World's most powerful PC for MXF in Vegas

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Dabhand Digital Media

Member
I am looking for a topic that covers in depth discussions on real PC power for editing HVX 200 MXF or Raylight converted files in Vegas.

I want to edit 720PN and 1080i footage and demand real time - full PAL 25fps preview with not clunkyness or lower than actual fps? Is there a PC that has been tired and tested by anybody out there and they were completly satisfied with the editing results. What did you get?

For example...Is the top end Core2Duo with 2bg RAM powerful enough to edit MXFs straight in the timeline with full screen frame rate previews? And can you add effects to the trackview and not have it playing back at 15 fps?

Were in the market to spend 1800 pounds, about 3600 dollars on a new tower and want to know if any PC has the power...what are the specs likely to be and what would be the approximate cost for such a machine?

Also, is it advisable to wait for the 64bit version of Vegas and what AMD are promising with collaboration with Sony for the end of 2007?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

DDM
 
Thanks for the link David. What I really want to know is. Is it possible to get real time ( FULL SCREEN) previews with real time color correction in Vegas of MXF footage in vegas with 1080i and 720 PN footage? If it doesn't playback in realtime then I don't see the point in splashing out thousands on a PC.

Are there documented and full proof tests being done?

What PC specs would I need to have?

Thanks again

DDM
 
720, yes. 1080, it's more iffy.

If that's a bedrock requirement, then your best bet is to look into Edius Broadcast. Handles the footage better than anything.
 
Thanks David,

When Sony release the 64-bit edition of Vegas in the fall, are we talking a worthwhile investment for 1080i then? Again wth full screen realtime playback with colour correction and curves being handled?

DDM
 
Don't know. There should be a performance bump, but how much, I can't say.

Obviously, you want the fatest processor you can get, and your data on a RAID 0.
 
More cores is better for Vegas. It practicall doesn't matter what your GPU is (a shame really ... all that power sitting untouched by Vegas). Get a quad core, or go dual CPUs with Core 2 Duos. Then stuff 4 gig in there. As far as machines that are pre built and tested for compatible hardware, you might look at HP workstations because they have a long life, generally solid engineering (no overheating problems) and good driver support. Specifically the HP xw8400. Then pop in a SATAII hardware RAID 0 card for course footage and render to a seperate drive.

Now I Have no idea about the 64 bit version cooperation between AMD & Sony. This is the first I have heard of that.

jason
 
More cores is better depending what you do. If you have a LOT of audio to render at the same time as a lot of video, you'll see a good bump compared to a single core. But if you don't have that much audio to process, the advantages will not be as stark.

Don't know how much this applies to the 64-bit version.
 
Thanks guys. all really helpful.

I think we shall see how the market plays out for the next couple of months. I shal report back if we happen to find the best results.

So Jason, are you saying that you can put 2 x 2 core 2 duos on one board?

DDM
 
I don't think the audio/video ?dichotomy? applies any more. In the latest versions of Vegas, the multi-threading has been reworked so that video processing is done across multiple cores (it used to be on only 1 core... like Vegas 4 or something).

2- You should be able to get 2 CPU systems with quad cores in them (Intel) for 8 cores. Performance scaling may not be so great as you increase cores, though I don't have figures myself. I think more than 8 cores is possible... i.e. up to 16 or 32. However, it is much more useful to get some benchmarks since performance and scaling is NOT the same between Intel and AMD; they implement multi-core differently. Also, Intel seems to be beating AMD in performance (though this always goes back and forth).

There are rendertest.veg results for intel quad core on the official Sony forum.
 
As of V6, it still wasn't using both cores for video, at least never that I observed on the occasions I tested it. Not sure about 7.
 
We had a look at the following tower for Editing MXF's and Raylight files at 720p and 1080i files in Vegas 7e

Core 2 QUAD Q6600 with an Asus P5B Delux motherboard and 2 GB of Dual channel gold Ram.

4 x 500 gb RAID 5 drives for extremly safe date.

Can anybody suggest a system that is more powerful or can handle this sort of data in Vegas?

Thanks in advance...

DDM
 
An old P4 rendered an uncompressed 33 second .avi to .wmv 3 Mbs- all others default, not taking into account HD and RAM.
3.4ghz is 3min. 5sec.
3.2ghz is 3:45sec
3.3ghz is 3:16sec

please post some intel dual(2) core results.....? see if it's worth the upgrade. thx in advance!
 
Old P4's and even Duel Core Athlons simply don't have the processor power to handle full res, full screen previews in Vegas while cutting. As soon as you add color correction or adjust the levels then it's going to tax the processor and RAM. What is the point unless you can edit HD in realtime...?

Well for me...there is no point. Most consumers are more demanding than ever, even families are shooting their holiday videos in HD and HDV.

As independant film makers we expect to get as much for our money as we can, so all this long hours, writing, directing and shooting expect to edit without the head aches of 10 to 15fps.

We were inches away from spending £2,000 on the fastest PC we could get our hands on. A core 2 Dual with 4gb or RAM and 4 x 500 RAID 5 disks only to be told that the chip heat up to scary temperatures and slows down over time.

Were holding off and looking to weigh up the pros and cons of the AMD platform 4X4 this summer or see what Intel can come up with.

I am a PC man, I love Vegas and thinking of shifting to Edius.

Will report back if and when we have good news on this one.

Cheerz for now guys

DDM
 
Hi, i thought i'd chime in. iam using the intel quad cpu, playback of 720p is full fps,
1080 not so well,

so for me i found a work around and that is to change the project settings to 720 480 for the EDITING ONLY and then when ready to render, switch back to 1080 to double check on color, composition, and final render , but that depends on you
 
Hi Killfilm.

Can you answer these questions.

1. Are your project settings exactly set up right for 720p? By that I mean in the projects table have you selected the (progressive mode) and the corect aspect in the dropdown to 1.0000 (SQUARE)?

2. How many fps are you getting in Preview mode quality as fullscreen playback with both ( color correction with slight desaturated ) and colour curves, crushing some backs...Does it hole a full 25fps (PAL or 29 (NTSC)

3. Are you using the Raylight plug in for MXF at the best quality? If not then what setting do you have it at? Apparently the new beta version is better for playback as it uses DX9 addressing within windows.

Thanks in advance.

DDM
 
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