Before you ask a question, spend some time reading the tutorials and reviews (hardware and software) here http://www.videohelp.com The videohelp site also discusses many TOOLS to help convert files or to determine the Codec of a file, so spend some time reading there before you proceed Another place to read a LOT of video editing information, including tips on how to optimize your version of Windows (use their SEARCH function, enter the word TWEAK) http://www.videoguys.com/dtvhome.html Information about TWEAKING your computer for video http://www.videoguys.com/Windows_Tips.html Xp1 http://www.videoguys.com/TweaksWINXPVE.html Xp2 http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP2.html W2k http://www.videoguys.com/Win2K_Tweaks.html A Codec swap tool - http://httpd.chello.nl/~p.bekke Links to discussion Forums and other help sites are below, but first read the next section to have some idea of what you need to know BEFORE asking questions If you still need help, this is the information to provide when you ask for help at a video editing forum Motherboard Brand/Model and, VERY IMPORTANT, the brand of support chip... some support chips do not work well with some brands of analog-to-digital capture cards, so you need to give this information with your question (for instance... my Pinnacle Dv500 capture card is well known to be "picky" about motherboard and chipset, so I made sure to choose a vendor which used the Intel D875 support chipset [this on an Intel D875pbz motherboard]) Operating system and update level... I used Windows 2000 at level SP2... which could be important because the SP4 update to Win2000 caused problems for some capture cards, and a working Windows XP system MAY stop working when an update is applied (the SP2 update to WinXp is good case of this, where parts of Xp were not just updated, they were changed with totally new code) UPDATE - I now use Windows XP Professional SP1a and will NEVER go to SP2 due to the many documented problems with video editing Brand and model and driver level for analog-to-digital capture card... I use a Pinnacle Dv500 with their 4.50 driver, and the 4.5a update... placed in PCI slot 3 on MY motherboard, to be sure the Dv500 is in a slot which does not share an IRQ with any other device... this non sharing of IRQ is CRITICAL for good performance!! Brand and model and driver level for video card... I use a Gforce2 video card with Nvidia chipset... AND, due to compatibility testing done by Pinnacle to find out what works best with their card, I use an older version 43.45 video card driver from the Nvidia web site archives (I have again updated, and now use an ATI Radeon 9600xt to have more video memory and faster operation) Hard drive information... I have a 20gig C: drive I use for ALL SOFTWARE and a 100gig D: drive for ALL VIDEO (I actually have 3 different data drives of 100/120/250 capacity, which I switch/swap as needed... I also have 4 different 20gig boot drives which I switch/swap for whatever work I am doing at the time... drive sway bays are WONDERFUL to use!) I have TWO C: drive types... one with my day to day software, including firewall and antivirus, and one with ONLY Windows and the video editing software... made easy by using a StarTech brand SNT127ABK base unit which goes in the computer case, and two 127ACADDYBK drawers so I may switch boot drives as needed (available many places, I bought mine at http://www.provantage.com) Partitioning one physical drive into two or more logical drives does not work well... there is still only one set of read/write heads, and when Windows needs to update the swap file, or any other "housekeeping" chores, that one set of read/write heads must move away from the video file... and that will cause capture or playback problems You should also have each hard drive as the Primary on a separate IDE channel (ribbon cable) for best performance (I have C: drive and DVD, D: and Zip on the other cable) Finally, you need to provide information on the CODEC you are using for your editing... since not all codecs are actually designed for editing, some are output only A video codec is simply a software device driver, like the software you must install to run a video display card so you may see the computer output on a monitor http://www.surefiretutorials.com/editingcodecs.html If you are dropping frames while capturing or doing a Firewire transfer, or your video is "jumpy" you either have a software problem (something that is running in the background is "stealing" computer resources, which could even be Windows itself as it updates the swap file) or your hardware is not optimized and you should go to the videoguys link above and "Tweak" your PC Or... you are trying to use Premiere to edit a Codec which is designed for output only... Premiere does not do well editing an indexed type of file, such as: MPEG = Motion Picture Experts Group, which is simply a long way of saying "a movie to be played" and therefore this file specification is not, at least for Premiere, a file to be edited... it is an OUTPUT-TO-PLAY file Read - http://tangentsoft.net/video/mpeg/edit.html DivX is a variation on the Mpeg-4 specification, so is also not suited for editing in Premiere If something goes "odd" in Premiere, you may go back to the "stock" settings by holding Ctrl+Shift when opening Some notes on how to set up a video editing computer (information gathered over many months of reading at the Premiere and Pinnacle forums, plus a few bits I discovered on my own when things didn't work right) First, a couple of terms Analog video is CAPTURED using special hardware on some brand/model of capture card (I use a Pinnacle DV500) or by means of an external conversion device which accepts