Really confused about video/graphics cards
 

Can someone please explain what type of video and/or graphics card is needed in an NLE system? I have a Pinnacle DV500 card but I thought it was only used to capture video (I bought it because my system didn't have any firewire connectons).

Problem is, I don't know if I also need a "graphics" card like the Radeon 9800, nVidia GeForce, etc. Do these cards do the same thing as the DV500 or are they used in addition to a video capture card to improve the quality of the video being rendered?

Bah, I hate trying to configure hardware. :(

You already have a graphics card. A video graphics card is what you use to see the image on your computer monitor. Not knowing what kind of computer you have, you may have your graphics card as part of your motherboard, in any case it is what you hook your computer monitor to. Use the DV500 to capture, export and edit with. It will process the real-time effects during editing.

David

In that case, do you suggest I upgrade to a better graphics card that will process video faster/better? My computer was custom built at a local computer store, so I have no idea what kind of graphics card is in there, but it's nothing fancy like the ones I mentioned above.

I've been having trouble editing in Premiere (I can capture, but playing video causes it to crash) and I thought maybe the graphics card was the problem.

I hate dealing with graphics cards. For capturing I'm using a cheap $20 firewire card, run straight into my vegas program. Don't need anything fancy to capture. The trick comes when you want to preview and that sort of stuff. I don't give a hoot about "real time" previews, get by just fine the way it is. Capture, edit, burn.

By "playing video" causing the crashes, do you mean just watching videos on your computer monitor, or trying to view video back out the firewire or video out port of the DV500? If the problem happens when you're just watching on the computer, then yes, your video card may be at fault. Start with newer drivers, then look to getting a new card. If it's the DV or video out port, you'll have to check out the Canopus customer support docs for improving system stability and compatability.

The DV500 is a Pinnacle Systems card I believe.

I'd guess that something is not compatible in the system and it very well might be the Adobe software. It has a rep for crashing.

All of the system components have to be compatible with the DV500 which is a bit touchy about the issue. And the drivers have to all be compatible. I'd check the compatibility list and also find all the latest drivers for your system.

If you had someone build the system for you and it was built around the Pinnacle card, they should help you get it right.

I own a DV500, that's what I learned video editing on. It comes bundled with Premiere 6 and is tightly intigrated with it- so much so that you have to install the software and a card in a certian order to work correctly. (Premiere first- then the DV500)

The DV500 not only is a capture card but it has limited real-time funtionality within Premiere. It has nothing to do with your video card- the DV500 and video card are on complete opposite spectrums as far as hardware is concerned. The only way a video card could effect the DV500 is it's overlay. Premiere uses the video card's video overlay to display the preview window.

Buying a high end graphics card shouldn't benefit you at all unless your using Hollywood FX transitions and enable the hardware acceleration (Open GL) for the 3D transitions.


If you had your machine built recently they should have used a better mother board- one that has firewire built in...that way you wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of configuring the DV500- and besides it ONLY works with Premiere. It's not OHCI compliant so it wont work with other capture applications like Vegas.