System Requirements or settings?

BikerJim wrote on 5/29/2010, 5:55 PM
Hi,

I just took the plunge and bought the whoe suite, DVD Author Vegas Movie Studio Platinum with a view to running it on my laptop - a dell Latitude D630:
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo CPU t9300 @ 2.50ghz 2.50ghz, 4gig RAM, Win7 64 bit.

I promise I searched, but clearly with the wrong terms. :)

Its a great group of software which I am not enjoying working with as much as I should because of processing problems...everything works but its all sooo slooow.
specific symptoms:
Shuttling is awkward, lots of 'not responding' time, preview jumpy, takes a second or two load the selected frame etc.
I have Quick time 7.6.2 installed, and turned of all startup programs, which some effect, but what I want is smooth shuttling.

I guess my first question is whether the laptop should be handling it and I have some settings wrong, or if the laptop is doing as well as can be expected and its time for an upgrade...? Any advice on system setup welcome, or if I need to get a new system, whats the real minimum spec, as I think I have all the boxes ticked according to the release notes min sys reqs, but its almost unusable, and I'd hate to go out and get a new pc to have it running the same or worse. :(

Thanks
Jim

Comments

BikerJim wrote on 5/29/2010, 6:26 PM
Dynamic RAM Preview is what I was looking for :)

This laptop is just fine!

Funny how things come to mind as you type forum questions.... :)

Cheers
Jim
richard-amirault wrote on 5/29/2010, 7:21 PM
You didn't give one very important piece of information ... what is it that you are trying to edit?

SD or HD and, if HD, exactly what format?
BikerJim wrote on 5/30/2010, 7:17 AM
Good question; its the output from my Canon FS200 camcorder, which is SD widescreen (720x576) mpg. The files are quite large, as I use it to record theatre shows of about an hour long, which then get chopped up into scenes, add some titles, make a DVD menu and burn to DVD.

Here is the output from mediainfo on one of the smaller files, (although at the highest quality setting - XP - as it comes off the camera):

General
Complete name : W:\camcorder\20100523\20100523180320.mpg
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 89.6 MiB
Duration : 1mn 16s
Overall bit rate : 9 857 Kbps

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Duration : 1mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 9 210 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 9 600 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.888
Stream size : 83.7 MiB (93%)

Audio
ID : 128 (0x80)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Duration : 1mn 16s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 256 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Video delay : -80ms
Stream size : 2.33 MiB (3%)

If you can tell anything from all that, let me know, any tips welcome, and any more information you need, just ask.

I am fairly happy that that RAM preview seems to achieve the result I was looking for, I would of course prefer to not have to do that one extra process, but if I have to I'm happy to, but maybe I can tweak my system to work better?

Thanks
Jim