New Computer for HDV Editing...

ozzsoad

ozzsoad

Member
Alright I admit it, I know very little when it comes to HDV. I recently bought an XH A1 with the intention of using it to shoot a feature length film. Out of all the footage I've seen from similar priced cameras, I was most impressed with the picture quality of the A1. Although now, I'd like to get some feedback on whether or not the computer I plan on getting would be sufficient enough for editing HDV using PP2.

I'm looking into getting the following:

Intel Core Duo 2.66 GHz
4 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS
1TB Performance RAID 0

The one thing I'm not certain about is the processor. Also, what are your thoughts on Windows Vista and it's compatibility with PP2.
 
Computer woes

Computer woes

Hey, I am very interested to see what answers you get here with regard to a new PC and PP2. I'm a longtime DVX user (6 films to date) and I'm thinking about jumping ship with camera, format, and editing platform all at once with a move to HD (HDV). I do a fair amount of effects and compositing work in Combustion and I'm sick of 4-6 hour render times, so the computer I'm looking at is this:

HP xw8400 2X Intel Xeon 5150 *(2.66Ghz) 4-6GB DDR2 ECC, Quadro FX1500, and a 2TB SATA RAID.

I use Avid Liquid 7 currently, but Im considering the switch to Premiere for the third party plug ins and hardware compatability. (Blackmagic Intensity)

Any thoughts?

Ozzsoad, I would think that that system would work fine for capturing and editing HDV, but I haven't done it myself, YET, so who am I to talk.
 
sounds like you are right on with the hard drive space. The core2 procesors are alittle faster, but i went with xeons for my computer cause they are alittle more robust. The thing you have to be carefull of...and i learned this the hard way. When you get your processor, make sure that its a 64 bit processor, cause a 32 bit processor will not allow you to use your full 4 gigs of ram ( i have 4 gigs installed on my comp, but only 3 is available for use...the other gig is tied up in cpu functions)
 
Thanks for the tip, I'll check. I'm buying from HP so it should be easy to ensure that.
 
Thanks Cecil, so it should run smoothly (not too worried about rendering time)? Good to know about the 64 bit processor though.
 
ozzsoad said:
Alright I admit it, I know very little when it comes to HDV. I recently bought an XH A1 with the intention of using it to shoot a feature length film. Out of all the footage I've seen from similar priced cameras, I was most impressed with the picture quality of the A1. Although now, I'd like to get some feedback on whether or not the computer I plan on getting would be sufficient enough for editing HDV using PP2.

I'm looking into getting the following:

Intel Core Duo 2.66 GHz
4 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS
1TB Performance RAID 0

The one thing I'm not certain about is the processor. Also, what are your thoughts on Windows Vista and it's compatibility with PP2.
Click to expand...

Get the Nvidia 7600GT is better and cheaper than the 7900 GS or wait few more months for the new generation of video cards. You actually dont need the high end video cards, the 7600Gt is perfect.
I have a 2.0 Ghz AMD dual core and is really good and WAAAAAAAY cheaper than the core 2 duo and the preformance is almost the same. dont overspend in computers, they are the worst investment that you can make.
 
I'm running PP 2.0 using full HD footage at real time - shot on hvx 720 24p - on my laptop, Vista, 2.0 ghz dual processor intel with 2 gigs of ram and ATI 256mb vid card, and it runs smooth as hell... So you should be better than good.
 
That's good to hear too. I just ordered my xw8400 and monitors, I can't wait to experience twin dual cores, and my first hands on time with a Quadro FX card on a PCX-Express 16X buss.
 
Jmtasu said:
I'm running PP 2.0 using full HD footage at real time - shot on hvx 720 24p - on my laptop, Vista, 2.0 ghz dual processor intel with 2 gigs of ram and ATI 256mb vid card, and it runs smooth as hell... So you should be better than good.
Click to expand...
Nice, I just ordered the computer. Can't wait to finally be able to play around with the footage. Thanks everyone for posting.
 
Jmtasu said:
I'm running PP 2.0 using full HD footage at real time - shot on hvx 720 24p - on my laptop, Vista, 2.0 ghz dual processor intel with 2 gigs of ram and ATI 256mb vid card, and it runs smooth as hell... So you should be better than good.
Click to expand...
I have this exact same DELL, what do you have the 1505 or 6400? :)

I've been running Vista for a short while on it, but so far so good in regards to Premiere 2.0! When I run premiere it says it detects my duo core, so that's a good sign!
 
