glitches: bees with itches…

Hey! Good to see you! Can I rant for a bit?

Yeah sure, go ahead?

Thanks.

So…

Anybody else get tech problem after tech problem? I’ve never been much of a tech gal —the inner workings of a computer or the reason behind why a phone or television works never caught my curiosity. I used it, it worked, and I was happy. So when things go wrong and I look up how to fix them and I am met with a wave of tech jargon and numbers and letters and acronyms… well, it’s a bit overwhelming.

As you might have seen, recently I’ve started a Youtube channel. And with this new territory comes video editing, algorithms, visual hooks, audio, file organisation, writing compelling scripts, uploading and downloading, filming, storyboarding etc. It’s a lot of new things I have to consider when all I want to do is share my art.

I’m working with video editing software I’ve never touched before and that in itself has a steep learning curve. Although I have experience with Photoshop (but everyone knows that when you have Photoshop, you don’t know how to use everything, you know a certain way to do a thing and you stick to it because it might not be the most efficient way, but at least it does the effect that you want. …Or am I the only one like that?), working with a program like DaVinci Resolve (DVR) is a step up. Now, I will say, I like the software. Much like Photoshop, I can look up how to do the exact thing I want to achieve, beit adding a cool transition between cuts or figuring out how to overlay one video clip over another so that you can see them at the same time but at different sizes. But what I don’t like, and it’s not DVR’s fault, is that it crashes every ten minutes.

And this is entirely my own fault.

Well, sort of.

My PC just can’t handle running the program —but how was I supposed to know that?!

From the very mediocre research I did before my brain overloaded and I had to run away and do something non-tech related, I figured out that my computed does not have a high enough GPU to keep up with everything I want to do with DVR. What is GPU? No idea but it’s important. I think it has something to do with memory… but not to be confused with CPU, which also has something to do with memory. I did read that a high CPU can compensate for a low GPU… but I think I also read the same thing but in reverse. Either way, you need to have a GPU and CPU that is compatible with the program you want to run. (Also, side note, what is the difference between a program and software? I know hardware is the physical pieces that make up the tech but that about it…) Which I do not have.

So get more you say?

An excellent idea.

But money.

I could get a new, higher CPU and put that into my PC but my God they are expensiveeeeeeeeee. And same with the GPU.

Then I thought about just getting a laptop that could handle video editing. Again, expensiveeeeeeeeee. Around the same as a single new GPU. Why is one bit of small tech that goes into a laptop the same or more expensive than a whole laptop? Make it make sense, please.

Craaaazy.

So for now, i’ll just have to save up and make do with what I have.

Yay…

I get to continue seeing things like this:

Love it when I click a new thing too fast and the whole thing panics and crashes… And when I’m rendering a video and it crashes at 14%… or at 53%… or criminally at 99%… or when it’s rendering fine but then I catch the video glitching and I just know that’s going to end up in the final video, so I have to start all over again…

I’ll really need to up my patience going forward…

So I also looked up what else I could do to help my PC. The top bit of advice was to clean the PC and de-dust the filters and all that jazz.

Guys… in the 4+ years I’ve had this computer I have never, never, cleaned it.

There were cobwebs!!!!

That was a bit of a shock… but also not at the same time because of course it would be dusty after not cleaning it. So after a good wipe down, I got back to work and hoped that solved my issues…

Spoiler: it didn’t.

Does the program still crash? Yes. But at the very least, my PC sounds less angry now. And I feel better because I did something proactive.

And so, my rant comes to an end.

Thanks for staying ‘til the end. Here’s hoping I can get through another while of editing with all this (gestures vaguely at everything around her).

Wish me luck~