Hi Scott -

I understand your issue - I have a similar one! Right now, I'm looking at upgrade options (and balancing the budget) for the same reasons. It's pretty clear why your laptop is struggling.

The more technically minded contributors will be able to advise you better but, at first glance, I'd say you should be looking at a quad core processor with a more "capable" graphics card. Editing HD clips is intensive work...

Read this -

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/6447.page

Anyway - watch this space - pretty soon, our merry band of techies will file through here and put in their two cents worth.

Cheers -

Tony
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Hi Scot,

What is "HD footage"

Are we talking HDV or mpeg4 .h264 or AVCHD?

You will get away with a lot less if you have a HDV camcorder vis the newer .h264 ones.

thanks for the replies guys,

its a Panasonic HDC-SD100 and it records in the AVCHD h.264 format.

i appreciate that even with the newer PC im still going to struggle with editing in HQ, but as long as its better than my current PC then i will be happy! hell, im more than happy with being able to play it back in the low quality setting during editing as long as i dont have to rely on editing by sound any more! lol
im just not in a financial position to be able to purchase a top spec computer at the moment

the new PC, even though its not the greatest for editing it does have a faster processor, 4 times the memory and a far bigger hard drive than my current PC.

so surely, it should be at least a bit better wouldnt it? (fingers crossed! lol)

and as i originally purchased PD7 for my XP computer would that mean that my backed up disk version wont work on vista when i try to install it?

cheers,

scott

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Quote:

so surely, it should be at least a bit better wouldnt it? (fingers crossed! lol)

Here is what I did:

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/3991.page#15198

You are not alone in asking this type of question.

Have a look at this thread. It address the same thing.
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7111.page

In short, you will be happier with the newer computer. Whether or not it will play your H.264 format you will not know for sure until you try. It also depends on the bitrate your source video is recorded in.

As for your version of PD I would not worry about it. Do you have to have Vista installed? Vista is more of a resource hog than XP. Regardless, you can use your purchased version of PD and install it on your new machine. Cyberlink asks you to register the software, but you don't actually have to. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

thanks for the replies everybody...........i found the links very helpfull in making a decision!

i realised very quickly that i was going to need a decent dedicated graphics card on the new PC so in the end i decided to spend a bit (a lot!) more than i had originaly budgeted for.

so, today i purchased the Acer 6930G..........here is the spec:-


Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 processor.

2.0GHz processor speed.

2MB cache.

4GB DDR2 RAM.

16in full HD Acer CineCrystal™ widescreen.

Resolution 1366 x 768 pixels.

250GB SATA hard drive capacity.

Multiformat dual layer optical drive.

nVidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics card.

1GB graphics memory.

5 in 1 media card reader - compatible with SD™, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD.

3 USB ports.

1 HDMI port.

1 Ethernet ports.

Integrated sound card.

Integrated 0.3Mp Acer Crystal Eye webcam.

802.11b/g/n wireless enabled.

Windows Vista Premium operating system installed.

Software included: Acer Empowering Technology, Acer Arcade™, Acer InstantOn Arcade, Acer Crystal Eye, Acer GridVista™, Acer Launch Manager, Acer GameZone, Adobe® Reader®, CyberLink® PowerDirector® trial version, McAfee® Internet Security Suite Trial, NTI Media Maker™, Microsoft® Works 8.5 with Office Home and Student 2007 Trial.

2.5 hours battery life.

Size (H)4.39, (W)38.5, (D)27.75cm.

Weight 3.4kg.


i know that really i needed a quad core processor, but i could not find a laptop with one within my price range.

did i make a good purchase? it was £547.00


i installed PD7 without any probs and loaded up some h.264 footage. it works!! plays back very smoothly in HQ and picture quality is very good.

however, it does still struggle when playing a transition......even on the low quality setting

is there any way to improve that? i see the graphics card has options of being able to manually adjust its settings to improve its performance for different programs but it looks a bit too complicated to me! lol

but hey, at least i can know edit without having to rely on listenening to the sound!

finished HD films play back as sweet as a nut!

cheers,

scott


ps....one more question i forgot! it has a 250 gig hard drive but its partitioned into two 120 gig.

should i try to remove the partition? would it make any difference at all?

cheers guys


pps......james, the link you provided mentioned about leaving it to stand for a while after adding it to the time line.........i will certainly be giving that a try!
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Hi Scott, I have a 2 GHz Core2 Duo T7000 laptop I purchased refurbished from Dell in January 2007 for about $1000. I has a 120 GB HD, 2 GB of RAM with ATI Mobility Graphics. I find that my laptop still stutters in the normal or high preview modes when playing 24 Mb/s AVCHD, but less so in low quality.

