Multicamera Performance

To play back a group clip in a 4-up or 9-up split screen, you must be in MultiCamera mode.

When Media Composer is playing a clip in 4-up or 9-up mode, it must read four or nine media files from the hard disk, decode them, and composite them into the Source monitor, as well as display the linecut in the Record monitor. That puts a significant demand on your storage subsystem as well as your computer’s processor.

The following section provides tips concerning playback performance for MultiCamera mode.

---

Tip: If you notice frames are dropping during playback, decrease the size of the Composer window until playback becomes smooth.

---

Storage subsystems have to move the media files from the disks to the processor. If your media files are large, that can cause a strain on your system. The more compressed your media files are, the faster they can be read from the disk. You will find 15:1s standard definition media is very small and will stress your storage subsystem the least. If your media was captured at the 2:1 Avid resolution (codec), your media files would be 30x larger and your computer may not be able to read all nine video media files plus the audio media files quickly enough to allow for real-time multicamera editing.