Hardware, or Software dilemna?

sinncere · Post by **sinncere** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:05 pm

Not sure if I should've posted this on the Hardware, or Software forums, because I don't know which of the two is my issue.

I just started on the realm of making AMVs (or video editing in general), and I'm using Windows Movie Maker on my laptop (Inspiron 6000). It does the job overall, except for one problem; as I go along lengthening my projects, it's hard to preview what I have so far seamlessly, unless I save what I have as an actual video file and view the saved file. When I preview my project, it's not seamless throughout and tends to falter periodically, especially during transitions (without even any effects), and that makes it hard to time it right with the audio.

Is this a software problem, which I may be able to remedy by using a different program? Or is it a hardware program, where I'm S.O.L. while I'm using my laptop?

Krisqo · Post by **Krisqo** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:24 pm

*recalling days of WMM usage*

I occasionally ran into some bumpy previews using wmm. I found it to be mostly a memory problem which is obviously hardware related. It could also be your footage. I had the damn program fuck up just because it did't like how I cut one clip from a movie, but the rest of the clips from that movie worked fine. But I still say it is probably your memory. How much do you have?

sinncere · Post by **sinncere** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:33 pm

248MB.

Is it grounds to upgrade?

Krisqo · Post by **Krisqo** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:41 pm

That's what I had. 512MB or higher should help if it is indeed memory.

sinncere · Post by **sinncere** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:43 pm

Thanks. I'll check out my sister's desktop, cause it's more recent than mine. If it's got 512MB, I'll try out my project there and see.

If it's the case, I know what to ask for Christmas.

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 7:52 am

Sounds like your notebook has integrated graphics using part of your system RAM for video. If you can add another 512MB of RAM (or even 256MB) it may help somewhat. Video editing CAN be done with the RAM you have as long as you can live with the sluggishness. Notebooks are a bit trickier (and more expensive) to upgrade RAM for.

My note has 1GB, in 2 512MB sticks. It supposedly supports up to 2GB RAM, but I'd need 2 1GB sticks which aren't exactly cheap. And I won't be able to use the existing 512's since the 2 1GBs would have to replace the 512's--the computer has only 2 slots for memory (as do most notebooks, it's cramped in there!). And just so you don't get the idea that I edit on a notebook, I don't (even though I've tried and it works decently). My current desktop (which I'm using right now to type this) runs rings around my notebook.

sinncere · Post by **sinncere** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:21 pm

I don't know if it's related to my initial concern, but I was working on another video just yesterday, and while I was working, my memory ran low on me, and my virtual memory had to be increased. It happened twice.

I had to reboot twice throughout to finish the movie I was working on.

This never happened to my notebook before since I got it; so it's a lil' alarming that this happened now when I recently got into working on AMVs. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe it isn't.

Krisqo · Post by **Krisqo** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:17 pm

Well, video editing does take a lot of RAM to do. On a more advanced scale, Adobe Premiere usually takes about 40-100MB of RAM for me. I ran into that problem when I tried running Pro with 256MB of RAM.

sinncere · Post by **sinncere** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:43 pm

Ah, and here I was planning on upgrading to a different editting software.

Guess I better focus on the hardware first.

AMV_4000 · Post by **AMV_4000** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 9:06 am

lessee... i DO edit on my notebook, just so you know its an E-Machine (E-MACHINES IS THE WORST/CHEAPEST BRAND PC EVAR!!) I use Adobe Premiere 6.5 on Win xp home (HOME! Why not pro? Cause im too lazy to reformat!) anyways, i only have 512 megs of ram, a 40 gig HD... 1.9 ghz processor... and she edits GREAT! no problems from here... then again im used to editing on far Inferior machines... 1 ghz 512meg ram machines with tons of space.. but yeah, i gotta mention, i have tried to run WMM... it crashes within 30 seconds of starting it up... and i have tried upgrading it... it still crashes.. premiere.. stable as can be... i think it usually uses about 20-200 megs of ram... now, when i edit, alot of times i run multiple programs which eat ram like crazy.. I usually run After Effects 5.5, Premiere 6.5, and Photoshop 6.0... they all run just fine... if your thinking about upgrading programs, you might wanna look into Adobe Premiere.. Older versions (6.0/6.5) use a lot less ram *or atleast they should* then the newer versions (pro 1.0/1.5/2.0).
I also hear great things from Sony Vegas Users... im not sure what kinda ram it uses though... I have edited before in premiere on 64 megs of ram... it is possible.. it isnt the smoothest but it works.. you might wanna make sure that your clips arent keyframed, or if they are keyframed, try setting the keyframes to 1 frame per second... im not 100% sure if that would help it being skippy.. but i know one time i edited with clips that were keyframes once every 7 second... took forever to get through that video...
hope that helps a little bit... good luck with your video editing...