PC or MAC for editing HVX200?

L

LeeBrunet

Member
Hi,

I'm more of a PC type editor with Premiere CS3 & After Effects CS3. I was wondering what would be the best set up for a PC or a MAC? (I have both at my job and could change at home) What video card?, how much RAM, what motherboard? What monitor? Apparenty the DELL ultrasharp 24 inch is incredible. Anyway let us know your equipement.
 
I would go with a Mac only because I'm currently more of a Mac fan than a PC fan.
I used to work as a computer guy in a company with over a hundred PCs and I know many of the problems they have. Once I got into this field I moved over to the Mac and it has been wonderful because I have only had a few problems that required a restart. I got rid of my PC and am trying hard to forget my knowledge of PCs so I no longer have to play tech support for my friends and neighbors.
On the otherhand, you are quite invested on the PC side with the Adobe suite so it will cost less to upgrade components of your current system.
You know what? Don't listen to me at all because I still feel fairly new to video and I'm only speaking out my butt because I nothing else to say.
 
It appears that most HVX200 users are Mac based. That being said, many edit well on a PC.

A stock quad core MacPro with a X1900 video card is more than sufficient.

4 GBs of RAM and an second dedicated SATA drive for media.
 
Premiere CS3 and After Effects CS3 are finally dual-platform, so your choice of Mac or PC won't affect your editing decision. And Premiere CS3 is becoming P2-native so either way should be a good choice.
 
What should I get in PC? What video card? Should I invest in Blackmagic HD cards? Do PC make Quad cores yet? Stay Dual? 2 gig RAM enough? etc.
 
OK, everybody seems to be going for MAC. Should I get a G5 or MACBOOK PRO would do the job. Still waiting for PC answer though
 
G5s are discontinued, and if you're looking at a laptop then recognize that the MBP is not an ideal P2 solution because it doesn't have a PCMCIA slot. That means you'd have to use the Duel Adaptor, etc.

If you're going to be editing in Premiere anyway, ditch the MBP idea and get a good Windows PC. It'll be way less expensive and if you shop around you'll get the PCMCIA slot too.
 
Don't pay any attention to that Barry Green guy. Just ignore him. :)

Seriously, I have the latest MacBook Pro with duel adapter for bringing in p2 cards.

The FCS2 bundle gives you FCP 6.x, DVD SP 4.2, LiveType, Motion, Cinema Tools and Compressor -- it is absolutely fabulous.
 
Yeah, just who IS that Barry Green guy anyway?? He acts like he wrote a book or two on this stuff! :2vrolijk_08:


FWIW, I offload and edit (Avid Xpress Pro HD) on various PC's without a problem. No viruses, crashes or hindrances of any serious nature.
 
My suggestion was made based on the guy already being a Premiere user. Now with P2 support native in P2, why would anyone need to go to FCP, especially when he uses and would presumably want to stay Premiere?

For Premiere, the Windows system is going to be much more cost effective.
 
LeeBrunet said:
What video card would be good to edit uncompressed native HD 4:2:2?
Click to expand...


If you're referring to the footage from the HVX200, then it won't be uncompressed. You'll get MXF files from the P2 cards, which are compressed as DVCPro50 or DVCPro100(HD). I'm assuming that you are indeed recording in one of those two modes that will give you a 4:2:2 colorspace. I think only Avid and Canopus Edius can edit native MXF files, but there may be others I'm unaware of.

I recommend a high-end nVidia Quadro FX series graphics card, especially if you go the PC/Avid route.
 
I edit on Avid Xpress Pro HD, 3GB RAM, 1.5 TB storage with wee little Nvidia GeForce 7800 GS card. The workflow is great, but playback, shuffling, etc. is a bit stunted/laggy, probably owing to my low-grade video card. Avid doesn't give me many errors though, so I'm content.

I wish I knew more about Premiere to help you out specifically.
 
