question about setup

ilauzirika

ilauzirika

Boring Senior Member
hi there,

just another of those computer setup thread (BTW I hate them, but I need to ask this question).

I have the opportunity to get on hold of a computer with this specs:

Core 2 quad q8200 @ 2,33GHz with 4GB of ram, windows xp proffesional, ati radeon hd3650 and 512mb. one internal 650 sata drive for OS and other data. (media HDs are al external).

What do you think of it? does anyone have a similar setup? or do you guys know if I could edit avchd not at realtime but at least 15fps (or at least not hung up on me everytime..)?.

BTW, I use premiere pro cs4.


thanks guys!
 
I don't know the answer to your question, but I've had similar ones for about a month, and now that I have my HMC-150, I'm starting to draw a few conclusions. This is just my perspective so take it how you wish:

The reason nobody is willing to come flat-out and say: "You need *this* processor or better to do AVCHD" is because it depends on a lot more factors... many of which are difficult to control. Essentially, how well your computer is optimized - how many programs you use, etc. And also, what your definition of "can edit AVCHD" is.

In my limited 3-day experience, I've found that my computer is far from consistent. Gone are the days when you could buy a turnkey SD-DV machine and be guaranteed good performance. My computer frequently struggles to play H.264 Quicktime 720p videos (like the ones on Vimeo). Often the first 15 seconds will play flawlessly but then it begins to skip.

Yesterday however I opened raw AVC-HD files in RealVLC and played them back with no problems at all - I was amazed! Then after the seventh or 8th file, it started skipping horribly in the middle and no other files would play well after that.

My experience with Premiere CS4 is really touch-and-go. At times it's perky as ever, but then I'll do things that can just grind it to a halt, for seemingly no reason.

I've got to admit - this surely has to do with how much I have installed on this poor laptop. It's my personal machine, which I also use for web development + occasional gaming, and therefore there are loads of files and programs installed. I'm considering buying a bigger HD so I can start over with a fresh install of Vista.

That all said - I have no idea if a q8200 will do the job for you. My friend has a Core 2 Quad @2.6 w/ 8GB of Ram and a nVidia 9800GT-X, and this weekend I'm going to try a fresh Windows 7 Beta 64-bit and cross my fingers for a nice experience.

Search as I might, the only feedback I can get from folks is, "well buy the best you can". I think there is probably a fuzzy gray line in between "horrible" and "awesome" that involves an experience of unreliable playback: good half the time stutters the other half of the time.

Hopefully this helps you. I'd love if other can chime in with their computer specs and experiences, because it'll really help me decide how high I ought to upgrade to have reliable playback of HD content. It's just really hard to find.

My plan is to save up so I can bite the bullet with an i7. I've read lots of good reviews about that processor and recall a few folks saying "you'll be fine", so whatever that means... ;)

For reference, my laptop is:
Dell XPS M1530
Core 2 Duo @ 2.5Ghz
3GB of RAM
Vista 32 bit
GeForce 8600m w/256MB

Good luck!
 
TigerFX,

Great reply! I think that pretty much sums up the experience a lot of people are having.

I ALMOST build a big bad computer for AVCHD but after seeing how FCP transcodes the footage I have no complaints. I'm happy with AVCHD and my little Macbrook Pro ;)
 
my setup:
Core 2 Quad 9450
4 GB DDR3
Win XP 32
9800 GT 1GB DDR2 (main monitor)
9600 GT 512 DDR2 (secondary monitor)
750W PS

Playback through VLC player is RT- no issues. I can edit AVCHD in PPro CS4 and Vegas Pro in RT no lag....about 90% of the time. Its fairly painless but there are occasional headaches. Add a filter and FPS drops big time.

I think when they (Sony/Pana/Canon) designed AVCHD they wanted to make it the most efficient and best format they could- given the limitations of SDHC storage. CPU power needed to handle it took a back seat. Now they could have "dumbed" down the codec (like some off-shoot of HDV maybe) so that NLEs could handle it smoothly, but that cheats us all in the long run.

