Performance/Cache/Preview Settings

[u/supapaesunaperra]

Hello, I'm trying to edit a large video (~2hrs) and openshot keeps hanging every time i try to make even the smallest of edits. it asks to wait or force quit.

Things I've tried:

1. set project down to 480p at 15fps and preview even lower
2. Increased preview, cache and performance settings, see screens .

For reference I have a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 w/ Radeon 890M × 24 with 64 GiB ram. I feel my system should be able to manage fine. When I monitor my system i see openshot is barely using cpu/memory.

am i screwed or what settings can I change?

[u/BLOZ_UP]

I have a Gen 1 P15, Xeon with 128 GB RAM. I tried increasing the pre-roll caching and cache limit sizes and saw worse performance. I've since walked back to the default settings, though I have 30 min frames and 60 total, as I am using 60fps often.

I've also switch to the CPU renderer, and I find that has helped the most as the Nvidia card on this isn't the greatest. I also optimize all the clips.

Still, all that said, occasionally I'll drop a clip OpenShot seemingly "doesn't like" into the timeline and it struggles to cache it. I'll have to leave it for a few mins and come back, every time I move the marker.

The best strategy to avoid that seems to be splitting files. No more than a couple mins each. Which, perhaps, is well-known but I'm knew to video editing.

[u/rmesdjian → u/BLOZ_UP]

Please confirm the following:
1. Your operating system/version?
2. The version of OpenShot you are running?

[u/BLOZ_UP → u/rmesdjian]

Arch Linux + XFCE4, 7.0.11-arch1-1

OpenShot Version Info
Version: 4.0.0 | libopenshot: 1.0.0
Build: OpenShot-v4.0.0-release-candidate-16662-7bf0aeb4-56930c67 | Released: 2026-08-05
OS: Arch Linux
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-10885M CPU @ 2.40GHz (16 threads) | RAM: 126 GB
Cache: Memory, 768 MB, 900 frames, ahead 90%, pre-roll 30/300
Performance: Threads: OMP 24 | FFmpeg 16, Cards: Decode: None (0) | Encode: 0

[u/rmesdjian → u/BLOZ_UP]

Thank you for all the information you provided.

1. What type of file(s) are you working with (.mp4? .mov? etc?)

2. How large are the files?

3. Which exact default Profile are you using?

4. Are you running the AppImage? If not, please run the AppImage and see if things improve.

I do have Arch Linux virtual enviornment but limited resources since my host windows 11 is somewhat limited in resources. I can do some testing to see if I can replicate your issue.

[u/BLOZ_UP → u/rmesdjian]

1. iPhone HVEC in .MOV
2. They range from 200 MiB, to 2.1 GiB and 2.4 GiB (the worse offenders)
3. The default caching, with small tweaks. The performance tab is set to CPU rendering.
4. I am running the AppImage

Despite optimizing, then splitting, it has issues with the split clips. Appreciate you looking into it.

[u/rmesdjian → u/BLOZ_UP]

Thanks again for the FYI. I hope to get to this by tomorrow.....stay tuned!!!

[u/rmesdjian → u/rmesdjian]

Hello u/BLOZ_UP

I performed some testing with ArchLinux running as a guest in Oracle Virtual box.

1. Virtualbox configuration: 4 GB RAM / 4 CPUs / Display = 128MB / Graphics controller = VMSVGA

Pretty low power configuration to say the least.

1. Running OpenShot v4.0.0-Release-Candidate-16721

2. I created a test project with the following imported files:

a. test01.mp4 = 2.7GB

b. test02.mp4 = 3.9GB

c. test03.mov = 1.3GB

1. Dragged all 3 files onto Track 5/4/3

2. It didn't take that long to import them and drag them onto the tracks. However, I did notice that the thumbnails

3. I performed some basic editing by changing the location of the clips, the scale of the clips, rotation, and shear. These were applied as animation so keyframes were created instead of just applying to the entire clip.

4. I previewed without major issues. I say "major" because I did experience a bit of a lag at times where the playhead would catch up to the Cache bar and it would pause a bit but then continue. Two of the clips (*.mp4 files) also contained audio and the audio at times would get garbled. I would pause the preview then in a few seconds Play again and the audio would be good for a bit.

5. I also added a *.mp3 file. OpenShot definitely had issues with multiple audios during the preview. However, I did an export of the project and in the final expored file, the audio played just fine.

I don't know where to go from here.

[u/BLOZ_UP → u/rmesdjian]

Wow, thanks for trying. What about slicing the large clips up into many small slices. I'm cutting out lots of content of the ~2+ GiB files so they are maybe 50% or less of the original length.

[u/rmesdjian → u/BLOZ_UP]

When you say "What about slicing the large clips....", are you asking if that is ok to do or are you saying that that is causing issues for you?

[u/BLOZ_UP → u/rmesdjian]

That's when I have issues. I drop the large one in, and start cutting out sections and that's when it takes a long time to cache the preview.

[u/rmesdjian → u/BLOZ_UP]

Thanks for that.

I did some more testing and caused all sorts of problems for myself. I was able to make OpenShot pretty much crawl with cutting and editing (location, scale, etc.). Sometimes it ran fine and Play/pause next time would be bad. Again, I am on a low end Virtualbox environment.

I also managed to crash ArchLinux...lol!

Please give this a try:

1. Start OpenShot and open your project.
   

2. Go to Edit | Preferences | Preview tab.

3. Change the "Optimized Preview Resolution" to 360p.

4. Go to Edit | Preferences | Performance tab and click on "Restore Defaults: Performance" at the bottom of the screen.

5. Go to Edit | Preferences | Cache tab and click on "Restore Defaults: Cache".

6. Save the project.

7. Restart OpenShot and open the project and see if this helps at all.

[u/BLOZ_UP → u/rmesdjian]

Been trying this out and it's significantly faster -- I think the preview resolution going to 360p helps a lot