Is Vegas Pro 9 i7 compatible?
 

Is Vegas Pro 9 i7 fully compatible? I've scoured around and can't seem to get a straight answer. More specifically I'm wondering whether Vegas can use all the cores (4/8 dependent on Hyperthreading as far as I can tell). I have a decent enough Core 2 Duo E8400 GHz and 4 GB RAM on Win 7 (32 bit at the moment) but I find XDCAM EX footage from my EX1 won't run in highest quality in the preview pane (and faster rendering is always nice :) It seems reasonable enough in Draft (32 bit floating Video levels) if a little jerky. Is it really worth the spend (£1400 ish) or will there be such a small difference as to make no odds difference?
Any thoughts welcome,
Regards, Oliver.

My i7 920 Windows 7 64 bit work fine for me. I have Pro 8 32 bit and Pro 9 64 bit install in the same system. No problem what so ever. Vegas uses all 8 cores when rendering.

i7 860 here. Vegas 9 32 bit works great, 64 bit has the red photo issue which appears to be a Vegas problem.

Thanks guys. Good to know Vegas will take full advantage of multi-core i7. Now will it work that much faster to be worth upgrading (a million $ question I know)?
Regards,
Oliver.

Good enough for Canon 5D/Red Code Editing?
 

Sorry if this topic has been covered before, I am heading in to upgrade my editing system and have looked at the Dell XPS 8100 and would like some guidance with regards to suitability.

I primarily want a system that can run Vegas Pro 9 64bit and will mainly be editing Canon 5D AVC video, some HDV and with a view to edit Red Code once the Scarlet releases.

My main query is whether a system with the below specs would be able to hand lag-free editing of the above file formats. Whilst render time is clearly important, the main thing is a smooth editing flow and playback from the timeline.

Would I need more RAM/Higher processor?

PROCESSOR StudioXPS 8100 - Intel Core i7 Processor 860 (2.80GHz, 8MB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64bit- English
MEMORY 8192MB (4x2GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
HARD DRIVE 2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7200rpm)
GRAPHICS CARD 1GB ATI Radeon™ HD 5770 Graphics Card

Although not stated, I think it has a 350w power supply and a P55 Motherboard

Many thanks in advance!

Sunny

Sunny, the specs look OK with the exception of the power supply.
350 w. is hopelessly underpowered and will end up causing you grief.
Try to at least double it if at all possible and both you and your computer will be MUCH happier.

Thanks Mike, I don't think Dell give the option of a better power supply, but am assuming I can replace this myself with a 750w or something nearby? How easy would it be to replace?

I'll be looking to add more RAM etc in due course too

Sunny, if this was a home-built machine, it would be fairly easy to do.
Since it's a Dell though, all bets are off as they doesn't make it easy to swap parts on your own.
Also, odds are that doing so would immediately void your warranty.
You may want to see if there's a reputable PC builder in your area and have them do it for you (build you one, that is).

Hi Mike, thanks for your response,

I guess it may be a good idea to take these specs down to my local builder and see what they can do for me,

Many thanks!

The codec that is used to compress the video in these cameras was never designed for editing. You will save yourself an inordinate amount of frustration by transcoding this footage into a proper editing format. If you plan to do this in Vegas, I cannot recommend Cineform highly enough. It's a "best fit" for editing in Vegas. I don't personally use it (though I have in the past), but you should just plan on spending the $129 or whatever it costs to purchase Cineform NeoScene.

This topic is discussed daily on this forum and many others. Read the discussions, absorb what they are saying, and I wish you all the best with your new machine.

Thank you for your analysis Perrone,

I was well aware of the codec background for AVCHD and of the Cineform process. I also explained I will be looking to edit Red Code Raw when the Scarlet camera is released. My main query was regarding whether the machine would be suitable - not what I need to do to codecs and file formats. I am well aware of the process, but thank you for your time all the same :)

Sunny

REDCode is a heck of a lot easier to edit than H.264. REDCode is wavelet compression... just like Cineform. Hence, my recommendation.

So to more directly answer your question, it is my opinion from my own direct experience with 5D and 7D files that your machine will NOT be suitable for editing these files. Perhaps a single stream. But not multiple streams, and certainly not with effects applied.

The machine will be just fine for HDV, REDCode, and most other formats. Certainly any intra-frame editing formats.

The XPS-8100 is a 350 W Power Supply for certain: You can find this under the Tech Specs tab. It is located close the bottom of the list.

Studio XPS 8100 Desktop Details | Dell

On the positive side, while I fully agree that it would be best to have a larger power supply I did edit for over two years with a Dell Precision 380 Workstation that as I recall had a 375 Watt power supply and I never had a problem with that aspect of it. It was pretty much a rock solid editing computer. The only significant problem was when one of the memory modules failed.

