Will a seperate hard drive enhance my video playback?

[Guest]

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook up via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"? ...
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30 gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.

 

[Guest]

A new larger internal hd would be a step in the right direction,increase from
current size,then set current to slave,set it as youre page file along with
new.
This is done thru system properties,advanced,settings,change button,click on
a drive or highlite it,set to,"let windows manage" then click set 2 X,do
for each.
With so much ram,you should also,disable pagingexecutive thru regedit.You
wrote "pentium" which one,4 or 3,P3 will be somewhat slower than a P4,if P4
what size,a 2.4 or above would be ok.The hd is youre 1st step as mentioned,
also as microsoft highly recomends.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that reply;

Oh, I have a pentium 4; I'm thinking of getting, say, a 200G [external] hard
drive; but if I connect it with my firewire cable, won't sending/retreiving
my video files be straightforward? I guess the cocumentation i get w/the
drive will explain it.

I'm mostly anxious to know that getting this "beast" will truly be the
solution I've been trying looking for ...

.... ... in search of smoooooooth video ... ...

A new larger internal hd would be a step in the right direction,increase from
current size,then set current to slave,set it as youre page file along with
new.
This is done thru system properties,advanced,settings,change button,click on
a drive or highlite it,set to,"let windows manage" then click set 2 X,do
for each.
With so much ram,you should also,disable pagingexecutive thru regedit.You
wrote "pentium" which one,4 or 3,P3 will be somewhat slower than a P4,if P4
what size,a 2.4 or above would be ok.The hd is youre 1st step as mentioned,
also as microsoft highly recomends.

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook up via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"? ...
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30 gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.

 

[peter]

Have you ever thought that maybe it is not your HD that is causing this
problem??? but the capabilities of your video card to capture and play the
necesary information required ??
Do a speed search on transfer speed of your HD versus the transfer speed of a
firewire enabled HD....
peter

Thanks for that reply;

Oh, I have a pentium 4; I'm thinking of getting, say, a 200G [external] hard
drive; but if I connect it with my firewire cable, won't sending/retreiving
my video files be straightforward? I guess the cocumentation i get w/the
drive will explain it.

I'm mostly anxious to know that getting this "beast" will truly be the
solution I've been trying looking for ...

... ... in search of smoooooooth video ... ...

A new larger internal hd would be a step in the right direction,increase
from
current size,then set current to slave,set it as youre page file along with
new.
This is done thru system properties,advanced,settings,change button,click on
a drive or highlite it,set to,"let windows manage" then click set 2 X,do
for each.
With so much ram,you should also,disable pagingexecutive thru regedit.You
wrote "pentium" which one,4 or 3,P3 will be somewhat slower than a P4,if P4
what size,a 2.4 or above would be ok.The hd is youre 1st step as mentioned,
also as microsoft highly recomends.

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook up
via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main
hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"? ...
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close
donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30 gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I wondered that also, Peter, but it is after all, a fairly new computer
I just bought .... and I did get [as far as my limited fore-knowledge of the
gear went] a pretty high end machine. ... will have to research the
comparative speeds of a firewire transfer vs. my present drive setup ....

Have you ever thought that maybe it is not your HD that is causing this
problem??? but the capabilities of your video card to capture and play the
necesary information required ??
Do a speed search on transfer speed of your HD versus the transfer speed of a
firewire enabled HD....
peter

Thanks for that reply;

Oh, I have a pentium 4; I'm thinking of getting, say, a 200G [external] hard
drive; but if I connect it with my firewire cable, won't sending/retreiving
my video files be straightforward? I guess the cocumentation i get w/the
drive will explain it.

I'm mostly anxious to know that getting this "beast" will truly be the
solution I've been trying looking for ...

... ... in search of smoooooooth video ... ...

