CPU requirements for HD editing

[Anil Dasari]

What is the ideal computer setup for editing HD video at a reasonable speed? Which processor and how much RAM?

[Luc Fender]

Originally Posted by Anil Dasari

What is the ideal computer setup for editing HD video at a reasonable speed? Which processor and how much RAM?

I would get 2GB minimum RAM and >2.0GHz duo core CPU. Also get a good graphics card (at least 128MB). There are a couple of other things to check (good disk I/O and preferable 2 disks) but you can find that info on various sites.

Reasonable is relative but this setup works adequately for HD from my experience. You'll never have enough speed though especially with encoding so the latest greatest is just adequate.

[Prech Marton]

and what editing software do you use?
Edius3 and vegas7 is terrible slow on my E2160 system.
(7600GS, 1GB dual ddr)

[Chris Ames]

Originally Posted by Anil Dasari

What is the ideal computer setup for editing HD video at a reasonable speed? Which processor and how much RAM?

I'm running the following:

Dell Inspiron Notebook/Laptop
1.7 GHz Intel Pentium M
2 GB RAM
2 x 100 MB 7200 HDs
1 x 1 TB external HD Firewire400
128 MB ATI Radeon Pro Turbo graphics card

This machine is not powerful enough to play HD files in Windows Media Player 11, let alone edit HD files with Adobe Premiere Elements. I was hoping if I had high speed drives for the cache files and scratch disks, plus enough RAM, I'd be set. So far... no dice.

Has anyone else been successful with similar hardware?

Chris

[Enea Lanzarone]

I recently upgraded my pc (not a laptop) to 2 GB Ram and I didn't notice any performance improvement while editing HDV in Premiere Pro 2.0 at all. However, I find editing is quite fast, almost no difference to DV editing (I notice when I add filters), even though it's not a high end machine (HP Pavillion). Just to give you an idea: AMD Athlon X2 3800+, S-ATA 150 harddisk, 2 GB Ram, ATI X800 GTO 256 MB graphics card. Windows Media Player plays HDV .m2t files fine when resized to full screen (1280x1024 resolution).

Chris, maybe it's a codec or OS problem? Your hardware specs don't really sound as if they shouldn't be able to handle HDV nicely.

[Chris Ames]

Originally Posted by Enea Lanzarone

Chris, maybe it's a codec or OS problem? Your hardware specs don't really sound as if they shouldn't be able to handle HDV nicely.

Really?? I hope so! When I pulled the m2t files off the camera, they are almost watchable if the clip is small enough (2 mins or less). But for longer ones they eventually start to stutter and the sound gets out of sync. I use Windows Media Player 11.

Where can I find a different codec? Can anyone recommend others?

Chris

[Enea Lanzarone]

Things you could do to improve performance (no guarantee, but at least you can try):

- make sure you use the latest drivers for your graphics chip (in your case that would be the ATI Catalyst Drivers). Also, make sure your system is set up to use maximum hardware acceleration.
- defrag your harddisk
- this one may be the most important: use a different player for your m2t files. You could download Media Player Classic (looks like an old Windows Media Player), which is configureable in almost any way. Especially you can choose the decoding method (hardware overlay, software only etc.). Tweak the settings and see if you can make your m2t files run smoothly. Another alternative is VLC media player, which handles HDV files nicely as well.

Good luck, I'm sure you can sort it out!

[Luc Fender]

Originally Posted by Chris Ames

Really?? I hope so! When I pulled the m2t files off the camera, they are almost watchable if the clip is small enough (2 mins or less). But for longer ones they eventually start to stutter and the sound gets out of sync. I use Windows Media Player 11.

Where can I find a different codec? Can anyone recommend others?

Chris

Try using instead Windows Media classic or videolan. They typically play HD clips little bit faster. I have a dell 1.6GHz 700m notebook which is able to playback HD movies (certainly m2t) just fine with these players.

Actually I like Ulead 11 for its simplicity since I don't need fancy post-processing. Also if you have vista, movie maker (free) supports HD now (haven't tried it yet but I like XP movie maker).

Couple of more things to check:
- if you run a notebook make sure it's not set on dynamic cpu mode (or power saver). There are some programs where you can control the CPU level to be fixed
- in media player classic choose high priority (in options)
- Make sure you disable all running programs/services you don't need (check taskmanager if any program is taking CPU's)
- Check graphics hardware accelerator is enabled (in windows media player it's in options/performance)

Array of codecs can be found in K-lite but not sure if that's causing playback problems

[Prech Marton]

also try ffdshow or coreavc codec!

[Chris Ames]

Originally Posted by Luc Fender

Try using instead Windows Media classic or videolan. They typically play HD clips little bit faster. I have a dell 1.6GHz 700m notebook which is able to playback HD movies (certainly m2t) just fine with these players.

