Which Editing software for older computer?

[The Walrus]

Hi All

I've been out of the video making world for a while and have been caught up in audio editing. However I've just ordered a new Canon XF100 and am looking at my editing options, whilst considering my computers limitations.

I will be shooting some weddings and some fun stuff but eventually want to do some more considered work, so I will be putting finished work onto DVD and maybe you tube, but DVD is the main thing.

My video editing knowledge is limited but I'm pretty good with audio (I use Reaper at work daily after originally using Pro Tools). I have a 2006 iMac with 4 gig of ram, a RadeonX1600 graphics card and I think the hard drive is 7200 rpm but cant seem to find that info!

I have Final Cut Express but now that's been superseded by FCPX I was looking into that option but the minimum system requirements seem to be more than my Mac has, but I'm not sure if it will still work.

So should I consider getting X, Vegas studio, Avid Studio etc etc or should I just get by with FCExpress for a while until I can upgrade the Mac or get a new PC?, which wont be for another 6-12 months in reality! And is iMovie too basic?

I will be shooting some slo mo stuff but wont be doing anything really advanced. I also use a GoPro so will need something that has colour correction and also want good audio features, preferably something that I can just add an audio track to that is cut on Reaper.

Cheers for any help...

[aedipuss]

stick with what you have, until you can get hardware to run fcpX well or a pc to run vegas pro.

[redwudz]

You should still be able to edit on a slower computer. It's encoding/re-encoding that puts the most strain on a CPU. But you will need a lot of hard drive space. Internal is better, but eSATA is just as fast. Or, just go with some add on USB 2.0 drives. Maybe slower, but probably sufficient for most editing.

I hate to say it, but if you spent that much money on a camera, you should plan on spending a fair amount on a faster computer and maybe some software if you plan to to a fair bit of editing and encoding.

[budwzr]

If you're going to get into serious video, you would be foolish to waste precious dollars on a Mac. You're gonna need a lot of camera goodies like lights, mics, recorder, boom poles, tripods, stabilizer, etc.

Unless you're rich, go PC with Sony Vegas.

[The Walrus]

I hate to say it, but if you spent that much money on a camera, you should plan on spending a fair amount on a faster computer and maybe some software if you plan to to a fair bit of editing and encoding.

Its a fair point and one I considered for some time before deciding on the camera. In the end I decided that I had FCExpress and it works perfectly well on my mac, so spend more on a better camera and upgrade computer later...maybe that was the wrong call but its done now and we are all different. That said, I never said I wasn't happy to spend on new software at all, but hardware might have to wait a few months.

I use a PC at work for audio editing but have had macs at home for years (wife is a photographer and loves them) so I'm open to either...and budwzr I'm not rich, so like everyone budget is a consideration, but I don't want to do it on the cheap, just cheap as possible if there's a difference I'm pretty set for all other equipment like recorder, mics, tripods etc but of course there will be additional bits.

Reaper was designed on the Vegas software so shares much of its menus and look, so given that I use Reaper it would make some sense...anyone got an idea of the cost of building a video editing specific PC?

Thanks for the input so far...

[edDV]

I'm not familiar with that camcorder. It is a single CMOS scaled down version of the 3x CMOS XF300. Per Canon site, it uses long GOP MPeg2 (Canon XF codec) very close to Sony XDCAM-EX but they don't say so. It uses similar bit rates and seems HDV compatible at 25 Mbps.

You need to research editor software support. Sony Vegas Pro seems the closest fit but I'm not sure if Vegas XDCAM MXF import is compatible with Canon XF MXF.

The Canon site shows XF driver plugins for FCP and AVID Media Access (Mac/PC). Not sure if they work.

Have you asked Canon? What do they say?

[budwzr]

Reaper was designed on the Vegas software so shares much of its menus and look, so given that I use Reaper it would make some sense...anyone got an idea of the cost of building a video editing specific PC?

You don't need anything specific, you just need a quad core i7 and a good graphics card.

Myself, I use a laptop for all video and music production. A Toshiba Qosmio.

[The Walrus]

Reaper was designed on the Vegas software so shares much of its menus and look, so given that I use Reaper it would make some sense...anyone got an idea of the cost of building a video editing specific PC?

You don't need anything specific, you just need a quad core i7 and a good graphics card.

Myself, I use a laptop for all video and music production. A Toshiba Qosmio.

Ok so excuse my ignorance but what's the cost of that set up? I did a costing on a build your own website but I didn't budget for quad core! It came out at $800 for parts. (not rich!)

[budwzr]

The Qosmio is Toshiba's high end laptop line, and prices vary, but you can have look here: http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/qosmio

The cheapest one will probably do you fine since the whole Qosmio category is performance desktop replacement.

I can't remember my model#, but it's an 18.4" screen.


[Attachment 8951 - Click to enlarge]

[budwzr]

Ok so excuse my ignorance but what's the cost of that set up? I did a costing on a build your own website but I didn't budget for quad core! It came out at $800 for parts. (not rich!)

