Quick Search

Advanced Search

Email Newsletter
Subscribe to receive the latest articles and resources from streaming video expert Jan Ozer.

Subscribe via RSS

Categories

32 vs 64-bit OS


Windows 7 Performance for Streaming Encoding

puget.jpgA Windows 7 upgrade can cost more than $300 for the software alone -- is it worth it if you're a streaming producer looking to shave encoding times? Well, that's what I detail in this article.

By way of background, I had a great testbed for this - a dual processor, quad core 3.33 Ghz Xeon (Nehalem-based) computer from custom workstation manufacturer Puget Systems. Puget supplied the workstation with three system drives in an easily swappable drive bay so I could change operating systems in a matter of moments. Thus equipped, I loaded a number of programs on the three system drives, including Adobe Media Encoder, On 2 Flix Pro, Rhozet Carbon Coder, Sorenson Squeeze and Telestream Episode, and ran the encoding trials on each platform. Click over to the main article to see the results.

Better buy 64-bit systems from here on out

I got an interesting e-mail from Adobe today, which I've pasted in its entirety below. The key message is this:

"Adobe today confirmed that ... Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and Adobe After Effects CS4 are the last versions to support 32-bit operating systems. Future versions will be native 64-bit applications which will run only on 64-bit operating systems."

This has some interesting implications about future hardware investments and provides a preview of what CS5 will bring. You can read the full release (and my short analysis) in the complete article.

CS4 and 64-bit Systems

This article describes the advantages of a 64-bit operating system when running Adobe CS4, and tests CS4 performance with different RAM configurations. If you're producing HD video with CS4 running a 32-bit OS and feeling frustrated by slow performance, this article will tell you why and how to fix it.

Is 32-bit computing slowing your streaming encoding?

I've never been a big fan of 64-bit operating systems, but some recent comparative trials with Adobe Media Encoder and Premiere Pro showed that 64-bit computers - both Windows and Macintosh -- had a huge advantage over 32-bit Windows.

If you're in the market for that killer encoding workstation, check out the article in Digital Content Producer, and it may change your target configuration, especially considering that 64-bit Windows usually costs no more than 32-bit Windows.

See the article at Digital Content Producer, CS4 and 64-bit Systems.

Adobe CS4 at 64

As you’ve undoubtedly heard, Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4) Production Premium delivers some awesome productivity benefits, particularly the ability to send Premiere Pro sequences to both the Adobe Media Encoder (AME) and Adobe Encore for rendering or authoring while continuing to edit in Premiere Pro. Perhaps what you haven’t heard is that this capability significantly increases CS4’s memory requirements. If you’re upgrading from CS3 to CS4 on a 32-bit operating system, this can mean longer rendering times, instability, or both. If you want CS4’s features without the performance penalty, you should consider running CS4 on a 64-bit system.

Death, Taxes and Vista

My initial impressions of Microsoft Vista, which, unfortunately, haven't improved since.