Computing power with Premiere

[nomad71]

Hi, I've just got a new laptop and am trying to edit video with Adobe Premiere however I can not playback the tracks smoothly (ie. the playback skips frames). I thought my computer had enough power to do this job so I'm not sure why this would happen. My hardware details are below. Ive quit out of any other running applications including Virus Protection. Also I sent a small file to the built in MPEG encoder and it frameserved at about 1.7 frames per second. It took 6 hours to frameserve 15 minutes of video. Appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks

Pentium M1.7
2 x 512MB 400MHZ PC3200 RAM
60GB 7200rpm HD
256MB ATI 9700 Radeon

[daamon]

Hi nomad71,

Welcome to the forums.

What version of Premiere? What frameserver are you using?

What's the source / format of the video you're trying to edit? Premiere works best with DV AVI (e.g. from miniDV cams). The display problems you describe are sometimes seen with video in Divx / Xvid, MPG, MOV etc.

As for it taking 6 hours to frameserve 15 minutes - that's horrific. Your laptop isn't too badly spec'd (could do with a faster CPU), but I'd say you should be seeing faster than what you're getting...

Have you scanned your PC for not only viruses, but also trojans, spyware etc.? Let me know if you want a list of good progs for this...

Also, try searching / posting in the forums at www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial - it's a good site for most audio / video related Adobe products.

[nomad71]

Thanks for the reply. The video file is mpg, so maybe this is the problem there. As for frameserving, I'm using the one built into Premiere. I'm running Avast Antivirus, which got great reviews so I'm hoping things are pretty clean. If you have any more suggestions I'd appreciate it. I'll check out that other site too. Thanks for your help.

[daamon]

I'm running Avast Antivirus, which got great reviews so I'm hoping things are pretty clean. If you have any more suggestions I'd appreciate it. Thanks for your help.

Hi nomad71,

What version of Premiere are you using?

There's more things than viruses that can clog up your PC - there's a whole host of trojans, dialers, spyware, malware etc. that anti-virus software may not capture, if at all.

[nomad71]

Hi daamon. I'm using Premiere 6.5. If I can't work out what's slowing things down I'm a bit stuffed using this computer.

[aktee]

No way man..
My desktop is less poweful than your little notebook..

1.4ghz..
128mb ram
32mb "some non-name video card"

that must be expansive! 7200rpm hdd on an laptop. damn! =).

I worked for only a little time on premiere. it was version 7 I believe..

I made a simple fade and put alot of scene, you know, normal things. I didnt do any big effects..

Tell me man. Open taskmgr (ctrl+alt+del)
and when Premiere is closed down.. look at the bottom right..
Tell us how many processes you got open.

It shouldn't be more than 30-35~.

and hmm, I dunno about you but in some laptops, when you don't plug the AC on, it goes at a lower power. And sometime, in cheaps laptops (or badly configured one), even with the AC on, it still goes at lower power.

Sounds like that to me..

Or like the other guys said: Spywaaare!

--
edit
--
Avast is good. But IMO, I don't think it's a spyware. Avast is an anti-virus.. Spyware are not really considered virus.
It differs from virus and trojan, in the meaning that a Virus self-reproduce itself, and a spyware.. not.
Even if avast is a good antivirus and detects spyware.. chances are that it is not good enought compared to a dedicated software made for anti-spyware..

And.. In my opinion.. Spyware is worst than a virus.. I don't care about my mp3s being replaced by some virus... but Slowing down a pc that's already slow, man, that's a crime =).

[nomad71]

Thanks aktee. I've always been running the laptop off mains power. I followed some helpful websites on Anti-spyware/malware software and have run three different recommended packages with all 3 indicating the system is clean.

I also shut down absolutely everything running that I could think of. The ADSL connection, anti-virus, firewall and anything else in the system tray.

I still have about 40 something processes running though. I then tried to render some video and it was chugging along at less than 2 frames per second.

So it's a matter of continuing the search for whatever is slowing things down.

[daamon]

The video file is mpg, so maybe this is the problem there.

I'm using Premiere 6.5.

Premiere 6.5 isn't geared to working with MPEGs. As far as I know, there are no plug-ins either. It's only later versions (Pro) that can work with MPEG - and even then you have to buy the plug-in.

