How much ram do you need for editing a large mpeg 2 file?

[hshevitz]

How much ram should you have to do editing on a captured mpeg2 file that is 2hrs in length and is 3.5 to 4 gigs in size? Using Dazzle DVC II for capture and Ulead Video Studio 6.02 for editing? I have 512 m ram right now. If I just drop the entire file into VS6, access time is ridiculously long and cutting out portions of the video is painful! Would it be helpful to cut the large file into smaller clips before dropping them into VS6?

[epo]

You have more than enough RAM for MPEG edit. IMHO cliping Your video will help, but real problem is video codec, Ulead uses by default. It has problems with some VBR files. I do not know, how to resolve this, but I do know, problem has been addressed in the forum before.

[hshevitz]

Any way to use a different codec?

[Ericboo]

I am anxious to know the answer too. I have an Athlon XP1500 system with 512MB SDRAM, Windows XP Pro, and am having a similar problem. By first DVD burn was fine. 80 minutes in one Mpeg and edited fine with MSP6.5.

Working on my second, I spilt the Mpeg into two 1 hour files. I load up the first file no problem loading in about 2 seconds. Load up the 2nd and the darn thing takes at least 5 minutes to load, make any changes or whatnot.

I added a separate 60GB drive to my system, moved the Mpeg's to it, but still get this problem. I don't think I am out of memory. My brother has a P4-2.4 and has no problems like I am having. I am almost tempted to upgrade because I need to burn about 15 more 2 hour 8mm tapes onto DVD.

It also took a while to load into Tmpeg too. It seems as if there is a problem with the file itself. Could that be possible? I am defragging with Norton now.

Got any thoughts?

[hshevitz]

I did try breaking the 4 g file down into 5 smaller clips and this helped a lot. I suppose that it's easier to find the start point of each clip and then load it into ram.

[Ericboo]

I re-recorded the 1 hour clip from my camcorder and this time it loads in 2 seconds. Weird, but something was not right with the file. Saved me some money on upgrading my system though