[Jonny Webb]

Lots of good comments above, but as i often deal with mini-dv tapes, here’s a tip or two…

I use a Windows 7 pc to import the video from tape. Microsoft have a free program that’ll take your video from tape straight to avi files with no extra loss. Now its called Photo Gallery (go figure!) and comes in their Windows Essentials package (no need for the other bits).
I like this as i plug in the camera, answer where to save, and an hour or so later i have a folder with numerous avi files. (yes the files are split by timecode). easy. reliable.

I also use a free prog called DVdate. Many of the tapes are DV type 1 (audio interlaced with video). Many editing progs have proble with this inefficient encoding. So use DVdate to convert all files to DV Type 2 (still a single file but audio is a seperated stream). Less taxing on your computer. less room for trouble. Plus converting to type 2 has actually helped save some corrupted imports…

hope this helps.

[Jonny Webb]

Thank you.
Its such a relief to have that out of the way.
🙂

[Jonny Webb]

Thanks for the reply.
i didnt realise MediaPlayer was actively looking stuff up online, i thought the info was in the file somewhere (like metadata).

As for Audition, i have cs6 v502b7.

[Jonny Webb]

Thank you.

And another method i found (thanks to JZ pointing me in the right direction)…

select layer, click on Add An Adjustment layer, and click at the bottom of the properties box on the square & arrow “This adjustment clips to the layer”.

[Jonny Webb]

Thanks again guys.
I’ve now set up my pc to be either…
a sata3 with 2 paritions, or,
2xSata2 in raid0 with 2volumes (1parition on each).

So far i’ve not seen any difference. But i guess time will tell. Next on my to-do list is some benchmarking as well as REAL projects.

And thanks for sharing (comments & links) about Adobe forums. I thought i was the only one who thought uneqivocal and unsubstantiated opinions unhelpful at best…

I’m forever amazed Adobe doesnt spell it out. Eg: Minimum optimum setup for PPro is 2xsata2 in raid configured as… with cache here and whatever there… etc…

[Jonny Webb]

Thanks guys.
So i’ll put my projects & cache on my fastest (unshared) volume.

I think i’ll have to benchmark it myself whether to use the 2nd partition of my raid-0, or use p1 of a seperate harddrive…

Other useful notes…
– do not enable SSC (spectrum spread clocking) (older drives!)
– do not enable PHY (turns a 3Gb/s into a 1.5Gb/s) (older drives!)
– leave 10GB (or20%) unallocated space at end of drive. Most hardrives will benefit if there is an unpartitioned bit of space at the end for ‘provisioning’. This is especially true for SSDs. It seems to stop preformance degragation over time.
I’m still searching for more info on this…

[Jonny Webb]

Thanks all, for all the replies.

I’ve been convinced about the benefits of partitioning ever since hard drives have existed, (for many technical reasons), but wondered what the optimum config was for video editing.
After lots of recent research, and comments here such as ‘short stroking’ (thanks Petros) i see that partitioning is still the way to go.

So i’ll stay with my small c-drive for os and programs. And i’ll have everything else on d-drive, projects, data, etc.
I’ve not found any evidence that moving scratch files/cache/previews/etc anywhere else is in any way beneficial…

If anyone knows about moving cache, i’d sure like to know…
(just a reminder – this thread is for people who do not have unlimited money to throw at their system)

[Jonny Webb]

I dont trust the Adobe forums anymore, not because there are so many forum squatters with such fragile egos, but because many of the regulars talk outside their field. They may be experts on specific products, but their IT knowledge is often flawed to the point of dangerous. Numerous times i’ve checked there for a hardware question, only to receive an incorrect answer.

(oh and also the Adobe forums are *still* down!)

[Jonny Webb]

According to adobe, more cores is better – especially if you include hyperthreading. However, according to Tomshardware, and overclocked cpu can easily beat the next processor up (on a “more cores” list).

So i guess if you like OCing and tweaking you can save some money. Otherwise go for more cores and save time!

[Jonny Webb]

When setting up RAID 0…
set Data Stripping = 128k for video (& large file) processing.

Thanks Ann, but as more people do it than not (at least those that comment in forums), i’d really want to see data & benchmarks before giving up on partitions.