Is it my computer? Or every video editor?

BurningLeaves · Post by **BurningLeaves** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:42 pm

Where to begin... Well I have tried a few programs WMM, Magix, Vegas 6 & 7 yet the same problems keep resurfacing, Basically the programs will run very slow, making it nearlly impossible to edit a video. If I put a few clips on the time line, or a simple effect the program will lag when I try and watch what I just did. So I have to keep rendering the file and checking it that way. Also, with Magix its been acting really weird latelly, it wont let me export in any way other then MPEG or WMV (although there are options for unconpressed and avi when I click on them they do not work, when I first bought the program it worked fine. the only thing I installed wich i thought might be screwing with it was FFDshow) So since Magix was giving me problems I tried the trial of Vegas but low and behold the same stalling problem that I had with Magix. When it comes to codecs I think iv tried everything possible, all with the same result. HuffYuv and uncomressed will actually make it lag much more so, then if im using a DIVX. Since Vegas 6 is now at about $100 I was going to upgrade. Or if any one knows what I did to break Magix id stick with that (since I just paid $50 for it a few months ago) As much as id say this sounds like my computer, I dont think my computer is all that slow (Forgive me, I dont know that much when it comes to computer hardware)

My computer:
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
2.01 GHz 1.5 GB RAM

Sorry for the long rant of a post but basically my question is, Does everyone exsperiance this problem? Did I do something to make these programs not work? Or is my computer just slow? Id appreciate any tips someone might be able to give, thank you

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:10 am

yeah, it's your computer
the Althon XP line is fairly old (released in 2002)

lossless and uncompressed footage takes a lot of cpu power to playback...but divx is pretty much the last codec you want to be editing with (though I suppose there are worse choices)

there are some normal computer maintenance things that you could do that would help a little (clean the registry, defragment hard drives, uninstall unused programs, etc...) but chances are you won't see a drastic improvement unless you buy a new computer

BurningLeaves · Post by **BurningLeaves** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:34 am

Kariudo wrote:yeah, it's your computer

Kariudo, thank you so much for your advice. Im gonna do everything you mentioned to see if I cant get it a bit better. Again, I really dont know much when it comes to hardware but is there anything I could do to update it (Upgrade ram Processor whatever) so that I could get my computer up to speed with out going out and getting a completlly new one? Thanks for all your tips, I really do appriciate it

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:50 am

it depends on your computer, your best bet is to contact the manufacturer to find out what processors you can use with your particular model

the challenge will be finding an Athlon XP cpu (which is a socket A cpu)
eBay looks like your best bet (they're dirt cheap too)

there isn't really anything you can do with the ram or hard drives. 1.5GB should be enough

you should see a performance increase if you upgrade your cpu, but it still might not have enough power to edit lossless clips without lagging

I might be able to help you tune up your system to run better though (which may be good enough)
AIM me if you want help...I think I'll be up for another hour or two tonight

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:40 am

Kariudo wrote:lossless and uncompressed footage takes a lot of cpu power to playback...

Actually, uncompressed takes the least amount of CPU power to play back. On my system, an AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ with 2GB of RAM, playing back a 1 minute video clip encoded with Huffyuv with Media Player Classic results in 50 - 60% CPU usage from a single core (I changed MPC's Affinity to use only CPU 1 in Windows Task Manager). That same video clip uncompressed uses less than 20% of a single core. FYI, that same clip encoded with XviD (with audio, BTW) uses about 30% of a single core's power, not including any decoding help from my video card.

Of course, while the Huffyuv clip is 360MB in size, the uncompressed clip is about 2,300MB in comparison. At that size, hard drive transfer speeds become a factor in smooth playback (I had all the files playing off a RAID 0 array). The amount of RAM in the system may also play a part in how well uncompressed works for editing.

Phantasmagoriat · Post by **Phantasmagoriat** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:02 pm

I'm a firm believer that you don't need a super fast computer to edit amv's quick and smooth (although exporting footage is a different matter). All you need to do is become familiar with the Bait and Switch technique. My old 1.4GHz laptop worked fine regardless of the amount of clips I loaded into Magix's timeline.

it turns out, .avi files encoded with MJPEG codecs run really fast, so editing with those would be best. The drawback is the quality. You overcome that by editing with fast codecs, but export using lossless codecs when you are done editing. How it's done:

-download a fast MJPEG [yes, even the watermarked trial mentioned above will do]
-make three folders: Source, Bait, Real
-put your lossless .avi source into the "Real" folder
-make a low-quality copy of your lossless .avi source with the fast codec [using vdub], and put it into the "Source" folder. Make sure it has the same file name as your lossless .avi
-Open your editing program, and start editing with the fast .avi's from the "Source" folder [disregarding the quality, editing should be super fast]
-When done editing, save your project, and close your editing program.
-Move your fast .avi's from the "Source" folder to the "Bait" folder
-Move your lossess .avi's from the "Real" folder to the "Source" folder
-Open your project
-your editing program will use the full-quality lossless .avi's as the source, instead of the low-quality [but fast] .avi's.
-export your AMV

As you can see, you're essentially 'tricking' your editing program; it can't tell the difference between the two files since they are in the same location, they have the same file name, and frame-by-frame, they are exactly the same... just one is fast, and one is slow.

BurningLeaves · Post by **BurningLeaves** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:42 pm

Phantasmagoriat wrote: As you can see, you're essentially 'tricking' your editing program; it can't tell the difference between the two files since they are in the same location, they have the same file name, and frame-by-frame, they are exactly the same... just one is fast, and one is slow.

That is a GREAT idea I am definitely going to look into that one. Im going to try and get my comp. to run as fast as I can though by doing everything Kariudo suggested and Upgrade whatever I can to edit really smoothly (this is fast becoming an expensive hobby

) But even if I cant get it that fast its really great to know I could do something like that thank you very much for that tip

Koopiskeva · Post by **Koopiskeva** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 12:32 am

That bait and switch method works perfectly fine for simple videos, but if you do effects heavy videos, it gets a bit too tricky and cumbersome to do such a thing. |:

Kitsuner · Post by **Kitsuner** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:55 am

Koopiskeva wrote:That bait and switch method works perfectly fine for simple videos, but if you do effects heavy videos, it gets a bit too tricky and cumbersome to do such a thing. |:

Why so?

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:04 am

I'm guessing because you then have to make a new "fake" clip for each effect you make. I can see it getting hard to keep track of your bait&switch clips if you do something with multiple overlays
I dunno...just throwing something out there. 3 left]