PC set up?

A

AnDyDanDy

I was wondering if anyone could give me some suggestions for a PC editing system...
I'd prefer to build my own instead of buying a turnkey system...
Manly I'm interested in suggestions for a video card and/or capture card... if you just
want to post what your editing with now and how well it works for you that'd be great...
 
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Assuming you are using a mini-DV camera, then all you would need to import video is a firewire port. If you PC does not have one, they can be purchased on a PCI card for around $30 - $35. You would then use the "Import Video" option from your editing software.

Depending on your budget, you will spend either around $100 (decent) or $500 (advanced) for editing software. If you are just starting out and want to get some good practice, the $100 software packages are just fine. I have used Pinnacle Studio (which is okay), but I have switched to Sony Vegas Movie Studio and I like that much better. It is a great value.

You will need a modest primary [C:] hard drive -- something just large enough to load the operating system, your program files, and your cache files. Then, you need to get the biggest hard drive you can possibly afford and install it as the secondary / slave drive (200 GB - 250 GB). Do NOT try to import video to your C: drive. Always import to a secondary drive. www.microcenter.com usually has good deals on big hard drives.

Processor does not have to be super fast. I have a P4 1.7 Ghz and it works fine for me. Of course, faster is always better... I WOULD recommend going for at least 1GB of RAM, and again...more is always better.

That should do it.

There have been a few posts already about this -- so you might want to search for those to get additional information.

John
 
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Boz Uriel said:
Always import video to a secondary drive.

Why is this? :hmm:
Click to expand...

In my experience, you get cleaner, smoother import when importing to a secondary drive. You can import to the c: drive, but this tends to result in jerky imports with more dropped frames. I am not an expert on this, but I believe the reason has something to do with the operating system, background programs, and the import program files running on the c: drive, as well as memory cache writing to c: as well. When all of this "stuff" is happening on the c: drive, the machine has to start 'ordering' its tasks in order to accomplish them all effectively. This means the video import (writing-to-disk process) could be stalled while other system tasks are being executed.

However, if you write the a secondary drive, the writing process won't be interupted because the demand for the second drive is negligible. Hence, smoother video import.

John
 
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The C: should only be used for applications, not for data storage. The constant read/write can cause your application to crash. If that happens to happen to your OS, then you're screwed and you've lost everything, maybe. You should ALWAYS store your data on a separate drive. Now if you have 1 250GB 7200 or 10,000 RPM drive then you could partition it into separate partitions.. maybe 50GB for system and applications and the other 200GB for Data. Although it would be reccomended to have a totally separate drive with 7200RPM Minimum!

If you're JUST doing editing, then you really don't need moch when it comes to DV editing, at least in my eyes. My machine that I edit with is:

1700+ XP chip
512MB RAM
DVD RW drive
Matrox P750 video card
2 Monitors and 1 Video Monitor
Keyboard and Mouse

No here's where I went crazy:
I have 2 D1000 SUN SCSI Drive Servers that are hosted by my Windows PC machine. They have 10,000 RPM Drives for a total of 20 18.9GB drives at up on a Software RAID.

I have a 40GB drive for Apps and System
I have an 80GB Drive for Capturing
I have a 200GB drive for renders
Each are 7200RPM... which is fine for DV footage.


Why all the drives? Well there's nothing worse than doing 50 hours of work and have your drive crash! I have total redindancy.. I'm not loosing anything!
 
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Is firewire 800 any better then normal IEEE 1394 for capturing video?
If the data rate of USB 2.0 is 240 Mps and IEEE 1394 is 200 Mps, then why is IEEE 1394 better?
 
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If the data rate of USB 2.0 is 240 Mps and IEEE 1394 is 200 Mps, then why is IEEE 1394 better?
Click to expand...

Because your camcorder/deck likely won't have a USB 2.0 jack.
smiley_creepy.gif


As far as capturing analogue... maybe get a video card that can also capture, or use a camcorder that has "pass-through" capability. (Which also means FireWire)

_______

is wire 800 any better then normal IEEE 1394 for capturing video?
Click to expand...

I do not know for sure, but I'd lean towards no.

I do know that USB 1.0 devices that are connected to USB 2.0 ports do not transfer any faster.

________

Oh... and since no-one has touched on it, make sure you have a secondary drive to capture/store data on. :hmm:
 
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You could look but you probably won't find any cameras that have > 1394 (firewire, i.link, ieee1394). If you do, it'll benefit you, if you don't...it won't connect...fw400 and fw800 have different connectors.
 
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CootDog said:
2 Monitors and 1 Video Monitor
Click to expand...


I have been trying to hook up a video monitor but when I do it just becomes a second monitor since my computer has dual display capability. So what am I doing wrong or is there a setting I am missing. At the moment I am using Avid Xpress Pro and I can't seem to see anything for me to change in the preferences.


