Computers for transfering P2 and editing! Aiee!

lawriejaffa

lawriejaffa

Veteran
Hello there! Yes um, forgive the 'Aieee' in the title *Ahem*

Gentleman i would really appreciate your advice as im a little overwhelmed by the differences in computer technology at the moment (okay a little)

I am trying to get 2 systems, 1 is a laptop for transfer of p2 cards and for use as a monitor using HD Rack (but probably not for recording.) as i have a very limited budget for the laptop. What OS should I use, and how long should it take to transfer a 8gb p2 card on it? What does it depend on :)

I am also getting an editing computer, what are the main hardware elements I should pay attention to for editing on HD DVC Pro, can you recommend any specs I should be aiming for - (it would be for editing features and doing some fx in photoshop and cinema 4d)

Right guys, knows thats a big ass question but would appreciate your help mon amies!
 
For the laptop, you can get any cheap laptop with a PCMCIA card slot. Get a pc laptop. Get one with PCMCIA for transferring cards.

For your editing system, it's really up to you. What NLE to use comes down to personal preference, but here are a few tidbits for you.

EDIUS broadcast has the best and most thorough/proper P2 integration and support. It will allow you to take full advantage of the benefits of a p2 workflow.

Final Cut has full p2 support.

Avid has p2 support, but still no support for a couple of modes (unless that changed with a recent update).

Vegas and Premiere have no support for the HVX/P2. You have to purchase a 3rd party plug-in like Raylight. Raylight will now allow you to work directly with the mxf's on the timeline. No more conversion. Albeit, not at real-time speeds you could expect from EDIUS.

DVCPRO HD is not terribly demanding on your pc. To give you an idea, I edit with a core duo 2.16ghz laptop and EDIUS Broadcast. I can run 4-6 streams in real time, with filters, transitions, etc, etc. all in realtime. When comparing DVCPRO HD to HDV from an editing standpoint, DVCPRO HD is not demanind at all.

Get a fast processor and at least 2 gigs of ram. And, of course, lots of hard drive space. Raid 0 for performance, Raid 1 for redundancy.

Video card, doesn't really matter for editing. Just get one with dual monitor support (if you want that. I recommend it). But, if you are working with fx programs, 3d programs, etc. your video card will come into play. Get the best one you can afford.

Hope that helps,
Jason
 
Oh yeah... I just saw your 'very limited budget for laptop' comment. You can get a laptop that will be fine for offloading p2 cards (if that's all you want to use it for) in the 400-600 dollar price range quite easily.

Jason
 
Will any laptop run DVrack though? I've got an older sony that is great for transferring p2's and surfing the internet but playback of mxfs is choppy and doesnt usually work out well.
 
I'm running DV Rack 2.1 HD on a Toshiba with a 1.5GHz P4M processor, and it works fine and doesn't drop frames. It's obviously not an optimal configuration, but it work very well.

As Jason said, DVCProHD is not as demanding as HDV because it uses discretely compressed frames as opposed to incrementally compressed long GOP structures, so if the CPU can't keep up, it's OK for it to not decode ever frame for display if you are using DVCProHD. With HDV, you have to have all frames up to the last I (Independent) frame, or you have nothing.

Because of this, you can get away with a laptop that doesn't actually meet Serious Magic's/Adobe's minimum system specs.
 
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