Cheapest computer to edit HDV
 

I own PC with Celeron 2 Ghz, 400 bus, 128 MB RAM. I have Vegas 3.0, 1600x1280 17" monitor.

I don't want upgrade my computer. I want to buy new complete solution later.

Until then, can I simply upgrade Vegas software to 5.0? How well would it work with Sony HDV footage? Would work at all?

My friend has HP with 1200 Mhz Athalon, 128 MB RAM. He wants know if and how would that work. Would anyone know?

Radek, both machines will be crawlin'....not a very good experience. Remember 1080i HDV has 4.5X more pixels than SD - you need to be realistic about machine performance.

I'd say there's no point in trying to edit HDV on either of the computers described in the first two posts. If you're serious about getting into HDV you should be prepared to spend some money to get started, including at least $1000 or so for a good 3+ GHz PC. If that's simply not an option, your best alternative for now would be to downconvert HDV footage to DV when capturing to your computer, which yields very nice widescreen standard-definition video--better than most DV cameras can offer.

So as of today, 4-10-05, what's a good, solid entry level computer, hard drive, etc. if someone wants to edit a full length project ( 2 hours) from an FX1? What kind of cost are we looking at, compared to even a couple of months ago?

Keep in mind that HDV is a new market that requires massive
computing power. Nothing will be cheap in the HDV market at
this point in time. That includes camera's, computing systems
and output systems (if you want to maintain HD).

In my opinion budget/cheap and HDV do not go hand in hand
as of this time. Perhaps it is better to look at a high quality
other system or work in DV first with your HDV camera if you
cannot afford a system to actually edit it etc.?

Keep in mind you may need additional software etc. as well.

Yet a high performance PC is not that expensive these days. Aspect HD will work very well on a Dell Dimension 8400 with 1GB and a monitor for under $1200. 3Ghz+ CPUs are now common place. True a new PC maybe required but not all HDV solutions require an expensive dual processor workstation.

Basically look at each HDV software/hardware vendor's recommended system requirements. Some only require a modern but average desktop. If the product's features match your needs then you know the type of PC you need.

David,

I was just looking at the specs recommended for Connect HD. Can you tell me why you recommend an FX Athlon and just a 2.8 GHz P4 with HT. The price difference is quite marked (£500 against £150). My current machine is Athlon 3200 with 3 Gb RAM with 4 x 160Gb, 1 for programs and a scratch and two mirrored for data. I am going to be upgrading the processor (need to build a couple of less powerful ones so treating myself to the newer things :) ).

Can you advise to which processor works best at specific price points - I don't think I can stretch to an FX though.

Many thanks

Chris

I would recommend anyone looking at getting into HDV editing take a look at Adam Wilt's article:

http://www.dv.com/news/news_item.jht.../2005/wilt0505

He explains HDV editing pretty thoroughly as well as the pitfalls and work arounds - as well as the computing requirements.

Chris,

Your current system is fine. Please download the trial to see for yourself.

The Mac Mini with it's entry-level RISC processor, should be able to edit HDV with iMovie. That thinsgs costs around US$500! The intermediate codec and the transcoding are a bit of a drag. Still, it seems to work, and without the need for extra software! So, judging by the posts I have seen, this would be the cheapest HDV editing solution currently available hands down.

If you add FCP and some extra software to the mix, it continues to be quite a bang for the buck. But FCP doesn't handle HDV natively yet so it requires some workarounds and extra steps, which in the case of iMovie are built-in.

Actually, the Adam wilt article was a bit off base on some things and left out some critical information about distribution options, but I suppose it had some good info too.

Regarding the Mac Mini, it may be one of the cheapest ways to do something with HDV footage, but not very much compared to what you can do on more powerful computers. Better to take David's advice and download the Cineform demo, since you already have a functional PC. To edit HDV effectively and encode to currently available delivery formats, you need all the processing power you can afford on either platform, regardless of what the "minimum specs" may be.

Makes sense. If you have a business built on video, the "Cheapest computer to edit HDV" will not do the job, same for DV, same for audio and so on. However since the subject of the thread is "cheapest" and not "best" I thought it worth mentioning. For someone on a tight budget who wants to learn some basic editing techniques, I think the Mini has no competition. I walked a friend with no experience in NLE through it's use the other day and it just rocks.

"For someone on a tight budget who wants to learn some basic editing techniques, I think the Mini has no competition. I walked a friend with no experience in NLE through it's use the other day and it just rocks."

I haven't seen iMovie so I can't judge how easy it might be to use, but you can buy a complete PC with monitor for less than a bare Mac Mini, and then take your pick of several reasonably-priced editing programs. It's funny to see how good Apple is at generating buzz over things which aren't necessarily that impressive, even if they are somewhat clever.

> but you can buy a complete PC with monitor for less than a
> bare Mac Mini, and then take your pick of several reasonably-
> priced editing programs

I think not for HDV, which is the subject of this thread.

iMovie is VERY easy to use, but it's simple interface deceives as to it's inner workings which, thanks to the QuickTime architecture and some very nice code that Apple bought from Macromedia, works very well. I have tried using Microsoft's equivalent on XP and it kept crashing and seemed to demand a much faster computer for previewing (it was 2 GHz box I think). Whereas iMovie works fine on my 400 MHz G4. Of course you can't compare gigahertz because RISC and CISC and the OSes are so different...

... oh let's not turn this into a platform war ok? If someone can give a detailed quote for a less expensive HDV-capable editing workstation, just show us the numbers, please. I'm all for it, whether it runs on BeOS or whatever.

Now who remembers BeOS?