In US dollars you paid $894 for your setup as of todays exchange rates. Whether or not it is a good deal all depends on your perspective. If you happy then don't worry about it.

As for the hard drive partition, in order to get rid of it you may have to reformat your entire disk. If your computer came with a bunch of junkware then that is not a bad idea. One thing you might want to consider is an external hard disk for backup. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

hi james,

when compared to my old PC its a massive improvement so in that sense im very happy indeed!

my actual camera can record in different levels of quality but still at 1920 x 1080 so i might try out one of the lower settings to see if it improves even more.

would formatting the hard drive improve performance or is that just for giving extra disk space?

i do have a external 250 gig hard drive which i use to store finished movies and video files on but i read on another thread that when editing its best not to use files on a external hard drive as it can cause crashes.
ive noticed that it also slows down play back when editing. i normally put all the footage onto the pc's hard drive and then once its finished i will then transfer it all to the external hard drive.

is that what you meant mate?


thanks for the help and advice, i appreciate it

cheers,

scott WWW.E-CIG-REVIEWS.COM

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Another couple of suggestions for you Scott.

Firstly make sure you have the CUDA drivers installed for your graphics card (yours supports it ) as the GPU rendering for AVCHD is better and quicker than PD rendering.

Secondly the bit about dropping the clips into the timeline then waiting is in regard to using low resolution proxy files to help with HD editing. This option is able to be turned on or off in preferences.

I had a lot of trouble with it in it lost edit points etc and I turned it off and I suggest you do the same. Never had a problem since doing so.

Hope it goes well.

Quote: Another couple of suggestions for you Scott.

Firstly make sure you have the CUDA drivers installed for your graphics card (yours supports it ) as the GPU rendering for AVCHD is better and quicker than PD rendering.

Secondly the bit about dropping the clips into the timeline then waiting is in regard to using low resolution proxy files to help with HD editing. This option is able to be turned on or off in preferences.

I had a lot of trouble with it in it lost edit points etc and I turned it off and I suggest you do the same. Never had a problem since doing so.

Hope it goes well.

hi mate,

ive just done a google search for the CUDA driver you mentioned. is this the correct one for my graphics card?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista_186.03_whql.html

do i just download it and it will do the rest for me or do i need to un install the original drivers first?
once installed, do i need to change anything in PD7 to get it to do the rendering rather than using PD to do the rendering? (in other words, will it automatically be used for rendering or do i need to set it up?)

cheers!

scott

ps......is it the "enable file processing to speed up high definition video editing" in the general tab of preferences that you was referring to?

pps.....on the editing tab, should i check the "GPU acceleration" check box after i have installed the CUDA drivers?

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Hi Scott,

To get CUDA rendering to work you need to install the latest drivers from NVIDIA and run the exe file. Whatever drivers that were on your computer prior will be deleted and you will be using the newest ones. If you have any questions about what driver to download, the NVIDIA website has a scan feature which will search your computer and determine what video card you have installed. NVIDIA uses the shotgun approach where one driver fits all their products. After running the exe file you will be asked to restart your computer. After restarting you computer open PD and check the box about GPU acceleration that you mentioned. While there is an improvement in both quality and speed using CUDA you do have to realize that CUDA is only supported for H.264 rendering. For example, if you make an MPEG2 file then your CPU will do all work.

I don't believe that you will notice any noticeable speed improvement if you remove the HD partition. As for your external HD, you are right about using that for storing your finished videos. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

hi guys,

i downloaded the CUDA driver and installed it, then enabled the GPU acceleration and WOW! it works great!!

i can now edit in the highest quality with ease and even the transitions are nice and smooth!

thanks a lot for all the help guys, i really appreciate it!

cheers,

scott WWW.E-CIG-REVIEWS.COM

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