A1 users editing systems specs? at DVinfo.net

Jack Jenkins · November 12th, 2006, 05:53 PM

I am planning an A1 purchase and was wondering if my editing system is gonna hold up to HDV. I know there was some discussion before people got cams, but now that people are actually pumping hdv in/out of their editing machines, I was just curious about the real life workflow. Whats working for folks and not working. I use a PC but I am also curious about MAC systems as well.

thanks

Pete Bauer · November 12th, 2006, 09:45 PM

What are your system specs and which NLE (and version) are you using? HDV does take a fast computer.

Steve Nunez · November 12th, 2006, 10:07 PM

Any modern Mac should be able to edit the HDV pretty easily- even the iMac series handles it well. The Intel machines are the ones to get if possible- but even a Mac Mini can edit the HDV this cam produces.
For the most part iMovieHD and FCP 5.1 handle it almost the same way as regular DV- you wouldn't notice the difference!

Nathan Brendan Masters · November 12th, 2006, 10:54 PM

What about the 24f?

-Nate

Deke Ryland · November 12th, 2006, 10:56 PM

I recenlty purchased the A1 and have done some preliminary "test" editing inside Adobe Production Studio.

My system bio:
3.6ghz Pentium 4 Hyperthreaded
2 GB ram
GeForce 6800

My computer can handle HDV fine if do only "very minor" cuts and edits. So basically my computer is 'acceptable' for simple cutting and dissolves. However, the moment you do anything like color correction, keying, layering other video streams/media, audio editting, etc... it all pretty much slows down big time and you can't get an acceptable playback speed. And if you want to render the unrendered parts of the timeline, you are looking at about 5 mins of rendering for every 1 minute of unrendered timeline (general ballpark).

Bottom Line: My system just doesn't cut the mustard. If all you want to do is very basic and simplisitic timelines... then you can certainly get by. Otherwise I would suggest doing like me and chunkin out some more cash for a new computer.

In my case, I will be getting the new PC featuring the Core 2 Quad later this month.

So if you have a machine like mine... by all means, go ahead and get the camera as it will definitely work on your computer. And your computer will most definitely be able to do anything you want it to do with the HDV. But the speed for rendering and playback will leave a lot to be desired. The quality of the picture however as compared to SD is well worth the hair pulling and twiddling of thumbs, IMO.

Devan Woodruff · November 13th, 2006, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deke Ryland

And if you want to render the unrendered parts of the timeline, you are looking at about 5 mins of rendering for every 1 minute of unrendered timeline (general ballpark).

what setup do you have as a hard drive? what speed is it? your hardrive is a big concern when it comes to video editting. You want to make sure you have a fast setup so everything flows when rendering. it may be different for you, but I know that my setup started rendering alot faster when i got a faster hardrive.

Devon Lyon · November 13th, 2006, 09:36 PM

Devan:

I have a reasonably powerful PC (sorry specs are at work and I don't remember off the top of my head). I have 4 Gigs RAM (yes, it doesn't recognize all 4 *yet*) and a top end video card. What I can tell you is you will need MUCH harddrive space, MUCH.

Also, I have an Xh-A1 and really love Cineform's Aspect HD program. Just works like a dream. I can edit multiple layers of HDV and don't notice much of a hit. Just look them up, it is worth the $.

Larry Huntington · November 15th, 2006, 02:30 PM

My new MacPro is working nice with the XH-A1 I got 2 days ago. I'm even capturing to external Lacie Drives (FW 800) without hickups. Scrubbing is faster than expected.

3.0Ghz quad Mac Pro
3 gigs of ram (ram needs to be matched in pairs for optimal speeds)
apple discusses this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492
X1900 Radeon 512mb
4 Internal Maxtor Sata Drives
Two 24" dell monitors

Now, when I apply Sapphire effects or others, I need to render only because I am outputting high quality on the timeline. Render times are longer due to the HDV format.

Nick Weeks · November 15th, 2006, 07:24 PM

Anyone using an older Mac G5 (Dual-core 2GHz for example, w/ 3GB RAM) to edit A1/HDV footage?

