Can I do this on a 2.53GHz computer?
 

I've bought a Sony HC1 camcorder but can't really afford to upgrade the computer and don't really want expensive software either. Am used to editing DV but only ever did basic stuff, (straight cuts, occasional cross-fades, titles and music). that's all I really want to do in HDV too.

I have a number of questions:

1) How well will Vegas MS Platinum run on a 2.53 GHz P4 with 768Mb ram, a 64Mb Nvidea card and 2 free disks and 80Gb and a 120Gb both 7200rpm?

2) Will I be able to print HDV projects back to the HC1 with this spec (I've heard its quite processor intensive). I don't mind long renders, TMPGenc frequently takes over 20 hours already.

3) Can the Platinum software use proxy files as it stands (without Gearshift)? If not would the intermediate be OK with this spec. I don't mind working in standard def using proxy's if I have to as I don't do anything very sophisticated.

Thanks
David

VMS is a great tool, but you might find it worthwhile to purchase the CineForm capture tool, since you've got a fairly slow computer by current standards and system minimums. Try their demo for a few days and see how you like it.

I also believe Gearshift does not work with the Movie Studio Platinum Version of Vegas. These ultimate solutions are going to cost from $200 up. HD Connect is the Cineform capture to use with Vegas... at $200. Incidentally, my experience with Aspect (in Premiere Pro 2.0) and Vegas using cineform, is that when rendering back to transfer back to tape, you are dealing with extremely long "rendering" times. I have a Dual Core 3800+ AMD system with 2gigs memory, and it seems that render back to tape takes about 10 minutes for every minute of run...

Does anybody else get better using Cineform ?

re
 

Have you tried womble Mpeg wizard, it is a great "basic" mpeg editor. I can edit the native hdv files really well with my amd athlon 2600+. The good thing is the application don't re-encode the hdv file is not affected by any filter, so the render time is smaller then, for example, Tmpegenc.

Thanks for the replies. I was quite tempted by the womble editor as it seems really simple. I understand it doesn't write back to the camcorder tape though. Is there another utility or programme that I could use to do that?

I've been capturing with CapDVHS and might try Paviko's HDV Split. Haven't had a problem so far. Is this what you meant or is there more to capturing than I realise?

I'd forgotten that Gearshift doesn't work with Platinum. Does Platinum have its own proxy file option?

Thanks

re
 

I use capDVHS, I tried Paviko's HDV Split, but I have many errors in the capture file.
Here you hace a complete tutorial for instaling the drivers(so your Pc can detect the HC1, and the way to capture with capDVHS:

http://hdvforever.com/hdv/hdrhc1/freecapture/

Note that this tutorial say you how to transform the m2t native file into another video file, I don't do that, I edit the native mpg file.



I don't know any tool to copy the final file to the camera, I use to save that file in an iso dvdr, think about a DV tape is aprox. 13g,b and an hour of video, a normal DVDr can storage more than 4gb, so you need 3 or 4 dvdr to save one one of HDmpg. Think when you want to use that files,you don't need to re-capture cia firewire again the dv tape, copy the dvdr to the hard disk is easier.

I hadn't really thought about this but you're right Alex. I reckon I'll probably have 18 months before there's proper high def DVD solution I can output to. That's about 6 or 7 major projects for me which is just a pack of 25 DVD-R disks.

Does womble have an option to make a 1080i WMV HD file?

Thanks

re
 

No , womble only can export in mpeg format (HD mpeg, DVD, SVCD VCD...), you can open an womble project directly in Tmpgenc.

You can use Virtualdub-mpeg2 to transform a mpeg file to wmv ( I think, I have never try it). Virtualdub-mpeg2 is a virtualdud mod that can open mpeg files.

re
 

Yes I have tried it and you can make a wmv-9 file with virtualdub-mpeg2 from a (hdv)mpeg file. You can download virtualdub-mpeg2 from the link, It is free.

http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/stable/

Remenber to open the hdv file in virtualdub-mpeg2, you must transform the captured m2t file to mpeg program stream, I make it with womble (in tools), I think the demo version of womble do it, I cannot remenber.

That's great thanks. Paviko is promising a print to tape option for his capture tool in the future. That would make the womble option even more of a contender for people with low spec computers.

Out of interest, do you know whether Vegas Platinum can edit with lower res proxy files and then substitute the original footage for final render?

Yes, if you're willing to do it manually.

DSE

Thanks for that. Is it relatively easy and does your book (which I beleive comes with the software) explain how to do it?

The book that comes with the software is related to HDV and not Vegas in any substantive form. The "Instant Movie Studio" book does cover this to a limited degree, but I'm equally happy to share the flow with you if you choose to go this route.

Well I've been playing with the demo version of Vegas Platiunum for the last few days and I can see what a powerful peice of software it is, so if I can get it to work well enough on my computer with HDV I'd prefer to use it.

I haven't been able to test this facility in the demo version because HDV support is not enabled, (I understand why).

I'd be really grateful if you could share the workflow for manual use of low res proxy's (with as much detail as you can) and perhaps venture an opinion on how well this, final render and print to tape will work on my computer.

Many thanks in advance for all your help.

More hours with Vegas now under my belt. I'd really welcome some info on that workflow Douglas as I'd like to go ahead and buy the software if it will work properly on my computer.

Thanks