Will my computer work for video editing?

[mcflytrap]

CD-RW
CD-ROM
DVD-RW
Processor: Pentium 4
Processor speed: 1.5 GHZ (at least)
Hard drive: 80 GB (at least)
RAM: 512 MB
Sound card: to be determined
Video card: to be determined
Video capture card: Pinnacle DV200
Editing software: Adobe Premiere 6.0

This is what I've decided so far for my computer. Does this sound ok for video editing? Any tips/suggestions?

-mcfly-

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[gaspode]

CD-RW

CD-ROM
Why when you have the other two would you want this?

DVD-RW

Processor: Pentium 4
I know Athlons are faster for somethings, you might wanna check which is better for video

Processor speed: 1.5 GHZ (at least)

Hard drive: 80 GB (at least)
You might be better off using two HDDs, one for you software, and one for your videos

RAM: 512 MB
1GB would be much better, especially if you're using windows, you can never have too much RAM

Sound card: to be determined

Video card: to be determined

Video capture card: Pinnacle DV200

Editing software: Adobe Premiere 6.0

This is what I've decided so far for my computer. Does this sound ok for video editing? Any tips/suggestions?

also, consider a MAC, or using some veriety of Unix, Linux, BSD, and Solaris can all be downloaded off the web, or obtained for very little. These tend to be less resourse hungry than Windows.

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'It comes in Pints?!'

[Scottness]

Remember too with hard drives the read write speed is critical - I think it has to be at least 3.6 Mb per seccond (check this though) and if it's an IDE drive it'll have to be at least 7200 rpm

As for the rest - I'm using less and I get by!

Scot M

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[mcflytrap]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gaspode:
Why when you have the other two would you want this?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

With a separate CD-ROM, you can burn CDs without having to save the files to your hard drive. You can just directly record. I do a lot of burning...so this would come in handly for me.


I know Athlons are faster for somethings, you might wanna check which is better for video

Will do.

You might be better off using two HDDs, one for you software, and one for your videos

Very good idea! Thanks!

1GB (RAM) would be much better, especially if you're using windows, you can never have too much RAM

Will definately look into that. Depends on my budget. Video card will add some RAM as well...can always upgrade later, too.

also, consider a MAC, or using some veriety of Unix, Linux, BSD, and Solaris can all be downloaded off the web, or obtained for very little. These tend to be less resourse hungry than Windows.


I did consider that, but my computer would also be used for daily applications. I do music recording as well, and most of the programs I have are Windows based. I might have to settle for a PC with this one.

Thanks for your suggestions, though, it helped a lot.

-mcfly-

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[mattias]

minimum requirements: 486 dx4 100 or better. pentium 90 or better preferred. a 68040 works too if you like mac better, although a g2 is preferred. at least 32 megs of ram is good too, and the more the better. seriously, video editing isn't very demanding, and these were the configurations i started out with back in the days. you need lots of disk space though, and it has to be pretty fast, although i haven't seen any hd's that didn't do at least 5 megs a second since '98 or so...

/matt

[seekaee]

I would also look into getting a RAID card for your HD's. Most Editing workstations use them as they keep all the HD's in sync with one another. Even with one HD there's still a good boost in speed ( up to 30%)

As for the O/S, if your going to use a PC I would use 2000 at the time being and then upgrade to XP pro later on as there's still a few bugs that need to be worked out.



[This message has been edited by seekaee (edited March 12, 2002).]

[gaspode]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mcflytrap:
With a separate CD-ROM, you can burn CDs without having to save the files to your hard drive. You can just directly record. I do a lot of burning...so this would come in handly for me.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
yeah, but if youve got a DVD-RW, then you can use this as your second CD-ROM


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'It comes in Pints?!'

[mcflytrap]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by gaspode:
yeah, but if youve got a DVD-RW, then you can use this as your second CD-ROM
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I wasn't thinking that DVD drives can also play CDs...apparently they can. Der.

-mcfly-

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[This message has been edited by mcflytrap (edited March 12, 2002).]

[crimsonson]

You are fine if you are doing DV or even some MJPEG editing.

Forget the Athlon vs P4 thing. The gap is not worth mentioning. Though Athlons are cheaper.

My Avid is on 1.4 Ghz. Some I know are even slower (like 700 mhz).
Faster processor is better but if you are only doing titles, dissolves and cuts you are more than good to go. If you like 3D effects - get a faster card. You might sit through long renders but nothing to tell mommy about.

Video Card - look at either Matrox G450/550 or ATI Radeon VE series for dual display support. Other than that make sure DV200 or Premiere do not have "issues" with your card. I am running on Radeon VE with dual 19" monitors.


RAID is undecessary and waste of money. It acutally increases your chances of drive failure.

drop the CD-ROm (and even DVD-RW if it writes CD-R).

Keep that 80 Gig HD for video (about 6 hours of footage worth)
Get a cheaper driver (10-20GB) for your OS and programs. 7200 is not necessary either. My old video drive was 5400 rpm. Just keep em clean, defrag and leave at least 10% of it empty at any given time.

For OS - check which platoform your DV200 and Premiere runs better on (most stable).
DV200 is an OK card. Raptor DV would have been better IMHO. My only reservation with XP is that you might not have drivers available for your DV200 since its old (in tech world) hardware. Windows 2000 and Windows 98 SE might be the only OS it supports. Check Pinnacle's web site.

If you have any questions about it specifically, or want to go in to further details, I can certainly help you (Premiere, Avid (Composer or XDV), MSP, hardware, etc.)

[email protected]




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[tim.callaghan]

One of the best online resources for desktop editing is here www.dvdoctor.net

I write for these guys, and also the people who are there really know thier shit, I mean big time. When it comes to video, they are the masters. Maybe not S8, but in particular guys to look out for are Alan Roberts (Video master), John Willet (Sound extroadinaire), Daquin (Web streaming and internet technologies), PCWELLS (just about everything, but really specialises in DVD at the moment), Bcrabtree (the editor of the mag that started the BB), Me (tim.callaghan, apparant Windows expert, but use Macs), and a whole host of other guys, Rayl, Hawk, Sepulcre, Ian at Lynx, etc etc, there are just too many names to list.

This board maybe great for S8, but just from the above I can see there are a few ill conceived opinions about editing DV (although some are very sound, but you gotta filter through the reast) which may lead to you going down the wrong track for your needs.

Anyway, check it out as it's a great resource for desktop editing.

Tim

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[This message has been edited by tim.callaghan (edited March 12, 2002).]