playback stuttering

joejon wrote on 5/2/2006, 6:38 AM
I had problems with dropped frames some time ago. I increased my RAM from 512 to 785, which helped with the dropped frames during capture. I did eliminate some of the background stuff running, but I don't know that much about it to do that much. I get a lot of stuttering during playback. I have 785 total, 290 available, and 290 in system cache when I'm not running any programs. When running Vegas, I have about 217 available RAM. I do have a lot of anti-spy stuff since I went to cable and I'm always connected. I couldn't even get Windows to boot before I put that stuff on and had to do several Window repairs and fixes before I got it to run again. Anyway, I don't know what I should do next to get Vegas to run smoother.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 5/2/2006, 6:48 AM
Turn off the anti-spy, anti-virus background checking. Make sure DMA is set for all drives. Check out the dropped frames FAQ at VASST:

Dropped Frames VASST FAQ

This applies to playback as well.
craftech wrote on 5/2/2006, 6:54 AM
I do have a lot of anti-spy stuff since I went to cable and I'm always connected
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That says first that your editing computer is your "everything" computer as well.

That's the first mistake. You really need a dedicated computer just for video, audio, and photo editing. That will also negate to a degree the necessity for "bomb proofing" your computer from internet attacks since you don't need to be connected to the internet to edit video.

Many anti-spyware, anti-virus, and firewall programs not only rob resources but they conflict with one another as well.

You also don't need the internet "on" all the time even with a cable internet connection. You can turn modems "off" thereby allowing you to disable all antivirus and firewall software.

Newer versions of Zone Alarm by the way are now resource hogs and make arbitrary decisions the older and better versions did not.

"On-Demand" Antivirus software such as AVG antiVirus only run when you want to run a scan if you set it up that way. "Virus Guards" are unnecessary. Active-X components are like asking for trouble.
Firefox has an ad-filter extension that works well. I disable scriting and Active-X in IE and enable it all in Firefox.

John

joejon wrote on 5/2/2006, 6:35 PM
I will try turning off my modem and anti-virus/spyware stuff. I went through trying to set my drives to DMA mode with Dell's tech support some months ago. They messed up my computer so bad that it took me almost a month to get it working properly again. In the device manager help, it states that if I can change the setting there should be a resources tab available when I click on the drive. There is not a resources tab, so I don't know how to check/change that. I won't go through Dell again that's for sure.
rmack350 wrote on 5/2/2006, 9:02 PM
I'd recommend going out and getting a hardware router/firewall to put between you and your cable modem. That'll take some of the load off your computer.

After you've done that, go find all your software disks, including your Dell system disks. Once you're satisfied that you've got them all and you have all the registration keys, back up all your data files to some other location.

Now wipe your hard drives and start over. If you were having a hard time booting after getting onto the cable modem then I'd say your system is too compromised to use.

Another thing. Those setup discs you cable company gave you? Put them away and ignore them. If the hardware router can connect to their service without their software then so can you. (And it can, so you can too).

Rob Mack