Playback on a PC

[brianb87]

What program can I use that will allow me to play back my video. My PC freezes up. Here are the specs, should be able to play back I'd think.

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

It will probably struggle with 4k but 1080p should be fine

 

[brianb87]

It will probably struggle with 4k but 1080p should be fine

How about 2.7k ? That was on QuickTime .. VLC will I have better luck?

 

[blinkpunk92]

Are you shooting in 4k? It takes a lot of ram to play that. Even on my 16g Mac it won't play. You will have to shoot in 1080p. If anyone knows of how to play it on a 8g ram please comment. I'm curious as well

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

No I have similar specs and all it can handle is 1080p. Ideally you'd need a combination of an i7, 16gb ram and a serious graphics card. After that you'd want a 4k screen too to get the full quality too

 

[Greebo]

4k plays fine on my work PCI with only 6gb ram and a i3 cpu. I'm using the built in video player with windows 10. Works fine

 

[brianb87]

No I have similar specs and all it can handle is 1080p. Ideally you'd need a combination of an i7, 16gb ram and a serious graphics card. After that you'd want a 4k screen too to get the full quality too

I might have to get on my brothers gaming desktop.. See how that works. Thanks Mal

 

[Gregg Smith]

I have an older MacBook Air from 2013 with 8GB ram and it works fine for me with 4K. I know apples and PC's and not a true comparison. I can even run Editing software like Premiere and Final Cut Pro X without issues using the MacBook Air. Not ideal for sure, but it works. Seems like yours should be ok. The Video card could limit you some. That plays heavy on playback capability.

Also when you run the files, try coping them to the HD or even better a Solid State drive versus running them from the MicroSD if you aren't doing that already.

 

[brianb87]

4k plays fine on my work PCI with only 6gb ram and a i3 cpu. I'm using the built in video player with windows 10. Works fine

I have windows 7.. Maybe the issue?

 

[Mal_PV2_Ireland]

I can edit my 4k by using windows movie maker to preview it and then use power director 13 to crop, add transition's etc and then finally produce the clips. I'm gonna built a serious machine so I can do it all without hassle soon.

 

[brianb87]

I have an older MacBook Air from 2013 with 8GB ram and it works fine for me with 4K. I know apples and PC's and not a true comparison. I can even run Editing software like Premiere and Final Cut Pro X without issues using the MacBook Air. Not ideal for sure, but it works. Seems like yours should be ok. The Video card could limit you some. That plays heavy on playback capability. Also when you run the files, try coping them to the HD or even better a Solid State drive versus running them from the MicroSD if you aren't doing that already.

I am pulling it off a SD card.. As in solid state flash drive or copy them to the PC?

 

[Gregg Smith]

I am pulling it off a SD card.. As in solid state flash drive or copy them to the PC?

Pulling from SD card can still be slower if the reader isn't a direct connection. Like if you use a USB converter. A SD drive attached directly to your machine in lieu of a normal HD can make a tremendous difference. I upgraded an older machine a couple years back from a standard HD to a SSD drive and wow, a huge difference in speed overall. Adding RAM can also really help things. Especially in Windows.

Windows is a memory hog and it doesn't do a very good job at managing it. So having more of it can also help. I've seen first hand my performance increase just by adding more RAM.

When you open up application and the OS, it tries to load in RAM. If there's not enough there, it will save stuff to the HD in temp area which can slow things down dramatically. You have a good amount of RAM, but upgrading to say 16GB of RAM if your system is capable of it can help.

Also the Video Card is a major help in this area. Upgrading to a faster card with more RAM on the video card can really help things out.

I'd say that if you wanted to speed things up do the following:
1. Copy the files from the MicroSD to a built-in HD or SSD if you have one.
2. Upgrade to a SSD drive to help increase performance
3. Add RAM
4. Upgrade Video Card.

The nice thing is that you can do these over time and not have to do all of them. You may find that a SSD will be the trick, or adding RAM will be enough. Find what's cheapest and try that first and then move onto the next item until you find what works best.

 

[StevenQX]

Potplayer

 

[thunderchicken]

Pulling from SD card can still be slower if the reader isn't a direct connection. Like if you use a USB converter. A SD drive attached directly to your machine in lieu of a normal HD can make a tremendous difference. I upgraded an older machine a couple years back from a standard HD to a SSD drive and wow, a huge difference in speed overall. Adding RAM can also really help things. Especially in Windows.

Windows is a memory hog and it doesn't do a very good job at managing it. So having more of it can also help. I've seen first hand my performance increase just by adding more RAM.

When you open up application and the OS, it tries to load in RAM. If there's not enough there, it will save stuff to the HD in temp area which can slow things down dramatically. You have a good amount of RAM, but upgrading to say 16GB of RAM if your system is capable of it can help.

Also the Video Card is a major help in this area. Upgrading to a faster card with more RAM on the video card can really help things out.

I'd say that if you wanted to speed things up do the following:
1. Copy the files from the MicroSD to a built-in HD or SSD if you have one.
2. Upgrade to a SSD drive to help increase performance
3. Add RAM
4. Upgrade Video Card.

The nice thing is that you can do these over time and not have to do all of them. You may find that a SSD will be the trick, or adding RAM will be enough. Find what's cheapest and try that first and then move onto the next item until you find what works best.

 

[FatTwoTonTony]

It will probably struggle with 4k but 1080p should be fine

Thats the M14XR1 board by alienware I suggest buying another ram stick. Chances are you have 2 4gb sticks in the system now so buy an 8 gb stick for like $40 and you will be good to go. I would check it out with the motherboard but I am pretty sure it will take the 8gb with the 2 4 gb's. If you are lucky enough to have an 8 gb there already you have a total of three ram slots so you can easily go 24 for rather cheap

 

[thunderchicken]

I am using a Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X2 with I5, 8 meg ram and a SSD and 4k plays just fine. I can also edit on my Sony Movie Studio Plat but it takes some time to render but also works well. In no more than 15 minutes I can render about a 10 minute movie in BlueRay but it gets a little warm.

 

[louforgiveno]

MPC media player or VLC. And update video drivers for the nvidia card

 

[brianb87]

Thats the M14XR1 board by alienware I suggest buying another ram stick. Chances are you have 2 4gb sticks in the system now so buy an 8 gb stick for like $40 and you will be good to go. I would check it out with the motherboard but I am pretty sure it will take the 8gb with the 2 4 gb's. If you are lucky enough to have an 8 gb there already you have a total of three ram slots so you can easily go 24 for rather cheap

I can run an 8 and a 4 with no issues?

 

[brianb87]

Thats the M14XR1 board by alienware I suggest buying another ram stick. Chances are you have 2 4gb sticks in the system now so buy an 8 gb stick for like $40 and you will be good to go. I would check it out with the motherboard but I am pretty sure it will take the 8gb with the 2 4 gb's. If you are lucky enough to have an 8 gb there already you have a total of three ram slots so you can easily go 24 for rather cheap

2 slots with 4gb each

 

[Wibble]

Do a shut down and restart if you havent done one in a while. Run Malware bytes and antivirus.
Many programs can be memory hogs even when shut down. Look in task manager and see what is running.
I use VLC or media player classic as well.
And you really need to drag the data off onto your had disk first.