What about the desktop?

Green Hornet

Green Hornet

Veteran
I have deceided to build me a desktop computer for editing.
I thought about going mac, but I don't feel I can do it due to my limited choices at upgrade time, and the cost of all hardware being more expensive than the PC side.

Besides, once the software guys catch up, the editing systems will be workable for the P2 flow. I don't want to be an editor, but I want to be able to edit when needed, that being said, what would be the best video card and other hardware?

There are so many choices when it comes to video cards, and obviously there are many that are good for games, but may not be good for video editing.
Many game cards are pushing the 3D envelope, and charging for that.

It seems for video, we only need good hi-def 2d.
Which is the best for "us"?
 
A display card is not necessarily an Editing card. A video card is just a display card. You need one that will power a monitor with the right resolution you have. a dual head display is a good idea.

There are editing cards which support I/O and offer real time enhancments and they are different than display cards. If you are thinking of buying an editing card they run from $500 to $10,000. Again, what do you need? Will it work with your editing software?



Personally, If I were in your shoes I would get a mac.
 
I wouldn't go with a mac. I do not like Windows, but I hate mac even more.

Avid on the PC is already more workable than FCP for P2. No need to convert the original footage into Quicktime files, and you can load them up directly in there. So you do not have to keep both huge files in archive.

Now I can edit MXF content with my 2000$ Canadian Dell laptop with Avid (Except add another 100$ for having 2gig of ram, 1 gig is not ennuf).

Pretty much all video card will do, except if you wish to do realtime effect from the video card, then you need some very expensive card.

You can get those nvidia quadro card, but so far I dont feel it necesary. My laptop ati x300 does the job, my desktop ati 9700 pro also does the job.

I do like the control over the PC configuration, raid system and any interface.

You can get those AMD X2 processor with nice watercooling to make it virtually silent PC. I have selected the aproches to put my PC into another room than my editing console, I like quiet environment.

I am personally going to order the Dell 1920x1200 monitor. I only wish I could edit in fullscreen on my HD monitor.
 
I've got an FCP/Mac system, and I also have Avid XPress Pro HD on my laptop (not that it does me any good, because it quit working.) But it used to work, so I can compare the two.

FCP does need to take an additional step in order to edit footage, you have to convert the files from MXF to Quicktime .MOV. This process takes about 3 minutes per 4 gigs. I sincerely hope Apple will fix this in an anticipated FCP6 release at NAB.

Other than that one inconvenience, I can say that FCP/Mac G5 is way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way better for editing HVX footage than Avid on the PC was.

I haven't used a Mac since 1986, I've been strictly PC-based since then. I bought this Mac solely for the HVX. It was a very good move.
 
I wonder.. how could someone hate the Mac and then post postive about the avid.. and then I saw ya from Montreal. Having lived there, I can understand your pain... so let it out. 7 feet of snow one year I was there.... It's okay, you can love the Mac.. You can be happy.


mochouinard said:
I wouldn't go with a mac. I do not like Windows, but I hate mac even more.

Avid on the PC is already more workable than FCP for P2. No need to convert the original footage into Quicktime files, and you can load them up directly in there. So you do not have to keep both huge files in archive.

Now I can edit MXF content with my 2000$ Canadian Dell laptop with Avid (Except add another 100$ for having 2gig of ram, 1 gig is not ennuf).

Pretty much all video card will do, except if you wish to do realtime effect from the video card, then you need some very expensive card.

You can get those nvidia quadro card, but so far I dont feel it necesary. My laptop ati x300 does the job, my desktop ati 9700 pro also does the job.

I do like the control over the PC configuration, raid system and any interface.

You can get those AMD X2 processor with nice watercooling to make it virtually silent PC. I have selected the aproches to put my PC into another room than my editing console, I like quiet environment.

I am personally going to order the Dell 1920x1200 monitor. I only wish I could edit in fullscreen on my HD monitor.
Click to expand...
 
It the reverse.. WE DONT HAVE SNOW !!! we see grass !!! no snow :(

I just can't stand the MAC workflow. I have tryed... And tryed again just a few minutes ago, I am into a Mac Store rightnow, and they couldn't convert me either, they showed me a Laptop with only 1 click button !!! ;) . I can't stand the Finder and the bottom anoying animated bar.

My OS are plain, no animation, just plain fonctional.

I can't say I like Avid, Im having a hardtime understanding it. Im used to play with premiere and it was fine, but Avid is alittle complicated so far. I didnt buy it yet, it my friend Key Im running on my PC.

Maybe FCP UI is better, but my my problem with Mac is not FCP it self, but Mac. I might like FCP for PC, IF it support MXF file. But I am sure as I get some tutorial of Avid, I will be fine.
 
