I have just acquired a new computer, which has both a large traditional hard drive and a smaller solid state drive. I was told to run my programs on the solid state drive so that they would run faster. So I'll run Camtasia on it.
But here is my question: I am working on a series of documentary movies. I keep all relevant files in a folder, which in turn contains about 100 subfolders with all the jpgs, mp4s, etc., involved in making several feature-length films. Because they involve so many different files, each two-hour documentary is broken down into several sections, which I edit and produce separately. (I only put the produced sections together and produce the whole movie when I'm going to have a showing.)
In order to benefit from the speed of a solid state disc, is it sufficient that Camtasia 2018 be on it, or do I need to copy all the files used in one of those sections to the ssd as well? And if the latter is the case, does Camtasia have some feature that would copy all the files used in a particular project to a particular drive?
I hope that is clear.
Any authoritative help on this from users who have experience using Camtasia 2018 on a computer with a ssd would be greatly appreciated.
Richard M. Berrong
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Posted 7 months ago
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Regards,Joe
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I can't change the computer I just got, so I have the SSD and hard drive configuration that I have. When you say that you have no on-board disks, does that mean you store your files on external hard drives? I do that as well, but only for backup.
Yes, I do use a lot of clips from different folders. It's the only way I have of keeping track of things. Would it make a significant difference if I were to copy all the clips I use in a given movie into the folder for that movie as well, so that, when I produce a given section of a movie, Camtasia is working with many clips, but all from the same folder?
Some of my movie sections run almost 30 minutes in length, and yes, Camtasia really slows down with those.
Richard
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Do I gather, then, that you are suggesting I transfer the whole 250 GB folder of my project archives to my SSD when I have Camtasia produce videos from it?
Richard
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Now multiple by however many clips and locations your tscproj file needs to reference, and you get an idea.
* To view the xml content of your camproj or tscproj files, copy one and rename it with a dot XML filename. Now you can open it with Notepad or Code Writer or any other script editor. I don't attempt to edit my project files. In my case, it would lead to disaster. :-)
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Would it, in addition, make a significant difference if I transferred all the files used in a particular video to one sub-folder when I work on it?
Many thanks for the input.
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kayakman, Champion
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but if you have the space on your SSD, after editing, zip the project, then import that zip onto the SSD for production; that should give you the best performance
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It has 32 GB of RAM, with a 7200 RPM hard drive. What other info do you need?
Many thanks,
Richard
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I would be adding or replacing the 7200rpm drive with a SSD at the drop of a hat if possible. A Samsung EVO would be my choice.
A 1TB is warrantied for 5 years and/or 600TB of re-writes. So there more durable than the warrantee covers. Replacing a HD or adding one will not normally void a new computer manufactures warrantees.
When I bought my Dell XPS it had 1. 7200rpm HDD. I added 2 with rebates and a few extra bucks. I’ve since replaced all of them with 3 Samsung SSD’s. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Samsung+860+EVO+1TB+2.5+Inch+SATA+III+Internal+SSD&i=electronics&ref=nb_sb_noss
You could go larger but they cost twice as much per TB. Re-writing 600TB would take a very long time. That’s 614,400 GB. 1TB was large enough for me. If enough clients force me to burn through these HD’s sooner. I won’t grumble as I purchase more. Installing them or replacing them is a piece of cake. There’s more You tube videos then you can shake a stick at. I don’t know if you have IT guy’s? They can deal with installations in a few minutes.
32GB of RAM works in your favor. 2GB or so is required for the operation system and Camtasia. Leaving you a ton of headroom for the timeline. But 250GB projects are another story. Not your typical Camtasia project.
As you edit, the CPU is doing all its thinking based on what is stored in RAM memory. As you’re scrubbing through a clip, cutting out bits and pieces. Perhaps adding a callout. Moving the playhead back and forth over short durations in time. The CPU can do a pretty good job of keeping up. Provided it’s a strong CPU. And all of the media is loaded into RAM memory.
If the entire project is only 3GB. Which is actually large or normal for some Camtasia users. The only thing that matters is “How much RAM does my computer have?”. A 5400rpm disk would load the 3GB project slowly. But once all those files are loaded into RAM. How long it took to get started? Doesn’t matter.
32GB of RAM isn’t nowhere near a 250GB project. So, as the playhead moves to a point in the timeline that media isn’t contained in RAM. It must be loaded. The CPU still needs to think; Camtasia needs to think. An SSD can only transfer “X amount” of information at any given moment. This is a bottleneck. Storing your media on a separate SSD from the operating system and Camtasia is how you alleviate this.
If you were editing the start of the video. Moved the playhead to the end somewhere. RAM memory would need to be pretty much replaced.You don’t want to share resources. You want the CPU and Camtasia to hum along unfettered. While drive “B?” is replacing RAM.
This slight upgrade could save you enough time and frustration to pay for
itself.
Or go with what you got. Place all your media on the C drive. Yikes! That’s my opinion.
A 250GB timeline at 7200rpm would take forever to load projects and update RAM.A Non-Starter. Very Slow.
Regards, Joe
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You could probably load a 25GB project in about 2+or- mins. from your 7200rpm drive. From there theres some headroom for some modest performance gains. From the way I understand things to be.
If you had the files on your SSD you could probably load the same project in under 20 or 30 seconds.
With that much RAM. And "Most" projects. Other than load time. It doesn't make all that much difference which drive you've stored the media on.
You could contact TechSmith support yourself. For your own peace of mind.
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I talked to them just now about your configuration and in the past as well about this subject.They told me the same thing today as in the past. Store your media on the Spinning disk HD/Secondary Drive.
Run Camtasia and your programs on the SSD/C-Drive.
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