minimal hardware requirements

[Ogilvy]

Hi Folks
I’m brand new to a lot of this video stuff ,slowly building up a new system from scratch and need some help. For general video work, coding/encoding, playing, video capture etc., whats the absolute minimum that I need on a hardware level? I’m looking at Pent. 4 with around 2 or 3 GB. Could anybody offer some practical guidelines? Is 512MB RAM sufficient? Grateful for any help

Tony

[guns1inger]

I used to edit DV on a celeron 500 with 768mb SD133 RAM. You can work with video on older, slower machines. The only cost is time as it takes longer to do things.

If you are building from scratch as want something comfortable, I would set the following as a 'minimum'

CPU - P4 3.0 with HT or AMD 64 3000
Ram - 1 GB DDR400
HDD - 200 GB, split as 40GB system disc, 2 x 80GB for editing/rendering (three physical discs in total)
DVD - 1 DVD rom drive and 1 DVD writer.
Monitor - 19inch CRT

You could go for a slower CPU or less disc, but it willl just slow you down. This will give you a comfortable speed level. 512 is about the minimum you need to run Windows XP and any applications. XP requires around 220MB on it's own. For graphics intensive work, 1 GB is a good compromise.

[Bjs]

512 is not a minimum to run xp ... it will run quite well with only 256 mbs of memmory , even on system's as low as 300mhz cpu + 128mb's ... and these run quite well ... though it is not something I would ever recommend .

Guess who has a dell notebook with a dvd burner ... yes ... only 256mb's of memmory ... , of course it has a 64mb ati video chip .

Well what else do you use when storm's are about ???

True specs :

Os : xp

Due to the number of capture devices supplied with xp only device drivers .

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Cpu :

2 gighertz is the starting point if you wish to capture very good dvd quality .

Amd 2400xp / or sempro 3000+ (64 bit future proofing)
P4 2.0 / P4 celeron (consider 2.6 to 2.8)

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Motherboard :

Gigabyte , good warrantee , reliable .

MSI , 12 month's , but bullet proof ... 6 year's and still kicking .
Damn it , cant kill it off ...

Asus , issue's , but most stable .

Asrock ... avoid like the plague .. impossible to get update's from uk site .

Note :

Match cpu to motherboard , pay attention to socket type's .
Consider those with 5 pci slots if using pci internal modem's .

Highly recommend onboard video (future proofing)

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Ram : 512 .

If you into adobe type products , then go to 1024 mb's .

Consider 2 x 512 in any case

If one gose , you can still work while replacement is being sought .

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Hd space : 80gig

This is due to most suppliers running out of lower sized hd's now .

80 gig is plenty even for dv editing .

Recommended split : 30/30/20 under fat32 , using hd supplied installation disk's (download from hd site's) .

Samsung / maxtor = recommended
Western digital = avoid like the plague ... problematic controlers .

Yes , I do run 80gig fat32 partitions without problems .

No problem's with burning 4+ gigabyte iso image's to dvd .

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Optical options :

Sony / lg / pioneer dvd burner's = recommended (lg supports dvdram)
Lite-on = problematic .. avoid .

Note that some unit's are locked at 2x dvd rip speed .
To get around this without using bios hack's ...

Lite-on combo ...

Rip from 2x upto 8x , depending on dvd feature's
Create true 1:1 image's of cd's ... good for game's .

This drive can also remain in either locked / unlocked region state without affecting the dvd burner .

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Capture device's :

Macrovision is the word to keep an eye out for here .

dvdezmaker by avermedia , not affected , pci unit , close too usb 2 capture quality , nero and ulead video studio work well with product .

Avertv usb2 , best , not affected by macrovision , nero and ulead videostudio work well with device .

Warning : avertv usb2 draws 0.5amp's .

Install software for device .
Install powered hub to interface between avertv unit and pc .
Turn pc off , connect avertv device , restart pc .
Os find's and locate's device driver's .
Your ready to go .

Yes , the box dosent say "plug and play safe" on it ... so be warned .

If error "usb reset" appear's in os , consider replacing motherboard .

Add on pci usb2 cards are like choke lead's ... another bottle neck in the system .

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Check out the capture device's available in you area , and check them in the caprture card's list here on site ... dont be surprise if you have to go a long way to get what you want ... I did .

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Power : The last thing user's look at .

Consider 550watt's for newer system's .

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Monitor :

Your choice ... if you still have a decent , reliable 17" crt unit , then keep it .

