1 Topic by Schottl (edited by Schottl 2011-12-28 01:14:39)

  • Registered: 2010-10-30
  • Posts: 21

Topic: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

Hello there,

I am currently in a rather time-restricted production and my FF800 is performing poorly with dropouts all of a sudden. Dropouts start when onscreen video screen is on.
It used to work great, older productions are now however showing the same problems. The same session with Asio4all onboard sound works well.
DAW: Nuendo 5.5 with video
System: Win7x64 on HP nx9420 laptop.
Legacy OHCI drivers
FF800 on 2.993 and FW 2.47 because of a model with "crackling headphone" on the later FW builds
DCP Checker looks good


What has changed since the last sessions that worked? Cannot say really, BUT I have updated to Quicktime 7.7 since then. Going back to 7.1.5 however hasn't solved the issue :-(

I believe it has sth. to do with the onscreen video / video drivers / video card (ATI x1600) but I cannot get to the bottom of it as the system had been working great before. Background scheduling still set in system performance, nothing really changed I believe.

I appreciate any tips and ideas worth trying!
Thank you for taking time to help
Andrew

  • Registered: 2010-10-30
  • Posts: 21

Re: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

I see that both OHCI legacy controller and PCIexpress lie on IRQ19. This I believe has always been the case (with a laptop it seems to be pretty fixed, I believe?)

Could this be the cause? Any way of giving FW a higher priority in the shared group?

3 Reply by Jamil (edited by Jamil 2012-01-01 19:01:14)

  • Jamil
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  • Registered: 2008-06-20
  • Posts: 59

Re: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

Sharing of IRQs is common and most likely cannot even be changed by you.

What firewire chipset are you using?  If it is not a TI chipset, I would look to replace it with one that is.  Sorry for stating the obvious, but the firewire chipset was not included in your details.

  • Registered: 2010-10-30
  • Posts: 21

Re: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

Sorry, forgot to mention - it is a TI chipset and I've had smooth playback just a few weeks ago on the exact system. I'm using the legacy driver too as it had the best performance. Trying a pcmcia card with a nec or ricoh chip (cannot remember) had even worse playback, so I think there is another issue right now.

Thanks for chiming in and Happy New Year!

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

Updated the video driver?

  • Registered: 2010-10-30
  • Posts: 21

Re: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

Timur wrote:

Updated the video driver?

Not that I recall or did so actively. I do not know if there has been a change in driver versions whilst installing another product, but I will give this a go when I get back after the holidays to the FF800.
Few weeks ago I used an mbox 2 pro via firewire which worked well (except that it screwed the buffer now and again and somehow shifted bits on playback, resulting in what we now call "the witch" when the dialogue gets all screwed up).
However performance was way better in a much larger and longer session.

  • Registered: 2010-10-30
  • Posts: 21

Re: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

Just saw - under system performance I re-tested and the windows performance for the aero-graphics dropped from 4,1 to 2,2 - something HAS screwed up the gfx performance!

  • Registered: 2010-10-30
  • Posts: 21

Re: [FF800] Suddenly poor FW ASIO performance with onscreen video

After a few tests I see that the Windows system performance rating had changed due to using a power-saving setting while testing. However I have also found out that the issue only exists in Nuendo 5.5, Nuendo 4 runs smooth. Even a simple session with a video file and one audio track stutters in N5.5, smooth in N4. Must be in the way the programmes address the video card.

Thanks for all your tips so far though!!