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Microsoft Windows 7 Test Drive, Part 3

Dec 30, 2009 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer

Back again with Microsoft Windows 7 tests. I received the 64-bit Windows XP system hard drive from Puget Systems I mentioned earlier this week and ran my comparative tests. I'll include the test descriptions (again) for those who jumped directly to these results. If you've already read the Windows Vista vs. Windows 7 results from earlier, you can just focus on the tables.

Synthetic Adobe Premiere Pro/Media Encoder tests

I tested the Adobe Creative Suite using both synthetic and real-world tests. The synthetic tests started with a 3:30 DV project with a range of effects, including chroma key, slow motion, and color correction, along with a superimposed logo and timecode. Outputting to the presets shown in Table 1, Windows 7 proved about the same for H.264 and VP6 output, but 22 percent faster when outputting Windows Media, a disparity that I also saw when outputting Windows Media Video with Sony Creative Software Vegas Pro.

Next, I tested with a range of HD source formats. The HDV-source video was a 1-minute multicam project with one base track and a half-sized picture-in-picture (PIP) floating from upper right to lower left with one 360-degree rotation. I output all HD formats to the H.264-Apple TV 720p preset. As you can see in Table 2, rendering with Windows 7 was 7 percent faster than that with Windows XP.

The AVCHD and DVCPRO HD-source projects were both 1-minute long with three clips on the timeline, a single base clip, a static half-sized PIP, and another half-sized PIP panning from upper right to lower left with one 360-degree rotation. Windows 7 was 5 percent faster than XP in the AVCHD trials and 2 percent faster in the DVCPRO HD trials.

The Red Digital Cinema Red One source project was a variation on the same theme, with one static background track and a spinning, panning PIP. I rendered a 34-second chunk of the project, and Windows 7 proved 15 percent faster than Windows XP.

Real-world Adobe Premiere Pro/Media Encoder tests

Next I rendered two real-world projects with the two operating systems. The first was the 53-minute second act of a ballet production shot with two HDV camcorders and edited using Adobe Premiere Pro's multicam feature. Effects included color and gamma correction, with about 2 minutes of rolling credits at the end of the video. I output this to widescreen MPEG-2, and Windows 7 proved 6 seconds faster than XP, a meaningless differential.

The second project was a 10-minute, single-camera widescreen DV concert shoot rendered to YouTube widescreen SD format. Here, Windows 7 proved 6 percent faster than XP.

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