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View Full Version : Relieve Vidblaster CPU



BradShoemaker
03-29-2012, 01:17 PM
I have been doing several tests with Vidblaster and love the software as a whole, but have found it is very CPU intensive and barely even touches the RAM.

If running 3 Lifecams in Full HD it begins to max out the CPU. If I drop it to 720p it continues to run hot but is doable, provided I don't record or stream. Once I record or stream it begins to run the CPU at its max again.

Due to me needing to be mobile, my setup is as follows...

ASUS G74SX-DH71. 2nd Gen i7 2.2GHz (with boost to 3.1) 16GB RAM and GeForce GTX560M 3GB.

After checking the specs it appears that it runs the CPU hot and barely touches the RAM. The RAM is hitting around 2.5-3.5 GB used.

Is there anything I am missing?

I understand I can run at a much lower Resolution and be fine, but the recording quality is what I want in the long run. We stream live and record at the same time. Live stream to Ustream can be dumbed down in quality for the initial broadcast as long as I have a good copy to post for later viewing.

Ideas?

andrewzarian
03-29-2012, 02:01 PM
Hey Brad,

Vidblaster is very CPU Intensive.We currently broadcast at 846x480 and have a 4 camera setup. Another thing that you might want to try is outputing your video to a secondary computer to just record the video


What Verison if Vidblaster are you running?

sunkast
03-29-2012, 02:05 PM
FWIW, I recently upgraded from Vidblaster v1.36 to 2.17, and so far it seems like I'm getting better performance. So if you are using an older version, you may want to considering upgrading to the latest version.

andrewzarian
03-29-2012, 02:06 PM
Sunkast is correct. there was a bunch of improvements from V1 to V2

jamesdelfresco
03-29-2012, 02:10 PM
Sorry if this sounds stupid but what is VIDBLASTER?

BradShoemaker
03-29-2012, 02:29 PM
Vidblaster is an awesome piece of software that makes you the technical director. Run multiple cameras, add in lower thirds graphics, take add in skype video, screenshots, videos, etc. http://vidblaster.com/

To answer Andrew's question. I have the Studio Trial right now (Believe it is up to 2.09) just because I have been playing with hardware, etc before I commit to Vidblaster over trying the ATEM TV Studio (which I would have to get 4 HDMI camera's).

I think I am going to commit to Vidblaster due to what it can do, but even after upgrading my laptop from my last i7 to this new i7, it is taking a beating in CPU usage.

The ATEM solution is appealing just because it is hardware based and takes the chains off the CPU.

What do you need to do to push the video to a second computer?

andrewzarian
03-31-2012, 08:06 AM
We send video out from our main streaming machine VIA HDMI on the video card. That goes into a capture card on a second machine.

JakeKettle
03-31-2012, 09:42 AM
We send video out from our main streaming machine VIA HDMI on the video card. That goes into a capture card on a second machine.

Andrew, how exactly do you get multiple video streams into vidblaster? I know you use Skype machines, something I had wanted to set up, but would I need a blackbox/capture type deal?

andrewzarian
03-31-2012, 02:40 PM
I bring the video out VIA my Video card into another capture card

TomSinclair
04-14-2012, 11:16 PM
@ Brad: If you haven't already, you might consider an O/S upgrade to w7. I noticed a definite improvement in VidBlaster when I moved from Vista to Windows 7.

andrewzarian
04-15-2012, 05:45 AM
Tom is Correct. If you are not already running win7 Def upgrade.

BradShoemaker
04-15-2012, 06:14 PM
Sorry forgot to mention I am on Windows 7. I have decided that, even though it would be best to have a laptop for the remote shows, I needed to build a proper desktop. So as of this weekend I finished putting together a nice i7 with a kick ass motherboard, graphics card, etc. I have an SSD running Windows 7. It seems to finally be doing the job that I needed.

Thanks for all the replies.