Vista is a terrible operating system. I have two brand new HP AMD64x2 Vista laptops and I can say that PP2 doesn't work on either of them. Its really a hit or miss if it will work with Vista. Vista is that bad and unstable.
 
I've heard similar reports from my friends who were quick to adopt the new OS. One is a musician who records his own music on the PC, Vista in some hit or miss cases blocked access to his own recordings, claiming he did not have the "legal right" to access them (some kind of built in RIAA CP scheme) I'm sticking with XP Pro, and XP X64 until the bugs get all worked out, I certianly don't need the headache when I'm on a deadlne. Vista seems to be one place you don't want to be an early adopter. - CK
 
Got the new computer, with Vista, and the hardest thing to do was getting Wi-Fi to work, everything else has been fairly smooth.

Although, for some reason, I can't figure out how to get my HD footage onto my computer. I downloaded the presets and everything. I opened a new project with the right settings (Canon HDV - 24F) but when I went to capture, the screen in the window is blank, although I'm still able to control the camera. Anyone know what's going on? I've been using the Trial version of PP2, could that be the problem....?
 
ozzsoad said:
Got the new computer, with Vista, and the hardest thing to do was getting Wi-Fi to work, everything else has been fairly smooth.

Although, for some reason, I can't figure out how to get my HD footage onto my computer. I downloaded the presets and everything. I opened a new project with the right settings (Canon HDV - 24F) but when I went to capture, the screen in the window is blank, although I'm still able to control the camera. Anyone know what's going on? I've been using the Trial version of PP2, could that be the problem....?
Click to expand...

Whats happening is that PP2, trial or purchase, does not support Vista, though Adobe says it should run ok. A patch is supposed to be in the works by July 07. But its hit or miss whether your machine running Vista will work with PP2. Bottomline is don't do any serious work with Vista/PP2 because you will run into problems. I have over $12k in software that won't run on Vista. How'd you like those apples?
 
sotty said:
Whats happening is that PP2, trial or purchase, does not support Vista, though Adobe says it should run ok. A patch is supposed to be in the works by July 07. But its hit or miss whether your machine running Vista will work with PP2. Bottomline is don't do any serious work with Vista/PP2 because you will run into problems. I have over $12k in software that won't run on Vista. How'd you like those apples?
Click to expand...
Actually, once I figured out my problem, Premiere works great with Vista. My problem was that the Trial version doesn't support MPEG or HDV capture. I bought the full version and got straight into editing my HDV footage, and smoothly at that.
 
Bustak,

I think it's the 1505, it was the small business smart deal, it was super cheap considering how strong it is.

Ozzsoad,

Grats on the computer, hope it treats you well. I've had a blast with mine.

Funny thing is my hardrive crashed just a bit after I made that post!!! haha, but it was no biggie, brand new computer, I keep all footage on my externals and Dell was over to fix the thing 12 hours after I made the call, which is pretty kool, man has their customer support improved.

As far as Vista is consered, I have no clue what anyone is talking about, I, nor has anyone I know had any problems with it at all.

The only thing I could even think to consider a problem, is there is a weird glitch that if you burn DVD's to a USB connected Hardrive - I burn my DVD collection to the HD to watch through media center - it think's it's resrticted, but an easy fix, you just mount the HD. - oh and there's this weird little glitch in the mouse, but probably an easy fix I haven't looked into yet.

This is the first OS I have ever used that I immidietly liked, even XP, which I think is a great program took me a couple months to get used too. As soon as I sat down with Vista I was in love. - it may also be because I had been using an Apple for the past 6 months, and I'm just so glad to be back on a PC!! haha.

- Oh on another note with Premiere, when my HD crashed I was finishing up a project, and needed to make a few more cuts. I decided to try and finishing up on my old PC - Which is a POS, I bought it from dell over 2 years ago for $350 bucks, so we're talking very low end.

I was amazed to see I could actually cut HD on it, don't get me wrong, it wasn't real time, probably about 14 fps, but still, just the fact that it could even load up the footage through USB 1.0 drives, and make the cuts, I was pretty surprised, especially seeing the minimum requirments that Adobe gives.
 
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