Proxy files and wavelet compression - A match?

[Hulk]

With the current gulf between cpu power needed to edit HD video and the cpu power we have available it seems like proxy files might be a good solution, as Doc has mentioned.

I was thinking that wavelet compression seems like it would be an excellent choice for the proxy files since resolution scaling is so easy.

Any thoughts?

- Mark

[Dr Mordrid]

Sounds like a winner to me.

Dr. Mordrid

[Hulk]

On this same topic I did a few tests with PICVideo and HD content.

From the MS HD WMV site I downloaded some 1080i WMV content and transcoded it to 1080i PicVideo with quality set to 18.
The resulting file had a data rate of about 4 or 4-1/2 Mb/sec, or a little more than DV.

Next I imported the PicVideo 1080i file into MSP7.

Straight preview seemed to be about 15fps or so. Crossfade transition was about 7 or so fps. Obviously not real-time, but workable.

In addition, this was working with a format that is not ideal for RT and at full 1080i.

Why do I mention this? Although working with lower resolution proxy files does sidestep the HD RT problem, I would like to preview my HDV projects on a second display at full resolution so I can make editing decision based on the full resolution of the format.

With a little tweaking of MSP and the proxy file format I think decent RT performance is possible with full resolution 1080i on fast computers right now.

- Mark