Also, I there is lots of info out there on how to edit on software, but does anyone know if there is anything out there (ie literature) that explains how to put together your own system wiht monitors, decks and the whole system?
 
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AnDyDanDy said:
Is firewire 800 any better then normal IEEE 1394 for capturing video?
If the data rate of USB 2.0 is 240 Mps and IEEE 1394 is 200 Mps, then why is IEEE 1394 better?
Click to expand...

Firewire is actually 400 Mbps (not 200) and USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps (not 240). Firewire 800 is 800 Mbps. If you decide to get a Mac at some point, you can boot from Firewire drives. USB 2.0 drives vary in that aspect.
 
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Well I don't know what kind of Video card you have or what your Operating System is either.
I have the Matrox P750 card which allows 3 monitors. However I configured it to be 2 monitors and 1 video monitor. For the video Monitor it's a Panasonic 19" BEAST of a thing. I connect to it via S-Video.

If your card has dual monitor support then each thing plugged in will be considered a monitor, not a TV or Video Monitor. Mine allows 2 monitors and 1 TV or Video Monitor.

So what's your card and what's your OS?
 
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I use just one 17" monitor for editing (too used of using one monitor) while having a video RCA input commodore 64 monitor (yes, those old and cheap $30 ones) as video monitor that is connected to my Sony dsr20 deck via rca jack, the vtr is connected to my computer via the firewire port, I use just a simple basic firewire card (the ie1394 400mbps) and have connected an external hard drive to it as well to edit via the external firewre hard drive without problem.

I think some of the pc can actually boot from firewire drives, I read on my motherboard's CMOS somewhere about booting it from (one time while messing around)

as for tutorial how to put a computer together, well, this is a very touching thing, because no one want to write an article that might cause you to 'destroy' your computer due to your innexperience with putting it all together... I've put together over thousands of PCs and still would not afford to show someone how to put one together because I don't want he/she come back to me and blame me for their troubles... :) Besides I still burn computers by accident (recently, decided to upgrade my memory on the motherboard, and decided to do it in a rush rush way, without realized that the memory module wasn't placed correctly... I fried the Pentium 4 3.6ghz CPU on a fly) and the motherboard went puuffff... total lost of $500, lesson learned!

Johnny
 
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Just in...

The new JVC Everio G series of camcorders connect with a USB 2.0
smiley_mono.gif


No mini-DV tape, either... they record to an internal harddrive. (In MPEG-2 though, so that pretty much means using the included proprietary NLE software)

Here's some more info on the USB 2.0 camera. - NY Times review here.
 
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What you see on your screen and what you see on TV are 2 different things... The margins and that are cropped when showing on a TV. So for text placement it's pretty much a must. I guess that is unless you plan on having all of your test right in the middle of the screen. Also I use it for color... to see if colors are too saturated.

A PC monitor is not like a TV monitor.



Also, about my PC... The C: just crashed... mechanical failure... I'm glad that all my data drives are fine though... just reinstall all the apps on a new drive and we're ready to go.

How about all of you... DO YOU HAVE BACKUPS of your system drive and/or installed applications?
 
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i don't have backup of my system drive, as I have 7 computers here, it's somethng I don't think I can afford to make backup of each, but I do have all the applications on CD (originals) so if the drive dies, I would sit there for a day and install everything. Yes, it's pain of a butt but I kinda like the 'lame' way of doing things, because I force myself to stay away from anything else that I have been doing and take that down time to relax a bit.
 
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Yes, it's true.. You HAVE to have a backup of your applications by the original CD's AND that includes the operating system.

For your data drives, you should back them up if you're not running a RAID or don't have Hot Swap. How would you feel if you lost all of your work on your movies, videos, music, etc...?

Applications can be re-installed and re-updated but data has to be re-created!

I might be getting 2 SGI computers soon. I'm working on a deal to get them. woohoo!

That will bring it to 3 PC's (one is a webserver, firewall, gateway) 2 SGI boxes, 2 SUN D1000 boxes and a whole load of network equipment (3 Cisco routers, 1 Cisco switch, 1 Linksys Wireless router. Next I'm going to make an email server!.
 
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CootDog said:
What you see on your screen and what you see on TV are 2 different things... The margins and that are cropped when showing on a TV. So for text placement it's pretty much a must. I guess that is unless you plan on having all of your test right in the middle of the screen. Also I use it for color... to see if colors are too saturated.

A PC monitor is not like a TV monitor.



Also, about my PC... The C: just crashed... mechanical failure... I'm glad that all my data drives are fine though... just reinstall all the apps on a new drive and we're ready to go.

How about all of you... DO YOU HAVE BACKUPS of your system drive and/or installed applications?
Click to expand...

Will a tv do, or do you need a special kind of monitor? (those ugly grey square ones)? If you need a special kind of video monitor, what kind do you suggest?
 
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