pausing video

guitar1 wrote on 2/28/2012, 10:54 PM

Hello,
I have an editing session with 3 HD cameras plus audio. The audio runs fine but the video is choppy. I have a Pentium (R) 4 with 3 GHZ and 2 GB of Ram. What are the minimum computer requirements?
How d I fix the choppy video? Must I upgrade the Ram? How much Ram do I need? It that's not the issue then how do I fix the choppy video?

Thanks for your help,
guitar1

Comments

Steve Mann wrote on 2/28/2012, 11:17 PM

Please post your system specs on your profile so that we don't have to play 20-questions.

Th hardware requirements are on the Sony website:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro

guitar1 wrote on 2/28/2012, 11:23 PM

Thanks Steve,
I went to the link you sent but I cannot find the info. for tech specs for Vegas Pro 9.
My computer specs are in my original post. Where is the system requirements for Vegas Pro 9?
Please help if you can.
Thanks
Lawrence

John_Cline wrote on 2/28/2012, 11:26 PM

Trying to edit three HD tracks smoothly with a 3Ghz P4 and 2GB of RAM is virtually impossible. Your machine is simply not up to the task and extra RAM isn't going to help.

farss wrote on 2/28/2012, 11:56 PM

As others have said your PC is way under spec for the task. I'd suggest dropping preview quality to Preview / Auto and see if that helps at all.

Failing that you could render all your source as SD DV, edit that as proxies and then switch them to the camera original files for the final render.

The other question is what do you need to deliver, if you're only delivering SD you could again render all your source to SD and edit that. That said you are throwing away a lot of the "goodness" in your HD source doing that.

Realistically it is time to save the pennies and buy a new PC.

Bob.

guitar1 wrote on 2/29/2012, 2:04 AM

Thanks Bob,
Do you think if I upgrade ram from 2 to 4gogs that that would solve the problem?

The other choice is to use my mac and learn Final Cut Pro. I already know Sony Vegas.

Your rendering ideas are not what I want because I want HD not SD.

Thanks for posting

Chienworks wrote on 2/29/2012, 5:47 AM

RAM isn't going to help. My PC has four times the CPU guts of yours and it just barely keeps up with a single HD stream.

John_Cline wrote on 2/29/2012, 5:59 AM

"Your rendering ideas are not what I want because I want HD not SD."

That was not Bob's first suggestion. You take your HD files and make a set of widescreen standard definition DV files with the same names as your HD files then edit using the SD "proxy" files and then just before rendering substitute your original HD files for HD output. The idea is that your machine can probably handle the SD DV files in real time for editing purposes but you can render the final product in HD. There are Vegas scripts available to automate the proxy file creation and substitution.

Regardless, if you're going to be doing a lot of HD work, it's probably time for a new machine.