in the Edit screen.

By the way, yes, Resolve Studio 16.2 - the latest version with latest available NVidia Studio drivers and Desktop Video 11.5

Thanks again,

Daniel

On my cMP 5.1 12-core, MacOS 10.13.6, RX580 8GB - DR Studio 16.2 plays identical in Viewer and Decklink output. I usually use DNxHD, Prores, or DR Optimized media depending on the project. I usually use a lower bit rate or proxy quality if I'm not with clients.

I have a new Mini i7 6-core but I don't have an eGPU for it yet. Even though BMD recommends against it the little thing does run Resolve quite well even on it's own. For Fairlight I mean, I don't edit anything beyond home movies.

In the past I did experience significant problems with the Viewer on Windows 10 with DR Studio 15 but Decklink output was OK.

Resources are definitely allocated differently per page, some of it is documented and some is not. Clean feed is part of that. I don't have an answer but perhaps BMD could shed some light on what is going on under the hood. Since Fairlight doesn't use GPU for it's audio tasks you'd think it would be wide open for video playback.

On my cMP 5.1 12-core, MacOS 10.13.6, RX580 8GB - DR Studio 16.2 plays identical in Viewer and Decklink output. I usually use DNxHD, Prores, or DR Optimized media depending on the project. I usually use a lower bit rate or proxy quality if I'm not with clients.

I have a new Mini i7 6-core but I don't have an eGPU for it yet. Even though BMD recommends against it the little thing does run Resolve quite well even on it's own. For Fairlight I mean, I don't edit anything beyond home movies.

In the past I did experience significant problems with the Viewer on Windows 10 with DR Studio 15 but Decklink output was OK.

Resources are definitely allocated differently per page, some of it is documented and some is not. Clean feed is part of that. I don't have an answer but perhaps BMD could shed some light on what is going on under the hood. Since Fairlight doesn't use GPU for it's audio tasks you'd think it would be wide open for video playback.

Hi Will,
Thanks for these details. Yes I agree, I'd say GPU processing tasks should be well and truly available under Fairlight. My only thought would be that perhaps the greater the graphics processing the more it affects sync between vision and sound.

One thing I've discovered here is that the addition of a second GPU-based viewer window in Fairlight tab, immediately affects video performance. If only one viewer is open - either the mixer-mounted viewer in dual screen mode or else the Clean Feed viewer in single screen mode - then the playback performance is fine. Almost identical to the Decklink card.
However, unlike in the Edit window, as soon as two viewer windows are open (not including the Decklink) the playback is affected. Also, if the mixer-mounted viewer is detached from the mixer and moved to another screen (instead of running the Clean Feed) the same degradation happens.

It would appear to me that in Fairlight mode, only one hardware accelerated viewer is available and that has a predetermined location (screen).

Definitely makes it feel worthwhile having the Decklinks cards!
Thanks again,

Daniel