What kind of computer required for HD? at DVinfo.net

Herman Chen · May 13th, 2006, 10:56 PM

What kinds of computer specs are required for editing HD video from the FX1?

And not necessarily to run at super speeds, but at a decent level.

Fred Foronda · May 13th, 2006, 11:13 PM

I've been getting by with my P4 2.8 HT 2gb ram and a external 500gb HD. For HD you need a lot of disc space, RAM and go for the dual processors with a good cooling system.

Herman Chen · May 13th, 2006, 11:32 PM

what are some of your rendering times? i don't know too much about editing HDV, so if you could give me some basic info on that, i'd appreciate it.

Thanks

Richard Plumridge · May 14th, 2006, 06:19 AM

It depends on what you're layering on the footage. If you're putting on Magic Bullet colour grades on a native m2t stream, then you're in for a hell of along waiting time.

If you're doing any more than basic cutting (grading, keying, compositing, other effects etc) then I would convert it do a Cineform HD AVI and then apply the grading and effects from there before re-encoding it as a m2t.

My Setup is:

Athlon 64 X2 4600 running at 2.41 Ghz
2GB Ram
Maxtor OneTouchII 500GB Firewire external drive
250GB 7200rpm internal
120GB system drive
Only a radeon 9600...I'm sure a new graphics card would help editing though!

Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Richard

Steve Nunez · May 14th, 2006, 07:32 AM

Any modern Mac with iMovieHD can edit the footage from the current crop of HDV camcorders. Render times and other processor intensive task speeds are relative to the cost of the machine= the more you spend, the faster the performance.

Leo Pepingco · May 14th, 2006, 07:51 AM

I have a Dual processor Pentium4. 3.2 gigaherts With 1 Gig ram and 250gigs Hard Drive (I think its 7200rpm) With a basic 128 mb Graphics card.

I'm planning on getting Prem Pro 2, and want to edit with the base m2t files. I know people reccomend 2gig RAM, but I was only able to afford 1 gig RAM. Is that enough to do basic shorts without the headaches of slow processing?

Fred Foronda · May 14th, 2006, 12:43 PM

Would you guys prefer building your own system to specs or getting one already built. I noticed at a local retail store have the dual AMD 4200 (I might be wrong don't quote me) for around 1200 but then the OS comes with a lot of stuffs that I won't really need for video so it puts some weight on the system. Richard is dead on correct on the layering of the footages, it does take a toll on your processor.

Giroud Francois · May 14th, 2006, 01:53 PM

there is no reply to such question.
What you can do , is to decide for a workflow and application, then read the specs given by the application editor.
for example, native HDV (m2t) is painfull even on an high end machine.
but you better spend 500$ to the cineform codec and be free to chose almost any recent computer.(altough works best in premiere, so if you choose another apps, the choices will be different)
Same for Magic bullet that is painfully slow , except if you buy an NVIDIA 7800 GT card (about 300$) that can give you almost real time on HDV.
Problem, to have good monitoring on HD monitor Matrox has better card, so you cannot get both (but Nvidia can give pretty decent result too)
Same if you go SDI-HD instead Firewire (depends the camera) or wants to capture components at high bandwith, that cost the hell (capture card, RAID disks, fast dual processor).
The specification are not the same.
If you want to stay on the cheap side, a recent processor (intel D930 dual core) on a average motherboard (asus for example) should fit your main needs.
Personnally i edit HDV (sony FX1 1080i50 or JVC HD1 720p30) on an old P4 (northwood) 2.6Ghz, overclocked at 3.2Hhz with 2 gig of ram and standard IDE and SATA disk (7200 rpm), using cineform codec. Videocard are cheap Nvidia 5200 (one AGP, one PCI) driving 2 dell 24" screen at 1920x1200.
I am happy, since updating for a new computer would cost me at least 1500$ and probably not giving twice the speed.

Richard Plumridge · May 14th, 2006, 10:13 PM

Both Giroud and Fred are on the money in terms of using a codec such as Cineform. Besides, you are woking with such a large GOP with an m2t file that it is nigh on impossible to work with sound, add effects (not to mention the strain on the system) and even viewing it on a standard monitor can become a chore. Go with a codec...it is more than worth the money.

Richard

Rafael Lopes · May 15th, 2006, 12:53 AM

Hi,

I have an AMD 64 Dual core 3800+, 2gig RAM, 3 250G 7200rpm hard drives, Geforce 6600 LE, and whenever I playback HD footage on the premiere pro 2.0 timeline it is jumpy! I play it with VLC or Media Player Classic and there's no problem. But it gets weirder! Even after I render the footage on premiere, it is still jumpy. And I'm not even using any effects at all. I checked the adobe website and I seem to fullfil all the system requirement for realtime playback (even with magic bullet effects being applied!). It MUST have something to do with my settings. I really don't know what's the deal here. It's a pain in the ass to edit like this. Any advice will be apreciated.

