Videoguys' Windows XP Tips & Tricks for NLE
We've all seen the new Windows XP commercials that show average home videos being edited and played back on the new Microsoft operating system, suggesting that it's stable platform for video editing. But will it work with the industries leading capture cards and software?
YES IT IS!! XP has been around for a bit and our industry has had the chance to work with it and optimize their products for it. Videoguys is now giving WinXP our highest recommendation and it is the OS you should be building your new NLE system on.
Just as with Win2K, we only recommend running XP in your NLE system with XP drivers for all your hardware. This includes not only the video capture card, but the NLE software, your soundcard and especially your graphics card. You also want to check with your motherboard or system vendor to see that you are running the latest BIOS, certified for XP.
We have broken this page into four sections. We will be updating it constantly as new info becomes available.
- Videoguys Top WinXP tips
- WinXP Cool Extras
- WinXP Issues
- David LaBorde's TWEAKS for Windows XP for Video Editing (v 1.0)
- David LaBorde's Windows XP TWEAKS / Optimization for Video Editing Systems – PART II
 A. Videoguys top WinXP tips
- Make sure you have Win XP drivers for ALL your hardware and software.
The key word here is ALL. It only takes one outdated or not ready for XP driver to kill your XP systems performance. Worse yet, you could crash or lock up. You really want to do your homework BEFORE you install XP. Here are a few steps that will take some time, but save you hours of frustration in the long run:
- Go to your motherboard vendor's website and make sure you are running a chipset and BIOS that will support XP.
- If necessary update your BIOS before doing anything else.
- Make sure your graphics, sound, network, mass storage controller and modem all have WinXP drivers. Get these drivers from the Vendors websites directly. We do not recommend letting WInXP install it's own drivers. These may be fine for websurfing and spreadsheets, but desk top video demands maximum performance.
- Get your system up and running with ALL drivers approved for XP.
- Get the latest WinXP drivers for your video editing gear.
- If there isn't an official driver for XP yet, check and see how other users are gettting along with the old Win2K driver or new XP beta drivers. Only experienced users should try this.
- You need to login to Windows® XP as the Power-User or Administrator
in order to install and or run most of our products. We recommend setting up a Power User account.
Here is how to create a Power User Account:
- Right-click My Computer, Choose Manage , Click system tools , Click Local Users and Groups
- Right-click Users, and then choose New User from the Context menu.
- New user Dialog, Type info, Click Create, then click Close.
- Click Users , Double-click New User Icon, The Username properties dialog box appears.
- Click the Member Of tab, and Click Add
- Type in Power Users, then Click the Check Names button
- Click OK.
Adding Special Privileges to the Power User Account:
- Control Panel>Performance and Maintenance>Administrative Tools
- Double Click Local Security Policy, Click on Local Policies, Double Click User Rights Assignment, Double click Increasing Scheduling Priority.
- Click Add User or Group button, Type the name of the User that you want to be able to access XPDV, Click Check names , Click OK, Click OK again.
- Just like Win2K, XP likes RAM.
We recommend a minimum of 256 for XP, and with RAM so cheap, get 512!!!
- Give Xpress DV full use of your system resources
XP allows you to give programs priority for processor and memory usage. Here is how you do it.
- Right-click on the My Computer icon, select Advances, click the Performance "Settings" button, you'll see a new tab Visual Effects and then An Advanced tab.
- Click Advanced tab and you will notice A section that says Processor Scheduling and Memory usage.
- In the Processor scheduling select Programs (for Best Performance). This gives priority for running programs (like Premiere, Xpress DV, Edition etc.).
- Now on Memory usage select Programs. Again this gives programs priority to run programs from you memory.
- Now hit Apply and go to item #5 before closing out and re-booting.
- Make sure Visual Effects are set to "Best Performance"
VisuaL Effects are the fancy new animations XP uses for opening and closing windows and dialog boxes on your VGA screen. These effects waste valuable system resources and they can conflict with the XDV GUI. Here is how to turn them off.
- Right-click on the My Computer icon, select Advances, click the Performance "Settings" button, you'll see a new tab Visual Effects and then An Advanced tab.
- Click the Visual Effects tab. Once there select adjust for best performance. This will allow the best format for processing performance of your video desktop display.
- Once completed hit Apply and proceed to close out and reboot (select yes) if prompted to.
- Enable Clear Type
This makes a noticeable impact on 2D performance and the view is great. Contrary to some reports it is not designed just for LCD screens. To turn this on
- Right click on a blank area of the Desktop and choose Properties -Click on the Appearance Tab;
- Click Effects - Check the box: Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts.
- In the drop down box select: Clear Type.
 B. Cool XP extras
Techtv.com Windows XP Tip: Device Driver Rollback
One of XP's new features is the Device Driver Rollback. With this feature you finally have the option to quickly go back to a previous version of a device driver if the updated driver causes problems. When you update a driver, the old one will be saved to a special directory in Windows.