No snow.. Hmmm. Must be a balmy 3 or 4 degrees at night then? breaking 30 ever? I brrrrr for those memories....

You can get a two button mouse. I have one and it'll work just the same on a PC. The things with the Mac are the intangibles.. and the fact that it'll work.. work.. work for years to come with minimal BS. The workflow will soon appeal to you.. it already has as the windows GUI is a reworked Mac.. but that's an old spiral debate that goes on infinitum....


I'd say go with whatever bags the chicks.
 
Once your through with the edits, and your are ready to present your work on a large screen, (42" plasma, or LCD Projector) will a laptop's video card and hard drive be able to show a HD Picture ? Without HD DVD or Blue ray what are the options for presenting your work?
 
Well, that's the big question -- how to display HD when there's no HD delivery medium? Everyone's facing the same question.

Most convenient way now is a WMV9 high-def DVD. That'll play on any PC computer. Or you could render out a high-def MP4 for playback on a Mac laptop.

HD-DVD players will be on the market soon, but it'll be a while before there's any appreciable installed base of 'em.
 
Ok,
I'll go with the WMV9 high def DVD flavor.
I've never made one of those befor.
Can I Do it with an uncompressed avi and the Raylight codec.\ rendered as a WMV9,
then burned on an DVD as data?
 
Another option might be D-VHS. A few hundred bucks will get you long-form presentation format if you're looking for that. I haven't messed around with one but know it is an immmediately available option to try out. While it will go the way of the...well...VCR, it will most likely be much more economical than BlueRay and HD-DVD until those technologies get established.

Just a thought...you may want to look into them.
 
Barry_Green said:
Yep, just render a WMV9 file right from the timeline.
Click to expand...


Are we talking about playing this from a standalone DVD player or from a laptop PC? I do know that there are supposedly DVD players out there that play WMV files....maybe a hi def version somewhere?

I am getting tired of looking at all of my HD footage from the HVX on my PC monitor only. Would love to see it on my bigscreen if I could get it onto a disk!
 
Depends on the DVD player. A few can do it (like the Avel Linkplayer, IINM). But mostly I wouldn't count on that, I'd figure it's primarily for computer playback.

Look into the Avel though; it can play MPEG-2 transport streams so it can play HDV footage; it might be able to play WMV9's too.
 
I transfered a 720P 24pa mxf file straight from the HVX.
I then used the Raylight program to convert to avi.
I have rendered a WMV9 in Vegas.
I also viewed the file first from the HVX through the component RGB output
It looks great on a 42" plasma full speed and resolution.
The problem is the HD WMV9 file will not play any where near full speed.
My computer (2.5 DuelZeon 128 meg display card) plays the file back at about one frame per second in full screen mode at full resolution.
What kind of hardware upgrade do I need, in ordered to play these files on the Plasma screen and have them play back just as they did using the component out from the camera.
If I could convert back to MXF and transfere back to the P2 cards in camera, could I then play them back through the camera's component output?
 
scarfie said:
Another option might be D-VHS. A few hundred bucks will get you long-form presentation format if you're looking for that. I haven't messed around with one but know it is an immmediately available option to try out. While it will go the way of the...well...VCR, it will most likely be much more economical than BlueRay and HD-DVD until those technologies get established.

Just a thought...you may want to look into them.
Click to expand...


What resolution does a D-VHS output, and what kind of connections does it use to hook up to? This might be a temporary solution for me untill the disks become commonplace. Even when blueray, or hd-dvd come out, I still would hate to be on the front line of that technology. I hear players will be in the $1,000 range, so one can only imagine what a recorder will cost the first year out.
 
I've been looking at the DH40000U from JVC. It has component output but no component in. That seems a little screwy...must be the big studios trying to ward off HD dubs of their content.

So that leaves you with firewire. From the users manual: the maximum data transfer speed supported by i.link on this VCR is 400Mbps. I looked into how you could use the deck to record directly from the timeline (in my case PPRO 1). MainConcept is one answer. Render an MPEG stream and print to tape.

It has two drawbacks: price and 720p. 720p might not be a big deal if you are using the HVX since it seems to be a 720p camera anyway. I checked with support at MainConcept. They said you can definitely export to the deck but the best you can do is 720p. The price of the MainConcept mpeg codec is another story. Pretty steep.

I haven't done any further research on a cheaper way to get the video out to tape. Maybe if you look into it and find a better answer you can let me know.

I believe I will go ahead and get one to test it out. It won't do me a whole lot of good until I get an HVX but I can test with some HD animations.
 
What about that Divix player/ WMW system... I forgot the product name, but it looked like a good cheap option for a company to display. Not a viable platform, but I was thinking it would be good for an installation or such.
 
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