Do you think my graphic card settings might influence this issue? Should I get a 10000rpm hard drive?

cheers

Fred Foronda · May 15th, 2006, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rafael Lopes

Hi,

I have an AMD 64 Dual core 3800+, 2gig RAM, 3 250G 7200rpm hard drives, Geforce 6600 LE, and whenever I playback HD footage on the premiere pro 2.0 timeline it is jumpy! I play it with VLC or Media Player Classic and there's no problem. But it gets weirder! Even after I render the footage on premiere, it is still jumpy. And I'm not even using any effects at all. I checked the adobe website and I seem to fullfil all the system requirement for realtime playback (even with magic bullet effects being applied!). It MUST have something to do with my settings. I really don't know what's the deal here. It's a pain in the ass to edit like this. Any advice will be apreciated.

Do you think my graphic card settings might influence this issue? Should I get a 10000rpm hard drive?

cheers

editing m2t natively will be "jumpy" thats why there are intermediary formats to use to make the workflow "flow"

Mark Grant · May 15th, 2006, 06:46 AM

Quote:

editing m2t natively will be "jumpy" thats why there are intermediary formats to use to make the workflow "flow"

What's "jumpy" about it? I've edited a number of HDV projects in Avid Xpress Pro HD with few problems. I can't do realtime multistream effects, but my PC can't handle realtime multistream effects with any HD codec.

The only real issue is that exporting the final movie to DVD or an HD video format takes forever.

Rafael Lopes · May 15th, 2006, 08:04 AM

With my pc I should have enough "gun power" to playback HD video on premiere pro 2.0s' timeline in REALTIME with no problem. Many people here have "less capable" pcs and they can do it without any type of jitter, "jumpyness", "bumpiness". I even considered changing to another editing software but the integration between after effects, audition, ilustrator, etc is simply amazing. And besides I've been using premiere for ages.

Mark Grant · May 15th, 2006, 08:55 AM

Yeah, my PC is substantially slower than yours, so it must be something specific to Premiere, or some other system setting causing a problem.

Chris Barcellos · May 15th, 2006, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rafael Lopes

Hi,

I have an AMD 64 Dual core 3800+, 2gig RAM, 3 250G 7200rpm hard drives, Geforce 6600 LE, and whenever I playback HD footage on the premiere pro 2.0 timeline it is jumpy! I play it with VLC or Media Player Classic and there's no problem. But it gets weirder! Even after I render the footage on premiere, it is still jumpy. And I'm not even using any effects at all. I checked the adobe website and I seem to fullfil all the system requirement for realtime playback (even with magic bullet effects being applied!). It MUST have something to do with my settings. I really don't know what's the deal here. It's a pain in the ass to edit like this. Any advice will be apreciated.

Do you think my graphic card settings might influence this issue? Should I get a 10000rpm hard drive?

cheers

Rafael:

I have virtually the same setup as you do except for the video card. I am not at my system location now, but I run a 256 mgb video card, off the PCI express slot (only available graphics slot on my system), and I am able to edit and preview unfiltered clips off the time line. If there are transitions, and filters, it will be a bit "choppy", but after a render of the time line, the preview will play fine. I am actually previewing on a second monitor of the DVI output of the video card. The video card ran about $179, a fairly generic brand, and I think it was an ATI Radeon X700 level card. I don't really have any idea for sure, but when I see a card with an extension like LE on the end, I am concerned that it might mean limited edition- a designation that might mean the card does not have the best chips and spead compared with other cards carrying the same memory on board. Again, I don't know this for a fact, and I only bring it up as a point to investigate.

May 13th, 2006, 10:56 PM	#1
Herman Chen New Boot Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 23	What kind of computer required for HD? What kinds of computer specs are required for editing HD video from the FX1? And not necessarily to run at super speeds, but at a decent level.

May 14th, 2006, 07:32 AM	#5
Steve Nunez Trustee Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Pembroke Pines, Florida Posts: 1,418	Any modern Mac with iMovieHD can edit the footage from the current crop of HDV camcorders. Render times and other processor intensive task speeds are relative to the cost of the machine= the more you spend, the faster the performance. __________________ Steve Nunez-New York City www.stevenunez.com

May 14th, 2006, 10:13 PM	#9
Richard Plumridge New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 8	Both Giroud and Fred are on the money in terms of using a codec such as Cineform. Besides, you are woking with such a large GOP with an m2t file that it is nigh on impossible to work with sound, add effects (not to mention the strain on the system) and even viewing it on a standard monitor can become a chore. Go with a codec...it is more than worth the money. Richard __________________ "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" Sony HDR-FX1E/Adobe Premiere Pro 2/Athlon 64 X2 4600