an analog signal and outputs a digital signal (I have no real information on this type of device, since I bought a computer with an analog capture card, but the general idea is that the external device, after conversion, sends a signal to a Firewire card to be saved on the computer, this type of device includes some DV camcorders) According to messages on the Dv500 support forum, the AVI file created by the Dv500 when capturing an analog input is not only converted to digital, it is somewhat compressed at the same time, to the DV25 standard This DV25 compression is NOT the same as a pure output format as mentioned above (mpeg or divx) and is suitable for editing in a program such as Premiere (in fact, the Dv500 I bought came bundled with Premiere 6.0) Most VCR's output an analog signal, as do older cameras (using a composite [coax cable] or S-Video connector on a VCR is merely a hardware choice, the signal is analog since the signal is formatted for a TV, not a computer) Digital video from a new(er) camcorder is TRANSFERRED from camcorder to computer using a FIREWIRE card (I have read that some new(er) VCR's also have a Firewire output as well as the usual analog signal like that sent to a TV, but I do not have one so can't say how they work) There are also external analog-to-digital converters -such as- Canopus ADVC-100 or Canopus ADVC-300 http://www.videoguys.com/canopus.htm Firewire cards cost less than analog capure cards since they are simply a transfer device, much like a serial port, and do not contain the extra cost hardware to convert a signal from one format to another, they simply allow an existing digital signal to transfer from a DV camcorder Once the signal is saved on a hard drive, you may edit AVI = Audio Video Interleave, which is the specification for how a video file is made... but different software will create an AVI file with subtle changes... the Dv500 I use creates an AVI file that is specific to the CODEC that comes with the card, and will not play on another computer which does not have the Pinnacle software (a follow up note... the version 4x Pinnacle software now creates an AVI file which may be played on a different computer... you MAY need to update Direct X to 8 or 9 ?) Adobe Premiere (OLD version through 6.5) Forum http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.ee6b372 Premiere (OLD version through 6.5) Forum SEARCH http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?126@129.ohb1dU1rxs8.5372665@.ee6b372 Premiere 6.5 mpeg updates from Main Concept are at http://www.mainconcept.com/adobempeg/downloads.html Adobe Premiere PRO (new & different) Forum http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@129.v3vHdUPrubf.2749053@.1de9c1bf Adobe Premiere PRO (new & different) Forum SEARCH http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?126@641.AvH4dfKZXot.834638@.1de9c1bf Adobe Encore Forum http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.1de98ec0 Adobe Encore Forum SEARCH http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?126@641.95fUdrQIEb2.483858@.1de98ec0 Encore discussion of "Burning Error Proof DVDs" http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?128@385.Md3OeCb8tJW.60@.3bb8b0bf Encore site for Tips & Tutorials http://studio.adobe.com/search/search?f=m&product=24 Another Encore site for Tips & Tutorials http://www.adobeevangelists.com/encore/ Buy Encore CHEAP but ONLY if you work in Education http://www.studica.com/products/product_detail.cfm?productid=7409 Wrigley Video Tutorials for Encore http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial/tut_encore.htm Low cost (some are FREE) menu templates for Encore http://www.videogears.com/ Encore book reviews http://www.editorsbin.com/adobe/index.html#encore Wes Howell site for Encore help http://www.weshowell.com/ Pinnacle Dv500 forum is now closed to NEW messages since the product is no longer sold, but you may still search and read all the old messages at the old forum http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=4&SectionID=12&lng=1 Dv500 version 4.50 driver location http://www.pinnaclesys.com/support/display.asp?ProductID=321&DocTypesID=14 Dv400 version 4.5a patch location (MUST HAVE!!!) http://www.pinnaclesys.com/supportfiles/DV500_45a.zip or http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docsupport1.asp?division_id=8&langue_id=7&product_id=564&product_name=&page_id=522 Adobe Premiere Elements Products Page http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/main.html Premiere Elements is a sub-set of Premiere Pro, plus parts of Encore for DVD writing, with a forum at http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.3bb574e6 Go to this link (and bookmark this site) since it is a very good place to find help for Windows error messages http://search.microsoft.com/search/search.aspx?st=b&View=en-us A note on the capacity of a 4.7 Gigabyte DVD, posted in the Premiere user-to-user forum by Jeff Bellune http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@129.QpoYaELjMYQ.0@.1de8699d/3 I hope this sheds some light on the 4.7GB thing. The reported capacity of a single-sided, single-layer DVD is 4.7GB. That is 4,700,000,000 bytes. But a "real" Gigabyte is 1,024 bytes to the third power, or 1,024*1,024*1,024 bytes. 