Or for that complete new unit setup .. 17" lcd with between 6 and 4ms refresh .

Lcd's have come along way .. it wasnt long ago that fast moving object's on lcd's actually caused burned in issue's ... now fixed .

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Software :

The world of freeware is a good starting point ... trial by error approach , just like learning to crawl before you walk .

It dosent cost you anything provided rule's are followed .

You'll get the gist of these from reading the guide's online .

2 most valid :

Dvd-r is the most widely supported media .
Burn at 4x for better fixation of burnt media .
Recommend tdk dvd-r as the most reliable brand (never a problem) .

Break these rule's if you just dont care if the file's are here today , and gone tomorrow ... if it's important , you won't break the rule's ...

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Most important after new setup .

Write down internet connection details down somewhere safe .

Use disk image tool's such as norton's ghost to make system backup .
If crap hit's the fan , you can be backup in under 10 minute's .

Use combination of avg free antivirus , and addaware se to keep system healthy and trouble free .

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Arm yourself with "puppy" linux .

Very handy for backing up file's from a system that can not boot into os ..
go online , download update's and help , print info that may fix problem .. burn all to cdr .

No one should be without it .

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Note I have not set specs to "must have" ... this is more an informative guide to specification's and possibilities .

This allow's you then to have complete freedom in your system building decision .

As for the missing agp spec's ...

If it's game's you want to play , considering a good agp card can cost in mid rage , $300 au ... go buy a ps2 .

Not dosen't it ever need upgrading .. there are 2200+ title's to choose from .

New unit's are now "all" region enabled to break the monopoly , and allow's sony to avoid the specific problem's associated with mod chip's .

You can also record the playback of game's / dvd movie's to a vcr / dvd recorder's ... sony still has work too do .

Especially the concept of video aspect ... idiot's .

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Hope this give's you a better choice .

[pchan]

512MB is the minimum... especially when you edit long video clip. RAM is dirt cheap and you should not stinge on it. I would recommend 1gig RAM. Go for Intel cpu if you are not into PC gaming. Intel cpu still have a slight edge on video encoding. Plenty of hard disk space. If possible, get a firewire card.

[lordsmurf]

Minimum for a video editing system:

Any PENTIUM 4 processor. AMD+ is usually fine too, but many video programs are optimized for Intel CPUs.

Motherboard must be good. If it has VIA chips on it, it's a great big piece of crap. Intel boards or Asus boards are suggested.

512MB of RAM. You computer will never use more than 700MB or so, even if you stick 1-2GB in it.

Two hard drives. The first one is C: and has Windows and all your software. The second drive can be wherever, and needs to be at least 200GB for all the video files. This is all you'll use it for. Don't partition drives, that's not the same thing. Two physical drives are needed.

A DVD burner.

Video software.

Absolutely nothing else special is required for video editing. Pick whatever monitor, mouse, etc you want.

Video capture cards are no longer required. You can use a DVD recorder as the capture device, and then transfer the capture MPEG files to the computer for further editing, or re-authoring to create advanced graphic menus.

Run Windows XP and be sure you hard drive file systems are all set to NTFS and not FAT32.

You only need a IEEE1394 (firewire) card if you have a DV video camera.

[guns1inger]

Bjs :- I never said you couldn't run XP on 256, I said you need 512 to comfortably run XP and any applications. You can run XP in 256MB of memory without any problems. The minute you load any applications as well, you start paging.

[Ogilvy]

Wow! Thanks a lot people, knew I was in the right Forum! Hope to be back with results

[Bjs]

guns1inger .. Having just tested xp again , it work's fine even on a notebook with 256mb ram (p3 1000mhz) ... page file is controlable if you have enough experience in finding the correct setup .

I only thought to bring this to light after seeing many low end system's running xp quite well ... and 128mb memmory is the absolute minimum to even install it .

Funny thing is xp will shut down on a notebook in a flash .

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Lordsmurf ..

What can I say ... you must have got some dodgy kit's of late ...

We have intel motherboards here that cost over $1000 each .. and (being intel cpu restricted) , they can hold their own ... except being a system builder for the past 14 year's .. I can guarantee that our via chipset setup's run ring's around intel setup's .

We supply replacement intel boards for system's that need them replaced only .

All our system's are built around via chipset's .. and not one has had problem's in 6 year's ... still cant kill that msi board ... and we have thrown everything at it .

Of course if a customer insist's on intel chipset ... we dont build it , they come out of a catalog from our supplier's .