PE2 System Memory Problem

[Peter]

First project on PE2 went flawlessly. Second project, system problems. 1) Constantly lose control of USB camera in device Capture mode. Have to close out of program and re-start. During capture and edit I get alarm window that system memory is really low, soon after that PE2 shuts down. FWIW, project 2 is a copy of project 1. Regarding my PC > 2.8g Pentium 4, 1.5g memory, dedicated 250gb HD for video 45% full, always defragged. Windows startup menu is virtually empty so no unnecessary CPU usage. No other programs running other than Norton. Only thing I have done recently was UN-installed a K-Lite Codec pack that kept loading ffdshow on my edit project. Cant remember if the problems started before or after that uninstall. Any help would be much appreciated!

[Steve Grisetti]

Well, the first thing we always recommend is to remove all things Norton. The antivirus is bad enough, but the other stuff -- including SystemWorks -- is downright viral!

As an alternative, load AVG, arguably the best, and least intrusive, antivirus software available. They even offer a free version that's more than worth every penny!
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/products-avg ... n/us/crp/2

Since things apparently used to work on your system but no longer do, try clearing a few things. Starting the program while holding down Ctrl+Alt+Shift will redirect all devices, in most cases, back to Premiere Elements. If that doesn't work, try launching the program while holding down Ctrl. This clears the preferences, which sometimes get corrupted over time.

And, if nothing else, UPDATE YOUR GRAPHICS CARD AND AUDIO DRIVERS. Don't trust Windows Update to do it. And don't go to your computer manufacturer's site. Go to the web sites of the companies that made the cards (i.e., nVidia, ATI) and download the latest from there. That solves more problems that you'd expect.

There are other things to do, but that gets about 95% of the problems.

I'm not sure how you're capturing via USB though, as Premiere Elements (despite what it says on the box) won't capture USB on any but the few JVC camcorders that use the near-extinct USB Video Standard output. Are you really capturing over USB into Premiere Elements?

[William Tranter]

Definitely agree about updating graphics drivers! I couldn't get the GPU effects or transitions on my computer until I e-mailed Matrox (who produce the Parhelia 128 card which I use) for an update - even their update site didn't show this latest version, but having downloaded it my computer now does everything, and very well too!
You mention that your drive is 45% full - don't you clear out your drive after each project? It's a good idea to do so unless you have a project which is still on-going. Lots of defrags. help, too.
It's worth noting that your system memory tends to get clogged up with stuff while editing using Premiere Elements - why, I don't know - sloppy programming? The way to clear it out is to re-start your computer if everything begins to slow down (or even stop). You won't lose your position as this is saved by PrEl. when you close down. This has helped me in the past when I've had lots of clips requiring lots of rendering, which sure uses up lots of temporary memory space, and this is cleared out when you shut down the computer (I'm not sure if the temp. memory is cleared out if you only shut down the program, Steve can answer that far better than me!).
Anyway, take note of Steve's replies - he's definitely THE MAN when it comes to video editing, computing and all things technical!
All the best,
Bill

[Peter]

OK, I'll try those ideas.

To answer Steve's question > I am a newbie to all of this but I have a Panasonic GS-150. I plugged it in via USB, set capture to USB device, did not (could not) select the specific camera but was able to capture and control the camera with the PE2 screen controls.

To answer Bill's question > I have not cleard my HD. This is only my second project. Now, maybe this will shed some more light on the issue. The second project is a copy of the first because I wanted to use many of the same clips, effects. I took Steve's good advice and copied the project versus starting from scratch. I then deleted the majority of the time line, moved clips around, captured new clips, etc and thats when I have had the problems.

Newbie question: When I see a clip in the media panel, does the actual clip reside there or is the media panel linking to the clip residing somewhere else on the HD? So when I copy a project and all the clips in the media panel, have I actually just doubled all my files? When you are done with a project, do you save the clips on a DVD or CD or just delete them for good?

[Blips]

OK, I'll try those ideas.

To answer Steve's question > I am a newbie to all of this but I have a Panasonic GS-150. I plugged it in via USB, set capture to USB device, did not (could not) select the specific camera but was able to capture and control the camera with the PE2 screen controls.

I have the same camera and found the USB connection not reliable as you described already, if the connection drops you can start all over again a frustrating process.

Therefore I bought a PCI Firewire-card on eBay ($14-$16) and a connector cable ($6 IEEE 1394) and It always connects and stays connected since then, transfer is also faster then USB maybe that is the cause of the connection drop anyway now it works great every time. (Used this with PE2 and now PE3)

You are not able to specify this camera in PE2 or PE3 that is correct.

[Chuck Engels]

Even with camcorder models that have the USB video class 1.0 capability, as yours obviously has, it is better to capture via firewire as Blips says above. I would also agree with Blips suggestion that you get a firewire card and cable, I got one at Best Buy for $12, just a simple 2 or 4 port card that is OHCI compliant and preferrably has the Texas Instrument chipset.

[Peter]

Once again Steve's little tricks work magic! Updated video driver and holding down CTRL the next time I started got rid of the problem. Thanks! Any responses to my question re: media panel, file locations, etc?

[Chuck Engels]

Newbie question: When I see a clip in the media panel, does the actual clip reside there or is the media panel linking to the clip residing somewhere else on the HD? So when I copy a project and all the clips in the media panel, have I actually just doubled all my files? When you are done with a project, do you save the clips on a DVD or CD or just delete them for good?

The clips are on your hard drive, normally in the same folder as your project file. The Media Panel shows a thumbnail of the file, that's all.

When you copy the project as another name you are just creating a new project file, not all of the clips that are in that project. You can use the same clips in as many projects as you want to, that is one of the great things about Non Linear Editing, it does not actually do anything to the original file.

For archiving you might want to check out http://videoinasnap.chuckengels.com/sou ... tstars.htm

A lot of questions can be answered with the Premiere Elements 2 In A Snap book available at http://www.chuckengels.com it applies to all versions, not just version 2