Will my computer edit HV10 Video?
 

HI all! My first thread here....

I am thinking about buying the HV10 to experiment wth HDV. I have a Power Mac G4 (FW800) with Dual 1.42 processors, 2gb ram, and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB video card running the latest version of FCP.

Will this computer handle the video well, or should I be looking to upgrage soon?

Thanks for any advice.

-Mike

Hey Mike, you might be able to download some HDV samples from this site and try editing those. I've tried before with my single 1GHz G4 and mine doesn't have the power.

HV10 editing power
 

Mike,

Absolutely, your computer specs are more than adequate for editing HV10 video. My Windows Desktop computer is half the specs of your Mac, and I haven't a problem in the world editing full-res HV10 content. As for which software would do the trick for you, I can't say, as I'm unfamiliar with Mac software.

Incidentally, I'm sure you'll find the HV10 more than just an experimental camcorder. It's as good as it gets, as far as I'm concerned. It's the bomb!

VM

Should be fine with that spec, if I wasn't so lazy I would boot up my G4 and give you a definitive answer. A good fast FW800 external drive would certainly work in your favour.

sorry to piggyback here, but can I edit this footage on a ibook G4 with 1.33 processor using the I-movie HD software included ?? just wanting to do basic cuts with this camera of baby footage for distribution to family via DVD. Probably going to be SLOW, however will it to it?? thanks in advance for any further input.

G4 and HV10
 

Craig;

I don't think your G4 1.33 ibook is adequate for editing HV10 footage. However, you might just barely get by if your hard drive is 7200 rpm (or faster); RAM of 2 Gig or more --- and graphics card is capable of handling hardware acceleration (512 Ram, or more). I don't think such specs exist for a G4 1.33 ibook --- right?

Keep in mind that I know nothing about the Mac computer ---- although I have to believe that the right software on an adequately-powered Mac would have no problem capturing, editing, authoring, and rendering HV10 footage.

Good luck,

VM

If you are going to DVD then there is little point in editing in HDV as a standard DVD is standard definition.

So....

Switch your HV10 onto SD down-convert and capture your footage as Standard definition, this should help your Powerbook a little.

The down-converting will also give you a great standard definition image.

Bear in mind standard definition and HDV both go to the same tape and are both 25 mbps, so in theroy HDV should not be much more stain on your system than Standard definition.

I've edited DV on Final Cut Pro under OS X on a G4 350 MHz machine with excellent results so if you go this route you'll be all set.

I believe iMovie uses a Photo-JPEG intermediate codec which is a lot less strain on a CPU to edit also. I'm sure you could use this in FCP if your computer chokes on the native MPEG2 files.

I have used both iMovie HD and Final Cut Express HD on my 1.25 G4 Powerbook. For my current purposes, it works fine. Should work for you as well.

Will it work.......Yes
Will it be fast....No
Will it be fun.....Absolutely!

Mike

I tried some m2t files converted to quicktime. Rendered in the timeline the 1080i clips play and scroll smoothly. Rendering of dissolves and such take some time. Seems fine to me though... thanks for the info! I will be purchasing an HV10 soon.

-Mike

What software can i use for PC HD editing?
Now i use a 3.2GHz P4 with HT, 2MB cache and 2x512 dual ram with Edius3, but when i scrub the timeline the refresh is very-very slow. I cannot make a single dissolve between two clips in little preview monitor with smooth 25fps.
I know i can convert to canopus HQ codec, but the file size will be 3-4x more. And this is also time..
So is there any editing program, that i can use for my m2t files for basic smooth editing? cut, dissolve..

thx