You won't have the option to roll back a driver if you've never updated it. Since every device has the ability to roll back its driver, you're going to need to access your Device Manager to do this.
Here's how to access the Driver Rollback feature for a particular device inside the Device Manager:
- Left-click the Start menu and then select Control Panel.
- Double-click the Performance and Maintenance icon.
- Double-click the System icon.
- Click the Hardware tab.
- Click the Device Manager button to open the Device Manager.
- Expand the device menu you'd like to roll back.
- Locate the device you'd like to roll back and double-click it to bring up its properties.
- When you launch the properties for a particular device, click on the Driver tab.
- Click the button labeled "Roll Back Driver" to complete the process.
Here are 12 handy shortcuts you can type into your XP run menu to get the utilities you want and need.
- compmgmt.msc Computer management
- devmgmt.msc Device manager
- diskmgmt.msc Disk management
- dfrg.msc Disk defrag
- eventvwr.msc Event viewer
- fsmgmt.msc Shared folders
- gpedit.msc Group policies
- lusrmgr.msc Local users and groups
- perfmon.msc Performance monitor
- rsop.msc Resultant set of policies
- secpol.msc Local security settings
- services.msc Services
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released to manufacturing. They add fun and functionality to the Windows experience!
- Super-Fast User Switcher
With this PowerToy you can switch between users without having to go through the Logon screen.
- Open Command Window Here
This PowerToy adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window (cmd.exe) pointing at the selected folder.
- Alt-Tab Replacement
With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.
- Tweak UI
- This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.
- Power Calculator
With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.
- Image Resizer
This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.
- CD Slide Show Generator
With this PowerToy you can view images burned to a CD as a slide show. The Generator works downlevel on Windows 9x machines as well.
- Virtual Desktop Manager
Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy.
- Taskbar Magnifier
Use this PowerToy to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar.
- HTML Slide Show Wizard
This wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready to place on your Web site.
- Webcam Timershot
This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.
Download PowerToys here
C. Win XP Issues
WinXp product activation is no big deal. When XP first started shipping there was lots of talk about the product activation. We feel this is a non-issue. Activating WinXP is a painless process. If you rebuild your computer often, or add and remove hardware several times, you may have a small problem re-activating WinXP. If this happens a quick call into Microsoft will get you a new activation code with little or no hassle at all.
Don't upgrade over your old OS, install fresh.
Yes, this will take more time and require you to re-format your hard drive and re-install all your hardware and software. DO IT! Back up all your important files and data first. Just as with the past 3 OS releases, upgrading your existing system is nothing but bad news for digital videographers.
We have seen that almost half of the tech support problems our users are running into are graphic card related.
You need to make sure that you are running the very latest OEM drivers with XP support for your card. Almost every graphic card on the market is now based on technology from the big 3 players - NVidia, ATI & Matrox. Find out which chipset is in your card and go to these sites to download the latest drivers.
 D. Dave Laborde's TWEAKS for Windows XP for Video Editing (v 1.0)
Gary,
Well I guess just in time for Christmas > I finished a TWEAK guide for Windows XP utilized for Video Editing. I have been digging and playing with XP for a few weeks now. The document is a bit long but I think much more simplistic to follow than previous ones. I eliminated pictures (to cut down on length) as I think most changes are quite explanatory. I utilize quite a bit of space (7 pages) to explain the differences and features of WinXP. I think a lot of false statements and opinions are out there. The actual TWEAKS / optimizations number 21 they are contained in 10 pages alone. The first 3 items are taken from Win 2K guide but have a slight modification for two of them. I also found something's done in Win 2K were not productive for Win XP with regards to editing card / editing suite interface, etc.. The document is 26 pages long. I really don't think there is much information that is not pertinent (other than intro of 7 pages). Like I always say - attention and success is in the details. I also felt I had to structure it for "rookies" and needed to ensure things were clear so they would be done right. Anyway look over it, give them a try and if you want to post on your site you have my permission.
Regards,
David LaBorde
The following link is to the WinXP tweaks that were provided by Dave Laborde. I reformatted his Word doc into an easier to read and faster to download html page. You will also notice that some of our top windows tweaks listed above are from this document. Dave is one of our customers and he is the author of our Win2K and WinME tweaks pages. He is very active on both the Canopus Storm and Matrox RT2500 user group message boards. Thanx a million Dave! Click here for Dave's WinXP TWEAKS
E. Dave Laborde's Windows XP TWEAKS / Optimization for Video Editing Systems – PART II
This optimization guide is a supplement (enhancement) to the original TWEAKS for Windows XP - Video Editing (v 1.0). The reader should become familiar with the optimizations / TWEAKS provided in the original guide before utilizing this document. Click here for the complete XP tweaks part II
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