Win95B v. Win98SE & the MSPro 5.2 Preview Window.

[Merv Wilson]

Having just upgraded from Win95B to Win98SE - in MSPro 5.2 Video Editor - one clip is inserted on the timeline. I click & hold down left mouse button - asterisk appears on the timeline scale. How long before the image appears in the Preview Window ?

With Win95B the image it took from between 3 or 4 seconds to appear. With Win98SE it takes 12 - 13 seconds. Can anyone explain this anomaly. One would have expected Win98 to be quicker. These results have been done on the same computer. Be grateful for any comments.

What do I have to do to make the image appear quicker ? When you're trying to edit fast, it's a real hang-up & time-waster waiting for the wretched image to appear in the Preview window.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

Merv Wilson

[This_Idiot]

Well check out the FAQs at the site, they may help
www.desktopvideoworld.com

[Brian Ellis]

Merv

There is a quirk in 98SE (perhaps other Wins, as well). If you activate DMA from within Windows, it deactivates it on any re-installation. Check in Control Panel that you still have the DMA activated. You may also need to make sure your vcache values in System.ini are fixed, at about 20-25% of your RAM size. The re-installation may have deleted them back to default. It is better to reformat your C: disk and reinstall 98SE as a clean O/S. The transfer of upgrading from 95 leaves some terrible legacies in the registry. There is no way of removing these other than a clean reinstall, unless you are prepared to spend the next ten years going through the registry line by line and finding out what is valid and what isn't. Finally, be aware that 98 is a "heavier" O/S on resources than 95, so you have to make sure that everything is optimised, particularly your swap file which should be well defragged.

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Brian (the terrible)

[Merv Wilson]

Thanks for that fellas! I feared as much, a complete re-install of Windows 98 would probably be best instead of the upgrade, W95 to W98. But first I'll try the FAQs before taking the plunge.
I was trying to avoid having to wipe everything off when all the other applications that I use on the puter will have to reloaded & customised as per my current setup.
DMA is still enabled though & playback from the Matrox PC-VCR is as smooth as it was before with W95. Trim Window grabs the pix almost instantly - it is just the clicking on the timeline as a precursor to 'scrubbing' - then the interminable wait for the pix in the Preview that is the pain!

Merv

[This_Idiot]

Merv,

Thanks for bringing the difference in performance between W95 and W98 to our attention - I certainly wasn't aware of it.

The FAQ's do have a couple of hints on how to reduce that damned delay before scrubbing. My favourite is to double-click one of the clips which brings up a scratchpad. You can then minimise the scratchpad window (or move it out of the way), but it will keep the codec open, saving that delay.

Good luck

Chris

[Merv Wilson]

Chris, many thanks for that simple, oh so simple, remedy. The Scratch Pad keeps the codec open! And it works a treat. You can slide the minimised scratch pad out of the way until it is just visible, (I normally work with the Preview Window on the left side & the Trim Window on the right leaving plenty of room for the edit). Now I can work really fast, thanks again.

Merv

[This_Idiot]

No worries

It's my favourite tip, so easy that even I can't get it wrong. I use it all the time myself.