Good Morning,

I have Roxio and have lots of performance issues. I have a 2.4 ghz celeron processor and 1 gb RAM and have lots of performance issues. I assume that my computer just isn't good enough to allow me to edit videos. If anyone has opinions, I'd love to hear them.

Specifically, I want to know what's most important when buying a computer for video editing? Is it processor speed, memory, something else? I'd like to get a new computer that will allow me to edit mini dv's and convert them to dvd's without breaking the bank. Furthermore, I'd like to make it a laptop. Please let me know what to look for!

Thanks in advance.

-jeff

Jeff, is that old computer a laptop? If not, you might want to consider installing a new video card. Many of the problems with editing video is from a underpowered or un-updated driver for the card along with outdated DirectX 9c. You should be able to edit videos but it might just be a little slower than a fast new computer. Get a card with 256 MB or more on board. There are some out there for under $100 that are perfectly adequate. Be carefully to buy one that fits into your computer slots. Some require more than one slot or require a separate power supply. That's not a big problem if you have the space/power for those better cards.

What video card/chip do you have and have you updated the drivers? Have you tried rendering in software mode?

If you do buy a new computer, you will not be able to run EMC 8 if it is the Vista OS. EMC 9 (updated to 9.1) and EMC 10 will work in Vista.

For me (IMHO) the video card/chip is the most important consideration in doing any video editing. Roxio heavily relies on it to do much of the rendering. For a new laptop, look at the video chip information. Do some research on the video chips. Get one with lots of memory (2G), a large hard drive (160 or more), most any reasonable laptop will have enough processor speed unless you go bottom of the line.

Look at what other people have in their signatures and see if one is in your price range.

As an aside. EMC 8 was perhaps the worst recent version sold by Roxio. EMC 7, 7.5, 9 and 10 are all better but 9 and 10 still require the better video card. I just saw EMC 10 from Roxio with a $30 rebate and you can probably find it cheaper.

You may also want to download and try the trial version of EMC 9 to see if you like it better than V8. They should both run on the same computer. Do it after you do something with your current Video card/chip set up.

How do I find out what kind of video card I currently have. I right clicked on 'my computer' and chose 'properties' but don't see it there. Please advise. Thanks again!

Go to Windows Start, Run type in dxdiag and then Ok, a new window will open. Go to the display tab and psot here what you see on both the left side and the right side. The left side will be your video device and the right side will be the driver ID and the date.

What computer do you have? If you did not order a video card when you bought it, you probably have a video chip. That can be updated from the manufacturer's web site. That may be enough to allow you to do the video editing.

Well, I don’t know how you inserted the image. I tried to but couldn’t figure out how. Anyway, here’s what I see:

DEVICE:
Name: Radeon 9200 Pro Family
Mfr: ATI Technologies
Chip Type: Radeon 9200 Pro (0x5960)
DAC Type: Internal DAC (500MHz)
Approx Total Mem: 128 MB
Display Mode: 1440x900 (32 bit) (60 Hz)
Monitor: View Sonic vx1935wm-3

DRIVERS:
Main Driver: ati2dvag.dll
Version: 6.14.0010.6462 (English)
Date: 8/4/2004 02:56:41
WHQL Logo’d: n/a
Mini VDD: ati2mtag.sys
VDD: n/a
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)

On another note, any idea why Internet Explorer keeps shutting down when I’m reading/posting in these Roxio Forums? It happened repeatedly on my work computer yesterday, so I decided to do this at home, and now it’s happening on my home computer. Two completely different machines. It’s very aggravating. Thank you again for your help with this. I know nothing about video chips/cards.

Sorry, my computer is an HP Pavilion a300y.
Intel Celeron 2.4 GHz 1 GB RAM and running Windows XP Home Edition SP2

Only a few are able to post images. Permission has to be granted by the moderator. Many people post and image to a web site and then put a link to it on the post. It shows up as an image (depending how they did it.)

There has been an upgrade to the forums (Invision hosting) that has screwed up a lot of people. It is a Catch 22 at the moment. The forums work OK with IE 7 but has problems with IE 6. EMC 8 works well with IE 6 but doesn't work with IE 7. Don't blame Roxio - it is Invision.

You actually have a pretty reasonable video device and it should work OK for editing. Assuming that you are running XP, go here to update the driver. There is one from Nov 2006. Follow the instructions - you may have to delete your current drivers (which takes you back to Windows generic drivers) and then install the new driver.

After you have done that, go to the ATI control panel and set the performance to balance, or one or more steps toward performance. Also set the anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering to program (or software controlled). You should see a major difference in how your computer handles video capturing and encoding. You should be able to run hardware encoding but many people believe that software encoding is more reliable.

Come back and tell us if this helps or if you are still having problems.

