Video garbles during playback

weswhite wrote on 2/18/2005, 5:00 PM
I am new to Vegas and video editing. However, having been a programmer for ten years, I know something about computers. My videos tend to garble sound and video during playback. My machine however is fairly old by today's standards. I have a Dell Precision 410 with 384 of RAM, an 80 Gig secondary hard drive where I keep video files, and a Pentium III processor. The machine is a dual processor platform and will take another CPU. I can only install 512 K of RAM. I am running XP and have turned on Ultra DMA Mode for the secondary IDE channel. I bumped memory from 256 to 384 recently which was only a small improvement. Anybody had the same problem and found a fix? Would another processor solve the problem? What kind of system works the best with Sony Vegas + DVD?

Comments

nickle wrote on 2/18/2005, 5:20 PM
EDIT Vegas 5 System Requirements

Microsoft® Windows® 2000, XP Home, or XP Professional

500 MHz processor

60 MB hard-disk space for program installation

128 MB RAM

OHCI compatible i.LINK® connector*/IEEE-1394DV card (for DV capture and print-to-tape)

Windows-compatible sound card

CD-ROM drive

Supported CD-Recordable drive (for CD burning only)

Microsoft DirectX® 8 or later (included on CD-ROM)

Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 (included on CD-ROM)

Internet Explorer 5.1 or later (included on CD-ROM)

I looked up your specs and you have a 400Mhz PC right?

Vegas is pretty processor intensive so you probably want to upgrade.

Locally made PC's are pretty cheap these days.

However you should go to start/run/type in dxdiag and then checkout the directx settings including the acceleration settings.
weswhite wrote on 2/20/2005, 8:00 PM
Actually the system information under the DirectX tab says Intel Pentium III ~490 Hz, Page file: 157 Mb used 572 Mb available. Somehow I don't think page file is the problem.

XP says no probelms found on the DrectX files tab. On the DirectX Display tab, under DirectX features, all accelerators are enabled. I am using a Crystal WMD audio with the built in sound card on this machine. The video I'm working on has a music track -- wonder if that is it? I'm using the built in Video card NVIDIA with 32 megs of ram.

While surfing on XP tweeks I ran accross the issue where XP tries to read property information in .AVI files. This could cause spits in the output, and I am using alot of AVI. The tip suggested editing the registry so that XP does not try to locate AVI file properties embedded in the file. I noticed that turning this off in the registry helped the AVI files load faster in Explorer, but it did not help the spitting and sputtering in Vegas.

Anyway, maybe an added processor for this dual processor machione will do the trick.

I just purchased Vegas from an electronics store. It's version is 4.0 (Build 42). Perhaps a later version is downloadable. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.
nickle wrote on 2/20/2005, 8:50 PM
When audio problems exist, backing off on the acceleration can sometimes help.

When I said that computers are cheap, I can buy an upgrade that includes an AMD Sempron 2400 on an {Asus} Asrock motherboard with onboard video, audio and Ethernet for $129.

Add $50 for 256MB ram and $30 for a case and you can use your old floppy, cd and hard drive.

So that is $210 Ca.

It isn't the fastest PC but it will handle Vegas pretty well.

Your hard drive can be upgraded later which will be faster. (I'm guessing yours is ATA 66).

I'm suggesting this rather than buying another processor which likely won't help.
the_learninator wrote on 2/20/2005, 9:07 PM
hmmm...

the processor is the NUMBER 1 dertermining factor in how smooth your work goes.I got a p4 1.4GHz (which in todays standards is average-low end), my suggestion is purchasing a barebone system (case, mobo, power supply and processor combo) tigerdirect.com is a pretty good online store

and if your really serious about video editing you can go with the big dogs alienware.com (i'm pockets are not ready for them yet! lol)

i recommend upgrading that video card. 32megs is nothing, it's not suitable for video editing. i had the nvidia vanta LT..which i think was 128megs and i was still gettin video stutter (thats a pretty low end card).

i swapped my ATA66 20gig HD with a ATA100 200gig HD and swapped my graphics card for a Nvidia Geforece 5200 FX (256megs) and it's smoooooooooth riding now :)
nickle wrote on 2/20/2005, 9:21 PM
Actually his video card is sufficient.

His hard drive is likely ATA100 but the m/b may only support 66.

The processor is too slow though and two of them won't make any difference.
the_learninator wrote on 2/20/2005, 10:10 PM
32megs and sufficient don't belong in the same sentence lol