Tips

Basic Computer Maintenance
There are a few basic suggestions for running a stable and clean computer, I have listed some of them below:

I have not gone into too much detail here, or suggested any specific software. (If you go to my SECURITY page you will find links to programs that I recommend) as these are just basic tips for mantaining your computer. If you want a wee bit more info on how to do some of these suggestions download the computer maintenance zip file from my Download page. This is a wee bit outdated (a couple of years old) but is still relevant to mantaining your computer today. Join a good forum about computer use and security (PC Guide is a good example - see the link in my Useful Link page) where you will find a lot of very good help if/when you run into problems. A realy good article on computer maintenance can be found at Fred Langa's site.

1. If you have a large(ish) hard drive it might be better to partition it. After windows is installed you can use a program like Partition Magic (this is a pay for software but you can get freeware programs on the internet one of which is Bootit NG )for doing the partitioning. The reason for doing this is that it makes your computer easier to manage. It also lets you store certain files and folders seperate from you OS (Operating System). For example you could store you "My Documents Folder" or your "E-Mails" onto this partition. this would mean that in the event of you needing to re-install the OS all your documents and mails would be safe.
2. Check daily for Anti-Virus updates. If your AV program allows you to set automatic updates do so.Also check for updates in any other security related programs you have installed.
3.Run very regular, daily if possible for anti-virus, and at least once a week week (more if possible) for all other security scans on your computer.
4. If you recieve any e-mails (with and without attachments) from unknown sources NEVER open them without first checking them for viruses etc. Create a folder on your desktop (call it an easily identifiable name and do not use it for anything else) and then drag these mails (unopened) into it. Right click it and the do a virus scan on that particular folder. But you would be a lot safer just deleting these mails.
5. Defrag your hard-drive before on a regular basis.
6. Empty your TEMP folder on a regular basis. These can accumulate over a short period of time and as well as taking up a lot of space can slow down your computer. There are a couple of good programs that will help you to do this,m one of these is CCleaner (See my Useful Computer Links 2 for the web link)
7.Get into the habit of doing regular "Back Ups". This can be a pain in the neck but eventually you will be glad you did so. If possible use an imaging program similar to Ghost. This allows you to image your drive as it is, and in the event of you ever having to re-install the sytem this would put you back at the point of your image, with all your drivers installed etc. By using a program similar to this it would also reduce the time for re-installing your OS to only minutes as opposed ot a couple of hours.
One point to remember after making an image of oyur OS check that it has been done correctly without errors. Most imaging programs have the facillity for letting oyu do this.
8. Try to keep all programs of the same type in the same folder in the start menu if possible. For example if you have a couple of security programs installed (SpyBot Sd & AdAware for example) create a folder in the start menu and call it security. Then drag the reference to both these programs into it. This way when you are looking for a particular type of program you just need to look for the security folder where all you security programs will be. This will be a two fold help for you as it will keep your start menu to a more managable size, (on my computer I have about 25 programs installed into 6 folders - with subfolder inside - in my start menu) The second benifit of this system is that it can save a lot of time and frustration when you want a particular program.
9. Set aside a couple of hours every week to do a full check of your system. On a Sunday morning, after checking my mails, I do full computer scans with all of my security programs. I then do a clean up of all Temp files etc. Finally I run scandisk on all my partitions and HDD's. This takes a coupel of hours but it means that my computer has very little bloat and I am re-assured that I am clear of infection. Finally I do an image of my OS (which using Ghost takes about 30 minutes to make and check the integrity of the image for a drive that has just under 8GB of information on it. Ghost allows me to compress this file and I end up with a file that is capapble of being put to DVD-RW disk.) I also keep at least 2 older ghost images for safety.One of these is the original installation (drivers etc installed but with no other software)and the second last image made. This is just in-case the last image soemhow gets corrupted
10. Reduce the size(s) of your Browser CACHE(s)to less than the default lelvels which can be on th elarge side. If you have a fast Cable or DSL connection to the internet reduce these to about 10MB.
11. If you use System restore think about reducing the amount of space this takes up as well. By default it sets aside 10% of oyur drive for it use, this means that if you have a 200GB hard drive it sets aside 20 GB for restore points. IMHO this is far too much. Reduce it to something like 5 or 6% or even less.
12. In the favourites in your browser keep links to on-line scans for Anti-Virus and Anti-Trojan and use them at least once a month. These links are updated daily (sometimes hourly) and can sometimes find mal-ware on your computer that installed programs might miss. Also as they are not installed on your computer they will not conflict with other programs. NEVER run two AV programs on your computer at the same time as this will cause problems for you. Even though you might be using a ROUTER that has a built in FIREWALL it is strongly suggested that you install a software firewall as well, this will allow you to see which programs on your computer is trying to access the internet and allow you to stop them if you want..

