I have a Packard Bell 1.5 Ghz PC with 256 Mb RAM and 60 Gb hard drive.

 

I'm trying to use it to edit video which has previously been OK on small videos (couple of minutes) but I'm now having a nightmare with 5 minute + videos.

 

I'm finding that the 'make video' option (which compiles everything) is freezing. It does it at a different point every time and it isn't a full crash as I can hit the 'cancel' button.

 

I did a defrag which helped a bit and got it running a bit longer each time but still not to the end.

 

Given the above and the support pages for my video editing software (Pinnacle), my uneducated guess is a hard disk speed problem.

 

The support pages say I should have a fast SCSI hard drive of no more than 40Gb dedicated for video use.

 

My questions are :

 

1) Does the diagnosis sound right ?

2) Can I add a SCSI drive to my existing setup ?

3) What sort of money am I looking at

4) Can I buy off the shelf or does it need to go in somewhere for fitting (I can fit cards and should be OK with any job that doesn't require soldering work)

 

Thanks for your help guys

 

Dave

You may be hitting the limit of your conventional memory, try setting the swap file to 500+ MB.

 

Otherwise make 4 or 5 min chunks and join them together.

 

Just a guess.

 

Herman

Thanks for the suggestion Herman - but how do I do that ?! I'm running XP.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

Right click my computer, select properties.

 

click advanced, then settings button in performance box

 

click advanced, then change in virtual memory box

 

select custom size button, then in initial size & max size enter desired value (twice the amount of ram is a good setting)

 

ignore any warnings of impending doom!!

 

 

 

 

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I feel the need, the need for speed!

i use a 7200 40 gig ,and have no problems doing that sort of thing(i am running similar spec pc)

 

my 2p

 

philly

 

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Paul, I don't have a 'performance' tab !

 

Phil, is that drive in addition to your 'normal' hard drive ? If so, is it easy to fit ?

 

Thanks

Hairsy,

It's Advanced/Performance/Settings/Advanced/Virtual Memory.

 

However, this may not be the problem. try keeping the Task Manager/Perfomance open whilst editing the video and see how much memory is used/free.

Andy, I tried that and memory usage was static at 236 Mb and CPU constant at 100%. Sounds like memory is close to the limit ...

In that case you need more (some?) pagefile.

Try increasing it, Xp probably makes a recommendation, rule of thumb is the same as your RAM.

It was previously set to min. 384, max. 768.

 

Increased to 512/1024 and then had a go at 1024/2048.

 

Didn't make a difference so tried getting rid of it completely. Still no difference !!!

 

Back to original settings now.

 

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Have you got the request assistance stuff loaded ? I have XP too and might be able to get in and look at your machine.

How long have you left it for Dave?

If the cancel button is still active it sounds like the system is still doing stuff, and like others say may have used up all its physical memory and using the virtual memory which is a lot slower.

 

About the SCSI. You can add a SCSI, but you are talking aroung £150 for an ultra wide SCSI card and then £300+ for a 40gig SCSI disc. That is for a 160MB transfer rate disc.

 

The disc you are probably using is a UDMA4/66mb or UDMA5/100mb. This is ample enough for what you want to do.

 

Load up the tesk manager and when it looks like its doing nothing see how much CPU is being used and see what process is taking all the power. You may find the the system is clearing cache or writing to the HDD.

 

Stuart

Thanks for everyone's continued assistance. ChrisC has been talking me through options on MSN as well. Couldn't be a more helpful bunch.

 

Stuart, when it stops, CPU usage goes down to 0% to 1% so it really has stopped. Weird.

Dave:

 

Check the file size on your 5minute video files you are creating - if they are 4gb (just under) then that is your problem, the software will have a 4gb limit.

 

 

 

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->Me Charabang

this is a pinnicle studio problem, they are having some serious issues with hardware.

Well this is weird - I just got home and tried Save As then reboot and opened my saved file. The new one has compiled OK. Maybe a fluke of course as sometimes it did go quite a way but I'll have a play tonight and let you know ...

