Hi There Everybody- I have been making my home movies for some time now and use different kinds of editing and burning software to complete the job. But as the years go by and the programs get more sophisticated, I have found that my end product has been not so perfect like it once was before. The end product seams to be a bit choppy, and pixelated on the playback. I also notice that my hard drive light stays on solid the whole time, Some friends have told me that it is time to upgrade my memory, which stands at 512 MB now. They tell me that most of the editing and burning software these days needs at least 1GB to run well. So now I would like your thoughts on this. I checked into my Dell Dimension 3000 user guide and it says that my motherboard can take up to 2GB of memory, (I have two memory card slots), which would be a great improvement (i think) but then I wonder about my video card, should that be upgraded as well, I have had no problems with it or anything, I just wonder if I have to do both the memory and the video or will the memory be enough???? Thanks for taking the time to read my situation and hope to hear from you soon. Sincerely- Doug P.S. if it makes a difference I have an Intel Pentium 4, 2.80 GHz processor.
Technical Overview link http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim3000/en/SM/techov.htm#wp1043338 Technical Specifications link http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim3000/en/SM/specs.htm#wp1075776 upgrade the ram to at least 1gig as will run faster. you have onboard video so can only add a pci videocard. if been using the same burner all this time then get a new 1 & use old 1 to read & rip dvd's.
Hi There- Thanks for the reply. I do have two drives. One is a cd burner/dvd player and the other is a dvd player/dvd burner. I use the cd/dvd to rip my video and the dvd burner drive to burn the project to a blank DVD. Is there any compatability issues with upgrading the memory and the video card??? Thanks- Doug
I think you have a software problem, not hardware problem. I use to also edit on a lowend PC amd 1500 cpu with 512 ram. Never had any problems except for long encoding times. As long as you are using XP, your ram is good. If you Vista then an upgrade will be appropriate. For Video encoding having a fast 7200rpm drive will be more useful then more memory. What is pixelated/choppy on playback? the actual files on the drive or the "burned dvd"? If only the dvd is choopy, you might have bad media.
More likely it has something to do with your codec settings. Not all MPEG2 codecs are created equal, and good codecs will give you lots of options to aim for quality or for small file size. If you are still doing the same things you did when your system was new, you might just go back to those old softwares...they worked, didn't they? MPEG4 is a mess of different codecs all with tons of settings that can make a very small, good looking file, or a very large, bad looking file.
Hi There- Thanks for all of your responses. I can tell you that this computer was purchased new in 2003 and has the same hardware now as when I bout it new. The only thing I have added was the DVD burner drive. Since then I know that video editing software has gotten more in depth (if that is the correct term) and has needed more space and ram to run well. I still have the same hard drive 80GB @ 7200 rpm and the same 512 total ram. I use a number of video editing programs and each one does different tasks. I use Nero, Pinnacle, DVD Shrink, DVD Flick, etc. I have not had any problems when I first started making movies a long time ago. But has time has passed and these programs have gotten more in depth. I think my memory has not been able to keep up with the changes.
It is no wonder you are having problems with that collection of software. Nero & Pinnacle never made good video software, but they have still gotten worse over the years. DVD Shrink can be usefull for some things, but should never be used to compress a dvd, as it does so with extremely low quality. DVD Flick needs to be configured to not decode and re-encode video, as it does this by default, slowing the process and destroying the video quality. I would recomend you check these softwares out: "VideoReDo" - allows for quick, lossless editing of MPEG2 Video, also repairs MPEG2 video. Also demuxes video and audio streams. "GUI for DVD Author" - Great freeware DVD creator; works fast and will not degrade video quality.