A new larger internal hd would be a step in the right direction,increase
from
current size,then set current to slave,set it as youre page file along with
new.
This is done thru system properties,advanced,settings,change button,click on
a drive or highlite it,set to,"let windows manage" then click set 2 X,do
for each.
With so much ram,you should also,disable pagingexecutive thru regedit.You
wrote "pentium" which one,4 or 3,P3 will be somewhat slower than a P4,if P4
what size,a 2.4 or above would be ok.The hd is youre 1st step as mentioned,
also as microsoft highly recomends.

:

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook up
via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main
hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"? ...
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close
donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30 gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.

 

[Ionizer]

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook up via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"? ....
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30 gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.

What video card are you using? Have a look in Device Manager in the
"Display Adapters" section.

Updating its drivers to the newest available from the manufacturer's
website (as opposed to what might be offered by Windows Update) might help
with video playback. I may be wrong, but I wouldn't think that your
current hard drive is what is holding you back at all.

Regards,
Ian.

 

[Rehan]

If you are having prblems playing in WIndows Media Player I would suggest to
tinker the Tools->Options->Performance settings a bit. Is it on the default
Full hardware acceleration. try unselecting the following options from the
Advanced dialog.
Overlay
Use video Smoothing
Drop frames to keep AV in sync


Furthermore, I would suggest to use Media Player Classic instead.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

 

[peter]

No insult intended here but there are various versions of "high end"
machines that are crap.I do not have what I would call a high end
machine.But when I play a DVD on my system I do not get jitters and when I
record a TV program onto my 2nd HD, an older 100 drive and play it back it
plays smoothly.I also have a Sony camcorder ..the TVR250 and I record digitally
and transfer to hard drive to burn to a DVD.When I convert that mpeg2 file to a
mpeg4 file it still plays smoothly.I use the 2nd HD mainly for video and
backups.So most of the workload is on that drive even though it is slower than
my SATA drive.
I use a Radeon 9600 pro video card with 128mg of on board ram as
well as 1gig of 3200 DDR ram on my Asus A7N8deluxe ver2.0 motherboard.
I use a Hauppauge TVR250 TV tuner and occasionally input analogue recordings and
convert to digital.
Do you have a onboard video or a seperate video card and is it PCI or AGP ??
peter

Yeah, I wondered that also, Peter, but it is after all, a fairly new computer
I just bought .... and I did get [as far as my limited fore-knowledge of the
gear went] a pretty high end machine. ... will have to research the
comparative speeds of a firewire transfer vs. my present drive setup ....

Have you ever thought that maybe it is not your HD that is causing this
problem??? but the capabilities of your video card to capture and play the
necesary information required ??
Do a speed search on transfer speed of your HD versus the transfer speed of a
firewire enabled HD....
peter

Thanks for that reply;

Oh, I have a pentium 4; I'm thinking of getting, say, a 200G [external]
hard
drive; but if I connect it with my firewire cable, won't sending/retreiving
my video files be straightforward? I guess the cocumentation i get w/the
drive will explain it.

I'm mostly anxious to know that getting this "beast" will truly be the
solution I've been trying looking for ...

... ... in search of smoooooooth video ... ...




:

A new larger internal hd would be a step in the right direction,increase
from
current size,then set current to slave,set it as youre page file along
with
new.
This is done thru system properties,advanced,settings,change button,click
on
a drive or highlite it,set to,"let windows manage" then click set 2 X,do
for each.
With so much ram,you should also,disable pagingexecutive thru regedit.You
wrote "pentium" which one,4 or 3,P3 will be somewhat slower than a P4,if
P4
what size,a 2.4 or above would be ok.The hd is youre 1st step as
mentioned,
also as microsoft highly recomends.

:

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook
up
via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main
hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems
I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"?
...
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close
donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30
gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.

 

[Guest]

Whew,lots of helpful ideas!

No, Peter, you may be entirely correct - it may very well simply be my
system ... I only figured it could "do all" ... 'cause it was (me thinks) a
good computer.

