My rig too old for HDV editing??
by RamJet3000
on
Oct 24, 2007 at 3:35:41 am
My computer (P4 3.2GHZ; 1GB RAM; 2 x 7200/8MB SATA drives) has worked fine for editing SD in the past (on Premiere Pro 2.0), but now I've captured an HDV project (shot on a Sony HVR), and PPro seems to "think" a lot while editing it. Granted I have put a lot of video effects on my test clip, which has slowed performance (and which I'll only apply once picture is locked when editing for real), but my QUESTION is:
Do I need a new computer (say dual core) to edit HDV with relative ease?
I realize another GB of RAM should help, but don't know if that's enough. Have been eyeing an Alienware 9750 laptop.... Thoughts??
Re: My rig too old for HDV editing?? by tofutodd on Oct 25, 2007 at 9:32:36 pm
Ram,
We have a Dual 1.8 G5 and decided to start shooting on the Sony V1U (HDV). We imported it as HDV 1080i and found our machine had a very difficult time editing it (Final Cut).
So in making the jump to HDV we also bought a new Mac Pro 3.0 GHz QuadCorewith 3.5 RAM. On top of that we skipped the HDV codec, for the fact that it is very heavy (for the processor or RAM i'm not totally sure). We added a BlackMagic Intensity Pro card in our MacPro which gives the option to not only capture the footage via a slew of different codecs but also at full res 1920x1080i. HDV is 1440x1080, but the intensity pro card allows you to capture via HDMI. After running several tests we decided that the BlackMagic: 1920x1080i AppleProRes 4:2:2 (not the HQ) was the nicest looking next to totally uncompressed but not absolutely ridiculous file sizes. it ends up being about 80 Gib for 1 hour of footage. With this codec setting and computer config in mind, I just finished a 40 min film and the machine handled it wonderfully.
So the long and short of it, you probably need a new computer or try a capture card with some alternate codecs that aren't as heavy as HDV.
Re: My rig too old for HDV editing?? by brian pitt on Oct 26, 2007 at 9:51:29 pm
Are you planning on delivering HD? If not, just downconvert while you are capturing. That way you are using the same data rate as SD and your edit system will be fine.
Even if you are editing on an HDV timeline, the data rate is still the same as SD 25mbps.
