digijoc-Mele
If any of you users are still experiencing jerky video or poor performance of video playback, try changing the setting for your HDD write caching.
In my tests under Windows XP, this parameter can have a significant effect on the performance of VirtualDJ's video playback capabilities. My finding is that when it is ON, one may experience very jerky video playback, especially when doing extensive manipulation of video. My recommendation is to try turning it OFF.
The main disadvantage of setting it OFF is data loss or corruption if the disk looses power. For a laptop user, this is not an issue since the laptop battery will keep things going. For the non laptop users, if you loose power you have bigger issues to worry about... hope the dancefloor is not packed.
I think there are several factors that can affect video playback performance, but this parameter is certainly worth checking. I discovered this after I upgraded my laptop HDD. After cloning my Windows environment to the new HDD, I noticed that video performance was horrible. So if the only thing that changed was the HDD, it was easy to troubleshoot and isolate the problem. A quick switch off of the setting and everything was back to normal.
My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > Diskdrive > Properties > Policies
Hope this helps someone. Cheers.
In my tests under Windows XP, this parameter can have a significant effect on the performance of VirtualDJ's video playback capabilities. My finding is that when it is ON, one may experience very jerky video playback, especially when doing extensive manipulation of video. My recommendation is to try turning it OFF.
The main disadvantage of setting it OFF is data loss or corruption if the disk looses power. For a laptop user, this is not an issue since the laptop battery will keep things going. For the non laptop users, if you loose power you have bigger issues to worry about... hope the dancefloor is not packed.
I think there are several factors that can affect video playback performance, but this parameter is certainly worth checking. I discovered this after I upgraded my laptop HDD. After cloning my Windows environment to the new HDD, I noticed that video performance was horrible. So if the only thing that changed was the HDD, it was easy to troubleshoot and isolate the problem. A quick switch off of the setting and everything was back to normal.
My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > Diskdrive > Properties > Policies
Hope this helps someone. Cheers.
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 8:42 am
discjockeydoc
Actually, turning write-caching off lessens the risk of data loss due to power failure. It also allows you to disconnect or turn off the external drive without the need for "stopping" it in Windows first ;)
I've had mine set up this way since day one. I just think it's safer.
I've had mine set up this way since day one. I just think it's safer.
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 9:17 am
jimmy b
Where to you find this option in XP.
Jimmy b
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 11:23 am
sbangs
Caution:
These settings effects will varry from machine to machine based upon your specification some software may need it, and on some weaker machines it can cause a degregation of performance and or crashes when using video.
there are many factors such as speed of components , memory sizes and bus speeds which will affect your video performance.
With this sort of settings there is no one size fits all option and you should make thorough testing at home before going live
These settings effects will varry from machine to machine based upon your specification some software may need it, and on some weaker machines it can cause a degregation of performance and or crashes when using video.
there are many factors such as speed of components , memory sizes and bus speeds which will affect your video performance.
With this sort of settings there is no one size fits all option and you should make thorough testing at home before going live
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 3:08 pm
Rune (DJ-In-Norway)
I think you got it wrong..
Enabling disk cache is what can be dangerous, but gives performance benefits (faster disk read/write).
Enabling disk write caching may increase operating system performance, but the danger is loosing data with power failure.
Turning off disk cache is should be safe, but then again some programs require it to be on
Or using the words from Microsoft itself
By enabling write caching, file system corruption and/or data loss could occur if the machine experiences a power, device or system failure and cannot be shutdown properly.
Turning OFF disk cache I've done for ages
Enabling disk cache is what can be dangerous, but gives performance benefits (faster disk read/write).
Enabling disk write caching may increase operating system performance, but the danger is loosing data with power failure.
Turning off disk cache is should be safe, but then again some programs require it to be on
Or using the words from Microsoft itself
By enabling write caching, file system corruption and/or data loss could occur if the machine experiences a power, device or system failure and cannot be shutdown properly.
Turning OFF disk cache I've done for ages
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 4:20 pm
sbangs
I know that is the case about the potential loss of data and have mentioned that on the other topic regarding this, you make a fair point ,as there are so many different hardware and software configurations now what might work for one might not work for another i , think people should be cautious changing the setting thats all and should test out , what it does to there machine before taking it out on a gig incase one of the programs which might need it messes up the machine. Rather safe than sorry i guess.
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 5:05 pm
digijoc-Mele
What data loss would be of concern if your machine is a "gig" machine ? As a pro user, your machine should only be for vDJ and vDJ supporting software. I can't think of a scenario where loosing data to power failure would be an issue. Even so, these comments could be very applicable to laptop users who as I mentioned before, have battery power. As I also mention, there are many factors that affect video performance. I found Write Caching to be a clear potential contributer.... at least worth checking IF you're having trouble.
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 6:56 pm
cstoll
And considering 99.9% of the time the only data transfer is a READ the Write-caching enabled is simply an unnecessary resource consumer. The .1% or the data transfer would be any database updates- which we have fix utilities for that.
Posté Mon 11 Feb 08 @ 7:01 pm