The drawback of course is now an average machine is now considered a "slower" machine in AVC land. But I think the engineers knew the hardware would eventually catch up.

In late 2003 when HDV appeared- all the same things were said- "my machine can't handle it" but now it cuts like DV.

I think that bumbling blu-ray is holding AVC back- so lets just hope it doesn't take 5 years this time.

My suggestion to someone who can edit HDV fine but doesn't want to upgrade his or her machine should consider Cineform Neo Scene. Transcoding from AVCHD to a CF avi is indistinguishable from the source, but much easier on the CPU. It will even handle CC better due to the 4:2:2 10 bit vs. AVCHD 4:2:0 8 bit :)
 
Thanks guys, Allen, very insightfull post. BTW, in my current computer avchd files also play at realtime when using something like MPC player, but then they are choppy and hung premiere pro....you never know, it must be something related to the codec implementation....
 
Dell XPS Desktop
Core 2 duo 2.13
2GB DDR
1GB Radeon (overclocked edition)
Vista 32
Couple 320's SATA
This was my older video machine from DV, and I keep it pretty clean.

Tiger pretty much summed it up... here is where I have been have problems...

My computer never liked MOV or quicktime, I kept getting a error (26 i think) when loading any quicktime file... i fixed this from some forum reading but I used VLC as an alternative... but my AVCHD will not play on VLC but works in quicktime (beats me).

As far as editing: I used vegas 8.0c... Everything imports, I can cut and move no problem... There is no way it will play(view realtime) whats in the timeline without making my beautiful HD video look like 20 big pixels from lowing the preview quility, otherwise its really choppy... No scrubing either.

I can render fine and the finaly product looks amazing! I am ordering more memory asap. All in all, I probablly have one of the slowes comps here and it still gets the job done. :D
 
Belarc:

-3.00 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Extreme Q6850
-64 kilobyte primary memory cache
-4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache
-Bus Clock: 1333 megahertz
-BIOS: Dell Inc. A06
-3326 Megabytes Installed RAM (32bit OS, 4gig actual RAM)
-ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

I can play AVCHD realtime in VP 8.0c, no issues at all. When I start adding Bullet/transitions though, it takes a hit. FPS drops, and the only way (without an intermediate) that I can edit is with "preview auto" It really hasn't bothered me too much yet. Then again, I set my expectations low so that I wouldn't get upset or frustrated. haha.
 
TigerFX said:
Yesterday however I opened raw AVC-HD files in RealVLC and played them back with no problems at all - I was amazed! Then after the seventh or 8th file, it started skipping horribly in the middle and no other files would play well after that.
Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to resurrect it with some new information. I went on a quest using EndItAll to figure out what was casuing the inconsistencies in my AVCHD performance.

It turns out that my Anti-virus program, "Trend Micro" is the culprit. With it disabled, AVCHD 720/60p is smooth most of the time. It hiccups when there is a lot of motion in that portion of the clip, still - but now I can preview the raw footage at near-perfect performance :).

Premiere CS4 still crashes and burns when I try to dump it right in, so for now I'm still using the Mainconcept transcoder and those files cut like butter, really beautiful. Again, this is on a not-so-expensive laptop (2.5GHZ Core 2 Duo, Windows XP, maybe $1000-$1200 today).

So if you are having inconsistencies or problems otherwise, I recommend disconnecting your internet connection and disabling your firewall temporarially. This is a great workflow for me since it stops me from being distracted by my e-mail, haha ;).
 
TigerFX said:
I went on a quest using EndItAll to figure out what was casuing the inconsistencies in my AVCHD performance. It turns out that my Anti-virus program.
Click to expand...

I've had similar issues with anti-virus software, whether it's my NLE or DVD authoring program. So I've been using my computer without anti-virus software for quite some time.
 
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