Any recommendations on how to edit/produce HD videos on a low-end computer?

[nr_clark]

Hello, new here to the forum so I hope this is the right category to ask my questions!

I currently use VideoPad Video Editor to make whatever music & video projects I am up to. I create HD 720p and 1080p videos.

My computer stats are as follows:

Windows 7 Home Premium
HP Pavilion dm1 Notebook
AMD E-350 Processor 1.60 GHz
3.00 GB (2.600 GB Usable)
64 bit

The resulting playback quality of the produced videos is glitchy and/or pixelated. Thing is, the quality used to be error-free on the same exact computer, when I first bought it 18 months ago. Even the 1080p videos looked flawless!

With verification of a virus-free check and disc decomp, I guess it's just aged hardware. This little computer's been a trooper, though.

I have tried using Adobe Premiere CC and it wouldn't even test-play my projects because I don't have enough RAM among other things.

I'm pretty sure everyone will say "get a better computer", but with a lack of budget as of now and no interest in doing non-HD projects, I would like to try figuring out an alternative.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[smrpix]

Your processor is horribly underpowered and you need more RAM. I know that's not what you want to hear. I'm impressed that premiere CC even loaded,

What kind of 1080p movies were you able to play before? Do you have any kind of videocard?

[racer-x]

output to mpeg-2 instead of avc, that will require much less resources to encode and decode.

[nr_clark]

Your processor is horribly underpowered and you need more RAM. I know that's not what you want to hear. I'm impressed that premiere CC even loaded,

What kind of 1080p movies were you able to play before? Do you have any kind of videocard?

I believe my videocard says AMD HD 6310 Graphics. As for playing 1080p, the computer is able to handle it when it isn't multitasking much. Also strangely while the 1080p can be played fine offline, on Youtube etc the 1080p doesn't play smoothly although 720p is fine.

My video types I have watched fine at 1080p are AVI, MP4, MOV, and FLV. All of my edited videos have been AVI, MP4 and MOV video formats compressed with H.264 native, mainly as AVI. I can change the outputformat as well as the compression to anything basic. I can give the list of both offered on my program if that would help!

[nr_clark]

output to mpeg-2 instead of avc, that will require much less resources to encode and decode.

The output doesn't offer mpeg-2 nor avc. The output formats it does offer include avi, wmv, asf, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mov, flv, swf, and rm.

[deadrats]

the quality of the encoded video has nothing to do with the age and/or speed of your computer, a slower computer is just as capable of outputting high quality content as a faster computer, it just takes longer.

i downloaded the videopad trial and tested it on an x6 1045t with 8 gigs of ram on a 1080p 12mb/s wmv that i use as a test file, this is garbage software. it took forever to load the test file, even longer to finish "processing" it before i could add it to the time line and the export options are a joke.

this same system using Sony's Movie Studio flies with that same test file and has way more export options, including 2 Open Cl accelerated avc encoders (Sony's and Mainconcept's) which i think your gpu is capable of using.

i would strongly suggest you give Sony's software a try and of course start saving up your pennies to get yourself a better system.

[TreeTops]

His computer does not meet the spec requirements for Sony Movie Studio 13. Maybe some earlier version may but 'nr_clark' should check requirements of those versions before downloading or purchasing.

[deadrats]

it will take him ten minutes to download the demo and run a few tests, time well spent as far as i'm concerned.

[nr_clark]

I wanted to reply asap, but I got too busy. I wanted to let the thread know that I downloaded the Sony Movie Studio Platinum trial and everything was very smooth! This is a fantastic upgrade from VideoPad, without a doubt. It is also much easier to use and navigate than Adobe Premiere. Just to let the doubters know, this program does in fact run fine on low-end machines.

Thanks for all the help, as I'm now looking to get the full version.