Clean, Lean & Mean Editing Machine - One Workflow

[the_wine_snob]

Many people run low on System Resources, while editing. Often, this is because they have a lot of other programs and Processes loaded, running and sapping their Resources. Here is how I handle these programs and Processes, to get the most out of my computers.

The first thing that I do, before I do any editing, is clean out my system, using MSCONFIG to eliminate all unnecessary programs and Processes at boot. These are things like MS Messenger, iTunes Helper, Bonjour Services (I do need this for one progarm on my laptop, so I keep it there), and the like. These are little things that are usually installed by the OS, other programs, or the folk, who build the machine. Unless subsequent installs add this sort of stuff back, this is a one-shot deal. I do this, when I take delivery of any new computer, and check carefully, should I install, or update anything.

Next, I manually Exit from my AV, spyware sweepers and pop-up blockers. The reason that I do this manually is that most of these programs are designed to not let themselves be shut down by any software, as many Trojans will attempt to do this, so they can do their nefarious work undetected.

Last, I run a little utility, called EndItAll2, to then shut down all unnecessary programs and Processes (on a session basis, and not permanently, like MSCONFIG), prior to editing.

This gets my machine in as lean, clean and mean a status, as I can. Then, I edit.

[the_wine_snob]

One other Process that can really slow down editing is the Windows Indexing feature. This is designed to speed up searches. What happens is that when a file is written, or is changed, this module will "lock" the file(s), while it attempts to index that file. With AV files, and the working files in an NLE, it cannot index them, but will still try, over and over. These files also get changed with regularity, and Indexing tries repeatedly after every change. Besides stealing resources, the NLE cannot access the files, while this Process is active.

In Win XP-Pro (and most other OS's), this is disabled via Properties for each HDD, and in XP-Pro needs to be done for all folders on that HDD. This can take a bit of time to Apply with large HDD's. One could leave Indexing ON for just the folders with .DOC, .TXT and similar file types, but I turn it OFF for every HDD, internal and external. Also, if you update your OS, check to make sure that this "feature" stays OFF.

Good luck,

Hunt

[Ed.Macke]

Two related comments, if I might?

1. I will frequently bump up the priority of my PremiereElements .exe to "High". It seems to make rendering a little quicker, and it definitely improves playback problems (e.g. stuttering, video stopping while audio plays, lag time after hitting Play, etc.). It's something that needs to be done each time you start the program; the priority bump only stays in effect as long as the program is running.
   
2. Turning off Windows Indexing has the unfortunate side effect of taking forever to find anything if you actually need to do a search. To compensate, I use a freeware product from voidtools.com called "Search Everything". It only indexes files (not text within files), but I've never had a single problem with file contention or CPU usage like Windows Indexing. Plus, it's lightning fast.
   

[Guest]

Hi Ed,

I just downloaded "Search Everything".  A very nice and astonishly fast search utility.  Thanks for sharing that link!

Rowby

[the_wine_snob]

Here's another ARTICLE, that Jeff Bellune just posted in the PrPro forum.

There are some very useful details in it on optimizing Vista-32.

Hope that this helps someone,

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Here is an ARTICLE from Black Viper on Win7 Service Configurations.

Happy editing,

Hunt

[artonyh]

You guys must be super intellegent. Sorry but I dont understand any of that stuff and if I muck with it I am only sure of one thing,

I will stuff up my system. All I want to do is speed up my editing of video, which I am now doing with an ancient computer with premier CS3.

It was already getting slower and slower and crashing often, but is still four times faster than this beautiful, latest, fastest piece of junk I am now on.

Gosh, you know the curser on this page cant even keep up with my typing, have to keep going back and inserting missed letters.

trouble is there doesn't seem to be a computer tech in New Zealand that knows anything about video editing programs. So I spend my time trying to decifer stuff thats way over my head on these forums.

Thanks to you all for your advice and help. Maybe the penny will drop one day. I will not give up, my income depends on it.

tony

[the_wine_snob]

Tony,

I understand not wanting to just go into a computer and make changes, especially if one does not fully understand what they are doing.

In your case, I would drop a PM (Personal Message) to this chap SHOOTERNZ. Craig is very active in the PrPro forum, and is based in Auckland, NZ. He should have some idea of a good computer tech, though that person will likely also be in Auckland. If you are in another area, say South Island, you might need to get a rec. from Craig, or from his tech for someone local to you. That would be where I would start. Also, mention to Craig that I recommend that you contact him, so he does not think that you are spamming him, and blow the request off. Craig understands his hardware and knows video editing extensively, so will understand what you need. He's a straight-up dude and spends a great deal of his time helping others on the forum. Being from NZ, he'll at least be in your "neighborhood," though perhaps not that close by.

Good luck,

Hunt

[artonyh]

Thanks Hunt, you are a gent.

[the_wine_snob]

I dropped him a PM and mentioned that you might be contacting him. That'll give him time to think of a rec.

Good luck,

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

An additional aspect of resource management, that is often overlooked, but is very important is the Windows Virtual Memory, i.e. the Page File. This will come into play, when RAM has been exceeded. By default, when the OS is installed, the Page File will be set to be dynamically managed and will be located on the system drive, C:\. For video editing, many recommend that the Page File be statically setup, to remove the overhead of dynamically managing it. Many also recommend placing it in the first sectors of the second, physical internal HDD (not a partition!). This does two things: it allows for the I/O activity to be spread over two physical HDD's, and also will place it in the same spot, and at the front of the second HDD, at boot up. It is also easier to defragment in this position.

