Video Slow Down?

[TinaJ Profile Private messageYIM]

I know my computer is a dinosaur, only 512 ram, 60 gig hd, with an external 250. But it's gotten me this far, just have to wait a little longer to get something with some speed. Anyway, I'm working on my cruise movie, and it has been working fairly smooth until I added a third video clip. The longest clip is less than 30 seconds, but it apparently was the straw that broke the camel's back. So far the movie is about 18 minutes long, and it now takes about 20 minutes to open the psh file, everything is sluggish. I'm sure it's just the computer telling me to buy a newer one, but just wondered if anyone else has run into this kind of issue even with more ram and hd space. I have many more pics to add, and one more video clip, at this rate it will take me til Christmas to finish it, and that's working on it every day! I guess I'm on version 3, 1942, I don't even dare to upgrade at this point! Anyway, thanks for your thoughts on the matter.
TinaJ

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Tina

It probably is the computer slowing you down. What processor do you have in it?

A suggestion would be to leave the video clips out until last. Get the slides done and then add the videos. This may help.

Brian

[sihyp Profile Private message]

Tina, it can be a codec problem. Does the movie play well in other applications (players)?
A good free tool to identify codecs is GSPOT. It's just a thought.
Other two obvious and common reasons: Drive space and disk fragmentation

Sincerely I'd like to help you with these basic tips, but of course you'll receive better feedback from the experts in solving annoyances like yours from this site.
regards,
Quim

[jeanc Profile Private message]

TinaJ, when I had my dinosaur I had to make sure I defraged and had everything disabled at start-up: this helped me milk my old machine for everything it was worth. Took me 16+ hours to render shows back then, too. But I wanted to do this so bad I didn't care. It was worth the wait. Frustrating ......... but worth it.

Hope this helps!

Smiles,
Jean

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Tina,
512 ram is not so very little. More is definitely better, but you can manage with this.
It all depends on what else is running on your computer at the same time. Have someone who knows computers look into your Windows services and optimize them.
Here are some things that you can do for now:
1. Stop all other programs that run on your computer and are not relevant to your work: email, messenger, or the like.
2. Disconnect from internet and disable your anti-virus and firewall. (just remember to put them back when you reconnect)
3. Divide your show in several shorter shows - 4-5 minutes each. It's easier to watch shorter shows anyway. Long shows cause the viewer to lose focus and patience.
4. Resize your pictures. Proshow does not need the original size that comes from your camera. On the contrary.
5. You did not mention what kind of video you are trying to insert. There are formats that look as good and weigh less.
Do you have a program that can convert avi to some other codec? such as V2 or wmv. You will see that an avi can have suddenly just 4-5 MB and still look good.

Hope this helps.

[Bill McMahon]

TinaJ there is a free utility called EndItAll which I use all the time. Before any serious editing I click my "EndItAll" button and shut down all but the necessary porgrams running in the background. It's like the Windows Task Manager but it works more efficiently and is a real help. Do a Google For EndItAll (or End It All), download and install it.
Bill

[TinaJ Profile Private messageYIM]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the tips and advice. I've done the things I know how to do, it is still slow as molasses, took about 3 hours to load the movie today with the video clips in it. I don't know enough about changing codecs and such, so I kept them out as long as I could. Music seems to slow me down too, I think I counted 12 parts of songs in this one movie, total is about 23 minutes. I think I finally have it all put together, just need to render and burn. I will have to do that overnight when I can have my internet access turned off. Think I'll burn to a rewritable first, so I don't end up with a coaster. Next up, a new computer I guess! Darn!
TinaJ

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Tina

It is a good excuse to upgrade, I'm always looking for one

Good idea burning to a rewritable, that is unless your short of coffee mats or having a lot of visitors.

Brian

[sihyp Profile Private message]

Tina,

Ok, you can consider it's a good excuse for buying a brand new PC; but that is, for sure, the last I would think about.

you said the machine spent 3h to load a video clip for a 23' show lenght. Based on such information I doubt PSP will encode the show without crashing.
I sincerely hope to be wrong and you get it successfuly. Please, give us your feedback with the good news.

You haven't mentioned the format you intend for your project, but I presume it is DVD, otherwise I guess it will be almost impossible to fit in CD.

Instead of using a rewritable media, I sugest you burn first to a ISO image file.

regards,
joaquim

[TinaJ Profile Private messageYIM]

Took about 2 1/2 hours to render and burn a 23 minute-5 second movie, and it plays fine-only issues are those based on my interpretation when the videos drag and I try to line music up. Hard to match things exactly when things are out of whack like that.Otherwise, videos work fine, music doesn't skip, none of the issues I have on the computer. I'll probably burn a final copy on a regular dvd, there are a few little things I might fix if I feel like waiting for things to load.

I do want to figure out the iso thing. I clicked on iso image file but nothing shows up telling me where it's going to go, unlike memories on tv, which did show the default, then I could change and name so I have several shows made and ready to burn. Any suggestions for that?

I also had one short video of the surf in Montego Bay, the music doesn't cut out completely, but goes in and out with the sound of the waves. I thought if I set it to not play during the video, it meant during the video, not during the sound, it appears to play the music when the waves subside and it gets quiet.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it, brings back some great memories of our cruise this year, now I need to save up for a new computer!
TinaJ

[jeanc Profile Private message]

Tina, I used to have to render a show to DVD just to see what I needed to tweak. My old dinosaur was so slow I couldn't even preview much at all on my PC. It would hang and give me all kinds of trouble. So I went through a lot of DVDs - and TIME - just to try and do one show. It was worth it though.

Hope you can get a new computer soon. After having shows take 15 to 18 hours to render a 20 min. show I was blown away when my new one cranked one out in 10 minutes. I was dancin' in the street!!

Smiles,
Jean

[jeanc Profile Private message]

TinaJ there is a free utility called EndItAll which I use all the time. Before any serious editing I click my "EndItAll" button and shut down all but the necessary porgrams running in the background. It's like the Windows Task Manager but it works more efficiently and is a real help. Do a Google For EndItAll (or End It All), download and install it.
Bill

Thanks for the info Bill. This will be easier than what I go through...............

Smiles,
Jean

[TinaJ Profile Private messageYIM]

I meant to mention that-I did check it out on google, unfortunately for me, I don't think it tells what programs are necessary, which means I would still have to figure that out. I've got to hire someone to come in and clear out my C drive for me, as I'm not sure what is left in there that can be safely removed, same for stuff running in the background. Just my luck that I'll shut something important down.
Jean, that is exactly my problem at this point-hang ups! Wish I had thought about the rewriteables a long time ago, it would have saved me from owning so many coasters!!
TinaJ

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

I don't understand why some people have such a problem
with stuff running in the background and others don't (no, this
is not a snide comment -- being serious here (for a change)).
I leave my antivirus (F-Prot) and EVERYTHING else running
(and I have a lot of stuff running) and never seem to have
any issues and yet others seem to find that ANYTHING in the
background seems to cause problems. I can understand it
if there is only (?!?!?) 512 meg of RAM (I remember when 64K
was HUGE), but with more than that, it should run fine.
Ah well, time to grab my coffee .. my mind has wandered off ... again !

mikey

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Maybe because they have Norton for instance?
Maybe because they have all sorts of other stuff in the background that they don't know of ?
Maybe because they have spyware?