Simplied overview of PC-based editors
 

Is this an accurate overview of performance and rendering schemes?

1) Canopus - pretty much real-time editing, re-encodes everything, medium to fast renders
2) Vegas - not real-time editing, no hardware acceleration possible, re-encodes everything, slow renders
3) Premiere - pretty much real-time editing but only with expensive hardware (Matrox), re-encodes everything, unsure about rendering speed
4) Mpeg Video Wizard (Womble) - not real-time editing, re-encodes only modified content, fast renders
5) Speed Edit - Pretty much real-time editing, does not employ or support hardware acceleration, re-encodes only modified content, fast renders
6) Xpress or Liquid - pretty much real-time editing, Unsure about hardware acceleration, re-encodes everything, Unsure about rendering speed

I'm not too well-versed in the topic, but I would like to see a simple overview list like this completed and made accurate

Thanks

Premiere Pro with Cineform allows real-time HD editing, including basic transitions and simple effects without rendering. No additional hardware required, expensive or not. Not sure what you mean about "re-encodes everything".

I have to stick up for Vegas here. Not sure why it's not considered a real time editor. It frankly just depends on what you are editing, how complex the edits are, and how fast your computer is. With my Core 2 Duo machine, I can edit standard DV footage in real time, export in real time, transitions, the whole ball of wax. When I work with HDV that's a little bit of a different story but frankly, I'm very satisifed with the performance Vegas offers for HD content. You don't even need Cineform to achieve this.

Jon

Are you refering specifically to editing of raw transport stream HDV footage?

Because for normal avi-type footage (e.g. Cineform or DV) Premiere certainly doesn't 're-encode everything'!

okay maybe I'm a dullard (only been doing this since 3/4 inch) but maybe someone could define "real-time" editing for me. I use Avid and Vegas, is this an HD thing?

Hi Bill, from a former U-Matic cutter...

"Real Time" meaning, no waiting around for rendering. Put a 30-frame cross cut on the timeline and play it back immediately instead of sitting around for a minute or two for it to fully render. Starting back in 1997 for about five years I was a huge proponent of Canopus (now owned by Grass Valley) because at that point they were the only viable NLE that offered real-time editing without rendering -- not only titles and simple transitions, but complicated transitions and effects as well. It took years for other companies to catch up... I remember wondering why so much attention was lavished on Final Cut Pro when using it meant having to wait for rendering even on simple lower-third titles. Then I realized that it was the best you could get with a Mac at the time. Things have certainly changed since then, in many ways.

But anyway that's what's meant by "real time" editing -- it's editing without having to wait for renders.

There is rendering for encoding and rendering for viewing. Vegas does the latter in real-time but not the former.

SpeedEDIT
 

Hi, Brett!
SpeedEDIT exceeds notions of "pretty much" real-time, to real real-time.
Not just a selected list of real-time transitions, but anything you wish to do, most notably titles, color correction and clip movements. It's perhaps most enjoyed for its streamlined next-gen workflow.

Just that heads-up that NewTek is poised to release SpeedEDIT 1.2, with native DVCPro HD editing, and VST plug-in support in July.

Thanks Chris,

I started using an Avid in 1995, and that was a pain, I could preview the dissolves etc frame by frame but not play. Using Avid XDV and real-time previews etc, and Vegas the same way. (thus my slight confusion over the real-time editing question, I thought maybe it was something new that I missed)

On a side note, one of the things I loved about Avid was how it only rendered the changes (effects graphics etc) and then print to tape. All the others I looked at had to render an entire avi file of the timeline.

These days though, with having to encode to mp2 for DVD, that added value is highly diminished.

(I still have some U-matic gear... not sure if it will fire up.. all those old tapes from my TV news reporter days... someday I will transfer them!)