What does "multiple streams" mean?
 

When an NLE promo-paper says it can handle, lets say 11 simultaneous streams of SD rez footage, what does that mean exactly?

Any help?

Thanks.

All the various editing systems out there have slightly different meanings as to what "real-time" is. Generally they support ample amounts of real-time (no waiting for rendering) with specific filters. If you run 3rd party filters then they may be slow and you may have to wait for rendering (i.e. Magic Bullet). Also, some supposedly "real-time" filters may not be real-time depending on the settings you pick for it (i.e. Final Cut / 3-way color corrector).

The amount of real-time also depends on whether or not you're going out to firewire. On some systems, going out through firewire requires rendering or makes you lose about a stream of real-time.

11 simultaneous streams of SD resolution footage should mean the system can play back 11 streams in the video picture area at once (all presumably resized). They are probably running a special drive array because 11 streams of SD footage will need a lot of hard drives, RAID controllers, and likely a server/workstation-typemotherboard with something faster than normal PCI.

I would probably look at the filters and effects you use often (i.e. look through current projects), and try demo-ing the various systems out there to see how much real-time you get.