Quad core is standard now, AFAIK. Not a luxury.

Laptops are more expensive, but you can edit in the field and see what you have.

Or sometimes you get a diddy in your head and want to get it saved, so I have the portable keyboard and controller that needs no external power.

[handyguy]

Quad core is old, they have 12 cores now, perhaps more......

A ZT Affinity at Costco with 6 cores isn't that much.

[TBoneit]

Including a 160Gb Intel SSD for the boot drive, a 1Tb data drive, 4Gb DDR3, Motherboard, case and Power supply and video card I7 2600 CPU I spent $1000 more or less when I upgrade my Brother. I could have saved around $300 by skipping the SSD but it makes everything fly, Starting up, shutting down and loading programs. I already had several legal windows to choose from so I used a Windows 7 Pro that I got from winning a contest for his build. I went Win7 since it supports SSDs better. Otherwise his preference would have been the Win XP MCE.

Basically I bought a Kit from Newegg and added the SSD and video card.

[edDV]

Post a representative 1080i 50 Mb/s XF MXF file (with motion) and I'll try to open it in Vegas Pro 11 Device Explorer.

The Wikipedia MXF page says this about Canon XF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_Exchange_Format

In 2010 Canon released its new lineup of professional file-based camcorders. The recording format used in these camcorders incorporates MPEG-2 video with bitrates up to 50 Mbit/s and 16-bit linear PCM audio in what Canon has called XF codec. Canon claims that its flavor of MXF is fully supported by major NLE systems including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, and Grass Valley EDIUS.[2]

NLE and MXF enablers

There are an increasing number of professional NLE's that can work with MXF files natively including Avid, Adobe Premiere Pro 3.1 or above, Sony Vegas, and GrassValley EDIUS or via import operations like in Final Cut Pro using the Sony XDCAM Transfer plug-in. Latest versions of Avid editing products store media in Avid MXF Op-Atom and import/export MXF Op1a or using mxfSPEEDRAIL F1000 applications that supports any kind of MXF flavour. Native MXF access in Apple's Final Cut Pro and other Mac OS X applications can be achieved by using the MXF Import QT component from MXF4mac. PiTiVi is the first open source video editor to support the Material Exchange Format (MXF).

Other searches mention Canon XF to Vegas Pro import but are not clear whether container conversion was needed.

PS: For a 50Mb/s MPeg2 I suggest Core2 Quad minimum preferably an i5/i7. In your business, somebody is going to hand you an h.264 AVCHD file as well so be prepared. Avoid laptops unless absolutely required. If you do get a laptop make sure it has dual internal drives or at least an eSATA port for your video drive.

[The Walrus]

Thanks all for the feedback

Frankly some of this is starting to go over my head but I'm just about keeping up. I'm more a user of computers than a designer or engineer. I'm in Australia so I'd prefer to use local suppliers but there seems to be many of those.

I found one site that seems interesting (www.pcshopper.com.au)...you just select your components from drop down menus, problem is there are more options than I've ever seen and for a novice its very confusing!

They can build it for you for $120, which I don't mind paying, although I do like the idea of building it myself but at the same time I don't know how and I do want it to work properly!...Would I be biting of more than I can chew or is it just a logical process that I could follow via a good book/website?

Basically the machine will only be for video and audio editing, nothing else...I have other machines for everything else but I guess it would need to have net access for software updates etc. I want it to be upgradeable and something that will last but of course I want it to be cost effective...ie sitting on my desk and ready to go for under $1000, preferably less. Could I keep costs down with a lesser component that could be upgraded later?

All help appreciated...

[budwzr]

Avoid laptops unless absolutely required. If you do get a laptop make sure it has dual internal drives or at least an eSATA port for your video drive.

eSATA is only 3X faster than USB2. USB3 is 10X faster. I have both, and they're combo ports, meaning you can plug USB OR eSATA into the same port. Hahahaha,

[edDV]

Avoid laptops unless absolutely required. If you do get a laptop make sure it has dual internal drives or at least an eSATA port for your video drive.

eSATA is only 3X faster than USB2. USB3 is 10X faster. I have both, and they're combo ports, meaning you can plug USB OR eSATA into the same port. Hahahaha,

For capture, connection reliability is more important than speed. Camcorder capture only needs sustained 3.1 to 7.1 MB/s (25-50 Mb/s). eSATA uses a bus mastered hardware disk controller. USB2 uses a software controller subject to interrupt.

Not sure if USB3 adds any interrupt protection.

With today's hard disk mechanics, USB3 is not significantly faster than USB2 for a typical single hard drive*. It only offers faster data bursts from disk cache memory. None of this applies to sustained video capture.


* USB3 can be significantly faster with a RAID or flash RAM. USB2 sustained rate peaks out around 30MB/s. eSATA can be as fast as internal SATA depending on cable length.