Originally posted by Hairsy:

... but I'll have a play tonight and let you know ...

 

I hope you don't mean you're gonna film yourself and post it on here

 

CheerZ,

 

Andy

LOL ! I would have done a film but the bastard thing won't upload now. I've had enough of this PC crap.

 

Never had these problems with my BBC B.

What make is your current IDE drive, interface speed is not that important nowdays due to high performance levels all round, but It might be worth while checking checking the spindle speed of your drive as there is some real cheap shit on the market at the monment, ie Seagate U Series and some Maxtor drives, ok they might be UDMA100 or UDMA133 but they have a spindle speed of only 5400rpm, you would be better with either a 7200rpm Barracuda or and IBM Deskstar, I use both of these drives for video editing and find them almost as good as my SCSI3s. Option 1.Upgrade your current drive to a faster IDE drive option 2.Replace your current IDE disk controller with a faster PCI IDE RAID controller and purchase a second drive, Set them up in a RAID 0 formation, also called striping,this enables the computer to access data from both drives simultaneously. In a RAID 0 array, the data is spread out over two drives and can therefore be accessed much faster than a single drive is able to. RAID 0 only boosts performance significantly when accessing large files such as done when editing video. option 3. Install a PCI U/W2 SCSI cont from as little as £55 and a single ultra 160 10000 - 15000rpm SCSI drive (£250-500).this option will not only cut down the CPU loading, It will significantly increase the overall PC performance and you can run both IDE and SCSI in the same machine at the same time. If you need any more advice on RAID Arrays just ask. I am currently running all of the configurations above in a test enviroment. The above solutions will get over the CPU load and the machine speed problems but as for the 4gig file size, I think stitching is your best option.

 

Hope it helps

 

Your Brother In Arms

Just to add to the confusion.

 

We have a Studio 7 and a DV500 system here with similar spec machines.

 

We have two hard drives. The system is on a pretty normal one and we use a Seagate 7200 drive to hold the data. we also stuff them full of memory, which is cheap, minimum 512Mb.

 

There is no problem even with long edits, but you must be patient. The rendering is a lot of work and takes some time.

 

 

Good luck

Not sure on the make of my drive - under the device list it shows as WDC WD400EB-00CPF0 if that means anything. Or do I need to open the bonnet.

 

I'm fairly sure it's 5400 rpm (I have a feeling I read that on a sticker inside).

 

Looks as though a decent drive and some more RAM would be a good move. Only problem is that inside, although there's plenty of spare space there doesn't seem anywhere set up to take another drive - I already had 2 CD drives.

 

I've managed to sort out the video I was having trouble with but I'm off on honeymoon in a couple of weeks where I'll be filming tons (now don't start you lot!) and I imagine I'll find it impossible to edit that - at which point, ChrisC, I'll be in touch !

 

Dave

(WDC) Stands for Western Digital Corporation,

These no need to open her up.

These drives have been very reliable in my experiences but they do lack in the performance sector.

 

What case do you have MT or DT because you might be able to fit another drive in your 3.5 inch bay beneth your FDD and your existing HDD, as far as your connectivity goes you can have up to 4 IDE/ATAPI devices connected at any 1 time with your current configuration.

 

Hope this helps

 

PS. Dont forget to post your Video for al to see..

How do I tell the difference in case ? It's a tower rather than flat thingy.

 

The video isn't actually that interesting if you weren't there. But if anyone wants to see some very drunk people (and the rest) with a brief but good air guitar show and the last few seconds gives a good 3:30 am rendition of the end of Bohemian Rhapsody) then it's on www.daveandrach.com

 

And don't comment on the backing music ...

WD EB's are 5400 rpm, the BB is the 7200rpm.

 

Gimme a call on 01983 539666 Dave, I can sort you out some upgrades at proper prices

 

 

 

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->Me Charabang

Glen,

Left a msg on your phone !

D

Oh come on - someone just HAS to pornolize this thread ...

!!!!!!!!