Question About Editing HD Footage

[apabari]

Hi guys, I currently have a iMac with a 2.16 ghz Intel Core Duo 2 processor and 2GB of RAM. Should this be sufficient to edit HD footage in Final Cut?

[jsaadein]

I can't wait to see a good answer on this. I have a Core Duo 2.0 w/ only 1GB. I want to edit with premiere and after effects....can't wait to hear the answers.

Regards,

Justin

[Huy Vu]

Apabari, your system should be fine, although you'll also need a beefy graphic card to preview and play the HD footage.

Isaadein, I recommend 2GB of RAM as a minimum for Premiere. As to After Effect, you can forget about doing anything more complicated than simple masking even on much more powerful system. AE handles HDV files very poorly and I've never been able to get it to work smoothly on my PC (Athlon X2 4200+, Nvidia 7600GT, 2GB RAM). If you're going to work with AE you'll need to use an intermediate codec like Cineform.

The main issue you'll encounter with editing HDV won't be so much the editing, but the render time. Saying it's horrible is an understatement. To illustrate, it took 24 hours to render about 50 minutes of footage, and this is without any color correction or complicated editing.

[jsaadein]

I guess I need to downgrade the video when I take from the tape until I can get something more powerful. I appreciate the quick response.

[Justin Kuhn]

What's the minimum graphics card you need to display DVCPROHD?

[PaPa]

ive got a quatro 512mb card in my laptop, but again, its in my laptop,

so im running a core 2 duo 2.0 ghz, 2 gigs of ram and that 512 quatra card.

sufficient? What about min specs for a desktop?

[apabari]

I have a ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card. Any idea how that will hold up?

[Jason Ramsey]

Many NLE's don't use the Graphics Card for editing of footage, so it doesn't really matter in that regard.

Vegas, for example, though, will benefit from a good graphics card when it comes to rendering.

But to edit, you don't need much. When you are working in programs like AE or 3d effects/compositing programs, is where your Graphics card will play a much larger role.

Jason

[Huy Vu]

Premiere 2.0 will let you use GPU to aid in footage playback, so having a powerful one helps. But you're right, rendering time isn't affected.

[Noel Evans]

Yes, another post of agreeance with Ramjet. FCP lets you have RT preview via graphics card processing, again it doesnt effect render time.

The other way is to render out to DVCPro via mpeg streamclip, this will speed up those pesky render times, but it does add weight to your preview footage which will in turn require you to have a better graphics card.

But to answer apabari - yes its efficient to edit HD footage in FCP.

[apabari]

Alright, sounds good. I figured I should make sure my system can handle HD footage before buying an A1. From what you guys say, it sounds like I'll be fine. Thanks guys!

[bentramer81]

apabari, I use a mac with the same specs for short 10 min. films. and it flies for me.

[Rico Gutter Films]

I've been using a Macbook (Core Duo 1) to edit HDV and it flies. It only has a crappy integrated graphics card and it works great.

I don't know about DVCPRO HD though.