Looking for right computer and edit program?
 

I'm getting a Canon XH-A1 soon and I dont know to much about what computer to use for editing HD. And not sure about what edit software to get. I would like all three to be very compattable with each other. I've spent the money for the XH-A1, I don't want to spend more than $4000 on the total cost of both computer and software. Any suggestions on what to get to capture and edit from the XH-A1 without any headaches I have read about? I'm pretty new at this. I know the computer I have now is way to small for any of this stuff.

Software-wise, I'm using both SpeedEdit and Avid Media Composer 3.0 without any hitches so far. Both at differing ends of the budget spectrum.

Shaun

I have a 3-year-old dual core PC with WindowsXP and premiere elements4. It's pretty good to learn on - not too much fancy stuff. But the PC does struggle a bit to show a long HD clip with windows media-player. PE4 works fine.

I also have a 1 year-old dual core laptop with WindowsVista, and everything runs fine on that - it is designed to run HD stuff, though I wouldn't bother with Windows MovieMaker for anything except SD.

If you want a high end editing program, you'll need more processing power. But I'd recommend starting with something relatively cheap and easy, then working out what is important to you and whether or not you actually need the high end stuff.

Avid doesn't take Canon's 24F mode. Final Cut Pro does. You might look at getting a Mac, and then Final Cut Express. FCE is only 200 bucks and will do all the basic editing you need to do to learn. You can finish a film with it, but you don't get everything you get with FCP, of course. However, it's a perfectly good way to get into the biz, and then if you upgrade to FCP later on, the FCE files are compatible. You can edit FCE on any of the current crop of Macs, although if you go to an Apple store they'll tell you you should get the MacBook Pro over the MacBook, or the Mac Pro over the iBook. However, the low end models work perfectly well.

I also suggest SpeedEdit. That's all I use these days.

Your best bet on the Mac is to get Final Cut Pro. As far as I know, Final Cut Express cannot import or edit Canon's 24F mode. You have to import the 24F footage with another program and insert into a 60i / 29.97 fps file with pulldown.

On the PC side the following programs can work directly with the XH A1's 24F footage: Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Canopus Edius, and SpeedEdit.

These are good suggestions to follow. I don't believe I have heard of SpeedEdit though. I will look it up. I was thinking on getting the Mac Book Pro, but I was concerned about enough storage. I think from what little I do know that the Mac is powerful and strong enough to handle the loads.

Does "speed edit" perform as they tell on their site? It looks very responsive on their demo and having a storyboard to quickly move clips around is a really useful feature, that should be something every serious editprogram should have.

I think you're right about the 24F mode and FCE. I had not checked that, but apparently it does not do 24F; you need FCP for that.

Steven, most people use external firewire drives for their media files, rather than putting them on the internal drive.

Aba
 

I find it interesting that no one's commented on Premier Pro (which isn't really). My headline means "Anything but Adobe".

To put it into perspective, I started using Premier a dozen years ago and have watched the product grow and mature. Then I watched it get big and fat. Although I know others have found success editing HD with Premier, often paired with Cineform. That success has eluded me, and apparently some others. If you're doing cuts only... and nothing else... PP can work just fine. Start cranking in some effects or anything tricky, like multi-cam editing, and PP will crumble.

Premier is just way too finicky and spastic for me to spend any more money to Adobe for future releases.

Avid, Speed Edit, FCP are all fine choices and I'll leave it to others to tout their merits. The buzz on Speed Edit has me interested.

I have both a Mac tower and a Macbook Pro running Final Cut Studio. THe MacBook Pro and Final Cut Studio fits your budget and leaves room for an external Firewire drive and some accessories like a Contour Shuttle pro. I went with the 250gb 5400rpm internal drive on the MBP. It works fine.

Yes, it pretty much is just as you see it on the site. If you've never edited that way, it might take a bit of getting used to. But having both the storyboard view and timeline view open at the same time makes things a snap. It becomes very intuitive.

Hey Steven,

I've been using Premiere Pro 2.0 with Cineform Aspect HD on the PC quite successfully since I bought my A1 a few months ago. All my HD videos on my Vimeo are edited with the above. Here's the link if you want to check them out: http://www.vimeo.com/neezer/videos

Recently I bought a Macbook Pro and have been running the above software in Bootcamp without any major dramas. As you mentioned the main issue is storage space - with a 100Gb partition I could only capture about 3 hours of footage and the drive was full.