Go to TIPS 2 & TIPS 3 pages and Titbits 1 & 2

For video editing
Here you will find basic tips and links to really good help. The following are my personal suggestions. Others folks will suggest differently. Always follow your own instincts when doing some thing new. Look for good advice and follow it if you ask for it!

Run as few programs in the background as possible when doing video editing.

1. Defrag your hard-drive before starting to work on a video/movie clip. If you have saved your AVI file onto a second partition or hard-drive, defrag this as well

2. Turn off any unneccessary programs. DISCONNECT from the internet and then turn off your Anti-Virus software and your software firewall, as these can be a resource hog. Also if you have the likes of MS office tool bar running stop this as well.
Another suggestion is to go into MSCONFIG and remove the ticks from everything that is enabled. But remember to make sure that you will be DISCONNECTED from the internet after you re-boot your computer. Turn of your router or modem.
If you choose option 1 above and are not going to re-boot your computer after working with your project remember to re-enable your AV and Firewall before going back on line.
I would recommend that you do re-boot your computer after working with your video edititng program if using option 1 above.
If you decide to use option 2 REMEMBER to re-enable all the items in MSCONFIG that you disabled before re-booting.

3. Save your work as often as possible. Turn on AUOTO saves if possible and set it for about 2 or 3 mins. Plus try to get into the habit of making manual saves as well. By doing this if your computer crashes you only lose 2 or 3 minutes work. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of work and then losing it all because you have not saved as you went along. (I speak from painful and frustrating experience) Also after making a few changes re-save your project under a new name (e.g. file 1 - file 2 etc).
By doing this you will be able to revert back to a previous state to either do things differently or to change any errors that have slipped by un-noticed.

4. When RENDERING (making the movie) your finished movie try not to do anything else with you computer. Rendering uses up a lot of resources and your computer will possbliy run at close ot 100% cpu usage. Just start the rendering, turn off your monitor and walk away. Depending on the size of your movie, the amount of memory etc., this could take a few hours. My first attempts (using the bare minimum requirements - 800Mhz processor - 128MB ram) took about 15 hours to render a 1 hr DVD)

5. After completing your project always write it to a CD-RW or DVD-RW disk to check it out. By doing this if there are errors you will not have wasted a disk. It is easy enough to copy the RW disk afterwards if everything is OK.

Software

If you are running Widows XP you can use the built "Windows Movie Maker" to get you started. (Though it does not make MPEG files) This program will give you an idea of what is required of you before you go and spend money on another (better) program. There are a lot program available for video editing and each person has his or her own preferance. Do an internet search for programs, and if there is a trial or freeware version avalable download it to tryout.

Hardware

The hardware requirements needed can vary from program to program, so check this out as well. The minimum I would suggest is as follows:
a) 256MB of Memory
(you will get by with 128 but your computer will struggle)
b) Graphics card:
The better the graphics card you have the less problems you will run into. Try to go for at least a 128MB card. 64MB will do it for you as well but for that extra edge go for 128MB or above.
c) Processor:
You will get by with about a 750 or 800Mhz processor but your computer will struggle and the rendering will be very slow.

d) Hard drive:
You will need a lot of space to work with video editing. The more you have the better. Try to go for a minimum of 80GB if possible. Less will suffice but you are in danger of running out of space.
e)Content size:
A DVD disk will hold approximately 1 Hrs video content. You can, by reducing the quality, make this larger. This size is when working with standard video file formats. You can use the likes of DivX to compress the video without to much loss of qaulity, but to do this use must ensure that the player you will be using is capable of reading DivX files.

Apoximate size and times on the various disks are as follows
(51 minutes of video and sound taken from a VHS tape onto computer and rendered with "Pinnacle Studio version 8.12")
DVD - On standard DVD-R disk - This has 8 minutes of space remaining.

S-VCD - On a 700MB CD-R disk - This would be made at 80% quality and have 9 minutes too much content, so the quality would have to be reduced further to ensure that the complete video could be fitted. You could choose to put this onto a DVD disk (though IMO this would be awaste of either a disk or a video)

VCD - On a standard CD-R disk - This would have 17 minutes of space remaining on the disk.

Here are a couple of sites that will give a lot of help and advice:
Home Theater
How Stuff Works
Video Guides
Video Editing Forum
This site is very informative and if you look to the right you will see links to guide you on the various requirements.
Another How Too You will also find links to free tools here