Maintaining a Stable Editing Workstation
In a perfect world, all software programs would run smoothly on all computers, but if you're at this page, you probably know that it's not a perfect world. I work with many editors on a daily basis, and find that they all run more effectively if you follow these rules.
I've compiled this data onto one page to get it done fast, as opposed to designing the most elegant interface. If you're viewing this page on a dial up connection, it will take a few minutes to load due to large screenshots throughout.
My first tip is to disconnect unnecessary peripherals, especially those that share the same connection as your DVD drive. For example, if you have a scanner or web cam that connects via USB, and your DVD drive is a USB drive, I would disconnect or even permanently install the scanner or web cam if I had the option to use them on another computer.
Then I would jump in to rule number 1 which is clearly the most important in my view.
A brief promotional note. If you're running Pinnacle your video editor, and are having problems completing your projects, you might consider purchasing the your video editor 9 Visual QuickStart Guide shown on the right, which contains more tips for stable operation and workarounds for problems like an inability to write back to tape or disc burning failures. If you find the information on this page helpful, hopefully you will find that book even more helpful.
Jan Ozer
Rules for Maintaining a Stable Editing Workstation
Rule Number 1: Use a StartUp Manager to limit the amount of background programs running on your computer (Click here for MSConfig/Click here for Startup Cop)
Rule Number 2: Use EndItAll to clean up background programs that your Startup Manager doesn't get
Rule Number 3: Assign your video editor a high priority in Windows Task Manager
Rule Number 4: Disable Background Rendering
What are they and why do I need one?: Startup managers control the programs that get loaded when you boot your computer. You may not be aware of it, but generally, there are dozens of programs that load each time you boot, and many function similarly to cholesterol in that they clog you systems RAM and choke performance. your video editor seems particularly susceptible to instability when there are many programs running in the background.
Some of these programs are good and necessary. For example, anti-virus software runs in the background, checking all files for viruses. On the other hand, programs like QuickTime and RealOne and others load in the background, primarily so the players will load 10 milliseconds faster than they would if the background programs aren't loaded.
How do I know I have a problem?: Generally, if you have lots of icons in your startup tray on the bottom of your Windows Taskbar, it's a bad sign. Each of these is a program running in the background.
Also, if you hit Ctrl, Alt and Delete simultaneously (the old three finger salute) in most newer versions of Windows, you'll see the Windows Task Manager. Click the Processes tab and you'll see what's running on your computer at that time.
In my Windows Task Manager, shown for my Dell laptop above, there are many, many programs I can definitely live without, including realsched.exe (Real Networks), qttask.exe (QuickTime), and a ton of others of completely unknown origin. This looks crowded, but it's not, compare this to a screen a buddy sent me from his computer.
This is the business end of Startup Cop, a utility from PC Magazine, also discussed below.
Here we see programs from MusicMatch, Apple, Fred's Software, Intuit, Adobe, Microsoft Office and Microtek. And this doesn't show most of the Microsoft services that would be showing if he ran Windows Task Manager. Once again, a startup manager gives you control over which of these programs load when you boot your computer. While it's hard to say which of these might impact your video editor, I can say with certainty that you'll have a much better chance of running smoothly without them.
What is it?: MSConfig is a startup utility that ships with most, but not all versions of Windows. For example, it doesn't run on any of my Windows 2000 computers, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it working on XP.
What can it do for me?: It makes it simple to disable many of the programs that load in the background when you boot Windows.
Where do I get it?: Click Start > Run and type msconfig. If it's on your system, you should see this screen:
Click to the startup tab to see this screen:
These are startup items that are loading now every time I boot my system. If I click the checkbox to clear the check, and them press OK, they won't load anymore.
How do I know which to disable?: The only real way to tell is to disable the item and see if your computer keeps running. I would guess that 95% of the programs that show up here can be disabled with little impact. For example, during normal operation virtually all of these are disabled on this laptop, and it actually runs more smoothly, which I guess is not so surprising.
I'm especially aggressive with programs that impact my CD or DVD-ROM drives, like background programs that provide the ability to drag and drop files to a CD/DVD Recorder as if it was a disk drive. These programs, commonly called DLA for drive letter access programs, are notorious for disturbing the operation of authoring and other programs that access the CD/DVD writer. If you have pre-mastering software from Roxio (like the DirectCD showing above), Sonic, Veritas, Nero or similar companies, chances are you have a DLA component running and it can make your video editor unstable.
Obviously, virus protection and firewall programs need to keep running so long as your computer is connected to the Internet. However, in most other instances, if I know what the program is (like the Microtek scanner in my buddy's Startup cop configuration), I take a very aggressive stance and just disable it. You can always reverse it later if your computer starts acting up by running MSConfig again and checking the program.