I'm interested in performance, because I have a feeling it may be a little sluggish. I'm using FCP 5.1.2

Nick Weeks · November 15th, 2006, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Huntington

My new MacPro is working nice with the XH-A1 I got 2 days ago. I'm even capturing to external Lacie Drives (FW 800) without hickups. Scrubbing is faster than expected.

3.0Ghz quad Mac Pro
3 gigs of ram (ram needs to be matched in pairs for optimal speeds)
apple discusses this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492
X1900 Radeon 512mb
4 Internal Maxtor Sata Drives
Two 24" dell monitors

Now, when I apply Sapphire effects or others, I need to render only because I am outputting high quality on the timeline. Render times are longer due to the HDV format.

Larry, are you using Final Cut Pro?

Chuck Fadely · November 15th, 2006, 09:19 PM

I can edit HDV on a G4 Powerbook with 2 gigs ram, using an external drive into the fw400 port and the deck or camera into the fw800 port, with no problems. I have no problems with 5400 rpm drives.

Final Cut just takes a while to render when you're done editing. HDV is not really any more drive or bandwidth intensive than SD -- but those calculations for rendering or downsizing to SD take a while.

chuck

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Weeks

Anyone using an older Mac G5 (Dual-core 2GHz for example, w/ 3GB RAM) to edit A1/HDV footage?

I'm interested in performance, because I have a feeling it may be a little sluggish. I'm using FCP 5.1.2

Nick Weeks · November 15th, 2006, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck Fadely

I can edit HDV on a G4 Powerbook with 2 gigs ram, using an external drive into the fw400 port and the deck or camera into the fw800 port, with no problems. I have no problems with 5400 rpm drives.

Final Cut just takes a while to render when you're done editing. HDV is not really any more drive or bandwidth intensive than SD -- but those calculations for rendering or downsizing to SD take a while.

chuck

Chuck, what about exporting from FCP with compressor? Any significant increase in time exporting a HD project to SD DVD?

Larry Huntington · November 16th, 2006, 03:11 PM

Nick,
I'm using Final Cut Pro 5.1.2. If I get a chance on a rainy day, I plan on installing Adobe Premire Pro on the Windows hard drive in the Mac Pro just to test performace.

Larry Huntington · November 16th, 2006, 03:16 PM

I've been exporting a 1080p timeline in FCP as a self-contained QT movie and then letting DVD studio pro compress it (for now). I am going to test compressor also. Rewriting the QT movie takes longer than SD, and DVD studio Pro takes longer to compile, but the results are very nice even with an SD dvd.

Bill Pryor · November 16th, 2006, 03:27 PM

Larry, my experience in doing the same thing (with SD, not HDV yet) has been that DVD Studio Pro does a lot better job of compressing than Compressor, even with the same VBR and all.

November 12th, 2006, 05:53 PM	#1
Jack Jenkins Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 122	A1 users editing systems specs? I am planning an A1 purchase and was wondering if my editing system is gonna hold up to HDV. I know there was some discussion before people got cams, but now that people are actually pumping hdv in/out of their editing machines, I was just curious about the real life workflow. Whats working for folks and not working. I use a PC but I am also curious about MAC systems as well. thanks

November 12th, 2006, 09:45 PM	#2
Pete Bauer Wrangler Join Date: May 2003 Location: Eagle River, AK Posts: 4,100	What are your system specs and which NLE (and version) are you using? HDV does take a fast computer. __________________ Pete Bauer The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Trying to solve a DV mystery? You may find the answer behind the SEARCH function ... or be able to join a discussion already in progress!

