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1/. I own a Sony DVD camera with USB connection and "Picture Package" software; 2g Celeron with 160 GB HDD and 512 RAM, Win XP.
2/. I use Windows Movie Maker to make .wmv files.
3/. It's slow, and often locks up.
4/.(a) What hardware specs should I buy?
(b) What software?
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Greetings,
Solution:
To stop Windows movie maker from locking up i suggest all you do is buy 1 more stick of ram so go from 512 to 1g+ and you will no longer experiance problems.
Price: $40
alternatively i suggest you use better movie editing software assuming editing is what you want to do, i suggest Adobe After Effects or Sony Vegas Pro, If you whant to take option 2 it will cost more in upgrades the minimal specs for After effects is hight and Vegas is not much better.
# intel® Pentium® 4, Intel Centrino®, Intel Xeon®, or Intel Core Duo (or compatible) processor
# 1GB of RAM for DV; 2GB of RAM for HDV and HD
Keep in mind that is industry standard software for editing movies. (easily add light saber effects and many cool things.)
Regards,
Scott
Will work for peanuts!!! <----
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Scottie, I upgraded the computer!
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4
4 Gb RAM
Vista 64
500 G HDD plus 500 external
Windows rating 5.0
Made a huge difference!
Might go get the Sony software now
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With the PC upgrade I will add a few suggestions..
Firstly you should start using something a little better for your video editing - download the Adobe Premier trial and see if you like it.
Also I would get a firewire card (or a motherboard with firewire built in) and pick up a firewire cable so that you can transfer better quality and faster.
My suggestions aren't all that expensive, should only cost you around $80.
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Thanks, Evad, will try the trial software.
Unfortunately, though the computer has Firewire, the Sony Handycam doesn't. which surprised me!
Adobe premier is more than $80...
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Years ago, our family was 100% Apple.
I wrote and maintained several programs which we all used.
Then an add-on became available; before buying it, I enquired how it communicated with the program (mainly in Pascal) so that I could adapt our programs to use it.
The beautiful "Receptionist Cenre" lady in the Apple shop replied "I know nothing about programming. But there are programs in the box"
I answered "I just need to know one sentence out of the manual in the box"
"I know nothing about programming!"
Eventually, we graduated to talking to Apple HQ at Ryde in Sydney.
Once again "I know hothing about programming! You need to speak to a technician"
By this time, two weeks has been spent in shop visits and phone calls.
(now 9 am)
"OK, how do I speak to a technician?"
"I'll ask one to ring you"
At 4 pm I rang back.
"When might the technician be able to ring me?"
"Oh, I spoke to him. He says the programs won't work with the add-on, because they would have been written before it was available"
"You did not tell him what I asked, did you?"
"Yes, you had these programs, and would they work with the add-on"
"No, listen. Me heap clever; me write program; me maintain program; me need know this one thing - how does add-on communicate with program"
"It's no use getting sarcastic with me!"
OK, obviously no way through Apple's defenses to get the info I wanted.
(BTW, it turned out to be "input #5" just like all the other devices)
A call to the local paper, an advert, and 6 computers sold in 2 hrs the next Saturday.
A visit to another store, and I explained what I was trying to do.
The owner called out "Charlie" and a 14 yr old appeared from the back room. "Listen to this"
Charlie listened as he sat down. Fingers flashed over the keyboard and "You mean something like this?"
"Yes" I said.
"You buying one of these?"
"Yes"
A floppy disk, a few more finger flashes:
"Code's on the disc. Should be able to fit it into Basic, Pascal or C"
"Thanks"
And that's why our family gave up Apple; Apple's religion of that time dictated that they not discuss nasty technical things with happy intuitive customers.
