user1210: We have an old duo core Windows XP machine, and it seems to be the case that, when using Adobe Premiere Elements 9, we frequently have situations where the audio and video are out of sync. We will load a prores mov, or a new hi res mp4 and try to share a DVD version of the file, or do some minor trimming of a clip, and then have something that is clearly off.
So, if you have to do editing on this level (no special effects, just clips and transcoding) what is a reasonable processor, processor speed, RAM requirement? If we replace this machine, I will be looking at either Windows 7 or MacOS (long story, and I don't get to choose which), so my focus is on understanding the hardware requirements.

Hmmm. We're now using current iMacs (64-bit) and Premiere Elements 10. Being a Mac, that means saving things to .mov (the Mac's version of a "wrapper" format) instead of avi. 
Even given that, however, I am still finding that the audio and video get out of sync when writing a DVD. I also have a similar (but possibly not remotely related) problem where, when I define a clip and write the clip to a file, I lose the last ~3 seconds of the clip. In this case, no bad synccing, just that suddenly the conversation stops a few seconds before the action stops.
I really don't want to invest several hundred dollars in video editing software for the trivial editing that we do, but it drives me crazy how little control I have over settings, and how many weird glitches I am encountering.

user923: Is it HD footage you're working with? To work efficiently, in editing, transcoding/rendering and exporting, something like a Intel i7 quad core processor is going to make things a lot smoother. Couple that with a minimum of 4-8GB of RAM (very cheap nowadays) and things will stop getting bogged down. Add a fairly capable video card to the mix (mid-high end NVIDIA / AMD card) and the system will fly if you're doing relatively straight forward HD editing.
I myself have been doing a lot of work with high-definition DSLR footage transcoded to ProRes 422 and my Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz MacBook Pro with NVIDIA 9400M video is really feeling the strain, despite having 8GB of ram installed.
Any well developed media editing application should be sufficiently multithreaded and a simple bump from dual to quad core will make a marked difference.

user1180: Your audio and video are probably drifting out of sync because the audio is 12-bit audio. 12-bit audio slowly drifts out of sync. The correct bit rate should be 16-bit, not 12-bit. There should be a setting in your camera to change it from 12-bit to 16-bit.

user1531: are the files out of sync while editing or when you render it out?
oh, youre editing mp4 files? you should transcode them to avi and check that out, if that has no issues, then you have problems with keyframes in the mp4 video...(probably set up by the encoder who transcoded mp4 files)

user1082: Adobe has tech specs on all of the software they sell on their website (www.adobe.com). I found the tech specs for [premier elements] 9 that you can look at. 
(http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/systemreqs/)

1210: <p>We have an old duo core Windows XP machine, and it seems to be the case that, when using Adobe Premiere Elements 9, we frequently have situations where the audio and video are out of sync. We will load a prores mov, or a new hi res mp4 and try to share a DVD version of the file, or do some minor trimming of a clip, and then have something that is clearly off.</p>

<p>So, if you have to do editing on this level (no special effects, just clips and transcoding) what is a reasonable processor, processor speed, RAM requirement? If we replace this machine, I will be looking at either Windows 7 or MacOS (long story, and I don't get to choose which), so my focus is on understanding the hardware requirements.</p>

<hr>

<p>Hmmm. We're now using current iMacs (64-bit) and Premiere Elements 10. Being a Mac, that means saving things to .mov (the Mac's version of a "wrapper" format) instead of avi. </p>

<p>Even given that, however, I am still finding that the audio and video get out of sync when writing a DVD. I also have a similar (but possibly not remotely related) problem where, when I define a clip and write the clip to a file, I lose the last ~3 seconds of the clip. In this case, no bad synccing, just that suddenly the conversation stops a few seconds before the action stops.</p>

<p>I really don't want to invest several hundred dollars in video editing software for the trivial editing that we do, but it drives me crazy how little control I have over settings, and how many weird glitches I am encountering.</p>
 923: <p>Is it HD footage you're working with? To work efficiently, in editing, transcoding/rendering and exporting, something like a Intel i7 quad core processor is going to make things a lot smoother. Couple that with a minimum of 4-8GB of RAM (very cheap nowadays) and things will stop getting bogged down. Add a fairly capable video card to the mix (mid-high end NVIDIA / AMD card) and the system will fly if you're doing relatively straight forward HD editing.</p>

<p>I myself have been doing a lot of work with high-definition DSLR footage transcoded to ProRes 422 and my Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz MacBook Pro with NVIDIA 9400M video is really feeling the strain, despite having 8GB of ram installed.</p>

<p>Any well developed media editing application should be sufficiently multithreaded and a simple bump from dual to quad core will make a marked difference.</p>
 1180: <p>Your audio and video are probably drifting out of sync because the audio is 12-bit audio. 12-bit audio slowly drifts out of sync. The correct bit rate should be 16-bit, not 12-bit. There should be a setting in your camera to change it from 12-bit to 16-bit.</p>
 1531: <p>are the files out of sync while editing or when you render it out?</p>

<p>oh, youre editing mp4 files? you should transcode them to avi and check that out, if that has no issues, then you have problems with keyframes in the mp4 video...(probably set up by the encoder who transcoded mp4 files)</p>
 1082: <p>Adobe has tech specs on all of the software they sell on their website (www.adobe.com). I found the tech specs for [premier elements] 9 that you can look at. </p>

<p>(http://www.adobe.com/products/premiereel/systemreqs/)</p>