1,024 bytes cubed is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes. That is a real Gigabyte. How many real GBs can you fit on a 4,700,000,000 byte DVD? It turns out that it is 4.38. Or, as you have seen reported, 4.4 GB. Lower your bitrate for either video or audio or both to create file sizes that are less than 4.4 GB (real gigabytes) and you should do OK An AVI file is, at least for my DV500 codec, considered to be a "full frame" file where each frame is complete, so each and every one of the 29.97 frames per second is a full video frame with all of the picture information, so each frame may be edited without the software having to consider any previous or following frame An MPEG file is a "referenced" file where a "key" frame is followed by some number of "reference" frames, with only the information in the reference frame which has changed from the key frame... which is why mpeg files do not edit well in Premiere (I don't know much about mpeg files and editing, since I only use mpeg as output when I am ready to create a DVD-R movie, so you'll need to do your own searching for more information to edit mpeg) Before you start editing video, you need hardware that is powerful enough to work with full pages of video and sound... at 29.97 pages/frames per second (US standard) Some suggestions for how you configure your computer Minimum 1gHz processor with minimum 512meg of Ram, more speed is nice if you have the $$$ and want to have a lot faster "render" but this speed does OK on a budget (my renders, so far, have been at 2-for-1 or faster, so I start a render of an hour of video and go do something else for the "about" two hours the process will take) 2 hard drives, C: for software D: for video files, each hard drive to be set as PRIMARY on a separate controller, set your CD/DVD or Zip drive as SECONDARY on either controller, set DMA to be ON (if you do not understand any of these terms, go buy a book on Windows, such as "Windows for Dummies" and READ) If you have Win2000 or WinXP format your video file drive with the NTFS file system so you won't hit up against the 4gig file size limit of FAT32 files Even with an NTFS drive, you need to use a Codec written to the OpenDML standard for >4gig video files You MAY get good results with a 5400rpm drive, I use two 7200rpm drives to be sure the drives will accept the incoming video stream without dropping frames Video files are HUGE... my 1st project, a 90 minute home video, took about 25gig for the "raw" files and another 25gig for the "rendered" files to then play the finished movie back out to VHS tape... so be sure to buy a BIG hard drive for your video files (I have a 100gig capture drive... enough for one project and then I have to remove all files to do a new project) Find a site for the hardware/software you plan to use, and verify that it will all work together, such as these sites for Premiere and hardware, also know that Premiere device control works via Firewire, not USB, If your camera is not listed, try a "generic" or try another model of the same brand http://www.adobe.com/support/products/premiere.html or http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/main.html or http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/6cards.html Run MSCONFIG (Win98 or WinXp) to be sure that other software is not running in the background (such as an anti-virus program) which WILL cause dropped frames win2k does not have msconfig, so go here http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml You may NOT, with Premiere at least, do ANYTHING else with your computer while capturing or transferring a video file... Premiere requires 100% of your computer and will stop if you attempt to do anything else Here's a list of places to read video editing reviews/help and links http://www.abcdv.com video hardware reviews and sales http://www.videoguys.com (they only have reviews for what they sell, but a pretty good place to get information and they have fairly good prices on "bundles" of hardware and software) reviews/ratings by users... NOT magazine writers http://www.consumerreview.com/index.asp http://www.epinions.com pc magazine articles on video editing and dvd creation http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,4148,652761,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,6377,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1902,00.asp http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,842098,00.asp a dvd faq http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html Digital Video Tutorial(s) http://www.stevengotz.com/premiere.htm http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial http://www.adobe.com/motion/events/pdfs/dvprimer.pdf http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-editing.htm http://www.tascam.com/products/computer_recording/W2k_XP_Optimize.pdf how to create mpeg from Premiere http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0165394101/Premiere_AVISynth_TMPGEnc.html a plug-in to create mpeg from premiere $58 has a plug-in for Premiere 6x http://www.cinemacraft.com/eng/ccebasic.html -or- $48 standalone only http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tp.html download to fix one of the missing codec problems http://information.adobe.com/cgi-bin1/DM?y=eZK20F14o50ECv0FRvb0Ax program to fix the -1 project corruption in Premiere http://www.xs4all.nl/~jhariot/html/premiere.html Microsoft's free Media Encoder to produce Windows Media streams http://microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp Microsoft's free Movie Maker if you run Windows XP http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx automatically cut incoming video capture into pieces http://www.scenalyzer.com/main.html premiere support forum http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.ee6b372 premiere PRO support forum http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@129.ngT5cJvxEfC.0@.1de9c1bf dv500 support forum (some Premiere as relate to dv500) http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=4&SectionID=12&ProductID=321&SubDocTypesID=96 mydvd support forum (came with Pioneer A04) http://forums.sonic.