Help! Just got a great video camera (JVC Harddrive mem.) and my laptop seems like it's too slow to handle it!!

Question

When I go to edit the video it's very choppy - I think it has to do with the high speed connection - but how do I get the speed I need if I don't have it?? Can y'all tell I'm computer illeterate? Thanks for any help everyone :)
Could it be the software? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

There could be a number of factors affecting the performance during editing:

1. USB versus firewire - USB is just too slow for any video work. If your not using Firewire, that could be the bigest source of the problem.

2. editing software - some editor are better than others. Also depending on how you captured the video (did you?) to your PC's hard drive, the video may appear poor in the editor but when you compile it, it will be OK. I loke Pinnacle Studio for editing because it test the links you plan on using and will tell you if they are going to be OK or poor performers.

3. Unless you have a recent laptop, it's probably not up to the job of editing video - not enough processor, memory or dirve space. I recommend a 3GHz CPU, 1 Gb Ram and 2 HD of 160Gb as a minimum configuration.