Luc:

I am very encouraged to hear this!!! I will try these out and report back.

Originally Posted by Luc Fender

Actually I like Ulead 11 for its simplicity since I don't need fancy post-processing. Also if you have vista, movie maker (free) supports HD now (haven't tried it yet but I like XP movie maker).

I have not tried Windows Movie Maker because I figured it would use the same codecs and libraries under the hood that Windows Media Player is using. I'll try anyway.

Originally Posted by Luc Fender

Couple of more things to check:
- if you run a notebook make sure it's not set on dynamic cpu mode (or power saver). There are some programs where you can control the CPU level to be fixed
- in media player classic choose high priority (in options)
- Make sure you disable all running programs/services you don't need (check taskmanager if any program is taking CPU's)
- Check graphics hardware accelerator is enabled (in windows media player it's in options/performance)

Excellent suggestions, Luc! I disabled "Speedstep" the day I got my notebook. So the CPU is going full throttle. I found settings in the BIOS and also in power save options of Control Panel.

I run a pretty tight ship on my PC. I write windows-based software so I am accustom to keeping most of my Services set to manual, and not allowing tools and utilities that I download to run. Even my iTunesHelper service and iPod service are turned off.

If anyone else wants to increase Windows system performance, I recommend downloading Process Explorer and Autoruns from http://www.sysinternals.com (they can also be found on Microsoft.com). These two things will allow you to do some serious housekeeping.

Last night I realized I have Nero so I cranked up an m2t file in Nero Showtime and it worked much better than WMP11. It was still a bit choppy but it was consistently played. It didnt' slow down or speed up and the audio was perfect. I am encouraged! I will try the other light-weight players you recommended and also I will try setting the WMP setting for graphics hardware acceleration.

Thank you for your help!!!

[Prech Marton]

Hmm, i dont see any performance degradement because of speedstep.
My 2160 proc is in idle at 6x200 mhz, and jump to 9x200 mhz when needed INSTANT! (in a jiff)

[Chris Ames]

Originally Posted by Prech Marton

also try ffdshow or coreavc codec!

I will!

The whole goal of playing HD files is centered around the philosophy I read here, "If your system can play HD, then you cna probably edit HD."

I am hoping to edit my home movies in HD so that I am preserving the memories as crisp as possible.

So far, the first video I made from my HV20... I had to edit in SD. Which makes me wonder... even if I can play my HD files in these other players... will this help me? I am using Premiere Elements. And if the footage cant run in PE then I can't edit it.

Maybe I should switch to a lighter-weight editing app like Windows Movie Maker. I've had great success editing with that.

[Prech Marton]

"If your system can play HD, then you cna probably edit HD."

Probably...
Unfortunatly, in my experience this is not true :(
I have a powerful PC (E2160, DualDDR, 7600GS, 250GB Sata2), and HD playback is fine, very fine. But editing.. Like editing DV video in old Celeron300 times..
I also search a good, fast editing software, because Edius3 and Vegas7 are also terrible slow on my machine.
Mpeg2 IBP frames is not for editing, just for playing. Instead use Canopus HQ format or Cineform HD that use only I-frames, and thus edit-friendly.

[Tilford Bartman]

I think if you've been editing in real time DV on a decent machine your spoiled, and will find editing in HDV somewhat like going back to the early days of DV. When you have to render at good quality, even on a pretty fast machine it's going to be really slow. Right now the 2.6 quadcore CPU is a deal at just under $550, but even with that CPU rendering in HDV will not by any means be instant. I think in 2-3 years we'll have affordable CPU's that will be able to do very good realtime in high quality HDV. Right now I think if you want really fast, you have to go to hardware like the Matrox RTx2. Personally I'd rather avoid that.

[Chris Ames]

Originally Posted by Tilford Bartman

I think if you've been editing in real time DV on a decent machine your spoiled, and will find editing in HDV somewhat like going back to the early days of DV. When you have to render at good quality, even on a pretty fast machine it's going to be really slow. Right now the 2.6 quadcore CPU is a deal at just under $550, but even with that CPU rendering in HDV will not by any means be instant. I think in 2-3 years we'll have affordable CPU's that will be able to do very good realtime in high quality HDV. Right now I think if you want really fast, you have to go to hardware like the Matrox RTx2. Personally I'd rather avoid that.

I hear what you're saying, however I may be able to suffer through it. My projects are small. I rarely break 4 minutes. I'm just setting home movie footage of my kids to music. I typically just choose one song (2-4 minutes long) and I usually do about 3 "videos" per year.

My hope was that I could do them in HD so that as the years go by, and my little girls have little girls of their own, they will have these memories preserved in HD to show their children.

I'm capturing in HD and that was step #1. I have time on my side for the rest.

Thanks for the help and insight everyone!