Whats a good PC to use for video editing?

[Jeff_NJ]

Hi,

As I get into video editing, I'm finding that my pc just cant keep up. Does anyone have recommendations for a good reliable pc for video editing? I'm thinking Sony or HP, but have no idea on which models or what specs I should be looking for. I do know I need to have a drive dedicated to strictly video. Any help would be appreciated.

Jeff

[redwudz]

I don't know that I would point to a specific machine, but in general: Lots of hard drive space. One or two drives besides the OS drive. 3Ghz or faster CPU, faster is almost always better. Dual CPU or dual core would be good if your programs can make use of them. Dual channel DDR, or better, DDR2 memory, 1GB at least. More sometimes helps, but it depends on the programs you use. I also use 2 DVD drives.

Other than those items, there isn't much in the way of specs that I can think of that makes a computer a better editing machine. The video card doesn't really matter.

The XP64 OS hasn't shown me much in the way of improvements. Keeping background processes on the computer under control that could steal CPU cycles would help also.

This can be a particular problem with off the shelf computers like Dell, Compaq or similar. Those companies usually put an incredible amount of crap in their machines that slows down the OS more than anything else. I would wipe the hard drive immediately and do a clean install of XP before anything else. Or you can just start uninstalling the stuff if it will let you. Just put the editing programs in there and a minimal amount of other software. Don't connect to the internet and that will also help.

[edDV]

Hi,

As I get into video editing, I'm finding that my pc just cant keep up. Does anyone have recommendations for a good reliable pc for video editing? I'm thinking Sony or HP, but have no idea on which models or what specs I should be looking for. I do know I need to have a drive dedicated to strictly video. Any help would be appreciated.

Jeff

"Video Editing" can mean many things. Can you be more specific about what kind of video (source format) you want to edit and how do you plan to display the result?

[Jeff_NJ]

Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.

Ed, basically I'm using Vegas to edit my own footage. I'm not a pro or anything like that. A few projects here and there. I do have a Sony HD camera, but until HD media, burners, etc become more reasonably priced, I'm downconverting to DV. I then build my menus in DVD Architect.

The problem I have with my current pc (sony vaio rs310) 80GB, 2.4 ghz, is that I have a hard time previewing video, without it freezing. It just gets frustrating to work that way.

Jeff

[rspar]

The amount of memory you have and the number of programs running and using up memory I would think should be a place to look before buying a new system. Whenever I have video play problems it's usually a program that didn't close properly and is hogging memory. Just two cents from a bit of a newb.

[harley2ride]

Adding a second HD would help, but you really need a bigger/faster processor. My 2.8ghz p4 with 2hds was doing pretty good with Vegas 5. My 3.2 and 3.4ghz pc's aren't noticably faster than my 2.8 was, unless you look at the encoding times, and even that is marginal. I can't see any difference between my 3.2ghz with 1gb of ram, and my 3.4ghz with 2gb of ram (noticable), no matter what I'm doing with video or photoshop stuff. I'm sure there is a very slight difference, but nothing that you can really notice. Look into finding a deal on a good 3.2ghz system. If you want to see some actual comparisons, check out www.tomshardware.com. There are some good actual comparisons of everything from ATHLON 3800 x2 to Core Duo overclocked. It will give you a good perspective of just how much difference a processor makes.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/02/thg_tuning_test/page8.html

[edDV]

Thanks for the reply guys. Appreciate it.

Ed, basically I'm using Vegas to edit my own footage. I'm not a pro or anything like that. A few projects here and there. I do have a Sony HD camera, but until HD media, burners, etc become more reasonably priced, I'm downconverting to DV. I then build my menus in DVD Architect.

The problem I have with my current pc (sony vaio rs310) 80GB, 2.4 ghz, is that I have a hard time previewing video, without it freezing. It just gets frustrating to work that way.

Jeff

Describe what you are previewing. Is it 1440x1080 HDV format? That will choke most computers.

Be back later. It's Friday afternoon here.

[crazy14muzic]

Describe what you are previewing. Is it 1440x1080 HDV format? That will choke most computers.

Be back later. It's Friday afternoon here.