What about those other tabs like Boot.ini and services?: I don't touch SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI and BOOT.INI, but let's have a look at services. Services are programs that conform to the interface rules of the Service Control Manager (SCM), which means that you can stop, start and control them through Windows XP's component services tool. You can also access these in MSConfig.
Here are some of the ones running on my computer:
Many of these I've stopped using the Windows XP administrative tools, like the Macromedia licensing service, and the NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing. In general, however, I'm much more reticent about shutting down services because unlike standalone applications, services often rely on and support other services. So unless you really know what you're doing (in which case you probably wouldn't be reading this anyway), I wouldn't mess with a lot of these.
Why would I consider anything other than MSConfig?: Good question. Probably the best reason is that it can't set up profiles that let you easily switch from one configuration to another. If you're editing in your video editor and decide things work best with all background apps shut down, your firewall and virus protection disabled (and network connection pulled), you can create a profile that does this. When you're not editing and want all this stuff enabled, you can create a profile for this, as well.
I also could use a bit more information before making the decision to stop these programs from running. As you would guess, the program we're about to discuss, Startup Cop Pro, can create startup profiles and provides more data about each program.
What is it?: Startup Cop is a startup utility developed for PC Magazine by Neil J. Rubenking, and you can find information about the program here. Note that you may have to pay some nominal fee (under $20.00) to download the program.
What can it do for me?: Startup Cop makes it easy to identify what each program does and to create profiles of different boot settings for different environments and uses of your computer.
Here's Startup Cop Pro running on my Dell Laptop. Click any program, and a box pops up, usually, but not always populated with information about what the program does and the identity of its developer. On the bottom left, you see information about where the program location, which also helps you figure out where it's from and what it does.
I love my Logitech QuickCAM Orbit, but use it about once every couple of weeks, and definitely won't miss this driver the rest of the time. To disable it, I can press the Disable button in the upper right, or right click and choose disable.
Once I make my adjustments, I can save these specific settings in a new profile, like that shown above (Editing with your video editor). I can have a different profile for home, on the road or in the office, or one for video editing or game play. I even have a special profile for video conferencing, which allows me to quickly reboot and have all the necessary programs load.
OK, I'm going to disable all the programs shown in StartupCop Pro and then see what's still running on my computer. To excise these last few remaining programs, we'll use a free utility called EndItAll.
What is it?: EnditAll is another utility developed by Neil J. Rubenking that you can download for free here. Here's what it found running on my computer after rebooting from StartupCop.
Still lots of services running, let's see which ones it will let us kill. I'll start at the top, with the Broadcom ASF IP monitoring service, essentially a network related function that has no application if I'm off the network. I click to select it, then right click and choose Kill program. EnditAll displays the following message which is a pretty general warning. OK, let's give it a try (I'm saving this file now).
Still running! OK, let's try to kill one of the svchost.exe programs.
As I right click, note that EnditAll first asks me if I want to allow this. This pretty much tells me all I need to know; if Neil Rubenking doesn't think I should kill it, I probably shouldn't.
In truth, if you're aggressive with either MSConfig or StartupCop Pro, you won't have much work to do with EnditAll. Typically, I would kill off all the programs that showthe half windows in the File Type column, indicating that these are simple applets that sit in your tray. Other than that, I would leave virtually all of the services alone.
Assigning your video editor a High Priority in Windows Task Manager:
What is it?: Windows Task Manager controls the priority that the operating system assigns to a program, usually reflected by how quickly the processor (CPU) responds to requests from the program.
The theory is if you assign a high priority to your video editor, not only will it run faster, it will run more stably.
To get to this screen, press Alt-Ctrl-Del on your keyboard and click the Processes tab when Windows Task Manager opens. Right click on your video editor and assign it Realtime priority.
I don't have a lot of experience with this, but some folks swear by it, so if your video editor isn't running smoothly, try giving it a high priority, particularly if you have virus protection or network programs running in the background. Preferably, you would disconnect from the network and shut these programs, eliminating the priority issue, but if you can't, try this.
Disabling Background Rendering and Hardware Acceleration:
I'm not going to go through the theory of what background rendering does and when and how you should use it because if your video editor isn't running smoothly, you probably don't care. All you do need to know is that if Studio is misbehaving, very often you can address the problem by selecting No background rendering and disabling hardware acceleration by un-checking the box. By the way, you get to this screen from the main menu by choosing Setup > Edit Options.
Note that if you check the hardware acceleration checkbox, Studio warns you with this dialog. I've found that if you're crashing frequently, either background rendering or hardware acceleration is very often the culprit.