May 15th, 2006, 12:53 AM	#10
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	sorry to kind of hijack the tread Hi, I have an AMD 64 Dual core 3800+, 2gig RAM, 3 250G 7200rpm hard drives, Geforce 6600 LE, and whenever I playback HD footage on the premiere pro 2.0 timeline it is jumpy! I play it with VLC or Media Player Classic and there's no problem. But it gets weirder! Even after I render the footage on premiere, it is still jumpy. And I'm not even using any effects at all. I checked the adobe website and I seem to fullfil all the system requirement for realtime playback (even with magic bullet effects being applied!). It MUST have something to do with my settings. I really don't know what's the deal here. It's a pain in the ass to edit like this. Any advice will be apreciated. Do you think my graphic card settings might influence this issue? Should I get a 10000rpm hard drive? cheers

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May 13th, 2006, 11:13 PM	#2
Fred Foronda Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Hawaii Posts: 337	I've been getting by with my P4 2.8 HT 2gb ram and a external 500gb HD. For HD you need a lot of disc space, RAM and go for the dual processors with a good cooling system.

May 13th, 2006, 11:32 PM	#3
Herman Chen New Boot Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 23	what are some of your rendering times? i don't know too much about editing HDV, so if you could give me some basic info on that, i'd appreciate it. Thanks

May 14th, 2006, 06:19 AM	#4
Richard Plumridge New Boot Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 8	It depends on what you're layering on the footage. If you're putting on Magic Bullet colour grades on a native m2t stream, then you're in for a hell of along waiting time. If you're doing any more than basic cutting (grading, keying, compositing, other effects etc) then I would convert it do a Cineform HD AVI and then apply the grading and effects from there before re-encoding it as a m2t. My Setup is: Athlon 64 X2 4600 running at 2.41 Ghz 2GB Ram Maxtor OneTouchII 500GB Firewire external drive 250GB 7200rpm internal 120GB system drive Only a radeon 9600...I'm sure a new graphics card would help editing though! Hope this helps! Cheers, Richard

May 14th, 2006, 07:51 AM	#6
Leo Pepingco Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 275	I have a Dual processor Pentium4. 3.2 gigaherts With 1 Gig ram and 250gigs Hard Drive (I think its 7200rpm) With a basic 128 mb Graphics card. I'm planning on getting Prem Pro 2, and want to edit with the base m2t files. I know people reccomend 2gig RAM, but I was only able to afford 1 gig RAM. Is that enough to do basic shorts without the headaches of slow processing?

May 14th, 2006, 12:43 PM	#7
Fred Foronda Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Hawaii Posts: 337	Would you guys prefer building your own system to specs or getting one already built. I noticed at a local retail store have the dual AMD 4200 (I might be wrong don't quote me) for around 1200 but then the OS comes with a lot of stuffs that I won't really need for video so it puts some weight on the system. Richard is dead on correct on the layering of the footages, it does take a toll on your processor.

May 14th, 2006, 01:53 PM	#8
Giroud Francois Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: switzerland Posts: 2,133	there is no reply to such question. What you can do , is to decide for a workflow and application, then read the specs given by the application editor. for example, native HDV (m2t) is painfull even on an high end machine. but you better spend 500$ to the cineform codec and be free to chose almost any recent computer.(altough works best in premiere, so if you choose another apps, the choices will be different) Same for Magic bullet that is painfully slow , except if you buy an NVIDIA 7800 GT card (about 300$) that can give you almost real time on HDV. Problem, to have good monitoring on HD monitor Matrox has better card, so you cannot get both (but Nvidia can give pretty decent result too) Same if you go SDI-HD instead Firewire (depends the camera) or wants to capture components at high bandwith, that cost the hell (capture card, RAID disks, fast dual processor). The specification are not the same. If you want to stay on the cheap side, a recent processor (intel D930 dual core) on a average motherboard (asus for example) should fit your main needs. Personnally i edit HDV (sony FX1 1080i50 or JVC HD1 720p30) on an old P4 (northwood) 2.6Ghz, overclocked at 3.2Hhz with 2 gig of ram and standard IDE and SATA disk (7200 rpm), using cineform codec. Videocard are cheap Nvidia 5200 (one AGP, one PCI) driving 2 dell 24" screen at 1920x1200. I am happy, since updating for a new computer would cost me at least 1500$ and probably not giving twice the speed.

May 15th, 2006, 08:04 AM	#13
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	With my pc I should have enough "gun power" to playback HD video on premiere pro 2.0s' timeline in REALTIME with no problem. Many people here have "less capable" pcs and they can do it without any type of jitter, "jumpyness", "bumpiness". I even considered changing to another editing software but the integration between after effects, audition, ilustrator, etc is simply amazing. And besides I've been using premiere for ages.

May 15th, 2006, 08:55 AM	#14
Mark Grant Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Saskatoon, Canada (was London, UK) Posts: 138	Yeah, my PC is substantially slower than yours, so it must be something specific to Premiere, or some other system setting causing a problem.