My outdate p4 3.0ghz, 1 gig ram enough to edit hd?
 

Sorry if this is the wrong area.
Will my pc be powerful enough to use vegas to edit hd video?
I also have raid set up on 2x160 drives.

Do I need to start saving money for Conroe?

Thanks

Yes probably fine – but depends on the software and/or the method you use. Editing native HDV is the most taxing on the PC.. and also some editing packages handle this better than others. Depending what package you use and how complex your edits are it may or may not be fast enough to give you a nice editing experience. Editing with an intermediate file (e.g. the Cineform codec with Vegas or Premiere) should be fine. And there is always the option of using a proxy (which will work on any machine which can edit DV).

For native HDV editing, for example, Ulead Video Studio recommends:

Non-Proxy HDV editing requires*
· Intel® Pentium® 4 3.0 GHz or higher with Hyper-Threading technology
· Microsoft® Windows® XP (Service Pack2 for HDV camcorder support recommended)
· 1 GB of RAM (2GB or more recommended)

I use Vegas on a p4 2.6 gHz, 1 gig machine, with Cineform and Vegas. So yes, it can edit HDV, but it can get slow as molasses, depending on how many fx you put in. I watch a lot of the editing window in preview or draft mode. And the render time can be a while if you use lots of color corrections or image manipulation. It took 3 hours for me to render a 3 minute piece, BUT I had color curves, secondary color correction, chromakey, resizing, lighting effects, and large image files to contend with.

And yes, I hope to one day soon upgrade to a better machine.

Can do...I am currently using a lap top with an external HD and I do just fine. Not the fastest but its doable. I would suggest adding another GB of RAM.

Does graphic cards play a role as far as how the project will look when outputed to dvd or back to HD tape??

I would had more ram, but I only have 2 slots on my cheapo mb.
I have 2x512 with hyperthreading on.

If you use Vegas, you can edit HDV as cineform intermediate with preview mode = draft / half size to get full 25 fps (here in europe) from the Timeline.
Playing HDV or other (compressed) HD Formats in e.g. Mediaplayer mostly works, depending on the codec.
I´d say the P 3.0 is the absolute low end for HD editing - works, but no fun.

Video card no a factor
 

No the video card (GPU) does very little in Vegas. It's all CPU.
Optimally, you will want to ensure it will run two displays, one should be capable of 1920x1080 HDV display and the other whatever size the timeline you intend to view on the other monitor.

I think you'd have to weigh the expense of replacing your RAM with 2x 1GB modules with the expense and time of replacing your CPU + RAM + main board (and graphics card if your current one is AGP) against the benefits of each. It looks like replacing just the RAM is going to be at least $175, the cost of the other parts depend on what you buy.

I think you'd be happier replacing the computer, but even with the fastest computer, HDV work can be very slow going.

Hi Richard,

Slightly O/T, welcome to DVINFO. I noticed you are just up the road from me. Always good to see others in the area join in here.

Ok, back to thread topic now.

-gb-

maybe this is a cool (or better hot ? ;-) ) solution:

http://www.chip.de/artikel/c1_artikel_20894505.html

you can get a highly overclocked, but stable Core 2 Duo E6300 system for very small money! This is the fastest PC you can get currently.
Perfect for HDV editing.

Thanks Greg.

I just bought a new agp card so sapphire ati 1600 pro card so my son
could play Narnia....
I guess I will see how much pain it is with what I have now.
I'm also looking to get a new lcd widescreen, I was going to get a dell
24" but there are too many problems reported with their latest monitors.

I've had my 24" Dell 2407WFP for two weeks now and no problems considering the price. Do I wish I had a monitor with greater color accuracy? Definitely but for $700 I'm loving the 1900x1200 resolution and HD component inputs for my A1U.

Do you having any banding reported by other users?
Also you don't having problems with the component inputs from the camera?

Neither are problems for my 2407WFP but my firmware is A02. From what I've read only the A00 firmwares (V1B11) exhibited the problems you mentioned.

A00 - V1B11, LTM240M2
A00+ Interim update - V1B15, LTM240LM2
A01 - V1B15, LTM240L2
A02 - V1B15, LTM240L2

To access the firmware version of 2407WFP:

1- Turn off your screen
2- Press simultaneously the 'Menu' and '+' button of the screen.
3- While holding the 2 buttons, press now the 'Power' button.
4- Once the screen in ON, unpress the 3 buttons.
5- Just press '-' button.