I would have to agree

I have a dual p3 1 ghz system that previews video in vegas just fine.

[CogoSWSDS]

My computer usually does fine with standard NTSC video. My current computer is a 2GHz AMD processor. Using QuEnc single pass encoding, I can get 22-25 fps encoding - not much slower than real time. TMPGEnc is a bit slower. Encoding an hour's worth of standard 720x480 NTSC video in it takes about an hour 15 minutes.

CogoSWSDS

[Jeff_NJ]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Well, I have a Sony Vaio rs310. Its a few years old, I believe its a 2.4 ghz, and I have an 80GB hard drive, with 756 MB of ram. I'll admit the latest project I worked on, was a lengthy video, so I'm sure that was a big part of the problem. The video I was working with was approx an hour and 20 minutes long. And I know now that I definitely need a dedicated drive for video. I think my pc maxes out at 1gb of ram. Since I deal primarily with firewire, a capture card doesnt make a difference much does it? How about graphics card?

I have the Sony HC-1 HD camera, but I bring it in as standard DV.

Jeff

[SingSing]

You need two hard disks as from and to and Tmpgenc DVDauthor.

[edDV]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Well, I have a Sony Vaio rs310. Its a few years old, I believe its a 2.4 ghz, and I have an 80GB hard drive, with 756 MB of ram. I'll admit the latest project I worked on, was a lengthy video, so I'm sure that was a big part of the problem. The video I was working with was approx an hour and 20 minutes long. And I know now that I definitely need a dedicated drive for video. I think my pc maxes out at 1gb of ram. Since I deal primarily with firewire, a capture card doesnt make a difference much does it? How about graphics card?

I have the Sony HC-1 HD camera, but I bring it in as standard DV.

Jeff

If you are shooting DV format with the HC-1 then it should play from a computer with 2.4GHz and a normal video card. You need that second drive to keep the OS from sometimes stopping the video when it needs the drive.

If you are transferring HDV (1440x1080i) MPeg2 over firewire and importing to a DV format Vegas project, it probably won't play until after many hours of rendering.

Try VLC as a player. It's free and very efficient. Experiment with the different deinterlace playback modes at 1x size. I can play 1080i with VLC on a 2.4GHz celeron.

[sacajaweeda]

Sounds like your current PC will be more than adequate, with a few minor upgrades. Add a second hard drive and bump the memory up to at least 1GB. (optional)

Here's a good read on tweaking your machine for optimum performance with NLE video...

http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html
http://www.videoguys.com/TweaksWINXPVE.html#tweaks

HTH

[SCDVD]

It's worth paying a bit more and buying a dual core CPU. Only some software makes use of a dual core processor now but you can look for newer versions of a number of software programs to make use of it. You might regret buying a CPU that doesn't take full advantage of newer software as it comes out.

[ROF]

It's worth paying a bit more and buying a dual core CPU. Only some software makes use of a dual core processor now but you can look for newer versions of a number of software programs to make use of it. You might regret buying a CPU that doesn't take full advantage of newer software as it comes out.

Also do not buy a CPU that isn't capable of 64bit processing. You are just wasting your money in todays marketplace by doing so.

[Jeff_NJ]

Thanks guys... very helpful. First thing I will do is buy that second drive. Any suggestions? It should be over 7200rpm correct?

I'll also upgrade the ram to 1gb.

Ed, THe HC lets me downconvert to DV so I think I've been bringing it in as that. Is DV video mpeg 2? Or is that HD? Thanks for answering these questions.

Jeff

[edDV]

7200 RPM better for fast copying. 5400 RPM will work.

[edDV]

Thanks guys... very helpful. First thing I will do is buy that second drive. Any suggestions? It should be over 7200rpm correct?

I'll also upgrade the ram to 1gb.

Ed, THe HC lets me downconvert to DV so I think I've been bringing it in as that. Is DV video mpeg 2? Or is that HD? Thanks for answering these questions.

Jeff

I wasn't aware it did the down conversion in hardware. That would be cool. Play the file and see if it is 1440x1080 MPeg2 or 720x480 DV or use GSpot (MPeg2 version).