To get better render speeds I upgraded to an XPS 9000 i7 core with Windows 7 64bit, which has a 475 W supply. It renders much faster and edits m2t files flawlessly, but gives the red frame problem with cineform and it will not edit native Mov. files from the Canon 7D, nor play them back smoothly.

The Canon 5D video is AVCHD, which is extremely tough to handle to begin with. What's more, the recorded bitrate of the 5D files is too high for Vegas' AVC encoders and decoders to handle at all. Vegas only supports AVCHD video up to 17 Mbps - but the 5D records at an average of more than 20 Mbps. As a result, transcoding the 5D video to another codec such as Cineform is required if you want to edit 5D video in Vegas.

In other words, your system is already marginal for AVCHD editing due to an underpowered power supply unit - but Vegas by itself is incapable of handling AVCHD video with a bitrate as high as what the 5D produces. And that's not to mention that Vegas' AVC encoders, especially the Sony AVC encoder, has had stability issues (it crashes in the middile of a render on some systems).

With regard to editing h264 natively, I can't for the life of me figure out why everyone isn't falling all over themselves about this: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/what-hap...lr-plugin.html

So far, it seems to have taken the misery out of h264. It's easier and cheaper than Cineform.

Btw, I run an i7 with Vegas 9c and it works well enough, though it has trouble dealing with CPU intensive tasks like, you know, importing JPEGs.

Because it only eliminates ONE of the issues in dealing with AVCHD files. The other issues still remain. It's not a good codec to have on the timeline period. No matter how cheap the workarounds for it get.

You wouldn't want a lossy jpg master to work on in Photoshop, you'd want a TIF, or PSD, or the RAW. And it's the same here.

Eliminates TWO for me: stuttery playback and crashes.

What are the other issues btw? Wonkyness in color correcting?

Yea, that's one. But the issue of having long-GOP on the timeline is STILL there come final render. So as soon as you've got your final edits done and switch back to full res for final color and final render, it's just like you never took the H.264 off the timeline in the first place.

Think about it.

Updated Spec!
 

Some good conversation going on here, very insightful!

I have ditched the idea of getting a Dell XPS 8100. I had already made the order and cancelled it...and it sort of felt good. I have now ordered a custom built system with the following spec, and I'm hoping it will give me less (nay, NO) headaches when dealing with HDV and eventually Red Code. I understand to edit from Canon 5D I would be better suited changing codecs.

How are these specs?

Intel i7 930 Processor
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 - Socket 1366 - Chipset X58 - ATX
6GB 1600mhz DDR3 Tri-Channel Ram (3 x 2GB Corsair)
1TB HDD (and I'll be using many externals for projects)
ATi 1GB 5770 Graphics Card
LG HL20 BDRWDL Optical Drive
2 x DVD Rewriters (don't ask why, lol, were a default with the system)
720W PSU
Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
Amtec P183 Case
10 x USB
2 x USB 3.0
2 x eSata
1 x IEEE Firewire

Will mainly be running Vegas Pro 9 64 Bit, DVDArch5 (for Blu-ray) and Photoshop CS4 64 Bit

Looks STRONG! :)

My only concerns are with the choice of video card. If you intend to do RED work, buy an NVidia card. Preferably a Quadro card. That ATI is not going to help you down the road.

Thank you Perrone for your feedback,

I'll be looking to add a second graphics card when I venture into Red editing. I'll also look to upgrade the RAM to 12GB DDR3 Tri-Channel. I think the Antec P183 and the Asus MOBO give plenty of room for upgrade

Alrighty then... you're well on your way! (Note that I mention the Nvidia card because all of REDs tools on the PC thus far have required it). Also note that Edius, Adobe CS5, and Avid all support and use the acceleration on the Nvidia cards with CUDA technology. Just in case you want to step away from Vegas at a future date.

I am hoping this system will give me smooth, lag free timeline playback of full resolution HDV (1440 x 1080) with effects, transitions, plugins, multiple tracks thrown into the project and will enable me to encode to m2t and author blu-rays without having to wait for a couple of weeks each time!

And of course the view to edit Redcode and converted 5D video too! :D

My machine isn't as powerful as this, but I can certainly do all that just fine. But your wait with BluRay won't be the rendering as much as it will be the writing. They do take a while...

Previously I have found that the writing hasn't been too lengthy, even with an external Blu-ray in a Sata -> USB enclosure, but my render times were cripppling

Example - 90min m2t HDV Pal timeline = 24 hours @ 25mpbs! But my machine was very incapable.

And not all Quadro cards are good choices. The "good" ones cost at least $900 USD, while even the $500 model is no better than a consumer GeForce GTX 260 model. Forget about the $200-and-under Quadro cards; they are no better than a GeForce 9500GT in this respect.

It's not always what's "better", sometimes it's what's "officially supported".