Benchmarking can often tell what the best location is for one's particular system.

As for sizing the statically managed Page File, the old standard used to be ~ 2.5x the physical RAM. With 64-bit OS's, that is a bit of overkill now, and something in line with ~ 1.5 - 2x is fine.

Hope that this helps someone,

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Though this ARTICLE is referenced elsewhere in Tips & Tricks, the utilities listed are well worth noted. They will help on gather so much useful info about what is happening on a computer - both the hardware and the software.

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Along with those tips, it seems that "real time virus scanning" does cause all sorts of problems with NLE programs: See this THREAD. As mentioned above, turning OFF all AV, spyware, malware sweepers, etc. is highly recommended. This is just another instance where it is re-enforced. Turn it ALL OFF and do not surf the Internet, while editing.

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Along with real-time AV scanning, Windows Indexing can get in the way, as well. This ARTICLE will give you some background.

Good luck,

Hunt

[artonyh]

My computer has gone back to the supplier. I think this is the third time

. This time he thinks he has found a fault with the motherboard, and or ram.

I hope that this time it will solve the problem, as I have been getting video output times of four hours for six

minutes of video. Also multiple problems with photoshop and bridge.

Indexing on my drives has been turned off from the start with no difference being detected. But I am

sure that there have been serious problems with the hardware from the start, but I have had difficulty convincing

my supplier of that, as initially he could not find any faults.

It has been a long haul going on for months on end with no satisfaction being gained. Let's hope he gets it

right this time.

Regards

Tony

[the_wine_snob]

Several software companies have gone with "active" anti-virus programs. These monitor files and operations in real time, and can be horribly intrusive in an editing session. With these active anti-virus programs, it is now more important, than ever, that they be disabled, during an editing session. In the past, it was more about the CPU cycles, and resources, that they used, but now, they can really get in the way. This problem can affect both PrE and PrPro.

Of course this means that during an editing session, one does not have the anti-virus protection, so Web browsing and even checking e-mail should NOT be done. When one is through with the editing session, just re-boot and let the anti-virus program, the pop-up blockers, and spy sweeping programs load, as per normal.

Hope that this helps,

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

For a bit more on Resources/Memory, see this ARTICLE.

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Also, see Harm Millaard's Tuning Guide for Vista-64, which also applies to Win7.

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Neale posted this in response to cleaning up one's computer, and I think that it is well worth listing here:

(Optional) Make a note of how much free space your disk has.

Create a system restore point.

Download and install the free CCleaner. Run it and let it clean up what it finds.

Review your disk for files that can be safely deleted and do so. I highly recommend the free 'SpaceSniffer' (ensure you run it as administrator) that graphically shows what is using your disk space. It is amazing.


Run CCleaner again (to remove the stuff from step 4).

Run Disk Cleanup.
If it was me I would select the 'Clean up system files' button and then, on the 'More Options' tab, elect to clean up 'System Restore and Shadow Copies'. This deletes all but the most recent restore point and can free up many gigabytes of disk space. You do need to be confident that your machine is currently in a stable state and that reverting to the restore point created in step 2 (if necessary) will give you a working system.


Run Disk Defragmenter.

(Optional) Make a note of how much free space your disk has, compare to step 1 and (mandatory) gasp 'Wow'.

Hope that this helps,

Hunt

[RaceGuy]

I also had trouble with a lot of lockups and crashes with PE9 on my medium higher-end HP system (quad-core i7 Intel CPU at 2.8 Ghrz, 12 GB RAM, fast HDDs, NVIDIA GTX-260 graphics card, upgraded 650W PSU, and Win 7 Ultimate x64 OS) and found I had to do the following to reduce the problem: stopped some unnecessary apps from running at startup via msconfig,  turned off all components of my Norton Internet Security suite, disabled some system processes running in the background, disconnected my computer from my Ethernet Lan (partly for protection because I disabled Norton Internet Security, but I also found network traffic seemed to sometimes interfere with PE9 during rendering), disabled the Win 7 screen saver which also seemed to interfere with rendering at times, and disabled all 3-D capabilities of my NVIDIA video card.  A new recent NVIDIA driver update also seemed to help some but I still get the ocassional crash so I intend to look into the suggested Black Viper Win 7 Process info (which I have also done in the past to eliminate some processes running in the background) because there are still dozens of Processes runing on my computer all the time and perhaps some or many of them can be disabled.  Thanks for the continued posts on this very frustrating subject of PE9 crashes -- I am sure many of us users are benefiting from the suggestions.

[the_wine_snob]

Because video editing is one of the most intense operations that one is likely to perform on a computer, the cleaner, leaner and meaner the system, the better the editing experience will be. Even on a workstation, designed to edit video, keeping the processes and programs to a minimum will enhance that experience.

Good luck and thank you for reporting your success.

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Here are some more Win7 tips, provided by John T. Smith: http://windowssecrets.com/comp/110127

Just scroll down past the ads.

Good luck,

Hunt

[Bob Dix Photographer]

Hi Bill,

Followed tips re ARTICLE and "RUNNING OUT OF MEMORY" in Premiere Elements has not re-appeared in recent productions  ???????????????

I really do not know what single change, changed the situation,but, thanks for info.

[the_wine_snob]

Bob,

Great news. Sometimes we never know what the root cause of something was, or what fixed it - having it fixed might be "as good as it gets."

Happy editing,

Hunt

[the_wine_snob]

Here is another link, furnished by John T. Smith: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/220753/windows_7_godmode_tips_tricks_tweaks.html

Hope this helps,

Hunt