hi bhiga, can you help with this question ??

[RayFrisby]

Hi bhiga ! Please excuse my lack of editing knowledge but I am coming at this from the directing and production side of things. I am looking at getting Edius Broadcast 4 when release for a project I am shooting next Summer and have a few questions. We will be shooting in the Dublin mountains here in Ireland and I wish to download my footage from my P2 store and probably cineporter to a Laptop as we shoot. I have a Dell Inspiron 3.2ghz pentium 4 with 1900 x 1200 display, 1Gb of ram (will prob upgrade to 2) with an external 1Tb G-Raid drive. Will this be sufficient to capture the footage to and make sure everything is stored Ok. I would like to edit on this also as I have a DVI connection on my laptop. Can I attach say a Dell 2407 HD monitor to this and use it as an external monitor for editing. If not I will look at getting a dual processor or dual core Desktop system. One last question does Edius broadcast have its own DVD authoring prog ?

[bhiga]

Hi Ray,

P2 "capture" as far as EDIUS is concerned is a simple file copy since there's no transcoding involved. Thus, you system should be fine as long as you have enough space.

As for monitoring from a laptop, that's a bit tough. If your display hardware supports "mirroring" the video overlay to video output, then you'll get a display, but keep in mind that it won't necessarilly be proper colorspace, full-framerate or full-resolution.

Keep in mind that realtime HD editing performance on a single-core system is... well, so-so. A dual-core or dual-CPU, or even better, a dual dual-core would be better.

A "luggable" or "semi-portable" system with EDIUS hardware for true HD video output would be better if you want to do detailed checking or color correction.

If I didn't already have a home for my dual dual-core Opterons, I would've put them in this Iwill SFF case...
http://www.iwill.net/product_2.asp?p_id=105&sp=Y
I don't know whether the EDIUS NX PCIe board will work properly (hasn't been tested AFAIK) but it sure looks neat.

EDIUS doesn't have its own DVD authoring application, but it can "dump" (no menus) a timeline to DVD with chapter-points by time or specified by timeline markers. It's fine for rough cuts, previewing, and general viewing but for delivery to a customer I'd output MPEG files and take it to a full-featured DVD authoring application.

Brandon

[RayFrisby]

Thanks for your help Brandon !
That system looks great ! As I said I'm new to video editing my background is more directing and producing so I'm not sure what mirroring is, my graphics card is a 256 ATI Mobile Radeon 9800 not sure if it can handle this.
Once I can transfer the footage to my laptop and G raid I dont really mind. I am looking at investing in a dual core/processor system for editing the footage on at home. As long as I can make sure the footage is safely on the hard drive I don't really mind.

I am also looking at getting the new DV Rack prog for monitoring the HVX 200 when its released. I already have Sony Vegas 6 and its DVD Architecht 3 so I am guessing I can burn a DVD backup of my footage using this, or do I need a different prog ?.
One final question Brandon I have just ordered my copy of Edius Broadcast 4 from your UK offices.
Is there a training DVD you can recommend for getting up to speed ? I really think that a simple step by instruction to using Edius would sell well.
Once again thanks for your help !

P.S. If you have any suggestions for purchasing a reasonably priced turnkey system like the one mentioned, and one that can take the Canopus hardware please feel free to send me a pm

[bhiga]

Hi Ray,

Your ATI grpahics probably can do it if it has more than one output. I forgot what ATI calls the feature, but there's usually an option in the Overlay settings.

We're in the process of creating updated training/how-to material for EDIUS 4, as many of the functions (esp. trimming and shortcuts) have changed. I'm sure if KH gets his way we'll have some updated how-to's available on the website at launch-time.

I'd go with making a DVD data backup with Nero. Since the P2 stuff is already digital files, there's no need to make playable DVD-video discs for backup purposes.

Begin blatant marketing pitch
Since I'm trying to push REV PRO, I'm going to stick a blatant plug for it here, because it does make sense (I wouldn't if it didn't)... A 35 GB REV PRO cartridge holds more than 7 (single-layer) DVD's worth of data and it's rewritable. You can think of it like a small hard drive.

But what makes it better than just a hard drive is that it's removable. That means another 35 GB of storage is just ~$60 (US) - the cost of a the REV PRO drive is a one-time expense.

Also, REV PRO disks are smaller and more robust than hard drives. I know I'd panic if I dropped a hard drive from even one or two feet. With REV PRO, there's much, much, less worry. Also, REV PRO is rated for a shelf life of over 30 years, so it's quite robust.
End blatant marketing pitch

Brandon

[RayFrisby]

Thanks Brandon !
I dont know if you've read my other post on buyng a dual core/processor system but I really like the ZMAXd2. It seems like a powerful system. I was wondering if you know anybody who has put the EDIUS NX PCIe board into the ZMAXd2, and does it work ok with an external raid storage such as Graid.
Pricewise it seems like a very good deal.

[bhiga]

Should work fine with external storage. Not sure if anyone's actually put one in though. It will be key to see if the board physically fits in the chassis correctly, as it's quite cramped in there.