Thanks for your help with this Steve, I really do appreciate it. I'll try your suggestion but it might take me a few days. Take care...

Most of us who are still getting into the Forums are using FireFox.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

IE 6 seems to have the worst problems with invision's wonderful "improvements".

Lynn

Hi Again, Steve-

I just remembered that I still have the discs from EMC 7, with the update to 7.1. I can’t even recall why I upgraded to 8.0 in the first place. Do you really think 7.1 would perform better? Should I rollback to that version? What does 8.0 have that 7.1 didn’t? Do you know? Thanks again!

jeff

When it comes to the quality of a burned movie, EMC 7.1 far surpasses anything in EMC 8, which in my opinion, was junk for getting quality burns from video editing.

Steve & All:

Here are the specs of the new computer that I'm looking at buying. Also thinking about EMC 10. Please let me know if you think this would be a good purchase for using Roxio for editing video. I don't understand much about video cards, etc, and I will really appreciate the help!

-JEff
HP
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.6 GHz
Windws Vista Home PRemium
3 GB RAM
Direct X Version 10
Device:

Name: NVIDEA GE Force 6150SE nForce 430
Mfr: NVIDEA
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Approx Total Memory: 1336 MB
Current Display Mode: 1680x1050 32 Bit 60 Hz

Drivers:

Main Driver: nvd3dum.dll
Version:7.15.0011.6222 (English)
DDI Version 9Ex

EMC 7 and 8 will not run in Vista. Also, that video card is a little aged. If going with an NVidia card, I would go with one, in the 8800 series, at a minimum.

With that processor is that a desk top? What is the model number? Is it the m9100z If so, get a real video card. What that computer has is an on board video chip. I looked and there is a free upgrade to a pretty good video card at their on line shop.

BTW, if you look at HP, there is a rating system for video and other. If you are buying on-line, ask what the rating is. Keep it as high as possible (like 3.0) and you should be OK.

If you get the HP system, you'll get a cut down version of My DVD with movee as the video editing program. You will want to get rid of that.

If that is a desk top, look also at Velocity Computers. I have that as my desk top and it is well built with good components.

Sorry Bruce, I thought because this post was so old that people might not find it - that's why I posted this also in the other forum. Anyway, as I said, I don't know much about video cards so is that easy to upgrade? I know how to add DVD drives, etc. What I'm wondering is if I should just look for another computer. THis is a desktop from Costco, and to my untrained eye, it seemed like a pretty good value at $900. I'm not sure it makes sense though if I immediately am going to want to upgrade the video card. How much will that run me? Any thoughts? I liked the idea of having 90 days to return the system if necessary. THey also have free tech support and a 2yr warranty...and I've had good luck with HPs in the past. Plus this came with a nice 22" widescreen monitor. Appreciate your thoughts...

Model Number = HP a6357c
Rating = 3.0

There isn't anything wrong with the computer, outside of the video card/chip being low end. You could try EMC 10 with it, and see if it works. If it doesn't work real well, with video work, you can then get a dedicated video card.

I agree.

Hi Again,

This is tough. I tried the computer that I referenced above and I cannot capture video using Roxio. The programs built in to Vista worked fine though. Assuming that the problem is the video card, I'd like to know if you think that any of these might suit me better for using EMC 10. These are laptops, but they appear to me to maybe have better video cards???

Laptop option 1:
HP DV 9723 cl
2.0 ghz AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual Core Mobile Technology TL-60
2 gb memory
NVIDIA Ge Force 7150M
Video memory - up to 799 mb (I don't know what video memory means)

Laptop option 2:
HP DV 6753 cl
1.83 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5550 (Intel Centrino)
2 gb memory
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
video memory - up to 358 mb


Laptop option 3 (this one is about $150 more than options 1 & 2):
HP DV 6663 cl
2.2 ghz Intel Centrino Duo Processor T7500
2 gb memory
NVIDEA gEfORCE 8400M GS with up to total graphics memory with dedicated (e)
Video memory - up to 895 mb (128 mb)

This is what I have now that won't work for me (and I can return this to the store because it came from Costco):
HP
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.6 GHz
Windws Vista Home PRemium
3 GB RAM
Direct X Version 10
Device:

Name: NVIDEA GE Force 6150SE nForce 430
Mfr: NVIDEA
DAC Type: Integrated RAMDAC
Approx Total Memory: 1336 MB
Current Display Mode: 1680x1050 32 Bit 60 Hz

Drivers:

Main Driver: nvd3dum.dll
Version:7.15.0011.6222 (English)
DDI Version 9Ex

Thanks again for your help. I'm hoping that either option 1 or 2 might work, but I don't really understand the difference between those video cards (or the processors for that matter). Please let me know your opinion. This is very frustrating. I really want to use Roxio, but I'm almost to the point of giving up and just using what comes with Vista. At least I can get that to work.