Try frameserving from Premiere to your encoder with a DV AVI file on the timeline.

Also, framserving is very memory intensive, as is running an encoder and - to a lesser degree - running Premiere itself. Try altering the priorities in Task Manager. BE SURE to only encode a small file at first, as you might set the priorities too aggresively and not regain control of your PC until all is finished.

I'm not sure of the technical jargon (someone - help!), but I know that Windows writes to disk if there's not enough memory. Maybe a setting here can help - but, sorry, I'm not equipped to advise further.

I hope some of that helps... I can understand your frustration.

[lantern]

I currently use Premiere Pro 1.5 and just today, I imported an mpg file and tried to render it. The mpg file was 1 hr 43 min and it was going to take over 8 hours to render the file. You can look at my computer details to see the system. I ended up just opening the file in VDub-Mpeg and saved as a Huffuy AVI (about 30 minutes). When I opened that file up in Premier Pro, it only took 30 minutes to render. I think Premiere just doesn't like Mpegs at all.

[nomad71]

Thanks heaps daamon & lantern. Seems most of my problems revolve around the file type. I dumped a divx in there (which I guess it's not designed for either, since it needed rendering and wouldn't play back smoothly). Anyway, it rendered at just under 11fps which is a damn sight better than 1fps! I'll fiddle with the priorities a little and fingers crossed, I don't have a system issue at all. Appreciate all your help, thank you very much.

[lordsmurf]

Premiere 6.5 works with MPEG source just fine, if you are using the LSX Encoder package (it installs system-wide MPEG decoders, and they work in Premiere). LSX also has export encoders, but Procoder and MainConcept are far better.

But you will fair better using uncompressed AVI as source. Dump those source MPEGs into VirtualDub and save an AVI. There will be no loss doing this. Just make sure you have enough hard drive space. Or use a low compression AVI file.

It may just be the MPEG source is damaged, too.

[daamon]

Thanks heaps daamon & lantern.

No problem.

Premiere 6.5 works with MPEG source just fine, if you are using the LSX Encoder package (it installs system-wide MPEG decoders, and they work in Premiere). LSX also has export encoders, but Procoder and MainConcept are far better.

Ah - I've never come across LSX before. Useful to know...

Or use a low compression AVI file.

DV AVI is a good one - it's around 13.5Gb / hour of footage and still excellent quality (no, or unnoticeable, loss compared to MPEG). I use the Panasonic DV Codec with VirtualDub.

Good luck...

[dcsos]

Lordsmurf has the correct answer
Just wanted to add the names of MPEG plugin programs that allow editing of MPEG source in Prem 6.5
1. digigami
2. Mpeg Wizard (chinese)
3. Main Concept
they're expensive, so UNCOMPRESSING to AVI with virtual dub is still reccommended

on another issue, playback of edited clips has aways sucked in premiere.
Please go outside of the program , momentarily, to play your work in power dvd or the media player..

[nomad71]

Wow! I never expected such a great response to my questions. Thanks everyone!

The file I was provided with to edit was mpg so it's good to know I should be using VirtualDub to convert this. The biggest problem I was having is that the job was to create a voiceover for the video. I couldn't playback the timeline smoothly enough to check the video and audio were in sync.

Maybe the uncompressed AVI is the way to go. As for lightly compressed, the HuffeyUV codec was recommended to me. Maybe I should give this a go.

I'll keep playing. Thanks All.

[daamon]

Wow! I never expected such a great response to my questions. Thanks everyone!

Hey, it's a great site!

The file I was provided with to edit was mpg so it's good to know I should be using VirtualDub to convert this.

VirtualDub won't work with MPEGs - you'll need either VirtualDubMod or VirtualDub-MPEG2.

Maybe the uncompressed AVI is the way to go. As for lightly compressed, the HuffeyUV codec was recommended to me. Maybe I should give this a go.

Also, try DV AVI. I've found Premiere to work excellently well with DV AVI.

I believe I'm right when I say that Premiere works best with DV AVI. I think, on the one occassion I used uncompressed AVI, Premiere had to render all of it - and I think it was rendering it to DV AVI. I've not used HuffyUV AVI with Premier.