Play back jumpy in Premiere Pro 2.0

[cobra jet]

My son is just getting into video editing so I purchased him an entry level laptop and loaded Premiere Pro 2.0, mostly to get him off of my system. He is now experiencing jumpy playback when viewing his project in Premiere. I know that his system is not nearly as high performance as mine, but I was hoping to make things a bit better for him so that he does not get discouraged. My first thought was to increase the memory to 2.5 GB since that is the easiest. Do you think that that will make a big difference in performance? Below are the specs on his laptop.

Thanks

OS Vista Business
Make Lenovo
Model 3000N
CPU Intel® Core 1.6GHz
HDD 106GB
Current Ram 1GB PC2-5300DDR2 SDRAM
Video Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

[edDV]

What kinds of video is he editing? What project settings? What destination?

[redwudz]

If he is running Vista, definitely have 2GB RAM. It makes a big difference with Vista. Maybe not so much with your problem, but still a good idea. Many laptops come with two 512MB RAM modules. You will generally be better off to replace both with two 1GB or 2GB matched modules instead of adding just one 1GB or 2GB module.

I just ordered a 1GB X 2 dual channel kit for my new laptop, about $40US. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010260381+105291052 5+1309121117&name=2GB+(2+x+1GB)

But check to see what type and speed your laptop uses. Most memory manufacturers have a configuration program that will tell you what you need.

My other thought is video editors aren't great for playback, that's not really their purpose. VirtualDub is a good example. It rarely plays back smoothly, but the same video on a regular software player works fine.

I would also consider getting an external USB 2.0 hard drive. That will keep his hard drive cleared out and more efficient. If you have FireWire onboard, even better.

[cobra jet]

He is just editing a skateboard video of him and his friends. Not sure what his settings are except widescreen NTSC. He is just at the point of capturing his video, trimming it and adding the transitions. Even after he previews it in Premierw, when he watches it within Premiere it has these little pauses in the playback. Since we have not tried to output it to DVD, I do not know if it is just a play back issue. I was hoping some extra memory may help.

[cobra jet]

He is just editing a skateboard video of him and his friends. Not sure what his settings are except widescreen NTSC. He is just at the point of capturing his video, trimming it and adding the transitions. Even after he previews it in Premierw, when he watches it within Premiere it has these little pauses in the playback. Since we have not tried to output it to DVD, I do not know if it is just a play back issue. I was hoping some extra memory may help.

[edDV]

He is just editing a skateboard video of him and his friends. Not sure what his settings are except widescreen NTSC. He is just at the point of capturing his video, trimming it and adding the transitions. Even after he previews it in Premierw, when he watches it within Premiere it has these little pauses in the playback. Since we have not tried to output it to DVD, I do not know if it is just a play back issue. I was hoping some extra memory may help.

What format is the video and how is he transferring it. The model number of the camcorder would help.

It sounds like MPeg2 or MPeg4 issues to me. More info needed.

Are you saying all this works on your desktop? Keep in mind that Premiere Pro 2 has high system requirements.
This is CS3 http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/systemreqs/

[cobra jet]

I guess I am not explaining it correctly. When I am saying it is jumpy during playback I am speaking of within Premiere. So here is what he is doing. He shoots some video using his Sony DCR-HC 40 in widescreen mode. Then, using a firewire cable, he captures the clips he wants. Once captured, he drags the clips to the timeline, makes a few edits, puts in a few transitions and titles. He renders his work area. Once it is done, Premiere automatically starts to play his timeline in the Program Monitor window. It is within that window in Premiere that the video seems to have little pauses in it. He has not even got to the point of transferring or exporting it. I was just wondering if anyone knew if more memory would correct the problem.

[edDV]

I guess I am not explaining it correctly. When I am saying it is jumpy during playback I am speaking of within Premiere. So here is what he is doing. He shoots some video using his Sony DCR-HC 40 in widescreen mode. Then, using a firewire cable, he captures the clips he wants. Once captured, he drags the clips to the timeline, makes a few edits, puts in a few transitions and titles. He renders his work area. Once it is done, Premiere automatically starts to play his timeline in the Program Monitor window. It is within that window in Premiere that the video seems to have little pauses in it. He has not even got to the point of transferring or exporting it. I was just wondering if anyone knew if more memory would correct the problem.

Good info. So the import is DV NTSC Wide format video.

Is the project setting DV NTSC Wide? If not the timeline may be uncompressed and unplayable off a laptop drive.

The capture directory is set in preferences. In that directory you should be able to find the DV-AVI file that was transferred from the camera. Is that file playable? Is playback smooth? Use VLC as the test player. Windows Media Player could also be used.

If the file plays when Premiere is closed and not when the project is loaded, that indicates memory is full and virtual memory off disk is being used. That will interrupt playback.

The video inside the transitions is rendered to tmp files and placed in your specified "scratch disk" folder. These should also be playable by VLC.

If the DV files are unplayable, finish the output encoding to DVD MPeg2. Those files should be easily playable in VLC or WMP. If these files have gaps or pauses in playback, there are other issues.

[cobra jet]

Update:
I added 2GB of memory for a total of 2.5GB. Not only does the laptop run much faster, but the jumpy video problem is almost gone. I think that it will never be completely fixed due to the fact that the video card in the laptop does not have dedicated memory.

Thanks to all who replied