-jeff

Read the two post's above yours from grandpabruce and sknis.

HP Pavilion a6357c Desktop PC



Motherboard specifications table
Motherboard layout and photos
Clearing the BIOS settings
Clearing the BIOS password


Motherboard specifications table
Part / Feature Specification / Support
Motherboard description Motherboard manufacturer's name: ECS MCP61PM-HM
HP/Compaq name: Nettle2-GL8E

CPU/Processor Socket: AM2
Supports the following processors:
Athlon 64 X2 with Dual Core technology
Athlon 64
Sempron

Front-side bus (FSB) 2000MT/s (2.0 GT/s)

Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

BIOS features System BIOS core brand: Award
Keyboard combination to used to enter BIOS: F10

Form factor Micro-ATX: 9.6 in X 9.6 in

Memory Dual channel memory architecture
Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supported DIMM types:
PC2-4200 (533 MHz)
PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
Supports 2GB DDR2 DIMMs
Supports up to 8 GB on 64 bit PCs
Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs



NOTE: *Actual available memory may be less.

Expansion slots Two PCI
One PCI Express x16 graphics (for a graphics card)
One PCI Express x1 (for cards such as network, sound, tv-tuner)

Video graphics Integrated graphics using nVidia GeForce 6150SE
Uses up to 256MB of PC memory (with 512MB or more total PC memory)
Also supports PCI Express x16 graphics cards*



NOTE: *Either integrated graphics or the PCI Express x16 slot are usable at one time; they are not usable concurrently.

Parallel ATA One 40-pin UltraDMA 100/66/33 connector
Supports PIO, multi-word DMA modes
Supports two PATA disk drives on one PATA ribbon cable (two drives total)

Serial ATA Four SATA connectors:
SATA1 = Black
SATA2 = White
SATA3 = Blue
SATA4 = Yellow



Supports 1 SATA-150 or SATA-300 disk drive on each SATA connector
Speed up to 1.5Gb/sec or 3.0Gb/sec, complying with SATA 1.0 and SATA 2.0 specifications



NOTE: The faster rate of 3.0Gb/sec requires that both the hard drive and the motherboard support it. If one or the other does not support 3.0 Gb/sec, the PC negotiates down to the slower 1.5 Gb/sec.

RAID Some Nettle2 models ship with RAID (model dependent)
nVidia's onboard RAID solution is called nVidia MediaShield Storage
RAID modes supported*:
RAID 0
RAID 1



NOTE: RAID 5 and 10 are not supported by this motherboard.

Onboard audio 8 channel high-definition audio
Audio CODEC: ALC888S
Onboard LAN PCI Realtek RTL8201N 10/100Mbps

Onboard USB USB 2.0
Ten ports total
Four connectors on back panel
Four headers on motherboard support 6 additional ports/devices



NOTE: Some USB ports may not be available externally for customer use. For more information, see model specifications.

Onboard 1394 Type: IEEE 1394a 400Mb/s
VIA VT6307 controller chip
Two ports total
One port on back panel
One header on motherboard supporting one additional port/device

Back panel I/0 One PS/2 mouse port (green)
One PS/2 keyboard port (purple)
One Coaxial SPDIF out port
One VGA port
Four USB 2.0
One IEEE 1394a
One RJ-45 networking port
Six audio ports support 8-channel audio:
Line-in (light blue)
Microphone-in (pink)
Line-out (lime)
Center/Subwoofer-out (yellow-orange)
Side speaker-out (gray)
Rear speaker-out (black)

Internal connectors One 24-pin ATX power connector
One 4-pin ATX power connector
One PATA connector
Four SATA connectors
One floppy drive connector
Two 12v fan connectors for CPU fan and PC fan
One 9-pin header for power button, reset button, power LED, and HDD LED
One SPDIF digital audio output header
One front line input connector (interrupts line input on back panel, Vista capable, requires matching front audio jack module)
One 9-pin audio header for headphone-out and microphone-in (yellow, Vista capable, requires matching front audio jack module)
Four USB headers supporting 6 additional USB 2.0 ports or devices
One 1394a header
One Intel high-definition Audio/Modem Link (not used by HP)
One jumper for resetting BIOS settings
One jumper to disable BIOS password checking


NOTE: Motherboard specifications are subject to change without notice.

cd

I wish I could say I understand what all that means, but I really don't. I'm not too good with technical specs. I just never dreamed it would be so hard to find a machine that can run Roxio. IMO, it's kind of ridiculous. I'm to the point where I'm ready to just use Windows Movie Maker, just because I can. It's a shame because I used to be able to run EMC 7...sort of. It kept crashing, but I at least was able to see what it could do if it didn't crash. Clearly it does way more than Movie Maker, but at least Movie Maker works. I literally can't even import with EMC 10, even on this brand new computer that I have.