Techniques For Faster Editing - Adobe PREMIERE 5 User Manual

362 APPENDIX C
Maximizing Performance

Techniques for faster editing

As you create a video program, the number of source clips and settings you edit and manage
become more complex. This complexity can get in the way of your creative flow, so Premiere
provides many options and techniques to simplify a complex project and edit efficiently.
Allocating sufficient RAM
Premiere plays and exports video most efficiently when up to approximately 40 MB of RAM
is available to it. You can make more than 40 MB of RAM available to Premiere, but above
approximately 40 MB the performance gains are not as significant. Make sure you aren't
running unnecessary programs, such as custom screen savers, that may be using memory that
could be used more productively by Premiere. On Mac OS, allocate as much RAM as you can
to Premiere. However, leave at least 2 MB of unused RAM so that the system software has room
to load additional Mac OS system components such as QuickTime.
Using low-resolution clips or offline files
Large frame sizes take longer to process than small frame sizes. When you edit you are viewing
frames nearly all the time, so slow frame display can cause longer editing sessions. For better
performance during editing, use low-resolution versions of your clips, or use offline files. Then
capture the same clips later using high-resolution settings, and replace the low-resolution
versions for recording or exporting the final version of the program. If you've already captured
the clips at high resolution, you can use Premiere to export low-resolution versions of them for
editing and then substitute the high-resolution clips before recording or exporting the final
version. You can also temporarily substitute a still image for a video clip. Using low-resolution
or still versions of clips also lets you store more clips in the same amount of disk space.
Using low-resolution versions of clips is standard practice in offline editing, but you may prefer
the speed benefits of using offline files even when your system is fast enough for online editing.
See "Capturing video for offline and online editing" on page 92 and "Using offline files" on
page 126.