I'd suggest downloading some trial versions and giving it a go. It's a big decision and one that you'll want to really get right.

Cheers,

Matthew.

heres a vote for sony vegas 8 and cineform..great for audio as well as it integrates with soundforge. running on an intel quad core with vista 64...hopefully soon to be vegas 64 bit.
zero probs native hdv or cineform. works with 25p even better than 50i

No demo for speededit
 

Never heard of SpeedEdit until this thread. Sounded very interesting but when I went to newtek's site, couldn't find a demo of SpeedEdit. Do they offer one? I don't think I want to spend $495.00 on an application without trying it out first.

-John

I have to echo the comments about Adobe. I've been a big fan since version 5.0

I know HD demands a lot more of your hardware. That's not Adobe's fault but when I made the jump from 2.0 to CS3 I bought a nice new computer to go with it. I was hoping this sould solve some of the performance issues I'd been experiencing with PPro 2.0 in my previous computer.

While the faster hardware helped I've found CS3 even more bloated than 2.0. I'm so married to Adobe and my workflows that changing still seems scary. I'm considering Final Cut Pro though.

John,

Speed Edit does not have a demo version. I have been in contact with them to no avail and finally just gave up. Probably the worst business mistake ever and/or they just don't want to put in the effort in to engineering a demo version.

Mark

Mark,

I am very leary about companies who do not provide demos for their products. They are either hiding something or they just don't care. They are in it just for the money and don't care about their customers.

While SpeedEdit does sound like a nice application, I have to wonder about the company who makes it. Too many scams out there. For now, I will stay devoted to the professionals such as Adobe and Sony who I know produce dependable applications and support them.

-John

BTW, I just emailed newtek and told my opinion of them as well.

I am absolutely dying here. Newtek a scam? Do you have a clue about the history of this company?

Newtek? Why, only one of the oldest, most consistent and most deeply entrenched corporations in the NLE sphere. They were literally the first in the business to gain wide acceptance, with the ubiquitous Video Toaster, back in the days before the DV format, when the platform of choice for running it was the Commodore Amiga (and yes folks, I've been there and done that; Newtek's Video Toaster was my very first immersion into "video through a computer." Our Toaster paid a lot of bills at our studio. Geez, can't believe that was nearly fifteen years ago already).

Newtek's been in this business long before Randy Ubillos ever wrote the first version of Final Cut Pro -- heck, even before Randy wrote the first version of Premiere. I don't think Newtek needs to justify their existence to anybody... but yes it would be much more appealing if they offered a demo like everybody else!

I just bought Speed Edit for my particular workflow. (I use HDV in a SD project so I can 'blow-up' the video for 'close-ups' or size-down for 'wide shots' using the same footage.) This cannot be done in realtime in either Final Cut or Premiere Pro. I own both so I do know what I speak of. Speed Edit and Edius could play mixed formats in real time, Speed Edit gave me the flexibility I needed, so voila. I'm happy with it so far, but it is very different user-wise.

As to the demo issue, I've been told that due to legal/piracy issues, NewTek is wary of serving up an online demo. I agree that from a marketing POV, it's a stupid move. OTOH, NewTek has been putting most of their money in LightWave, their 3D modeling application, and their hardware/software based stuff, like their tri-caster.

While I'm happy with Speed Edit, Premiere Pro and Final Cut are a bit deeper and their workflows are very similar, something you might want to consider. Having used both PPro and FCP, I find myself going to Premiere for most of my corporate work. (I've been a professional editor since the days of tape machines, and like Chris Hurd, I remember working with the NewTek Toaster. I also remember Grass Valley, Ampex, Abekas and other DVE companies quickly dropping prices or coming out with cheaper DVE boxes within a year of the Toasters' appearance!) Anyway, I like FCP, it has a solid workflow and feature set, but I edit lots of dialog and find it easier in Premiere.

If you have a decent computer, (at least a Core 2 duo for HDV work), you can download and try any Adobe products for 30 days. I don't know if FCP has a demo, but either way, from my point of view you'll get a good deal.