Well, my video card in the computer is the Intel 82845G/GL Apparantly, there
is an updated driver that I can try.

My Firewire card is actually my Creative Labs Platinum Audigy EX card. But I
checked with the CL f0olks about video transfer in/out of the firewire ports
on the card (there are several); they said: "No Prob'!"

I will explore the "unselect" settings suggested in my Tools menu of Media
Player; I see they are still in the "selected" mode.

Michael

If you are having prblems playing in WIndows Media Player I would suggest to
tinker the Tools->Options->Performance settings a bit. Is it on the default
Full hardware acceleration. try unselecting the following options from the
Advanced dialog.
Overlay
Use video Smoothing
Drop frames to keep AV in sync


Furthermore, I would suggest to use Media Player Classic instead.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

--
Rehan
www.rehanfx.org - get transitions and effects for Windows MovieMaker

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook up
via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main
hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"? ...
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close
donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30
gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.

 

[Ionizer]

Whew,lots of helpful ideas!

Well, my video card in the computer is the Intel 82845G/GL Apparantly, there
is an updated driver that I can try.

This is an onboard graphics adapter. Unlike a separate video card,
onboard adapters use some your CPU's resources to process video. This is
where you need to be spending those dollars- not on a new hard drive but
on a dedicated video card.

I still suffer from a fear of opening my computer's case, but installing a
video card is something you *can* do yourself if you like:
http://www.motherboards.org/articles/guides/1168_1.html

I buy my brother a few beers and have him do this sort of thing for me,
but if he were unavailable I'd pay someone a few dollars to do it for me
so that I knew it was done right.

If the drivers update for your present video adapter doesn't fix your
playback problems, buy a mid-range video card and it will no doubt solve
all your troubles.

Regards,
Ian.

 

[peter]

With an onboard graphics adaptor you can on quite a few systems allocate more
RAM to the video.Since you have a GIG of ram you can try that first.This is
usally done in the BIOS and the manual that came with your system should explain
how.This will deduct that ram from other uses.
If that and the new drivers do not resolve your problem then I would look into
buying a Video Card.At this point you need to know if you have an AGP slot on
your MOBO and if you do you can buy an AGP video Card if not you will need a PCI
card.
peter

Whew,lots of helpful ideas!

No, Peter, you may be entirely correct - it may very well simply be my
system ... I only figured it could "do all" ... 'cause it was (me thinks) a
good computer.

Well, my video card in the computer is the Intel 82845G/GL Apparantly, there
is an updated driver that I can try.

My Firewire card is actually my Creative Labs Platinum Audigy EX card. But I
checked with the CL f0olks about video transfer in/out of the firewire ports
on the card (there are several); they said: "No Prob'!"

I will explore the "unselect" settings suggested in my Tools menu of Media
Player; I see they are still in the "selected" mode.

Michael

If you are having prblems playing in WIndows Media Player I would suggest to
tinker the Tools->Options->Performance settings a bit. Is it on the default
Full hardware acceleration. try unselecting the following options from the
Advanced dialog.
Overlay
Use video Smoothing
Drop frames to keep AV in sync


Furthermore, I would suggest to use Media Player Classic instead.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/

--
Rehan
www.rehanfx.org - get transitions and effects for Windows MovieMaker

I am considering getting one of those large external hard drives; hook up
via
firewire, and capture-edit-transfer all my mini dv footage to/from it;
therefore no video will need to compete for space on my computer's main
hard
drive. I'm hoping this will alleviate the intermittant skipping problems I
still get with playback after I capture video to my computer.

Wondering if anyone here can definitively claim "Yes! that will work"? ...
(all other factors being equal).

I've already tried increasing my RAM (to a gig); shutting down all other
programs, incl. anti virus software; (thougham not truly sure I do close
donw
my Norton progam completely ...)

Thanks

using: Windows XP; pentium; sony TRV-19 mini dv; firewire transfer; 30
gigs
free space on my [current] hard drive; 1 gig ram.