November 12th, 2006, 10:07 PM	#3
Steve Nunez Trustee Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Pembroke Pines, Florida Posts: 1,418	Any modern Mac should be able to edit the HDV pretty easily- even the iMac series handles it well. The Intel machines are the ones to get if possible- but even a Mac Mini can edit the HDV this cam produces. For the most part iMovieHD and FCP 5.1 handle it almost the same way as regular DV- you wouldn't notice the difference! __________________ Steve Nunez-New York City www.stevenunez.com

November 13th, 2006, 09:36 PM	#7
Devon Lyon Major Player Join Date: May 2005 Location: Oregon Posts: 213	Devan: I have a reasonably powerful PC (sorry specs are at work and I don't remember off the top of my head). I have 4 Gigs RAM (yes, it doesn't recognize all 4 yet) and a top end video card. What I can tell you is you will need MUCH harddrive space, MUCH. Also, I have an Xh-A1 and really love Cineform's Aspect HD program. Just works like a dream. I can edit multiple layers of HDV and don't notice much of a hit. Just look them up, it is worth the $. __________________ Lyon Films www.LyonFilms.com;

November 12th, 2006, 10:54 PM	#4
Nathan Brendan Masters Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Chicago, Il. Posts: 85	What about the 24f? -Nate

November 12th, 2006, 10:56 PM	#5
Deke Ryland Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Washington, USA Posts: 213	I recenlty purchased the A1 and have done some preliminary "test" editing inside Adobe Production Studio. My system bio: 3.6ghz Pentium 4 Hyperthreaded 2 GB ram GeForce 6800 My computer can handle HDV fine if do only "very minor" cuts and edits. So basically my computer is 'acceptable' for simple cutting and dissolves. However, the moment you do anything like color correction, keying, layering other video streams/media, audio editting, etc... it all pretty much slows down big time and you can't get an acceptable playback speed. And if you want to render the unrendered parts of the timeline, you are looking at about 5 mins of rendering for every 1 minute of unrendered timeline (general ballpark). Bottom Line: My system just doesn't cut the mustard. If all you want to do is very basic and simplisitic timelines... then you can certainly get by. Otherwise I would suggest doing like me and chunkin out some more cash for a new computer. In my case, I will be getting the new PC featuring the Core 2 Quad later this month. So if you have a machine like mine... by all means, go ahead and get the camera as it will definitely work on your computer. And your computer will most definitely be able to do anything you want it to do with the HDV. But the speed for rendering and playback will leave a lot to be desired. The quality of the picture however as compared to SD is well worth the hair pulling and twiddling of thumbs, IMO.

November 15th, 2006, 02:30 PM	#8
Larry Huntington Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Grass Valley, California Posts: 350	My new MacPro is working nice with the XH-A1 I got 2 days ago. I'm even capturing to external Lacie Drives (FW 800) without hickups. Scrubbing is faster than expected. 3.0Ghz quad Mac Pro 3 gigs of ram (ram needs to be matched in pairs for optimal speeds) apple discusses this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304492 X1900 Radeon 512mb 4 Internal Maxtor Sata Drives Two 24" dell monitors Now, when I apply Sapphire effects or others, I need to render only because I am outputting high quality on the timeline. Render times are longer due to the HDV format.

November 15th, 2006, 07:24 PM	#9
Nick Weeks Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Birmingham, AL USA Posts: 722	Anyone using an older Mac G5 (Dual-core 2GHz for example, w/ 3GB RAM) to edit A1/HDV footage? I'm interested in performance, because I have a feeling it may be a little sluggish. I'm using FCP 5.1.2

November 16th, 2006, 03:11 PM	#13
Larry Huntington Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Grass Valley, California Posts: 350	Nick, I'm using Final Cut Pro 5.1.2. If I get a chance on a rainy day, I plan on installing Adobe Premire Pro on the Windows hard drive in the Mac Pro just to test performace.

November 16th, 2006, 03:16 PM	#14
Larry Huntington Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Grass Valley, California Posts: 350	I've been exporting a 1080p timeline in FCP as a self-contained QT movie and then letting DVD studio pro compress it (for now). I am going to test compressor also. Rewriting the QT movie takes longer than SD, and DVD studio Pro takes longer to compile, but the results are very nice even with an SD dvd.

November 16th, 2006, 03:27 PM	#15
Bill Pryor Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 4,449	Larry, my experience in doing the same thing (with SD, not HDV yet) has been that DVD Studio Pro does a lot better job of compressing than Compressor, even with the same VBR and all.