Back in the day people had a thing for mac's saying if you do music, graphics or video a mac is better but now the both use identical processors. ram, drives, you can run windows on the mac in os x, if your good with computers you can put os x on your pc. its also about the learning curve most people don't talk about Avid due to that fact I actually went to school for it for over a year. and i also went to film school as well. with avid you can't go wrong if you can cut on avid express you can cut on nitris.it was the first NLE its the professional choice and investment. Final Cut Pro is alot less of a learning curve more user friendly However with software such as Final Cut Pro Studio 2 you would get a **** load of tools and are integrated with one another. apps like motion and color make it so easy to finish with great results. I was you i would a get mac pro and use bootcamp and windows xp and parellels. this way you could use Prem 3, FPC, Avid

that is what i would do
 
I ordered the following from NewEgg and built an 8-core beast (dual quad-core Xeons).


1Thermaltake Toughpower W0128RU ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply - Retail
$144.99

6Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$419.94

1XFX PVT80GGHF4 GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported HDCP Video Card - Retail
$279.99

1XFX DX10 Game - Retail
$49.99 2

Intel Xeon E5335 Clovertown 2.0GHz Socket 771 Active or 1U Processor Model BX80563E5335A - Retail
$739.98

1ASUS DSGC-DW Dual Socket 771 Intel 5000X MCH SSI EEB 3.61 Server Motherboard - Retail
$419.99

4SUPER TALENT 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 FB-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) ECC Fully Buffered Server Memory Model T667FB2G4 - Retail
$559.96

Subtotal:$2,564.85
Tax:$0.00Shipping:$97.14
Rush Order Fee:$2.99
Total: $2,664.98

8-core xeon
8 gig Ram
1.5 tera total Sata Drive
8800 GTS (320MB) Nvidia video card

No case, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. All which I have alot of.

Optical Drive add $500 for a Blu-ray
Operating System $240 for 64bit Windows (XP or Vista) XP will be around for awhile , however Vista is gaining more support for future stuff.

Add all of that and compare to a compatible custom built computer anywhere, and you will see a big difference in pre-made vs self-built.

Even a MacPro with compatible parts will be ridiculously higher.

Most of the components available from Dell and HP are sub-par with what I got. Yet they charge more

I was an IT/network administrator for some time years ago and dealt with PC's (no Mac). Now that Mac is intel, the major difference is the Operating system. So now the debate should be about which OS do you prefer.

I am gonna go PC all the way. Using Adobe Premium CS3.
 
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Adobe for PC are 32 bit applications which makes them take not more then 2 gig ram at max. Isn't 8 gig too much for no reason?
 
Applications that are written to take advantage of Intel's PAE (Processor Address Extensions) can address up to 64GB of RAM on 32-bit versions of Windows. I have no idea if Adobe Premium CS3 supports PAE.

In any event, the 2GB limit applies to individual non-PAE applications, so if you are running multiple program like Premiere and After Effects for instance, each can have up to 2GB. The same applies to every other process that is running, including the OS.
 
I think this question is best answered if you decide what NLE you weant to use. AVID and Premiere are both dual platform now. So the question is, do you want to use FCP? If so then go get a mac. If not, you can save some money by building a PC.

To adequately handle HDV footage, you could get a Intel quad core processor, with 4+ GB of ram, a dedicated hard disk RAID for media files (a dedicated RAID card is your best bet here, but onboard RAID works too). Of course you will need other things too, a power supply, case, optical drive, etc. But you should be able to do it for roughly $1400-$1600.

As far as a video card, the debate will go on forever. Many swear by Nvidia's Quardro series, or ATI's fireGL series, but I have not seen any difference in performance between "workstaion" and "gaming" graphics cards. Perhaps the Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 is one hell of a workhorse, but at $2k per card, it is probably out of most people's price range. One of the better ones I can recommend is Nvidia's 8800 series.
 
I don't mean to hijack or anything, but does anybody know exactly what the differences are between the Nvidia GeForce series and Nvidia Quadro series? I know that Quadro is 'professional' oriented, and costs a lot more, but how does it compare to the GeForce series, which is consumer oriented for games? Do they perform different kinds of tasks better, or are the Quadros just superior in every aspect?
 
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