Dashware. Worth it? Rendering speed?

[Lowepg]

Ive been playing with the demo version and like what Im seeing.

However...

The one thing i CANT see in the demo is the process for converting the output video.
Im recording in 1080P- will I get a similar HQ output file from Dashware?
And, how is the engine? Is this going to take hours to render?

The other problem is Im using a Mac. Its a top of the line machine, but for Dashware, I'll have to run in emulation VM...

I want to be able to add the log data to my original video file and THEN be able to bring it into Final Cut Pro for manipulation.... Im concerned with the fact that I cant SEE this output process before deciding...

Any help?

 

[isky172]

I think all your answers will be found in this video: http://youtu.be/sUxRQ9O1dag As far as taking it into FCP as a package, the Chroma discussion starts at 5:40 into the video. Note that his instructions are for Adobe Premiere Pro. I haven't ever used FCP but I can't imagine it doesn't have a similar capability. Nonetheless, I think it's exactly what you're looking to do. I've got Dashware and I couldn't be more pleased with it (w/Flytrex Live). My HD/Full sized renderings for 1080p @ ~18 mins long are taking about 10 to 20 mins to render (not including the time that I may take to do GoPro Studio importing and stitching I do before I bring it into Dashware, if necessary). Dashware takes the original GoPro files so you don't HAVE TO edit in a non-Dashware app beforehand.

 

[Lowepg]

I think all your answers will be found in this video: http://youtu.be/sUxRQ9O1dag As far as taking it into FCP as a package, the Chroma discussion starts at 5:40 into the video. Note that his instructions are for Adobe Premiere Pro. I haven't ever used FCP but I can't imagine it doesn't have a similar capability. Nonetheless, I think it's exactly what you're looking to do. I've got Dashware and I couldn't be more pleased with it (w/Flytrex Live). My HD/Full sized renderings for 1080p @ ~18 mins long are taking about 10 to 20 mins to render (not including the time that I may take to do GoPro Studio importing and stitching I do before I bring it into Dashware, if necessary). Dashware takes the original GoPro files so you don't HAVE TO edit in a non-Dashware app beforehand.

Ugh,

Just finished my first sample video and I'm incredibly disappointed.

First: the 5 minute clip took 1 hour to create.... well, OK, as long as the quality is good.

Second: its unwatchable. There's a constant flickering during the whole video!

I started with a 1080P 30 fps video (mp4) and the only change i made to the default output was to increase quality from 80 to 100.

 

[mmn]

Ugh,

Just finished my first sample video and I'm incredibly disappointed.

First: the 5 minute clip took 1 hour to create.... well, OK, as long as the quality is good.

Second: its unwatchable. There's a constant flickering during the whole video!

I started with a 1080P 30 fps video (mp4) and the only change i made to the default output was to increase quality from 80 to 100.

Haven't experienced that. I too used 1080p 30fps mp4 in but I used defaults for out. Took about 10 mins to create the 2 min vid and it "looked" fine.

 

[Lowepg]

Ugh,

Just finished my first sample video and I'm incredibly disappointed.

First: the 5 minute clip took 1 hour to create.... well, OK, as long as the quality is good.

Second: its unwatchable. There's a constant flickering during the whole video!

I started with a 1080P 30 fps video (mp4) and the only change i made to the default output was to increase quality from 80 to 100.

Haven't experienced that. I too used 1080p 30fps mp4 in but I used defaults for out. Took about 10 mins to create the 2 min vid and it "looked" fine.

http://vimeo.com/104345475

Hmmm. I'll try again and leave all defaults as-is.

Ill pick a shorter clip though so I dont need to wait an hour for it :-(

Im assuming that a contributing factor to the slow rendering is that Im running Dashware via Parallel 9 (Imac). Ill also try giving the VM more RAM to use.

 

[isky172]

Like mmn, I've never had such an issue. Provided my original video is stable, so is the output from Dashware - and the quality is great. Rendering is quick - using a laptop and i7 processor (see rendering estimates in my original post). If I had to guess, I would say something isn't working because of the Parallel instance setup. If you want me to "render" something for you, post it to Google drive, send me a link, and I'll take care of it. I'll give you the times/settings I used too - for a baseline comparison with how you're doing it.

 

[Fplvert]

Ugh,

Just finished my first sample video and I'm incredibly disappointed.

First: the 5 minute clip took 1 hour to create.... well, OK, as long as the quality is good.

Second: its unwatchable. There's a constant flickering during the whole video!

I started with a 1080P 30 fps video (mp4) and the only change i made to the default output was to increase quality from 80 to 100.

Haven't experienced that. I too used 1080p 30fps mp4 in but I used defaults for out. Took about 10 mins to create the 2 min vid and it "looked" fine.

http://vimeo.com/104345475

Nice vid mmn. I use win movie and the only thing that runs slow is loading onto YouTube. Might try vimeo, does it have music available? Here's my first dashware demo:
http://youtu.be/vtUYy3MLP-M

 

[mmn]

Might try vimeo, does it have music available?

