Hi Chris,

I've run PD5 and PD6 on a similar spec desktop and laptop - not dell's though and have not encountered any problems you're describing.

1. Shorten your projects working files to where you can output in smaller chunks to an mpeg and then bring the various mpegs together.

2. capture - because you're "rigging" the capture, I'm not clear that has anything to do with the files being edited. the input files lack a time-code (analog footage) which a miniDV would have. You're therefore unable to capture each scene as it comes in and are reliant upon the less accurate scene detection by change of scene/movement method. I'd capture as an mpeg - that's my choice.

3. The fades. Appears to me you're selecting a variety of fades which are stressing your PC's graphics card. What resolution have you set the screen to display at? Fades are the render spot which slows the process. I would ensure you untick the Render Preview option to display the action while rendering. With your spec it's unwise to have this feature in use - I ALWAYS unticked this feature in your PC spec.

4. Hard Drive location of files is a concern as is the space you have on the Hard Drive your OS is located. Poratable HD needs to be on a USB2 connection and you may not have this on your PC. The location of working files should be in a location such as C:My Works.

5. You've specifically asked about avi and mpeg. Okay I used to always capture as an avi and use the time-code to segment my video. PD6 is able to segment video while capturing and processing to mpeg2 - that's the option I choose. From an editing perspective you should retain quality as long as possible. From a render point of view and your set up - capture to an mpeg2 file and utilise SVRT to render it quickly. Fades are the cause of a slow render along with anything else you've done to spruce up your video.

I should read through all this again... I will later and any spelling mistakes are typos....

Dafydd

I'm having exactly the same problem with my movie productions hanging on scene transistions, particularly fades. But my problem is the same with all the software I've tried - Adobe Premiere Elements, Pinnacle Studio Plus and the Ulead editing software. I've only just entered the movie making field so I haven't used any older versions of PD - only vs 6. I like it best of all the software I've used, although Window Movie Maker would have been perfectly adequate for my needs if it had recognised my files and if I had been able to export in a format which would have enabled me to burn to DVD for playing on TV. I have a Panasonic hard drive camera so importing is no problem as I just connect it through the USB port and copy the files to my computer hard drive. They turn out to be MOD files which I believe are really MPEG files. No problem getting them into PD as long as I import the folder. PD doesn't recognise the individual files until they are actually imported and then no problem. So the only problem is the hanging, stuttering, jerky playback. Of couse, once the movie is burned to DVD and played on TV, there is no hanging, but it doesn't make for easy editing when you have this hanging problem. My computer is a laptop, about two years old with AMD Turion 1.8 GH processor, 100 GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM and 128 MB VRAM. Like Chris, I have many short scenes and all have transitions of some kind. Also, like Chris, I tried rendering. It gave me a slightly smoother playback, but not a huge improvement. Each time I use PD, I use MSCONFIG to disable all running programs and I make sure I don't have my screen saver going. I don't think this is a problem particular to PowerDirector. It seems to me it's a problem with movie editing. It doesn't seem to matter how good your computer is the problem still occurs. The only success I've had has been with WMM, but it has its limitations. Sorry I can't help, but at least you know someone else is having the same problems.
Patricia

I've been having the same problem as Patricia, though I only use PD5... ie, hanging, stuttering, jerky playback... makes it difficult to edit. I'm using a desktop with a P4 2.26ghz processor, 2gb of RAM, a Radeon 9600 28mb graphics card, & a 360gb hdd. Should be plenty enough power, but video sticks & hangs like on a windows 95 box! No problems importing files from my JVC GZ-MG37U camcorder, though. It just takes a while to import 20 odd gb of video! I stop all unnecessary programs & processes, dot the i's, cross the t's, & still choppy & draggy video when editing. Maybe it's time to reformat & start from scratch. I'm certainly open to suggestions!

Don't know if it will help anyone else, but I figured out my own problem... I just installed the 320gb hard drive a few days ago, went from IDE to SATA... so , since I had been using IDE hard drives, I had never installed SATA drivers for my motherboard! Installed SATA drivers today, now PD5 works better than ever! I've seen Dafydd mention numerous times that, likely as not, it's your computer, NOT the software, & he's usually right! Keep everything updated, people. It's not that difficult, & can save you many headaches!