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi Here is the current List of Free Articles at http://videouniversity.com/article2.htm About "software X" being compatible with a capture card that is shipped with install drivers for "software Y" In general, a hardware vendor signs a contract to bundle some brand/model of video editing software when they sell a video capture card aimed at a particular "market" (this is usually based on price, so a card aimed at a hobby user will have one level of software, and a card aimed at a professional will have a different level of software... with the "prosumer" somewhere in between) Once the hardware maker signs a bundling agreement, they set about customizing their device driver (aka - CODEC) to work with their card and with that ONE software package For my card (Pinnacle DV500) that means that during the device driver install it looks for ONLY Premiere, and it then places "hooks" into Premiere so Premiere will know about the device driver and will use the dv500's device driver to capture and edit... note that premiere must be installed FIRST, so the codec software may see premiere when it is installed, to place the "hooks" inside premiere The fact that the dv500 codec saves files as AVI does not have ANYTHING to do with the "internals" of the file, as AVI is simply a file TYPE meaning Audio-Video-Interleave and it is then the particular codec that allows programs to "see" the internals of the particular file for editing Which is just a long way of saying that an AVI file you capture with "hardware X" is not going to have the exact same internal file structure as an AVI made with my dv500 Using "SoftwareX" with a card that came with other software may be as simple as manually editing "SoftwareX"'s options so it will "see" the card's device driver... but I don't know how that is done in premiere... and I also do not know how a particular card's software device driver (codec) will then work with premiere (directly editing software configuration files, or the Windows Registry, is not something I do, so I may not give any advice in that area) For a Pinnacle card, go to this link and select your product, and ask if anyone else has figured out using Premiere with that card http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com More about the "Disk Full" error message from Premiere http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@129.Rx4Oae54MPk.0@.1de8c49d John Acocks - 07:52am Apr 17, 2003 Pacific I am unable to complete captures because I get a message that says "capture stopped because disk was full." What does this mean? Daniel Conklin - 08:02am Apr 17, 2003 Pacific (#1 of 2) If you are using a Pinnacle card, a possible solution to this is to right click on the recycle bin, and set the percentage on your media drive to less than 2%. There a several other possible causes as well, but you need to supply some info about your system. How are you capturing and what format is your video? How big is your hard drive? Jeff Schell - 09:57am Apr 17, 2003 Pacific (#2 of 2) this is one of my favorite error messages. Basically, you've chosen an incorrect setting in your DV settings. (Odds are you have DV settings). If so, read on: 1. The DV format is very rigid. Meaning that if you make changes to the format, it cannot export as requested, because your movie file must match every single spec exactly. 2. When Premiere goes to export a project, the DV codec says "Whoa. I can't do anything, because the settings don't match." 3. Then Premiere comes back to you and has to report an error. (Don't shoot the messenger). Unfortunately, Premiere doesn't know why it wasn't able to export a movie. So it says to you, "Um... I can't make the movie. Um... maybe your hard drives are full?" It's a complete guess. And has nothing to do with your harddrives. Check your project settings and/or your export settings. Make sure you have chosen one of the "presets" that will specify every correct setting for you. Make sure it is one of the DV presets, if you are using DV video, or make sure it is one of the presets supplied by your capture card manufacturer (in this case I'm going to guess Pinnacle or Matrox.) To choose a preset, go to Project > Settings Viewer, and then click on the project settings column, and then click 'load' to load a correct preset. Do the same with export settings. a better (according to the article) add/remove program http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,541133,00.asp (but, PC Magazine now charges for downloads) go here, click on Video, my experiences http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith Last updated 08-07-2004 From gdavisloop@earthlink.net Thu Jun 30 06:02:16 2005 Newsgroups: rec.video.satellite.dbs Subject: DirecTV TiVo: Upgrade your Hard Drive From: gdavisloop@earthlink.net (Gary Davis) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:02:16 GMT One of the best things about TiVo is that it is relatively easy to upgrade to a larger hard drive or two hard drives. This upgrade has been around for years and is therefore very mature (reliable). There are several ways to upgrade. A company called www.weaknees.com will sell you upgrade kits or already upgraded TiVos. But they also run a website called www.upgrade-instructions.com that gives you step-by-step instructions for every model TiVo! There is another company called www.9thtee.com that sells parts such as mounting brackets for a second hard drive, Ethernet kits, etc. You can easliy get about 120 hours of full DirecTV quality or more than 250 hours with two hard drives. Unbelievably, I bought a 120GB hard drive today from Circuit City for $16 (after beating Fry's ad for $20). This is one of the best reasons to chose TiVo. --Gary