PM sent

 

[Lowepg]

Like mmn, I've never had such an issue. Provided my original video is stable, so is the output from Dashware - and the quality is great. Rendering is quick - using a laptop and i7 processor (see rendering estimates in my original post). If I had to guess, I would say something isn't working because of the Parallel instance setup. If you want me to "render" something for you, post it to Google drive, send me a link, and I'll take care of it. I'll give you the times/settings I used too - for a baseline comparison with how you're doing it.

Well, I tried it again, at all defaults and its still crappy. :-(

On a whim, loaded it on my old Windows desktop, identical settings, video is 100x better :-(

So, I'm thinking the video encoder is not playing nice with Parallels.

I tried creating a fresh instance (with 8 GB of RAM) and it made no difference...

 

[FredzMaxxUAV]

Reviving this old thread: how fast does Dashware rendering work for you at 1080p?

 

[Martin Smith]

Always render from dashware with a Chroma template after you've synced the footage and telemetry. Dashware produces a horrible video. If you render with a chroma template you can key it out in after effects afterwards and then you have control of the final render and quality.

 

[FredzMaxxUAV]

Always render from dashware with a Chroma template after you've synced the footage and telemetry. Dashware produces a horrible video. If you render with a chroma template you can key it out in after effects afterwards and then you have control of the final render and quality.

Sure I do that. But Dashware is so slow in rendering. Adobe renders 4K in 20 minutes, where Dashware takes hours to render a 15 minute movie in 1080p, with a chroma template. I have a huge amount of gauges though (15 or 20), and some are huge. When I remove half of them, it takes 1 hour at least. This is on a 6700K Skylake PC with 32 GB RAM and SSDs. 8 cores - it seems Dashware only uses 1 core spread over 8 cores, so maximum 18% CPU for Dashware. Even upgrading ffmpeg inside Dashware folder didn't help.

@Martin Smith: can you share a working chroma movie in 1080p for Dashware (or describe how you made it)? I tried to make a few in Premiere, but Dashware doesn't like them - it somehow resizes its window although the Premiere output is 1080p. What I do now in Dashware is just use any P3 movie as background, and place a Chroma gauge over it (which is just a rectangle gauge with a certain color), so the movie is not visible, but maybe a pure chroma movie will make Dashware faster.

 

[Martin Smith]

Sure I do that. But Dashware is so slow in rendering. Adobe renders 4K in 20 minutes, where Dashware takes hours to render a 15 minute movie in 1080p, with a chroma template. I have a huge amount of gauges though (15 or 20), and some are huge. When I remove half of them, it takes 1 hour at least. This is on a 6700K Skylake PC with 32 GB RAM and SSDs. 8 cores - it seems Dashware only uses 1 core spread over 8 cores, so maximum 18% CPU for Dashware. Even upgrading ffmpeg inside Dashware folder didn't help.

@Martin Smith: can you share a working chroma movie in 1080p for Dashware (or describe how you made it)? I tried to make a few in Premiere, but Dashware doesn't like them - it somehow resizes its window although the Premiere output is 1080p. What I do now in Dashware is just use any P3 movie as background, and place a Chroma gauge over it (which is just a rectangle gauge with a certain color), so the movie is not visible, but maybe a pure chroma movie will make Dashware faster.

I have a tutorial on this subject on youtube. The tutorial is for the Yuneec Q500+ however all the info is more or less the same. If You are familiar with Dashware all of whats in the video will make sense to you. In the video description on youtube there is a link for all the files needed including the Chroma Template.

You may want to go to youtube to watch so you will have access to the download in the video description.

here is a direct link to the download, I do not know if it will work from these forums...
Dropbox - Dashware_ Q500+.zip

 

[FredzMaxxUAV]

How long does Dashware rendering with Chroma take for you?

 

[Martin Smith]

How long does Dashware rendering with Chroma take for you?

I'm just guessing but usually about 15 minutes per 5 minutes of video time.

 

[FredzMaxxUAV]

I'm just guessing but usually about 15 minutes per 5 minutes of video time.

Thanks. Is there a reason you use AE instead of Premiere? It also has the fx Ultra key...

 

[Martin Smith]

Thanks. Is there a reason you use AE instead of Premiere? It also has the fx Ultra key...

I do all my actual editing and cutting together footage with Sony Vegas, and After Effects for special stuff outside of actually editing.

 

[FredzMaxxUAV]

I do all my actual editing and cutting together footage with Sony Vegas, and After Effects for special stuff outside of actually editing.

I meant, on the YouTube movie, why did you only use AE, and not Premiere or Vegas at all? Most other YouTube videos describing chroma for Dashware use Premiere only, no AE.

 

[Martin Smith]

I meant, on the YouTube movie, why did you only use AE, and not Premiere or Vegas at all? Most other YouTube videos describing chroma for Dashware use Premiere only, no AE.

Well, in the video I never really edited footage, or made cuts. I use AE because that's what I've used for manipulating footage and color grading. I like Vegas because from my experience it renders faster than Premiere and I am also much faster with Vegas, Just been using it for years...

 

[FredzMaxxUAV]

Oh I see. Do you know how to cut a certain gauge or zone in Premiere and move it to another position? My Dashware render is completely filled with gauges, and I would like,to relocate a few on the 4K screen in Premiere (or AE). So really move the position of part of a screen while it still plays everything nicely together. I hope you understand what I mean. Can't find much in Google.